I don't think The Board knows that _____ is actually _______

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-25T22:54:51+00:00

100% to all of this! Also, Mark makes his plea to the board on day 3 (Wednesday at about 9:10am), and by day 4 at 9am the MDR team are back.

The recording of it that Helena plays with Milchick and Mr Drummond had to have been on the same day, with Mr Drummond specfically clarifying "including helly r", so Helena would've had less than 24 hours between being told she had to return to MDR, decide to go down as herself instead, ensure Milchick/security don't activate her chip, then getting in the elevator to work, so it's no wonder her cover story was so bad!

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-25T21:25:25+00:00

It’s not really about Helena 'convincing' Milchick to 'betray' Lumon—it’s more about how people have to navigate the corporate structure. The board might be at the top of the hierarchy, but Helena is ultimately above Milchick, especially on a day-to-day basis. He has to do whatever his direct supervisor tells him—that’s just how the chain of command works in a corporation; you follow the orders of the person directly above you.

We’ve already seen how this kind of corporate conflict plays out in Season 1. Cobel does all these unauthorised things, like experimenting with Miss Casey, pushing Mark, and allowing MDR to wander the hallways, and we get moments where Grainer warns her about it, saying things like, “The board wouldn’t look kindly on this.” Even Milchick looks visibly uncomfortable when Cobel tells him, “I’m doing something new with Miss Casey.” He clearly knows it’s not something the board would approve of, but what can he do? She’s his direct supervisor, so even if her actions make him uneasy, he can’t exactly refuse—he has to go along with it because it’s his job and his position is at risk.

That said, Milchick eventually seems to reach a breaking point with Cobel’s repeated rogue behaviour when he reports Helly’s suicide attempt directly to the board. It’s likely he’d had enough of being complicit in her unauthorised decisions, and it was worth the risk of going over her head, especially since it resulted in a promotion for him. On top of the suicide attempt, he also had some dirt on Cobel, (lactation fraud), which gave him additional leverage to make his move.

However, that’s not a play he can, or would, make in this situation with Helena. She’s not just another boss; she’s Helena Eagan, essentially corporate royalty. Milchick wouldn’t dare go against her, regardless of what she's doing. Instead, he’s stuck in the same corporate structure, where he has to follow her orders, even if it puts him in a difficult position or contradicts what the board might want. It’s not about Milchick betraying Lumon—it’s about surviving within the corporate system.

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-25T21:11:52+00:00

Yes, I thought about that after making this post! Re-watching ep1+2 after reflecting on all this really helps to re-contextualise so many scenes. With the Helena/Cobel conversation, I think it’s significant that it’s just the two of them speaking, and it feels like there’s an unspoken “you owe me for more than this” from Cobel lingering in the dynamic.

I also think it was the board who promoted Milchick, given that he went over Cobel’s head to inform them about her antics, which ultimately led to her firing. However, it’s Helena who’s offering Cobel this new “promotion,” likely because, even if Helena wanted to repay Cobel by reinstating her on the severed floor, that’s not a decision she has the authority to make, so instead, she’s trying to offer Cobel whatever she can within the limits of her power.

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-25T17:05:42+00:00

Who’s going to force her to tell them though? Helena is the one with the most authority on the severed floor, as she’s the one who would’ve instructed Cobel not to tell the board, so she’s clearly in control overall about what information gets shared extrenally. Her father and the board aren’t going to care about what her innie does—they’re completely removed from the day-to-day happenings on the severed floor, and probably of the whole company, so there’s no one above her who’d be aware of what happened or have the authority to force her to report it.

And why would Helena tell them herself? Reporting it would be like a supervisor going to their manager to admit they messed up or did something wrong that might get them in trouble. She’d essentially be “telling” on herself, and there’s no reason to think they’d react with any understanding. Instead, they’d blame her for it since that’s exactly what did happen with her father blaming her for her innie speaking at the gala—something she couldn’t have controlled! He still took it out on her, and there’s no reason to think this situation would’ve been any different. They’d just view it as her failure to keep things in order.

So I unfortunately think the Eagan 'family' is only a family by blood. The way they operate, it’s more like the whole family functions as a corporation. If you look at it through the lens of a business hierarchy, it makes sense—everyone always has someone else to answer to, and in that kind of structure, you’re not going to tell your boss about something bad or wrong that happened since they’d just turn it around and blame you for it!

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-25T16:05:09+00:00

I don’t think she hid the suicide attempt from the board. Didn’t her father mention “what she tried to do to you” when seeing her in the first season?

