The ending of Severance Season 2 episode 6 was about Mark finally deciding to speed up the reintegration process. During the ORTBO, I was under the impression that Mark had made a significant amount of progress in terms of blurring the line between his Innie and Outie, and he was merely pretending to be his Innie during the excursion. But that wasn’t the case at all, as proven by the severe glitching that he was experiencing. Reghabi probably wanted to take things slow to avoid any injuries, physical or psychological; however, since it was taking a lot of time, she decided to simply flood the chip out of Mark’s system. Outie-Mark didn’t agree with Reghabi’s plan until he met Helena Eagan at a restaurant, which was certainly a first. Apart from that, the closing moments of the show also shed some light on the Outies of Burt and Irving and hinted that maybe Fields was working with Drummond to push Irving out of the picture. Also, I want to talk a little about what’s going on with Innie-Dylan, Outie-Dylan, and Gretchen. So, let’s get on with it.
Spoiler Alert
The Helena, Helly, and Mark Conundrum
The running theme of Severance Season 2, Episode 6, was infidelity. But it wasn’t the usual kind of infidelity, where a person cheats on their partner by getting romantically involved with someone else. In this case, the characters were cheating with Innies and Outies. While that might not sound like unfaithfulness in the normal world, since it has been established multiple times in the show that one’s Innie and Outie are completely different people, betraying one to be with the other does count as deception. So, when Helly learned that Helena had “tricked” Mark into having sex with her, she was heartbroken because Mark’s first physical interaction with Helly’s body (I think Innie-Mark refers to a body as a “vessel” that is being controlled by the Outie and the Innie) was via Helena.
Helly wasn’t angry at Mark; she was dejected that Helena was Innie-Mark’s first sexual experience, not her. Helly and Innie-Mark quickly fixed that, which eventually gave him a nosebleed (how very anime-coded) and caused him to glitch out and forget about the aftermath of that encounter. But then, surprisingly, Helena showed up to meet Outie-Mark at the restaurant he was at, which was certainly not a coincidence, and I can say for sure that Helena is keeping tabs on him. She chatted with him about the Overtime Contingency, Gemma’s death, and taking him to meet her father, maybe in a “here’s the guy I want to marry” way. That caused Mark to rush to Reghabi and flood the chip out of his brain, which resulted in an epileptic fit (that was a really traumatizing scene). Why did he do that though? He was so afraid of speeding up the reintegration procedure to start with. So, why did he get so desperate?
Earlier in the episode, Helly had theorized that maybe Helena was trying to drive a wedge between her and Innie-Mark for reasons known only to Helena. Maybe Outie-Mark remembered that after seeing Helena and felt that something was fishy and Helena was trying to use the gap between Innie-Mark and Outie-Mark for her own nefarious purposes. That’s why he didn’t waste any more time and ran to get reintegrated so that he could be aware of the full picture, not just half. As for this “nefarious purpose,” the most popular and hated theory (especially on Reddit) is that maybe Helena is, or at least wants to get, pregnant with Mark’s child. It’s possible that Jame Eagan and Lumon are a patriarchal institution, and they’ll not let a woman, i.e., Helena, sit on the proverbial throne. Hence, she needs to produce a male heir to James before time runs out. It’s possible that Outie-Mark has figured it out, based on the hints that Helena was giving, and he wanted to know what exactly his Innie had done with her and what he had unknowingly signed up for.
Fields Probably Isn’t Just a Paranoid Husband
Burt, Fields, and Irving’s conversation was all over the place. Things started off with Burt’s accusation that the Whole Minds department of Lumon–employees who weren’t severed (probably denoted by the water drop badge)–were crazy. Then they talked about how a pastor persuaded Burt to join Lumon. Then they argued about whether someone’s Innie, whose soul was pure, could go to heaven, while the Outie rotted in hell for the sins they had committed in their life. There was some confusion about Burt and Fields having drinks with his “Lumon partner” 10 or 20 years ago, even though, as per Irving, the first severed office had opened just 12 years ago. Later on, Attila was brought up. And, finally, Fields brought things full circle about how he had confessed to the aforementioned pastor that he had made peace with the notion that, maybe, Innie-Burt and Innie-Irving had sex in the office. While all this was going on, Drummond broke into Irving’s house and saw that he had tracked down Burt and several other severed employees. So, what was all this about?
