Lumon hired and severed a lot of people to have a kickarse band on that floor. I... don't mind I guess?
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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I mean that is an interesting question.
In season 1 Mark and everyone else were just cogs in a machine.
In season 2 Mark is so special that Jame Eagan is now observing him.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but what is Lumon up to?
The very ending of Mark S going away with Helly R was beyond stupid of him.
I get that he doesn't want to "die". I get that he loves Helly R. What Mark S just did set himself up to be in Mark Scout's state of tragedy before Mark Scout the took the job at Lumon before that Mark S gets destroyed forever.
There was nowhere for Mark S and Helly R to escape on the Severed Floor. They will be found, and quickly. With Cold Harbor done, there is no need for Helly R to be on the Severed Floor so she will never return as soon as Mark S and Helly R are found and Helly R is dragged back to the elevator to become Helena Egan again. So Mark S loses her making Mark S lose the love of his life, just like Mark Scout did when he lost Gemma.
Here's where the real hell begins. The Mark Scout/Gemma + Mark S/Gemma's brain process was interrupted (destroyed?) by Mark Scout on the black elevator floor. Except...... there's nothing preventing Lumon from simply wiping Mark S's memory by creating a NEW Mark S Innie! They even said in the episode that 24 Gemma Innies had been created, one for each "file"/room. So they can easily create new Mark S innie, put him in MDR, and drag Gemma back down to the basement again and force her through another 25 rooms. A new Gemma Innie is created in each one, so if they can create 25 before, 50 doesn't seem to be an issue. As for Mark Scout, they'll keep him in a prison somewhere just like they did with Gemma. Mark Scout will have no memory as NEW Mark S Innie and Lumon still gets the exact outcome they want from the first time around. Mark S is an idiot.
Original Mark S lost the love of his life, erased his own existence, and doomed Gemma and Mark Scout to hell on Earth trapped for the rest of their lives in prisons.
The very ending of Mark S going away with Helly R was beyond stupid of him.
I got the impression that that was Helena, not Helly.
I'm cautiously optimistic there's something else Helly R and Mark S can do (or think they can do) and we just don't know where they're running to yet. Mark S knows his work is done, especially after what he did to Drummond, regardless of what he thinks about his outie's motivations. If you were at that exit stairwell (can he even use it? Helly couldn't 🤷) and you knew that life inside was 100% hopeless then surely you'd take your chances with your outie's reintegration.
OTC was a convenient plot development for making the situation more flexible and it wouldn't surprise me if we see another.
I’m cautiously optimistic there’s something else Helly R and Mark S can do (or think they can do) and we just don’t know where they’re running to yet.
Wasn't it quite obvious that they were about to begin a revolution from within Lumon? Dylan just recruited like 50 people (and Helly was with him prior to that) and Mark just revolted against Drummond with the help of the batshit goat lady (who was already close to snapping prior to Mark's intervention).
If all the revolutionaries were Severed, it would be the easiest rebellion to but down in history.
Lumon would just need a handful of non-Severed labors, then turn the Severing Technology on an off every couple of seconds (where people go through the jarring transition from Outie to Innie) rendering them not able to function for a bit, then drag the revolutionaries to the stairwell or the elevator. The Outies would wake up without any revolutionary thoughts. They'd be marched upstairs to HR and fired, the secrets of Lumon safe.
I mean, maybe? But what does the revolution even want? Stable non-creepy jobs and 40 hours a week subtracted from their outies' lives so they can progress their office romance during breaks?
I'm leaning towards some goal that's more specific to Helena's situation. Since her father has taken an interest in her innie behaviour it's likely that she'll get to continue as Helly R in some capacity but who even knows what his goals are at this point.
I mean, maybe? But what does the revolution even want?
I have no idea, but it's important to always remember that many of the Innies, particularly our leads, are extremely mentally underdeveloped relative to the age of their physical body. Mark has less life experience than a 2 year old, Helly even less. Basically the only existence they know is Lumon, so they probably don't even understand the concept of a revolution nor do they fully understand the risks involved. I think that's the direction the show is heading, but I'm not suggesting they actually have some clearly thought out master plan that will lead to their happily-ever-after Innie world. Batshit goat lady had no fucking idea what she was doing either, she just went mental like a very big toddler having a violent tantrum.
I’m cautiously optimistic there’s something else Helly R and Mark S can do (or think they can do) and we just don’t know where they’re running to yet.
If you were at that exit stairwell (can he even use it?)
If there is, the writers of the show are being completely disingenuous to the audience. How many episodes in Season 1 and Season 2 were spent showing us all the ways they couldn't escape the severed floor. Yes he could have used the stairway. They explored this in Season 1 where they are standing at the door and the innie walks out, then the innie "wakes up" inside the door again because the outie walked them back in.
Helly R tried to actually commit suicide in the elevator as a way to exit. If the writers suddenly come up with "oh yeah the secret door we've never tried that lets us have a happy ending together" then they've treated us all like idiots.
OTC was a convenient plot development for making the situation more flexible and it wouldn’t surprise me if we see another.
OTC was used more the Season 1 finale. Remember Dylan Innie "waking up" in his clothes closet at home? It was also used on the ORTBO.
This finale was fucking beautiful. I love that for innie Mark and Helly.
Feeling really sorry for Gemma breaking out of Lumon just to found herself separated from Mark again.
Also can we talk about Mr Milchick dancing with the Marching band?? Lord, the temperature in the house rose 30 degrees 🔥
Milchick has raised some thermostats and eyebrows in my home as well. What a force. Also those shots from the marching band crotch level were intense... very effective.
