Review
Severance season 2 was full of repeated lines with double meanings, but one in particular has really got me thinking. The Apple TV series plays around with how we think about the mind, exploring, especially, how consciousness works with memory. It’s evident throughout Severance that a rather dramatic line exists between a severed person’s Innie and Outie, but it’s, perhaps, not as defined as Lumon would like people to think. Memories may not transfer without reintegration, but emotions most certainly do. Still, what’s even trickier to define is how memory relates to life or death for an Innie or Outie.
Back in Severance season 1, Mark told Helly R. that choosing to leave Lumon forever would essentially mean death. Innie’s only exist, more or less, on the Severed Floor, and if an Outie chose never to return, their Innie would cease to exist. It’s for this reason that when Irving B. was terminated, his team at Macrodata Refinement mourned him as if he had died in Severance season 2, episode 5, «Trojan Horse.» However, how does such a death compare to a real death on the outside? A line from Mark during this same episode subtly presents a similar question.
Innie & Outie Mark Both Repeat The Same Line In Severance Season 2
It's Not Just About Reintegration — This Repeated Line Has Meaning
In the Severance season 2 episode, «Trojan Horse,» MDR held a funeral for Irv, but Mark S. was uncharacteristically dismissive about the whole thing. Of course, he was still dealing with the fact that Helly R. hadn’t really been Helly R. However, when confronted about his attitude, Mark said of Irv, «He’s not dead, he’s just not here.» This wasn’t a hopeful statement, however. Mark wasn’t reassuring his friends that they could still, somehow, see Irving again since his body wasn’t technically dead. Instead, Mark was further lamenting that Outies have the real lives—the real Irv was out there living his life.
Lumon wouldn’t typically allow employees to hold funerals for terminated Innies, since it reinforced the idea that these people have died.
Later in the same episode, Outie Mark said nearly the same exact line. However, this time, he was talking about Gemma—»She’s not dead, she’s just not here.» In this case, the line is a bit more hopeful. Mark had thought his wife was far past the point of ever returning, dead in every sense of the word. However, Gemma’s body was still alive, and she had just been living her days with a severely fragmented memory at Lumon.
The fact that Innie and Outie Mark said the same line in Severance season 2 is deeply meaningful. At first glance, it seems as if this is simply a result of Mark’s reintegration, and on some level, it might have been. Innie Mark’s words likely stayed near enough to the surface that Outie Mark was able to repurpose them. However, it’s important to note that the sentiment between these two lines was very different. This was less about Mark’s memories and more about the fate of Severed people in general.
Death Is Thought About Differently Between The Innies & Outies Of Severance
Outie Lives Are The Priority
Mark’s repeated line creates another layer of contrast between the lives of the Innies and Outies in Severance. To Innies like Dylan, a coworker never returning to the Severed Floor is death. However, the very real emotion behind this experience is belittled by those on the outside. Innies are often infantilized, and unsevered people or Outie’s perspectives on this type of mourning are a prime example. It’s looked at like a little child losing a pet goldfish. On the outside, however, death is death.
Outie Mark expected Mark S. to sacrifice his life and that of everyone on the Severed Floor to save Gemma, since they wouldn’t really be dead—they just wouldn’t be there.
For a moment in Severance season 2, Mark S.’s frustration and hopelessness made him take on the perspective of those on the outside. For a moment, he wasn’t willing to take Irving’s death seriously, since he knew the rest of the world didn’t. Though he eventually lightened up, this all played a part in Mark S.’s conversation with his Outie later in Severance. It was all too easy for everyone to value Gemma’s life over those of the Innies.
Outie Mark expected Mark S. to sacrifice his life and that of everyone on the Severed Floor to save Gemma, since they wouldn’t really be dead—they just wouldn’t be there. This fact makes Innie and Outie Mark’s repeated line earlier in the season so much more painful. They tie right in to Mark S.’s big decision at the end of the Severance season 2.
