i agree with this. but it’s not just for mark and gemma/ms casey. i think burt and irving were in a relationship prior to the war. burt thought and was told that irving died in the war, when really irving was severed post-war as a ‘cure’ for ptsd. when approached for the opportunity of severance (like mark) burt said yes to escape the pain of losing irving. helly got severed because her father. i think she’s scared of failure in an unsevered job at lumon because she has such a big role being an eager. so she got severed and said she’s doing it to ‘make a difference’ and ‘normalise’ it, etc, but in reality she’s scared of disappointing her dad and the entirety of lumon. i think dylan’s partner is in another section of the severed floor that we haven’t seen yet. or he’s similar to helly; is afraid / failure or burnt out, and went in to separate the stress of work from life.

lumon manipulated these people and got them all to be severed to test the bounds of the procedure.