TV: Severance - Apple TV

[the valiant effort]

Forreal though, I'm absolutely hooked on this show. We're 6 episodes in and I cannot wait to get back home and watch it.

If my wife doesn't want to watch it ASAP I might watch it by myself and pretend I haven't seen it yet. We call this "White Bear'ing" because when we were watching Black Mirror my wife watched the episode "White Bear" without me and then pretended she hadn't seen it and had a huge reaction to the plot twist at the end.

we'll see how it goes lol.

That means you’re about to watch one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen on TV in S01E07

 

[Rodgerwilco]

That means you’re about to watch one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen on TV in S01E07

Hell Yeah!!! As if I needed any more reason to be excited to watch this damn show when I get home tonight! lol.

 

[Peasy]

He's not acting rationally. He'd risk dying for the chance to see/save his wife he's been grieving the whole show. I think that's supposed to be the takeaway. Whether a rational person would do that so willingly in light of the risks, couldn't say, but it's not like there's no reason for it.

Its more so the yo-yoing/quick decisions on doing something so drastic. Like just this episode, no I dont want to do this risky procedure to speed up reintegration. Oh I just went and ate and saw Helena stalking me? Okay now I'm all in.

Was the same with reintegration. First he and his sister try to come up with other ways to deliver a message to his innie, rahgabi comes and says nah that wont work and Mark is just all good to go and get his brain f***ed with.

I dunno, we literally know nothing really about rahgabi, neither does Mark, yet is so all in. He saw her kill someone, yet that was never touched on again. He saw the procedure she did kill someone. He doesnt know what she does, or who shes working for, or why etc. It just seems extremely unrealistic someone would agree to all this with these circumstances and it kinda takes me out.

 

[Lt Dan]

Its more so the yo-yoing/quick decisions on doing something so drastic. Like just this episode, no I dont want to do this risky procedure to speed up reintegration. Oh I just went and ate and saw Helena stalking me? Okay now I'm all in.

Spoiler

I read this differently. I think Mark got freaked out by Horny Helena's really bad flirting. I know others are reading the whole Chinese restaurant scene differently than me, but this is how I see it:

Helena was fascinated with Helly's relationship wiith Mark rewatching the video of them kissing last season.
IMark and Helena made whoopy at the ORTBO. I am guessing this was her first time
There was a glimpse of Mark leaving work in the episode before this one with Helena watching him.
Earlier that day Helly R and Mark made whoopy and I am assuming Helena had the glow we all have after the act and attributed it to her love of Mark, assuming that she didn't watch the video later or did watch it and is assuming that outie Mark will also be attracted to her

Helena simultaneously acted like they had just met and was also trying to play on the camaraderie of iMark and Helly starting with the humor.
She badly attempted to let Mark now that she cares about him with the dead wife and whatever bad experience the OTC revolt had on real life Mark's life and the comment of I hope we are feeding at worke.
I read her calling Gemma by the wrong name more as nerves that any kind of attempt at fact finding or information gathering. I think Helena isprivilegedand incredibly socially awkward and in no uncertain terms "has no game".
What horny Helena's bad flirting actually accomplished was freaking Mark out and making him think that Lumon is on to him and he has to act now before Gemma/Ms Casey disappears or is transferred elsewhere. Mark's sudden flip flop is because he thinks the window is closing and it's not or never for Gemma

 

[izlez]

Forreal though, I'm absolutely hooked on this show. We're 6 episodes in and I cannot wait to get back home and watch it.

If my wife doesn't want to watch it ASAP I might watch it by myself and pretend I haven't seen it yet. We call this "White Bear'ing" because when we were watching Black Mirror my wife watched the episode "White Bear" without me and then pretended she hadn't seen it and had a huge reaction to the plot twist at the end.

we'll see how it goes lol.

Oh boy, you're in for a treat. Episodes 7-9 are on a whole nother level... as much as I try to enjoy each episode equally and not show preference for any over the others.

