Gonna be more ranty thoughts.
-Think it's fairly obvious that o!Burt and o!Irving's (just how I'm gonna abbreviate innies and outies from here on out) burgeoning friendship is far from innocent. The show clearly hints that Burt may have more involvement with Lumon than previously thought. But I'd take it a step further, Irv's dinner served as a pretext for Drummond to break into Irv's apartment and discover his investigative materials. I think the dinner must have been a pretext to allow that to happen. Just wondering if Burt is still employed by Lumon or by ratting Irving out, if Burt is hoping for more in pension pay or something like that. Either way, I don't like this for Irving. Alternative thought, what if Burt wasn't going down to the severed floor as an Innie? What if he's a corporate spy for Lumon and his whole thing with i!Irving was like a honey pot. Dylan was extremely distrustful of Burt in the beginning. Maybe with good reason.
-Speaking of Dylan, I'm finding myself slightly annoyed with his Innie's storyline but more as a result of how he reacted to i!Irving's "death" like sure, it's understandable that he'd reign himself back in to spend time with his outie's wife but after what happened to Irving it's really kind of disappointing that he's right back to being placated. He yelled about Irving a little and he's back to being scared of losing the visitation center. It just feels a little too quick to give control back. Also really not sure where they're going with the dynamic of his wife having feelings for his innie but seeming fed up with his outie. Like does that somehow convince his outie to reintegrate? Are they going to cut off visitation at some point? A bit harder to predict and I'm not sure the answer is going to be satisfying so I'm finding myself losing interest in that particular storyline.
-Cobelvig drove off to Canada or something.
-Not 100% sure what to make of Milchik's breakdown there. It seems like he is still being compelled by some internal motivation to be the perfect Lumon employee. Still unclear as to why, but the cracks are definitely still there. Interesting that he hangs on "grow up." Is he telling himself to grow up from lingering sympathy for the innies? Or grow up and get past whatever is driving his devotion towards Lumon? Is it that he can't decide which? I think between the kindness reforms (visitation center, funeral, hall passes, etc.) and the theory I read elsewhere that I liked, that Milchik propped the Irving melon head to look directly at where Irving hid his note about the exports hall, I think it just comes down to pure conflict between Milchik's internal sense of morality and whatever it is that is driving him to want to thrive at Lumon. But it's so maddeningly hard tor read what that might be. Does Lumon have dirt on him? Do they hold some other coercive power over him? Does he have wider aims to dismantle the whole system from within? Was he part of that Lumon school Cobel went to and started out indoctrinated by the cult of Kier but is having that get unraveled by his own moral sensibilities? I get the sense that Milchik is fully aware of how morally bankrupt Lumon is and is--in a small way--rebelling against that system, and it'll probably end in him fully helping the Innies. Either way it seems like all the "Lumon is listening stuff" is primarily driven by him, if not entirely.
-Going back to Irv, Fields, and Burt, I get the sense that Burt is duplicitous but it seems like Fields is likely innocent. Interesting to hear that 1) Burt's reason (or story) for severing is the idea that at least half of his soul can be saved if his innie is pure and 2) that a priest would actually take such a position on severance. I would think an evangelical would consider the severance procedure to be an abomination on the Christian god's designs. Wondering if that "priest" was a Lumon propagandist. I mean that feels like pure tinfoil reaching, but like, is it? If Lumon is so entrenched in so many parts of the world, why couldn't they pay off ministers to give bullshit sermons that entice people to become severed workers?
-Part of me is glad they're not dragging their feet this season much but it kind of feels like they rushed past Helly processing the fact that Helena used her body to fool i!Mark into having sex with her. I mean, in a way, it's like Helena raped both of them. I can appreciate and understand that she'd want to take agency back by having sex with Mark shortly after, but it felt like they didn't give Helly much time to really breath and sit with that realization.
-Mark's growing sickness is a concern. Reghabi claims she's better at reintegration now but then she rushes o!Mark ahead to accelerate the process, like...doesn't that increase the risk that he'll die like Petey? Starting to feel like Reghabi sees Mark as disposable and she's just trying to get more intel about what's going on in Lumon. I can't see this show killing Mark off so it will probably resolve so that Mark survives reintegration, but it's kind of hard to predict how. My guess is he'll reintegrate successfully long enough to get a good amount of valuable information but be found out just shy of reuniting with Gemma/Ms. Casey and the Lumon will re-sever him. He probably stops shy of completing Cold Harbor at the finish line too.
-Saving my last big thought for last but Miss Huang continues to be such a goddamn mystery. She's there on a "fellowship" and needs Milchik's approval to get referred to that winter...whatever program. Whatever the f*** that is. So that rules out her being a clone of someone or a kid who was severed from near death to eternally work on the severed floor but what is this program she's in? Why is this kid so goddamn ambitious that she was disappointed that she didn't get to "steward" the severed floor from Milchik's desk?
-Last big point goes back to the big re-integration on steroids, the second Helly/Mark sex scene, the Helena-o!Mark meeting, and the endgame they're setting up. So, if we presume that Reghabi "flooding the chip" is meant to speed things up to full reintegration, I feel like that's about to make things batshit insane for Mark. This episode had i!Mark continuing to be head over heels for Helly culminating in them hooking up which marks two sexual encounters with a woman while knowing his Outie has a wife who's trapped somewhere in Lumon. i!Mark doesn't seem to care about how that might affect o!Mark cause, well, he's living his own life, and why shouldn't he? He can do a favor to his outie eventually and maybe one day he can have his office love while his outie gets his wife back, everyone is happy. Except i!Mark doesn't know that his outie is reintegrating. o!Mark only just got flashes of his innie having sex with Helena Eagan who he just met. And sure, at first there was a bit of a flirtatious attraction that probably seeped from his subconscious but as soon as Helena brought up Gemma and got her name wrong, the switch clearly flipped for o!Mark (impeccably acted by Adam Scott by the way) and it seemed clear that he was reminded that Helena was the enemy and she was in charge of the company that has his wife hostage. The inner conflict this sets up is unbelievable. The innie is in love with Helly R. the outie has every reason to hate Helena. Helly seems to reciprocate i!Mark's feelings, while Helena seems to be curious about a possible relationship with o!Mark (or she's just trying to manipulate him from the outside). The dynamics here are just wild honestly and I'm really curious to see how the show handles what they've set up. Gonna be interesting to see how Devon will be involved going forward now that there's really no hiding the ball anymore that Mark is reintegrated and could die as a result.
For a relatively low event episode, it still felt super impactful and I already can't wait for next Thursday.
EDIT: Left one out because I just started rewatching it. Seems like they abandoned going to get the note from the break room? Or maybe it happened off screen. Also the reintegration editing is still so crazy. The way they line up these shots of different settings is so well done.
