Severance: What Lumon's Numbers Mean - Every Theory One of the biggest mysteries in the Apple TV+ show Severance is what the numbers that the employees must sort mean, and fans have speculated a few theories based on the show's given clues. 'Severance' Season 2 Just Stacked Its Already-Stacked Cast Theories about Severance as as popular as the show itself. The main characters' innies don't seem to know exactly whatSeverance's Lumon Industriesdo, much less what the numbers signify. Is it possible this whole thing is just a weird religious cult (maybe one that really hates that we dont have a work-life balance)? The severance procedure alone allows Lumon to manipulate the employees at their whim, withholding and receiving any information that they please. Its a bleak concept, but when you look at how companies mistreat their workers, one thats entirely believable. About Severance Severance is an American science fiction psychological thriller streaming television series created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle. Hes everywhere! Nothing Helps Me Fall Asleep Faster Than Listening to Horror Podcasts. Leading Severance's ensemble cast is Adam Scott as Mark. These numbers correspond to the four tempers laid out by Lumon founder Kier Eagan: woe, frolic, dread, and malice. Let's look at the numbers. If Severance wants to take the analogy of corporate dystopia to the extreme, it would make sense for Lumon to be a tech company that creates a product to help other companies create a completely obedient workforce. Helly's innie wakes up at a Lumon gala where she learns that her outie is Helena Eagan - daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan - who underwent severance to build public support for legalizing the. That is, unless the numbers themselves aren't actually the point of the job. This is in fact what one Whole Mind Collective activist tells Mark that Lumon is really doing; if hes correct, then its possible that Mark and his team are working on the code to make that product a reality. IMO this is one of the best parts of the show's writing. Is it possible not everyone survives the severance operation? What else is being hidden on the severed floor? Still, sorting numbers and meeting quotas doesn't fully satisfy a sense of accomplishment at work. Here are some tips and tricks to help you find the answer. How will Hellys speech against severance be received, since shes the exalted Kier Eagans granddaughter? Stuck on 'Quordle' #283? Nick Carter, Hilary Duff, and More Remember Aaron Carter. He hands Mark a card and tells him to reach out if he wants more answers, throwing open the door for plenty of speculation about what Lumon does. 'Severance' Gains Powerhouse Cast Additions for Season 2 Let us consider the miscellaneous evidence: I admit: All of this could be wrong. Erickson told Variety that the show was inspired by his own corporate misery, and the visual appearance of Lumon definitely lampoons the sterile aesthetic of tech companies. Milchick: Things like death happen outside of here, not here. Apple Tv set+ 's thriller drama Severance has several viewers questioning what the Lumon business actually does. It's likely that Lumon needs to see how the human mind classifies these numbers. But put together, certain lines of dialogue from both the severed and unsevered Lumon employees, stumbled-upon moments in the companys HQ, and the mythology of Kier seem to suggest that a significant portion of what Lumon is doing is cult shit, with the aim of getting their grandaddy back. If all the Refiners do is sort numbers without any knowledge about what those numbers mean, severing and controlling them to such great lengths appears more costly and resource-heavy than the job requires. Warning: this article contains SPOILERS for Severance. The numbers could also be an empirical representation of the tempers, and the Refiners are performing machine learning by classifying the data. Take her back down to the testing floor, please, Cobel says of Gemma/Ms. Severance: What Lumon's Numbers Mean - Every Theory - ScreenRant 'Severance' has a companion book: Here are 4 things we learned - Mashable The little 2-D animated version of Kier Eagan says I love you to the person who successfully sorted all their quarterly MDR data, and thats what the cult is looking for, right? He feels like he needs to separate his work and home life so he can. Mark realizes that his bonds with his sister and brother-in-law arent exactly strong, Irv discovers that he was trying to track down other severed employees, and Helly learns that her last name doesnt begin with an R, but an E: Helena Eagan. Peggy sends her letter to Daria Thorne, a reporter at the Topeka Star. Then, those patients are. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. The Refiners not knowing the meaning behind the numbers reveals a lot about Lumon. In the form of a Bleachers Anti-Hero remix. Casey to Milchick, and that location is revealed as a narrow, pitch-black hallway with an illuminated door the same image that Irv has been obsessively painting in his apartment, and the ooze of which hes been imagining in the MDR space. This has led to some viewers to guess that the Innies are actually just doing content moderation a real job at companies like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter that forces workers to be exposed to a disturbing number of gruesome images that take a steep toll on their mental health. Erin Qualey theorized in Vulture that Mark and his department are either writing the code or prepping the brains for the implant thats used in the severance operation. (opens in a new tab). Looking at the computer screen when Markinputs a number set into a folder, a table of progress bars labeled "WO, FC, DR, [and] MA"pops up. But another. The Apple TV+ sensation Severance shocked and delighted viewers with some truly showstopping twists and turns toward the end of its first season. But Severance has been very deliberate with foreboding and foreshadowing through its narrative and visuals, and if this first season has one lingering image, its Ms. Casey being forced down the pitch-black hallway of the testing floor to re-emerge as someone more in line with who Cobel wants. But aside from Mark's and Helly's jobs at Lumon, there's something off about the world of the outies. Allison Wonchoba is a Features writer on Screen Rant. Set at the dystopian Lumon corporation, Adam Scott's Mark Scout is the department chief of Macrodata Refinement, which includes Helly R. (Britt Lower . Stuck on 'Wordle' #506? To further ensure confidentiality, the department's employees must go through the surgical process of "severance,"in which a device implanted in the employee's brain separates memories to create an "innie"work self and "outie" personal self. Everything To Know About 'Severance' Season 2, Here's The Real Reason Selena Gomez Made Her 'My Mind & Me' Documentary, 'Manifest' Star Melissa Roxburgh Reveals How Its All Connected, Selena Gomez Almost Decided Not To Release Her Raw Documentary 'My Mind & Me', Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. Everything Podcast Republic Severance creator Dan Erickson explains why Ms. Kobel chose to inform Milchik about Ini's overtime continuance plan in the Season 1 finale. The " Severance " team is hard at work writing Season 2 of the critically acclaimed Apple TV+ drama so hard at work that they need to avoid fan theories in order to properly carry out the. 