 

[HanSolo]

Its more so the yo-yoing/quick decisions on doing something so drastic. Like just this episode, no I dont want to do this risky procedure to speed up reintegration. Oh I just went and ate and saw Helena stalking me? Okay now I'm all in.

Was the same with reintegration. First he and his sister try to come up with other ways to deliver a message to his innie, rahgabi comes and says nah that wont work and Mark is just all good to go and get his brain f***ed with.

I dunno, we literally know nothing really about rahgabi, neither does Mark, yet is so all in. He saw her kill someone, yet that was never touched on again. He saw the procedure she did kill someone. He doesnt know what she does, or who shes working for, or why etc. It just seems extremely unrealistic someone would agree to all this with these circumstances and it kinda takes me out.

You already got a response but I didn't read it yet and just wanted to get into it.

Spoiler

1. Mark was frustrated and scared by the proposition that accelerating reintegration could kill him. Seeing Helena stalking him alone isn't what flipped a switch, though that's a fairly compelling motivator in and of itself, that Lumon is still watching him. The way I read their scene was that Mark was originally disarmed by Helena's flirting and normal person behavior. As soon as Helena brought up Gemma and got her name wrong you can see his entire expression darken and he ends the conversation by rushing out of the restaurant. That statement by Helena reminded Mark that Lumon is the enemy, she is the enemy, and she is in a position of power of the organization that, to his knowledge, is holding his still alive wife hostage. For the same reason he impulsively agreed to reintegrate out of love for his wife, the callousness he perceived in Helena getting his captive wife's name wrong refocused Mark and reminded him why he reintegrated in the first place. Again, it may not be sensible to trust Reghabi blindly and willingly expose himself to risk of death but there's foundation for him acting impulsively to try to save or at least reunite with his wife. He is shown to be broken and unable to properly move on after her death. It's not out of the question that he could have been responsible for her car crash and may feel guilty (and thereby probably more okay with trading his life for hers). Either way, he's shown as being willing to do whatever he can to save or reunite with Gemma because clearly, he feels his life is devoid of meaning without her. And, keep in mind, Mark had zero interest in reintegration until Reghabi told him that Gemma was still alive and not just that, but that she figured Mark's innie discovered that too. After outie Mark's confrontation with Cobel who wouldn't answer whether she knew something about Gemma, that was enough for him to believe the truth.

It feels unrealistic to you because you seem to be viewing outie Mark's actions through the lens of what someone under normal circumstances would or wouldn't do. Let's be real for a second. If anyone actually stopped and thought about the implications of the Severance procedure (as in creating a version of your consciousness that only exists at work and only lives to work and said version would ostensibly die if you were fired or quit) I feel like more people than not wouldn't sign up for that. When talking about the people who sign up for this, we're not talking about reasonable and well adjusted individuals. We're talking about broken and/or desperate people trying to get away from something.

In Mark's case, he's broken and seems to have very little to live for with Severed work only cutting down on the time he spends in a depressive state. I do feel that there are some, I'd call them minor flaws in the writing and direction of some parts of this show, but to me you're holding Mark Scout to too high a bar. We're talking about a broken impulsive man who values saving or at least reuniting with his wife higher than prolonging an existence that he clearly views as meaningless who has very recently had his entire world view turned upside down with the discovery that his wife is still drawing breath. People do crazy shit for love all the time. If it turns out that Mark was in some way responsible for Gemma's death (I'm not sold on that possibility but it's not disproven yet) and has been dealing with guilt on top of grief it makes that much more sense why he'd behave this way. Again, you can't expect a character like this to act rationally or sensibly when confronted with a situation like this.

Also on the point of Reghabi killing someone I don't think it's a stretch for Mark to buy that this former Lumon doctor who is hiding from Lumon would have good reason to kill a man who was hunting her down. Yeah it's cause for skepticism but I don't think that wins out over what I discussed above.