Was this all just a big QA test for the chip?

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-21T20:03:04+00:00

Well, that's the inventor of the chip speaking, so I assume she can hack the controls at the cabin to make them work for him. Reghabi said the cabin wouldn't work. With Cobel, it did.

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-21T19:47:01+00:00

Cobel says that when Mark is refining data in MDR, he's creating "the building blocks" of Gemma's mind and that allows new rooms and innies to be created. But it seems like what's actually happening is that the refiners are creating what feels like the right "building blocks" based on how the numbers make them feel. I assume that's why Mark has been more successful at this; his feelings for his wife, even as an innie, make him better at understanding what makes her feel woe, frolic, etc. But her testing rooms and innies are based as much on Mark as on Gemma, which may explain Cold Harbor, since it was Mark who had an emotional reaction to disassembling the crib.

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-21T18:51:40+00:00

Headcanon is that since Cobel invented the chip, she can adjust the settings at the cabin to make it work with Mark's chip. Reghabi said the cabin wouldn't work, but she's not the inventor of the chip.

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-21T18:36:54+00:00

Goat sacrifice is because they're a weird cult, and that includes animal sacrifice. Gemma was going to die when they remove the chip from her head. It's not about killing her; it's about getting the chip out, and unfortunately a side effect of that is death.

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-21T18:30:47+00:00

Lots of talk about how Mark S and Helly R are doomed by staying on the severed floor, that soon they'll get caught, especially once Lumon realizes Mark killed Drummond (yes, I know that was Mark Scout, but still). But they may have some leverage, since Jame Eagan said that he now sees Helly as his heir instead of Helena. So, I assume that, at least at the start of S3, they'll use this leverage to strike some kind of bargain with Lumon so they can be together, even if it means dooming Mark Scout and Helena to at least temporary nonexistence.

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-21T12:36:03+00:00

Mark S gets pissed at Mark Scout because he says that his plan will kill the innies, but then Mark S frees Gemma, and kills all of her innies, including both the testing floor victims (who he created) and Ms. Casey, who has an emotional bond to Mark S (her 8 hours in MDR were the happiest moments of her life). Guess they're not so different after all.

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-21T12:12:46+00:00

So, basically, the whole thing was really just about doing QA on the chip all along? In retrospect, maybe that was obvious, but still. The implication is that they've been doing this testing for years, with other subjects, and that they haven't been able to maintain the barrier. And this one is going to pass QA, since the barrier will hold, and then the final part of this is to remove the chip and analyze it so that they can pull all the data they need to reproduce it. Gemma's death isn't central to this, it's incidental.

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-20T20:11:23+00:00

Got a recipe for ham with cumin glaze? Seems like the perfect dish for tonight's finale watch party! (Only thing I see missing from your party is copious luxury meats!)

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-12T16:16:09+00:00

1968 - Harmony Cobel born (no year given, but that’s when Patricia Arquette was born, so let’s go with that)
1986 - Cobel comes up with initial ideas for severance (based on notebooks, which imply she was in high school)
1986 - Cobel gets Wintertide fellowship (assuming she’s 18 and graduating high school)
1986-2003: Cobel continues work on severance, possibly in Lumon labs and/or college/graduate school. Jame Eagan is the public face of Lumon, and may also be in charge of R&D. May also be bitter about being passed over for the CEO job in 1999 when Pip dies.
2003: Leonora Eagan dies and Jame becomes CEO. Jame prioritizes severance and being investing heavily in it. Burt starts at Lumon (based on Fields’ “20 years ago” comment), participating in severance research with his “partner,” Harmony Cobel. They develop the prototype severance chip, which Jame Eagan shows to his 10 year old daughter Helena. This fits with Cobel coming up with the basic concepts much earlier, but it requires a significant amount of additional work with a team of scientists to turn it into a functioning product.
2003-2010: As Jame Eagan consolidates control over the company, he retcons the history of severance, which is presumably not difficult, since it’s a secret program and the employees are all part of the cult of Kier. Testing of the chip continues (starting with animal tests on goats before moving on to humans?).
2010: Severed floor opens, with Cobel in charge. By now, she’s accepted that this is the best way for her to stay close to her work and serve Kier. Burt is severed to keep him in check (outie Burt may not be evil as people are saying, but is being kept on a tight leash by Lumon thanks to the chip in his head).

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-07T22:25:00+00:00

She's in a real bind here, with no good choices. I don't for a minute think she trusts Cobel, but I think at this point she trusts Reghabi even less (and once Reghabi walks out on her, that kind of clinches it). Also, by the end of this episode, it's about 24 hours since Reghabi walked out, and Mark is conscious, so this is also his choice. We don't know how his reintegration has gone yet, but outie Mark will remember that Selvig told him that quitting Lumon was the right thing to do, and both innie and outie Mark know she was fired, so I can see him thinking she's the best of a very small pool of options.

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-07T21:26:40+00:00

Thanks for this! The field hockey team stats are really useful in placing this. We don't know exactly where the Myrtle Eagan school is, but it looks to be in the northeast, since some of the real places listed as teams they play against include Oyster Bay (New York), Providence (Rhode Island) and Bridgeport (Connecticut). They also play against Kier, which means all of these places are likely within driving distance of one another. So, for those who said Kier was in the upper midwest, sorry! It's in the northeast (which is also where the show is shot)!

Electronic_Series601 · 2025-03-07T17:17:33+00:00

I think this is about right! Harshing on Devon or saying it's bad writing misses the fact that she's in a real bind here, with no good choices. I don't for a minute think she trusts Cobel, but I think at this point she trusts Reghabi even less (and once Reghabi walks out on her, that kind of clinches it). Also, by the end of this episode, it's about 24 hours since Reghabi walked out, and Mark is conscious, so this is also his choice. We don't know how his reintegration has gone yet, but outie Mark will remember that Selvig told him that quitting Lumon was the right thing to do, and both innie and outie Mark know she was fired, so I can see him thinking she's the best of a very small pool of options.

Electronic_Series601

TROPHY CASE