THE JOKE IS REBECCA SUGAR DREW "ED, EDD, AND EDDY" FUCK SMUT

Ok, this looks like it's going to be a series which moves very slowly, focusing less on a "Carol vs the Borg" plotline and more of a "Carol and the Bord as a vehicle for questions about individuality and the role of a person in a society".

"Rugged individualism" while very much relying on a large economy in a large society. When Carol sees the trucks roll in to restock the supermarket? That always had to happen for her to maintain her "independence". Independence is a comforting self-myth adopted by Carol and many others.

Meanwhile, the collective is maximally communist and utilitarian, and acts as you'd expect with them having no material wants. Carol and the collective are a perfect foil for one another.

Also, the question about science culture is neat. A scientist might wonder, "What if all of humanity cooperated perfectly to focus on one question?" The show answers plainly, "Science would still be slow."

I wonder what a concussion, brain damage, alcohol, etc means for a hive mind. Some amount of alcohol intake must remove you entirely. A baby with anencephaly couldn't be part of the hive mind, could it?

Originally they had rats in a lab infected with it. The rat pretended to be dead to get the lab tech to let her guard down a bit to infect her.

This makes it plausible that even the animals of the world are connected.

But maybe not, they let the animals out of the zoo, and the zoo animals attacked a number of people.

They also are extremely sensitive to negative emotions. Maybe killing animals causes them extreme distress. Why can't they kill her? If they try she'll fucking livid and that makes them all go catatonic.

Also they seem to be unable to say no to just about anything. We don't know what that's about yet.

LGBTQ folks, what do you have to say about this aspect of the show (and anyone else who has a constructive thought)?

I felt Vince had a very very well-informed understanding of how we watch television. The scenes leading up to Helen's death were intentional and masterfully done, and I have a lot of thoughts on that specifically.

There's this concept of the "gaydar" which we half-jokingly have. It's generally important to be able to identify fellow queer people without outing ourselves or them, and we apply that to media too. A lot of people (especially young queer people) read queerness into characters who aren't queer. Nothing wrong with "I relate to the Halo spartans as someone who is trans", or "I read Lucasia and Raban as lesbians even though that's not the canon".

All that said, my gaydar started to go off. The needle started to waver from "probably friends" to "probably lovers", until Carol drops the word "baby". The investment in "are they gay?" ties into the investment in "will Helen survive her fall? did Helen join the collective?"

And it's really those crucial seconds between when Carol addresses Helen as "baby" and when Helen passes. Helen looks up at Carol, smiling through the raccoon eyes indicating brain hemorrhage. The smile is eerie and informative.

Man. I know "Bravo Vince" is really a meme, but it's deserved.

In an NPR interview, a reviewer has a long list of plot points not to reveal, and notably refers to Helen as Carol's "best friend". It's unlikely that NPR is straightwashing- Apple and/or Vince probably just considered it important not to reveal their relationship early on.

As for deeper meaning, I think Carol being so deep in the closet might just be another thing characterizing her as cynical and misanthropic.

Carol is notably deeply invested in staying in the closet, to the point where nobody seemed to know she and Helen were lovers. Part of the horror is the absolute loss of privacy. Her lesbian identity, which she kept secret for decades, is now knowledge that 7+ billion people have.

They "don't harm", but "pulled the lever" to release the gas knowing people would die, to prevent further harm. They'd always pull the trolley problem lever. It begs the question, shouldn't they just kill Carol and the stragglers? If they're truly benevolent but want to prevent bloodshed, they can prevent her from having any more outbursts which kill 11 million. They must value individuality more than the narrative suggests.

The camera doesn't follow Milchick as he runs. It's almost as if the camera person were caught off guard too. p

If the "prestige cinema can't be sustained and this is about the best it will ever get" holds true, at least capitalism and the climate apocalypse implies no reason to have any fomo about dying

kier with a gun !!!

The mural of Mark he sees is (1) the greatest of all the Kier murals he's ever seen, and (2) features every person he's ever met.

I think they meant to leave the viewer wondering if the flashback episode Chikhai Bardo was a memory innie Mark was having or outie Mark. Which adds extra weight to our understanding of innie Mark's decision at the end.

