no dentist’s office. no writing christmas cards. no taking flights. a world where every pain or minor annoyance is dismissed as your consciousness is replaced with a different version of you. a life without pain, or agitation, or monotony. and conversely, a life full of only that for every version of you who experiences the chores you wished to evade.
forget skipping work or school or birth. try everything. never experience anything that expires a negative emotion. the ideal consciousness sold as a product for the price of a version of you that you’ll never meet.
but it doesn’t matter. you carry the hurt down with you. in your hands, in your mind, your mouth. the grief mark experiences carried into his innie, gemma feeling the pain she experienced in the rooms even after she’s been severed.
The “mad scientist” trope is becoming a lost art, kudos to severance for embracing it so gloriously. She shows up, she kills people, she (probably) stalks you, she steals your snacks and moves into your basement, she’ll do experimental brain surgery any time any place. And she’s kind of adorable. God bless.
obsessed with the Helena and Irving parallel and what it says about the aspects of our identity we think are fundamental (but aren’t)…
Like Outie Irving assumes his Innie is just as radically anti-Lumon as he is. He assumes his hatred of Lumon is something ingrained in his personality! That’s why he stays up at night drinking coffee and making paintings, because he hopes that when his innie dreams about the testing floor, he’ll say “okay bet” and start exploring. That’s what Outie Irving would do, after all. But he miscalculated! His hatred of Lumon isn’t inherent— his desire for meaning and art and spirituality is inherent. That’s what his hatred for Lumon is built on. But in a world where there’s no meaning outside of Lumon propaganda, of COURSE his innie would become ridiculously devoted to the company.
And Helena!! She is the corporation, that’s her whole identity. She presumably assumed that Helly would be just as pro-Lumon as she is. But she miscalculated too! Her devotion to the company isn’t inherent, her headstrong and entitled nature is what’s inherent! And in a world where she’s denied any agency whatsoever, that manifests as rebellion.
It’s the same dynamic flipped on its head. They both sent their innies in there with opposite intentions— one to take down the company, one feed the company’s expansion— only to realize that rebellion and devotion aren’t inherent characteristics. Their innies have become the exact opposite of their outie selves, while still being exactly the same!! Because even though your personality is inherent, the values you hold are determined circumstantially. OUGH IT’S SO GOOD.
ALT
