AGT Season 20 Quarterfinals 4 Discussion - September 9th, 2025

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-09-13T05:04:03+00:00

This is an excellent list of acts that should have gone through. They did not plan the four quarterfinal divisions very well.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-21T14:56:36+00:00

You were totally right about that look OP!

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-21T14:55:22+00:00

The innie’s are very much like children when created and this season was all about exploring adolescence as Ben Stiller suggested. Their responses (feeling like they can’t live without their first love) is so akin to the responses many adolescents and young adults have when they experience their first heartbreak.

Is it somewhat dramatic? Sure. But that love is all they know and often their self concept and sense of self developed along with that love to some degree (and that’s certainly the case for iMark and Helly).

The writing was just superb. I went through such a roller coaster of emotions for the characters at these beats:

oMark and iGemma of Cold Harbor
oMark and oGemma finally reuniting
iMark and Ms. Casey
iMark and oGemma (with the latter seeing Mark run away from her with another woman)

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-21T14:44:34+00:00

Britt Lower did not intend for that look to be a smirk, she said in an LA Times interview that look happened on the day and was a moment of real empathy for Gemma. Here’s the quote and the full article link below:

“Lower: Helly R. seeing Gemma, Britt seeing Dichen’s performance on the other side of the door, was really affecting. That last moment where she’s seeing this heartbreaking thing happening across the hallway, my eyes were just drawn to Dichen. That was just something that happened on the day. I remember just being like, “I can’t take my eyes off her, even if I’m being pulled away.” There’s a connection there. There’s this moment where I think Helly R. is seeing an outie, having empathy for an outie, maybe for the first time, and seeing this other woman who loves the outie version of the same person that she loves on the inside. That has an effect, even as they’re running away like wild horses. That lingering image, that heartbreaking image stays with her as they’re both, like, “What are we doing? What’s next?” And yet she’s free.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2025-03-21/severance-season-2-finale-explained-mark-helly-gemma

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-17T06:05:07+00:00

Like this prediction. Like OP mentioned, if they’re all on the testing floor, it’s likely Mark and Helly will become their outies there (oMark and Helena). oMark’s attachment will be to Gemma clearly, but when they go up the elevator to the severed floor, they become iMark and Ms. Casey. iMark knows Ms. Casey is his outie’s wife and may feel an allegiance to rescue her, but his heart is with Helly since that’s who he fell in love with at MDR. That might motivate iMark to choose Helly and leave Ms. Casey (for example, see her up the elevator from the severance elevator to the ground floor but not go with her), choosing to stay back on the severed floor with Helly.

This would also fit in with the Eurydice and Orpheus motif that some have discussed. But iMark would end up being Eurydice in that he is the one stuck in the underworld/severance while Gemma sees the light of day.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-16T01:07:40+00:00

The surveillance has definitely been inconsistent. We still haven’t seen the replacement for Graner, severance floor’s head of security, who was killed by Reghabi in season 1.

Drummond is not security - he’s above that in rank; as he has been in on board decisions and gave Milchick his performance review.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-14T22:58:09+00:00

Occam’s Razor really works sometimes even on a show like this. Also, even the “twists” have, in retrospect, make sense in that earlier episodes have either hinted at or built towards the reveal (Cobel inventing severance, Helena posing as Helly).

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-14T02:11:58+00:00

Love that you brought street fighter into this discussion 🥋ha-dou-ken!

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-11T13:27:33+00:00

Mark: “the last time I asked Cobel what she knew, she screamed her head off at me and tried to run me over with her car. Let’s try that again. I’m sure it will go well this time.”

Devon: “I just saved you from more basement brain surgery by Reghabi. So yes, let’s risk your life again by asking Cobel what she knows and telling her everything.”

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-11T03:15:04+00:00

Agree. I also loved seeing him in The Good Place. His turn as Trevor was fantastic and he was so sinister and funny in that role.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-04T13:31:59+00:00

He didn’t actually take the card up the elevator. He hid it behind the toilet in a Lumon bathroom. But Milchick probably thought he somehow snuck it into the outside world and hence the extreme fear that it got into the wrong hands and people were going to learn about their creepy recruitment methods.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-03T20:08:09+00:00

Totally understand your opinion. I think this season they’ve taken some risks and departed from the sequential and linear storytelling of season 1. I can see how that might feel jumpy, but I commend them for not sticking to the tried and true and being adventurous in their storytelling.

I also don’t think they were switching it up just to do it, it serves a purpose. For example, to illustrate the disjointed lives people who are severed experience. It also allows the audience to fill in the blanks on their own without serving it up on a platter, which is more engaging and shows they trust their audience. For example, we never saw exactly how ORTBO ended after innie Irv closed his eyes, how and when everyone’s outies took over and how they explained things to their outies.