• "Prestige television" can't be ethical, right? We have a silly situation where (1) we have board-game paper as units of controlling other human beings (dollars), (2) people and small groups can amass vastly disproportionate amounts of that paper (billionaires and companies), and (3) we have a system where those people are incentivized to gamble large amounts of that money (investing) to become a "Loss Leader".

• • Apple has good TV, but they can't keep bleeding money. They'll eventually have to draw back. Severance might be one of the best shows they produce. It's a very very good show!
• • • Is it evil to enjoy this output of capitalism? A little bit, right? At least a little, or very much?

I apologize, I had to spend a bit of time to figure out what a "female donation reader" was. I parse that as "female donations" needing a "reader" at first, but now I understand they're just people who read out donations.

I can't find any of the threads, but I don't think I'm surprised to learn the speedrunning community is tinged with at least a little bit of misogyny.

Regarding Marie in place of Skylar, I didn't know it at first either. It felt intentional to me, and I think I read generously into that.

I hope i can be a bitch wife some day

i was ignorant of the whole 'bitch wife being an impediment to the protagonist' thing until i read about anna gunn's experience on the show. now i see this attitude everywhere. and by everywhere, i mean /r/speedrun when a gdq event is on and people make threads complaining about the female donation readers.

didn't know about skyler originally being planned to appear in the bcs finale. i thought marie sitting at the table while negotiating a plea deal was such a strange choice, like this simply would not happen, probably.

Kids' shows rule

I have to admit, I can't think of anything since Steven Universe. I might have grown out of it?

She-Ra was fun, and the new ATLA probably will be too, but there's a tone of maturity and sincerity that SU hit that I haven't seen again.

That said, I have watched Gumball, and it's fucked up. It's a totally different thing but I can get easily engrossed in it, and I'm often shocked by how edgy it can be. (In one episode, the main characters perform actual surgery on another character, killing him!)

Stephen Universe was a good show for children. Do we like, make good shows for children anymore? Is it just anime now? Edit: Not Bluey that is for small child I'm talking about slightly larger child.

I thought about that exact scenario a lot, actually. I asked my dad about what it felt like to have an anesthesia during a surgery he had, and he told me he didn't remember. I misunderstood that as a kid, and I thought all it did was spare you the memory, but not the pain. I lived with that misconception for a good while :D

I have had the idea for a horror setting where there's an anesthetic that everyone thinks is really effective and a miracle drug, but it turns out all it does is paralyze you so you don't show pain, and make you completely forget when you come to. But the whole time, you're feeling everything.

Severance is a lot like that. But less body horror.

This is just like The Stuff (1985)

Yeah I lost it when I saw that blender! "What if cold harbor were a juicero pack? What if the lumon water drop was a juice drop? Lumon makes foodstuffs, ri- WOAHHHH DYLAN..."

the callback to the fruit in fruits in the sink... wow

The rest of it

This was too much to write out, so here are the plotbeats draft:

• Mark: The plan is to go into the office and refine data. But this time, he selects only the numbers which make him feel nothing, to ruin Cold Harbor. Harmony explains that Milchick will be happy to have him work after hours.

• He calls Milchick, who is indeed very happy, albeit conflicted. He is eating a salad, with croutons, and decides to take it slow to the office. (Fitting with his character arc.) Milchick calls the front-desk security to ask them to let Mark in.

• Mark gets to the office, is carded in.

• Gemma is told "that is enough juicing; it is time for your rooms. You're doing all of them today."

• Then Joe Biden breaks in to the Christmas Room, says "Christmas is Fascist", and shoots the Dr. in the head and breaks Gemma out through the broken severed door.

• Biden's brain is so old and calcified that it breaks any severance door he goes through.

• Gemma and Joe Biden are are confronted by James and Helena, who explains the master plan: Relaunch the Juicero by manipulating world events (see: Lexington Letter) to make it so that every person in the world is in dire need of a cold glass of freshly squeezed juice at the moment of launch. The flavor Cold Harbor is flavored like the release of death, with none of the dying, to really seal the deal.
• Joe Biden begins a confrontation like "Listen up Jack, no malarky-" but then bumps his head and dies instantly.
• Gemma, recognizing Helena, informs her about the conditions she's being held under, slowly realizing that Helena was already aware. Helena explains it's for the greatest good, and that the launch has already started, before walking away with James. As Helena walks away, Gemma says Helena is pathetic and has nobody in her life who loves her, and Helena walks back, and whispers in Gemma's ear, "I fucked Mark and I'm havi-."
• Before Helena can finish her sentence, Gemma bites Helena's eyeball out.