Hell yeah, after several slow episodes in this season, we are finally advancing with the story!
🍿(⌐■‿■)🍿
Certified Milchick 🏃🏿➡️🏃🏿➡️🏃🏿➡️
My thoughts about rentegration not being white and black solution were correct, but it's a shame we haven't seen any reintegrated Mark in this season.
Mark S and Helly might have run into the ~~sunset~~ cold LEDs, but sadly there will be no honeymoon for them.
Next season's premiere must be stronger than this one, because they can't pull everything under the rug, and return to the previous status quo, like they partially did in this season.
Maybe third season should be the last one, to avoid dragging the story.
They have said they have a path and ultimate end in mind - let them tell the story they set out to tell. It's a rare case where they know where this is going, unlike LOST where they didn't already know the answer to questions they were asking. It won't drag.
Man.. That was a great episode, and leaves it at a cliffhanger where nobody knows where the story is going. I'm a bit disappointed at how many answers we didn't get this season, mainly
- What's Cobel's plan in all of this?
- Why did they kidnap Gemma and fake her death?
- What was the point in any of outie Burt's scenes?
- What's Asal Regabi's deal?
- What is Lumon actually trying to do? Cold Harbor is apparently about fully getting rid of past emotions when severed... But isn't that how severance worked in the first place??
And also the two fake-out "Mark is reintegrating for real!" episodes in the season left a bad taste for me. That sideplot had ZERO payoff or consequences.
And it's starting to get a bit difficult suspending my belief that there's only ONE security guy in the entire company that manages 50 some people.
This is one of the best episodes in the series, but the season overall is a lot weaker than the first. But at least we got Milchick dancing again.
With Cobel, I wonder if she lied about Gemma being killed to get back at Lumon, since Cold Harbor was the miscarriage and not her or Mark's death we don't actually know they were going to kill her compared to just using the overtime contingency full time and suppressing her outie completely.
That being said they did kidnap her and wanted someone who was assumed dead so would be a cheap shot by the writers to make the whole thing a big misunderstanding
I'm pretty sure they were going to kill Gemma? Remember that Drummond said they were killing the goat to bury it with (a great woman) so that it could guide her back to Kier? I'm pretty sure he was referring to Gemma there.
we don’t actually know they were going to kill her compared to just using the overtime contingency full time and suppressing her outie completely.
Mr. Drummond was actively strangling Mark S to death knowing Cold Harbor had been completed. He wouldn't have done that if they needed Mark S (or Gemma) for anything anymore.
So I agree that Drummond trying to kill Mark aligns with that, but it doesn't actually align with their previous actions.
For example Gemma doesn't go into the Cold Harbor room until Mark completes the room. However Gemma goes into the other rooms multiple times. We see in the dentist room innie Gemma believes she was just their. In the Christmas room innie Gemma is tired of the repetitive activity. So even at 100% completion they test the rooms multiple times. When Gemma goes into Cold Harbor they are testing to make sure it works.
If Cold Harbor was the pinnacle of their achievements, why would they only test that room once, when they tested other rooms multiple times?
If Cold Harbor was the pinnacle of their achievements, why would they only test that room once, when they tested other rooms multiple times?
I think the other rooms were gathering the data that Innie Mark was refining. They went to the other rooms multiple times to gather more data. Think like 'training data' for AI.
Cold Harbor was the test. That Innie Gemma was just about to pass the test before Outie Mark showed up was already showing they'd succeeded. If the test was for success, they achieved success. They wouldn't need to test it again if Outie Mark hadn't interfered. Even if they were planning on testing it with Gemma again, Drummond clearly already knew he could beat up Mark and kill him. Marks only sin was trying to get in a door, and Drummond decided that was enough for a death sentence. Which tells me they were already done with Mark.
Edit: I forgot to mention this. Lumon told us they were going to kill Gemma. They goat sacrifice was to be buried with a woman. Were there any other women the show told us were going to be killed? Not that I heard of
So I also thought the other rooms were gathering data for Mark. For example you put Gemma in the dentist room then give the data to Mark. Mark then refines the data until Gemma "perfects" the room.
But from what we see if Cold Harbor, Gemma doesn't go in until it's done.
Now it is possible that Cold Harbor is the final test. If Gemma can "solve" Cold Harbor without refinement, she can "solve" anything.
Of course if Mark can disrupt the test and convince Gemma to go with him, perhaps the test or overall process itself is flawed. Gemma as Ms Casey was surely one of the first tests to confirm that Gemma would not be swayed by Mark. Yet here she clearly is.
The "Fuck" from Jame Eagan may not just be the appearance of Mark and his meddling, but the realization that the entire experiment is flawed.
We know Kier/Lumon/Jame stole from Cobel. It's possible they only now realized how unqualified they are.
But of course all this rests on the idea that Cold Harbor only had one solution and one test, which seems odd.
I added an edit to my post you replied to: Lumon told us they were going to kill Gemma within a few minutes/hours. The goat sacrifice Drummond said was to be buried with a woman to lead her spirit to Keir. Were there any other women the show told us were going to be killed? Not that I heard of.
Oh I completely agree. I think Lumon had every intention of killing Gemma. I think Drummond knew that. But I just find it so odd given their other behavior.
I wonder if she lied about Gemma being killed to get back at Lumon
Cobel is working for Lumon in the last episode. To what end? Who knows? How else did she know about Mark S an Helly R's romance? She was gone from the Severed Floor long before that was a thing. The birthing shed was the very first interaction she'd had with Mark S since her firing because of the OTC event.
The only way she would have known is if someone from Lumon told her. The only reason Lumon would have told her is because she was brought back in the fold.
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