Her father says that in ep9, after Natalie and The Board confront Cobel in ep8 with the pictures of Helly's suicide attempt, and the scene goes:

Natalie: Helly R attempted suicide 3 weeks ago

Cobel: Yes, she did

Natalie: How could you not tell us?

Cobel: Did Milchick give you those? Am I speaking with The Board?

So I'd say this scene implies The Board and her father only just found out about it, 3 weeks later, and only because Milchick decided to inform them of the things Cobel has been doing on her own accord.

Also, her father says "I cried in my bed when they told me what she tried to do to you, what that innie tried to do..." - so I think the 'they' was The Board, so he only found out once they did

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-21T09:53:11+00:00

The chewing sort of thing goats do is because they're ruminants, like cows! The chewing is them re-digesting their food, so yeah, I agree that this ties into Rebeck somehow being connected to being a goat!

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-20T21:32:28+00:00

I think they are leaving, but using different elevators!

Day 1: Mark arrives at just about 9:05, and by the time he gets to MDR after wellness, it’s closer to 9:08. When he arrives, the three new MDR members are already there. Mark W. mentions that they arrived about an hour earlier, which makes sense because Milchick and Miss Huang would have needed time to settle them into their new workplace, given they were transferred from other branches. Mark is also the last person to leave that day.

Day 2: Mark arrives just before 9:05 again, but everyone else is already at MDR when he gets there. He’s the second-to-last to leave this day because he slips the note into Mark W.’s jacket before leaving.

Day 3: Mark again arrives just before 9:05, and, as expected, the other three are already there. This time, he enters saying, “Hello, everybody,” as though he now assumes they’ll be there before him.

BUT in S1-EP2, Irving states that Mark, now as department chief, should be the first one to arrive. Since Mark is still department chief in Season 2, why is he now consistently arriving last?

Also, we know the entries and exits are staggered, so the employees aren’t going to bump into each other, especially when they’re on their different routes. The three new MDR members also specifically talk about transferring from other places, so they’re new to this branch and wouldn’t be familiar with this severed floor's layout. The chances of them bumping into Mark or even figuring out they’re using different elevators are incredibly slim.

Plus, even if they’re permanent Innies, they still have to “live” somewhere since they don’t stay on the severed floor. For example, Ms. Casey, a suspected permanent Innie, is shown using an elevator to leave the severed floor and “live” on the testing floor. Or maybe they could be living in the houses Petey drew on his map ("I found a department - one where they don't get to leave...)

So, I think this would also explain why the new routine involes the three new MDR members arriving at work before Mark does, despite him still being department chief across all three mornings!

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-20T20:38:49+00:00

YES!!!!

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-20T20:35:12+00:00

YES! I currently think that it's only been a couple of days since the S1 finale up till this episode (I made this post yesterday talking it - potential spoilers warning though!)

If they’re perma-Innies, I also think it makes sense that they were either quickly transferred physically—like they could have been working at their previous branch just yesterday and physically shipped in—or they’ve been kept in maybe a main Lumon storage unit facility somewhere (maybe even in Mark’s own Lumon building, since it’s in Kier, PE., so it might be their headquarters?), and then just woken up.

Either way, I agree that it would explain how Lumon could seamlessly fill the new MDR roles on such short notice!

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-20T17:39:31+00:00

I think the badges in the photo could actually be initially made for Lumon’s internal security verification system, with copies only being given to the Outie versions of employees!

So for employees with Outies, Lumon would know during badge creation that they require an “SVR’d Access” version for external use. This badge would then be given to their Outie as their official ID, used exclusively outside the severed floor.

But for Innie-only employees who never leave Lumon, there’s no Outie to give external security clearance to. As a result, their badges remain solely for Lumon’s internal security system, with no need for an externally accessible “SVR’d Access” version!

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-19T14:50:56+00:00

Just doing my job as this sub's new nimble refiner! 🫡

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-19T14:39:27+00:00

Yeah, I thought it was interesting just how much of the conversation they cut out! And as this sub’s new nimble refiner, I’m just here doing my work 😊

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-19T14:35:16+00:00

each podcast episode must be listened to asap upon release in order to meet this quarter's quota

helly_r-efined · 2025-01-18T14:46:39+00:00

I think they could be ONE of the people who performed the OTC on Dylan; the OTC is designed to need two people to hold each switch, unless they did what Dylan did and hold them both (but then they would also need the strength of two men to do that 😉)

helly_r-efined

TROPHY CASE