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It's possible thatSeverance's terrifying memory-splitting processmay impose inherent feelings toward the numbers, which leads to serious ethical questions about Lumon's severance procedure. 'Severance' Season 1 finale: 20 fan theories and questions we need Severance: Creator Dan Erickson on Casting Cristopher Walken - IGN Severance Season 2: Release Date Confirmed By Apple TV+? 'Severance,' protect Burt and Irving at all costs, Why 'Severance's opening credits are the best on TV. This password will be used to sign into all, Hellys question when she wakes up in that Lumon conference room: Am I livestock? Stuck on 'Quordle' #287? Helly could be in Lumon upper management, a huge twist that would explain why her outie is far more pleasant towards Milchick. Season 2 will continue the stories of Lumon Industries' microdata refiners (played by Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry and John Turturro) but will add eight to Severance 's cast. And Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Maria Dizzia are their latest castmates. Set at the dystopian Lumon corporation,Adam Scott's Mark Scout is the department chief of Macrodata Refinement, which includes Helly R. (Britt Lower), Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry), known colloquially as "Refiners." Im thinking the severance is part of his sentencing, and thats why he willingly went in. Nine hours in and one full season down of Severance, and Im not sure were any closer to answering one of the seriess driving questions: What the hell is going on at Lumon Industries? If they can compartmentalize your brain, if they can pick and choose your memories, if they can make you forget yourself and those around you, then they can control your physical body and use it. Takeoffs Funeral Scheduled For This Weekend. As we'll explore in a second, this makes the Severance season 2 release date likely quite far off into the distance. 'Severance' Season 2 Details and Reddit Theories Discussed by - Variety The writer revealed this during the 'Severance' panel at San Diego Comic-Con, when pressured to shed light on what to expect from season 2. Still, they make theories ranging from Dylan believing that they're cleaning the ocean for a mass human migration to Irving innocently thinking that they're eradicating swear words out of movies. As we approach the end of the season, the producers finally stop with the cliffhangers and get to the conflict. Thank goodness too, because there would have been riots at every Genius Bar in America if fans didn . And the best way to visualize it might be through this clip from the seriess wonderfully designed CGI opening credits, from artist Oliver Latta/Extraweg: That moment when mini-size Mark leaps into his own brain? Comparative Accounting Theory by Daniel Lumon McDonald - Alibris A compellingSeverancenumbers theorythat episode 3, "In Perpetuity" further supports is that the numbers represent the four tempers. Whatever it is, Severance will keep us guessing until the very end. If anything, that seems more like a lie to convince Mark's outie to keep returning to work. However, another theory posits that Lumon is taking injured bodies from hospitals and reviving them as full-time. Lumon has connections in the media, and we've already seen that Lumon and the severance procedure have political support. The biggest stories of the day delivered to your inbox. Who else do we know in Severance who died in a car crash? Everyone seems to be hoping to just get through this season with the least amount of emotional damage. It's creepy. Severance isn't a security requirement of a job, it's some kind of mental health therapy (or social experiment) . The Walking Dead: 10 Characters You Didn't Like At First (But Grew To Love). However, during her time at Lumon, her work self or "innie" found a way to bypass the code readers in the elevator to communicate with her non-work self or "outie." List of Theories Theories about the Four Tempers Theories about Petey Theories about Soap Theories about Color Theories About Macrodata Refinement Theories about The Revolving We'll give you the hints and tips you need (and also the answers). Apple TV+ finally announced the official start of production for Season 2. En cliquant sur Accepter tout, vous acceptez que Yahoo et nos partenaires traitent vos informations personnelles et utilisent des technologies telles que les cookies pour afficher des publicits et des contenus personnaliss, et des fins de mesure des publicits et des contenus, dtude des audiences et de dveloppement de produit. While Lumon presents this procedure as a way for employees to secure top-secret data, it appears to be more of a control mechanism. For the love of Kier, tell us what the numbers mean. Here's what that means. Eagan's tempers are "Woe, Frolic, Dread, [and] Malice,"and Eagan believes that "each man's character is defined by the precise ratio"of these tempers. Rickon is the prince that was promised. As the two talk use a secret code to communicate, they begin to realize something dark and strange is afoot at Lumon. Bad Severance Theories. Peggy acknowledges in her letter that it could just be coincidence, but knowing how sick and twisted Lumon is, the timing is too close to be an accident. They meet quotas, they try to finish number files before they expire, and they receive rewards for reaching quotas that include erasers, finger traps, and waffle parties. Im devastated, his fiance, Melanie Martin, shared. It seems pretty weird that Mark acknowledges the portrait of Lumons founder, Kier Egan, every time hes in the office. Even J.Los Kids Know Its Such a Thing When She Goes Out, Nobodys complaining, but its a thing.. 10 Unanswered Questions to Worry About After Seeing, Simona Tabasco Is Threatening the Equilibrium of, Why These $20 Million Uptown Co-ops Arent Selling. Will Burt and Irving ever get the happy ending they deserve?