Severance Ep 3 Recap. “Jesus. No, Kier”

In Perpetuity

Severance continues it’s brilliant balance of mystery/thriller vibes with well placed comedy. We go on an excursion in today’s episode while we see more of Lumon’s Surveillance tactics outside the campus.

The Opening scene of “In Perpetuity” features some really good editing work by Erica Freed Marker and Geoffrey Richman to depict Petey’s Mental state but we also get a glimpse of what seemed like a lighthearted workplace before Petey”s exit.

We continue to see Mark’s outtie have a painfully empty life while Cobel continues her surveillance of him. She wanders in to his home after he leaves and steals a package from his door and takes a Candle from Gemma’s craft bin.

At work, we find out that Helly has her resignation request turned down and she continues to try to find a way out. Irv suggests a way to curb Helly’s rebellious streak is to help her find meaning in what she is doing on the severed floor and he suggest what Mark thinks might to a too early visit to the Perpetuity wing.

It’s hard not to think of the almost religious nature of Work and Productivity in western culture when you watch this show. The growing emphasis on doing something you are passionate about and finding meaning in your work is something that the show isn’t afraid to build on.

On the way to the Perpetuity wing, the team runs into Optics and Design, and in another one of the shows well executed comedic moments, Dylan gets into a tiff with the other member of O&D, Felicia.

In the show’s most drect depiction of work as religion, we see the perpetuity wing a Madame Tussauds-esque museum in honor of the past CEOs of Lumon and Lumon’s Legacy of Joy, a room full of creepy smiles supposed to show that Lumon creates joy in the outside world or as Dylan calls it, the mouth wall. Our time in the Perpetuity wing rekindled a question I had last week. When is this show set?? I initially thought 70s or 80s but they have flip phones and flat screen TVs so it has to be mid 90s at the earliest but then there is this.

That means we are at least in 1999 which means we are probably in the 2000s which would make perfect sense until I saw this.

Is that a smartphone? That would not make much sense in the early 2000s or did Lumon develop this technology early in this reality? Why is it in Marks locker with his personal belongings??? I hope we get an explanation for all this.

All of this is happening as Petey is wandering through the town confused, with his memories mixed up as he is trying to make sense of the map he has drawn.

Irving gets in Marks face about being a bad department chief, while Helly is making what I consider her cleverest attempt at an exit so far. She runs to an exit and tries to walk out with a message in hand. Mark stops her and she is taken to the break-room by Graner.

The way this show constructs the means by which Lumon mentally breaks down its employees mentally is really good. I thought wellness last week was terrible. On face value the break room is just saying something, but when you realize they won’t let them out until they actually mean what they are saying… man. So fucking Evil. It’s another excellent piece of world-building.

Back in the main office, Petey probably knowing his exit would lead to the pictures being replaced left a map of the floor for Mark at the back of one of the pictures.

Mark goes home to find Petey gone, follows an ambulance and finds him at a gas station store, face bloodied and eventually collapsed. Mark returns home to try and get rid of any evidence of Petey's presence in his basement.

BITS X BOBS

There is a poster or plaque type thing in Cobel’s house that reads “ We must be cut to heal”

Britt Lower continues to excellent as Helly R.

“Its like having two different lives suddenly stitched together so the relativity”s fucked” I enjoy the way this show explains its world to you. I’m a whore for world-building.

The score of this show

Who is they?? What are they gonna do about Severance? Interested to see where this goes.

What happened to June??? Did Lumon do something to her???

Post it notes are not to be put on faces they clog your outtie’s pores

Did you fill out a request for supervisory interaction?

It falls outside corporate canon.

Cobel’s First name is Harmony??????

Dylan’s theory about O&D trying a coup is so funny. I would love an origin story of the severed floor lol.

Woe. Frolic. Dread . Malice.

I really hope we get to meet and spend some time with the outtie versions of all the characters.