Firstly, Fields was definitely stalling so that Drummond had all the time he needed to see how much Irving knew about what Lumon was doing inside and outside the office. Which also means that Fields is working for Lumon and hasn’t retired or been pushed into retirement like Burt and Irving. Is Fields the same guy that took all that dentistry equipment through the exports hall passage? Maybe. Secondly, Fields and Burt’s marriage is not on stable ground. Burt saying that they went from calling each other “hon” to “Attila,” probably isn’t just a play on words; it shows that Fields became dictatorial because of Burt’s infidelity. Thirdly, the confusion with the timing of meeting this “Lumon partner” is possibly a hint that Fields has met Irving before.
Hear me out. I have a feeling that 20 years ago, Irving, Burt, and Fields used to work at Lumon. Irving and Fields were probably in a romantic relationship, and they were in the exports department. Eventually, Irving fell in love with Burt, and Fields was miffed about it. They probably tried to settle the issue over drinks, but it didn’t work out. 8-10 years later, when the severance procedure was introduced, Fields got Lumon to wipe Irving and Burt’s memories. Fields married Burt, out of spite, which’d explain his passive-aggressive attitude towards him. Meanwhile, Irving remembered the exports hall passage and traces of his chemistry with Burt. When that memory and those feelings became prominent over the years, Innie-Irving and Innie-Burt got into a relationship and had a brief office romance. When Outie-Irving showed up at Burt and Fields’ doorstep, the latter understood that his plan had failed. So, now he is using Drummond to erase Irving from the face of the Earth. Does that sound plausible? If so, let me know in the comments.
Gretchen Cheating on Innie-Dylan with Outie-Dylan
Initially, it seemed like the Outie Family Visitation Suite was just set up to manipulate Innie-Dylan into siding with Lumon instead of rebelling against them, especially after the Overtime Contingency event. You see, while talking about the ending of last week’s episode, I theorized that maybe Lumon isn’t as evil as we think it is. Maybe Kier Town and Lumon are rehabilitating people with turbulent pasts or those whose lives have been damaged beyond repair. Therefore, if it’s possible that Lumon allowed a severed Mark to stay around a severed Gemma, thereby giving the former a few days to hang around his supposedly dead wife before he died of some terminal illness, it’s also possible that they’re helping Dylan and Gretchen rekindle their lost love. Gretchen probably doesn’t outright hate Outie-Dylan, but with the three kids and his somewhat fickle attitude, she is tired of him; however, she doesn’t want to love anyone else. You get what I mean?
Gretchen basically wants him to change even though she knows that the Dylan she has lived with has gone way past the point of no return. That’s where the severance procedure comes in. As we say in episode 6, Innie-Dylan is clearly happy to be with Gretchen and vice versa. And that’s enough for Gretchen to be around Outie-Dylan and take care of the kids until they can take care of themselves. Without the Outie Family Visitation Suite, maybe Gretchen would’ve bailed, thereby leaving those innocent children at the mercy of Outie-Dylan. Now, she can take small doses of Innie-Dylan and keep her family intact. That said, given how Gretchen got intimate with Innie-Dylan, she is technically cheating on Outie-Dylan.
Gretchen lied about that experience because she knows that Outie-Dylan will do something to put a stop to her meetings with Innie-Dylan, even though she is meeting him, or force her to get as intimate with him as she is getting with Innie-Dylan. But the thing about lies is that it never stops at one. Let’s see how long Gretchen will be able to hide what she is doing with Innie-Dylan from Outie-Dylan and how that is going to affect both of their lives. Anyway, those are just my observations from the ending of Severance Season 2 episode 6. If you have any thoughts on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