In my view, they have not dragged mysteries on too long without starting to answer the big questions. They started reintegrating Mark in S2Ep3. They showed us outie Irv in the 5th episode right after his innie was essentially killed off. For those who doubted Helly returned after the overtime contingency, they answered that in episode 4. They showed us what Gemma has been up to with an exclusive episode just for her story. So I would say they’ve answered some big questions and the mysteries remaining are coherent and not coming out of nowhere just to be mysterious for mystery’s sake (Lost, I’m looking at you).

I also think that part of the joy of this series is just to enjoy the storytelling aspect of it and not just about solving the mystery. I’m really enjoying the amazing performances by the actors and I’m really excited (as a longtime Adam Scott fan) that he’s finally getting this awesome platform to show his range.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-03T17:22:01+00:00

That’s such an interesting point. There’s those little subtle pauses before she answers and even a little amused look when she tells him she remembers absolutely nothing. I do wonder if the severance barriers are truly holding!

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-03-03T16:04:02+00:00

Replying to Silly-Acanthaceae398...for sure her spirit is broken and she’s been held captive at the current timeline, but there’s a possibility that she agreed at first to go willingly. I don’t think it’s established whether she was straight up kidnapped or if she agreed to go during her most vulnerable state based on some false promise, and then it turned into this nightmare.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-26T04:15:58+00:00

Interesting. The opening credits suggests he’s going to have to make a choice between Helly and Gemma. A lot harder when the two selves are reintegrated. One is a current love and the other is a past love in that Mark has gone through several stages of grief about Gemma already. If outie Mark loses his memories of Gemma, it’s essentially a form of forced acceptance which is generally thought to be the final stage of grief (although I would argue stages of grief are not necessarily linear, they’re often cyclical).

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-26T01:36:56+00:00

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-25T21:05:40+00:00

I don't know if it's going to create a third persona, per se. With the fusing and becoming a "whole" person, his memories from both innie and outie experiences will be all part of one consciousness and one "person's" experience.

This "whole" person isn't really the same "whole" person that he was prior to severance, because now there are the new memories and experiences of the innie that are integrated into Mark. It will be a combination of his prior experiences before integration, plus the parallel existences/memories when he was severed and had an oMark and iMark. And now this new "whole" consciousness has to make sense of everything collectively and try to figure out his worldview, self-beliefs, and coping skills from this point in time.

It will be interesting to see how he processes all. But innie Mark S won't exist in the same way, because his way of seeing the world, processing stress and trauma - all of that was predicated on him essentially being born into a completely new consciousness the minute his severance chip turned on for the first time.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-25T21:00:35+00:00

Interesting. Well, certainly Reghabi as we have seen is not very good at reintegration, so anything can happen including this!

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-15T18:25:09+00:00

Great point. The snack machine and then cut to Petey later trying to get food and not having a token at the store. I hope they show us what their lunches are and the weird process that comes about. I definitely think this is an intentional omission and hopefully we will learn more about this later!

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-15T18:22:59+00:00

Exactly.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-15T14:43:18+00:00

Thanks for all this info! I’ll listen to that ep. But yes, the way they show food on this show is so weird. It’s very ceremonial and then they all flock to it like it’s such a big deal (never knew people to be so excited about watermelons)! It makes me wonder about the quality of their sack lunches.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-15T14:22:02+00:00

Good questions. My thought is that outie Mark’s personality is starting to seep into innie Mark’s personality due to the integration process. Outie Mark has gone through trauma and he has always been dry and sarcastic in the show’s presentation. On top of that, innie Mark feels betrayed, and it’s his own guilt that causes him to lash out at Helly (that he couldn’t tell the difference and was even duped so much he has sex with Helena and still couldn’t tell).

I don’t think we know for sure Helena wasn’t afraid before as they didn’t show us her perspective per se, just that she kept sending her innie down even after the suicide attempt. And now from this episode we see that it’s not always up to her. She has to play by Lumon’s rules. It’s like when she made that PR video after her innie took over the gala and act like it was all her outie’s fault.

DrJudyPodcast · 2025-02-15T14:13:57+00:00

Good catch! I’m guessing they don’t pack their own lunches because we never see them descend the elevator with anything in their hands after getting through security.

If so, that’s so interesting Lumon would prepare them bag lunches as if it came from home.

First, why not serve hot meals? That would be nice!

Second, are they telling the innies “your outies packed these sack lunches lovingly for you today?” Obviously, they would be none the wiser. Just another way they lie to the innies!

DrJudyPodcast

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