• Milchick is still eating his salad when he gets a PRIORITY ALERT on the status of Helena's gouged eye. He says, "God dammit," grabs his bag of croutons to snack on, and motorcycles to the office.

• Dylan and Gretchen see a commercial for "Juice, 2!"
• Natalie and Ricken are presenting it. It's literally just the Juicero again. But... It's so very compelling.
• Dylan and Gretchen breathe a sigh of relief. Things might be okay after all.
• Just then: Beehive mode activates, turning all the severed people into a brand new thing: A personality solely dedicated to protecting Helena Eagan.
• Dylan stands up with a newfound and unshakable purpose in life, and he makes a beeline to Lumon. He's not alone, and a montage starts. Every single severed individual is trying to get to Lumon. Even Irving is included in the montage. Even the Severed people in other continents are trying their best to get to Lumon. Also, all the goats are going crazy.

• Cut to Milchick, in the repurposed security room, having had activated the beehive protocol.
• One of the monitors is dedicated to the security profiles while the remaining monitors still have a one-image slideshow of Dylan and Gretchen.
• But Harmony calls and explains "don't activate it, by the way, it will be in reverso mode soon because of MDR shenanigans." But it is too late to unactivate it! Oh no! It's not like the OTC; once it's turned on, only Helena can deactivate it.

• Gemma, severed, is kneeling before smirking Helena. Mark quickly makes it down the elevator, also in deference to the queen.
• Helena, who has been ignoring calls from Harmony, receives a call from Milchick, explaining the situation she is in. She books it to the security room. She tells Gemma and Mark to stay behind, but they follow her closely, like dedicated security dogs.

• Joe Biden, who survived his bump, seeks nutrients in the nearby Cold Harbor room, recognizing it from the Juice packet. The inside is a black abyss. As he crawls in, we see only a constellation of mysterious lights in his eyes. Then, something like recognition appears on his face as he screams into the howling void. The screen goes black.

• The loyalty and deference in Mark and Gemma's eyes slowly turn. Helena and James are surrounded. James unbuttons his shirt, revealing a form of stacked rippling muscles. He explains that a diet of freshly squeezed raw juice has left him in perfect fighting condition.
• Helena and James are ready to fight, just as Mark and Gemma are overtaken by the insatiable bloodlust of the inverted Beehive Protocol.
• Just then, the elevator dings, and a hoard of Severed employees pour out, clown-car style.
• James stays behind to fight as Helena runs through the hallway to the Security room. They sure do love their Hallway runs on Severance.

• The next scene is a long, uncharacteristic, and single-shot action sequence with fantastic fight choerography. Very much "River Tam beats up Everybody", but it's "James Eagan takes on every Severed person we've seen in the series." He has a visible "NO FUN ALLOWED" tattoo.

• Helena gets to the security room, but all the buttons are destroyed.
• She looks at the security cameras. The perpetuity wing is safe. She takes a secret exit.

• Meanwhile, throughout Kier, people are clamoring to buy the latest in Juice-squeezing innovations. They can't get enough. They need it. The need Juice, 2! They will kill for Juice, 2!
• There aren't enough Juicero Juice, 2! to go around. It's the fucking apocalypse. Oh my God. People are killing for the Juice, 2!, and killing themselves if they can't get one.

• Helena approaches the deepest basement in the perpetuity wing.

• James puts up a good, long, juice-powered fight, but is eventually destroyed.
• As the crowd leaves James to pursue Helena, Harmony appears, drill in hand. She removes the Severance chips from each characters head, including the blue one inside James'.

• Helena unseals the hushed casket of Kier Eagan. His eyes open. The severance theme plays.

The credits roll, and then, a post-credits scene:

• It ends with Irving showing up late to the bloodbath in the hallways of the Severed floor, like Horatio at the end of Hamlet. He says, "Alright kids, I guess this is what's for dinner." He takes his blue Irving funeral mug, scoops up some of the blood from his ankles, and takes a sip, looking directly at the camera.

A line swoops in, but this time it doesn't adorn the words "Severance". It adorns the words "Juicero 2", with a new subtitle, "Announcement coming", and a subsubtitle, "WWDC 2025".

okay that's reason enough 8) yayyy

i do