I don’t know if all Outies are assholes, but it looks like outie Helena sure is. “I am a human being; you are not” was such a cutting line. Britt Lower should submit this episode for Emmy consideration.
Anyone else intrigued at the possible love affair between Irving and Burt?
That was his story Paycheck, which got turned into a not-completely-awful 2003 John Woo movie starring Ben Afleck and Uma Thurman. Not surprisingly, the film amped up the “action movie” aspect at the expense of the concept.
Yeah. I suspect Irv’s outie is “out” in more than one way.
Greg Egan did a version of this in the 1990s. In his story, policemen’ brains are put into an alternate mode when they are on duty, with emotions suppressed, reflexes increased and ability to become bored shut off entirely. The main character is a police officer who is in the alternate mode when he learns his wife has been killed and while he’s in that alternate mode he can decide to protect his “normal” self from that information.
And then there was Pornucopia that did it with sex workers. And the TV series *Dollhouse", which did it with sex workers.
By then, even if they were not familiar with Philip K. Dick, they had certainly read “Burning Chrome”…
It’s become clearer to me that the outies do have at least some knowledge of what’s going on: they already know that they have to put all personal artifacts no matter how trivial into a locker before entry. A “no interaction whatsoever” protocol doesn’t appear to be a secret. “No words or labels” seems like the sort of thing they could just directly explain as a part of that protocol.
I actually didn’t understand what was going on at the time, and had a moment of annoyance at what seemed like mystical fantasy BS. But there’s more explicit examples in later episodes with the elevator that make it clearer that we’re just viewing that from the innie perspective where any outside time passes instantly. So I now interpret that the same: we know her outie intends for her innie to be trapped there, so it’s easy to imagine the irritated outie just walking back in or even spending some time talking to Lumon admin before doing so. At least with what we’ve been presented with so far it’s entirely consistent for her outtie to throw her innie right back in and choose not to go home or anything like that.
I just wanted to add that so far I am absolutely in love with this show. Its tone is pitch perfect for me. I liked Adam Scott in Party Down and in some ways this role is a natural progression despite the very different genre. Did they do something to make him look slightly puffy and a bit off? His face looks weird. It’s totally right for the show and adds to the generally disquieting atmosphere, but I wonder if I’m just seeing things.
I love the set design, I love the casting, I love the pacing. You can sort of drown in this setting. It’s like an “atmospheric river” I keep reading about in our PNW weather reports. 
I’ve been wondering the same thing. Also, is he wearing a wig?
That wouldn’t surprise me. Considering that Outie Mark is depicted as being pretty much a full blown alcoholic, having Adam Scott not look his best would make sense.
I am anticipating that at some point in the remaining five episodes we will probably get some kind of explanation for why at least some of the other characters chose to undergo severance. We already know why in Mark’s case; I am very curious to see why the others would choose to work at Lumon.
The TV in my bedroom died yesterday. Since I can’t sit on the couch yet, it is going to be a while before I get to see episode 4.
Watch it on whatever you are posting from.
In the Parks and Recreation reunion special they did early in the pandemic he looked oddly gaunt and disheveled. I chalked it up to bad Zoom lighting, but his face does look different. Honestly, probably just aging.
I hate that the two shows I’m watching on Apple are called "Severance " and “Servant”. I tend to get them confused.
Anyway, I’ve been enjoying both shows.
I think you might have missed a scene in the second or third episode where they show exactly what happened from her Outie’s point of view.
I was really disappointed by the latest episode. I was hoping to see outie Helly’s reaction to innie Helly’s message, but apparently it was no big and she wants to continue business as usual? The show is past the point where it needs to show the lives of more of the outies.
I’m really digging this show. The pace of the reveals is perfect. I do agree that the outie scenes are less compelling and I feel like that time would be better spent in “the office”. With one possible exception - I really want to know what outie Irv is up to with his free time. Is he some kind of acid-dropping party animal?
This show’s premise seems to be the same as Christian Slater’s series “My own worst Enemy” few years ago. Christian had two identities: a hitman employed by a government agency, and a man with a different profession (duh).
