BONUS - Severance, mid-S2 predictions

[00:00:00] Well, you'll try. Well, not night, Brian! Night! Steve! Steve, this is an episode that you and I have big picture, looking forward to the future,

[00:00:29] guessing how Severance might wrap up whenever all the seasons are said and done. So beyond just theorycrafting for this season, this is essentially, with the knowledge that we have, again, I don't think we even know how many seasons this is supposed to go, but... My gut tells me three. I don't know if you have any. I've heard three from a few different sources. I don't know what that's based on, to be honest. Right.

[00:00:58] I think there's been some shows that maybe historically just like three is kind of the magic number for these types of things. Because this doesn't feel like a series that can just go on and on and on, right? This isn't going to be like a cheers type situation, right? I could see you wanting to do an anthology with this. Like show how Severance affects like many different ways of life, you know? But...

[00:01:26] Yeah, I suppose the question is, is this one of these things where like it's going to wrap up and, you know, the world of Lumen is like vanquished or something? Or is this just like, hey, this is a snapshot in time kind of a thing? I do get the sense that with the principles that we have, it's got about a three season runway. I'd be really surprised to see it go more than that.

[00:01:55] That's kind of how I feel, especially with where we're at. Like the concept of like Mark reintegrating to me, it seemed early if this is like a four or five season thing. Right. So, I mean, I guess you could reverse it. Can you reverse integrate? You can deintegrate? I don't know. De-reintegrate. Is that how you say it? Yeah. Sorry, I want to make sure we get the terminology correct.

[00:02:25] So, the exercise that I suggested is that we're going to predict based on, you know, just the information we have mid-season, season two, what the ultimate outcome will be for each of the main characters. The important thing about this particular exercise that I think our listeners should realize is that because so much information is still yet to be given, this podcast serves virtually no purpose. No, basically not.

[00:02:53] We just wanted to get together to talk about the show we enjoyed. Yeah. And, you know, in keeping with our mission statement of Properly Howard. Right. As long as it's a meaningless conversation, we're down. We're down to share it with as many people as possible. We're down to share it with literally a dozen people. We're like Taco Bell nacho fries.

[00:03:20] The less good they are for you, the more we will make them for you. All right. So, I guess the first question is, how many characters did you do this for? Because I think I did it for eight. Okay. Yeah, I did this for like the four main and then, well, at least the four MDRs. And then I did...

[00:03:46] I also like guess that Milchick, Cobell, Rickon, Devin, and Gemma, which I guess puts me at nine. Yeah, I guess that's right. I kind of lumped the Devin, Rickon together, I think. Okay. You go first. Choose a character and predict their ultimate outcome. So, here's the... Like, we don't know what anything is. So, it's hard to like... Neither of us are prophets, so... Right.

[00:04:14] I assume that Lumen continues, right? That's my assumption. My assumption is that the entity of Lumen is not like vanquished or conquered, but that... So, that's sort of... I think that's an important thing to establish when we're making these predictions for characters. So, that's similar to what I came up with. I was thinking probably some sort of major reform. Yes, I didn't even go... I didn't even get to there. I think Lumen just...

[00:04:42] I think there's changes, but I don't think it's changes for like, oh, now Lumen is a better part of the community. I still think that Lumen is kind of... This is Lumen's world. So, you don't think the Death Star will blow up? You think that it will just continue to be the Death Star? Yeah. Yeah. With that in mind, choose a character and predict their outcome. I'm gonna go right to Mark. Okay.

[00:05:13] I think reintegration, whether through reintegration or just whatever the ultimate plan is, is I believe that Mark dies. And I think he dies in an attempt, in the process of freeing Gemma. That's so funny. Okay, here's what I wrote. Mark is killed by Lumen once they're done with him. So, we both predict that Mark will die.

[00:05:41] Now, I think it's like a final episode death kind of thing. Mm-hmm. Because I don't think you can kill him off like mid-season or something and still have it be interesting. I think it's like they're able to use him up and complete whatever it is that they hope to use him for, right? He's important to them, but then once he's not important to them, they discard him. Yeah, that was one I was toying with.

[00:06:06] I, and I guess this goes, I'm not supposed to take another character, but it's, I guess I can, I'll let you go next. Unless you want to just call that your Mark. No, just continue your thought. I think, and so I think the end is Mark, I think he frees Gemma, and I think what we have is we end with Gemma free, and then now she is in Mark's situation from the beginning where she now is having to decide how she wants to deal with Mark's death.

[00:06:36] And knowing that she may still be chipped, she may decide to sever and sort of create a loop. All right, so we did not coordinate this at all. Here's what I wrote. Gemma switches roles with Audi Mark, wins her freedom, and grieves the loss of her spouse. We're kind of, we're a couple of upbeat dudes. So, so far you and I are. We're so happy.

[00:07:06] We're just welcome to the half empty podcast. All right, I'm going to choose one to go next. This is my prediction for Irv. Irv. I wrote Irv. Both Irv and Bert choose to become their innies full time. Oh. Yeah, see, I was going along the lines that maybe Bert was never truly severed.

[00:07:30] So, I have Irv dying a martyr's death. You want to kill everyone? I didn't want, I was, I was a little reluctant to kill two, but I think I have to. So, I think Irving is part of a resistance movement.

[00:07:55] And there may be a coming to a head between him and Bert that isn't romantic. Interesting. Okay, then we are. Did I mention Hellie? Hellie is dead and so is Dylan. Well, let's wrap this up. So, you and I part ways on Irv. I think that there's going to be something along the lines of, in the same way that you

[00:08:19] can view like retirement as permanent death for the innie, you, at one point a character could choose, no, I'm going to go the other way. Okay, I'm going to choose death for the Audi and let my innie live in the outside world. So, to me that's a theme that would be really interesting to bring in. And I think those...

[00:08:47] Well, it's funny that you mentioned that because I have something on that. Okay. Because I thought eventually you want almost a rom-com ending for Bert and Irv. You know, we're really invested in their relationship. We'd like to see them live happily ever after. If we're not going to get that for Mark, maybe we need to get that for these two. Okay. All right, so let's go to your similar theme. So then I'll go with...

[00:09:16] That's where Dylan comes in, I believe. I believe it is... I believe there's a decision made between Dylan and Gretchen, right? Yeah. And... Unhappy Dylan outside may even sign off on any Dylan living his life on the outside. Huh. That he loves the kids, or at least loves... He would be much more of an inspiring father.

[00:09:45] He may continue to just continue to work at Lumen. Um... Hmm. Essentially, uh, you know, willingly, maybe even... Like, if you can be the any all the time, but like, as long as he's working and providing and he's happy. Um, and I think that's what Gretchen wants. So I think, I think she basically divorces Audi Dylan for any Dylan. So similar to me, a little different though. I wrote, uh, Dylan gets cloned and Gretchen gets cloned.

[00:10:15] Thus the love triangle is solved with two couples. Wow. Okay. So you're, so you're, you're all in on cloning. I'm all in on cloning. I think that Dylan's clone will then sort of be chipped with the innie persona. Then the innie persona will marry Gretchen in kind of a wife swap situation. Hmm. Interesting.

[00:10:40] That to me is like the most far out suggestion, but it would be fun. It would be a lot of fun. Yeah. I just wonder what that would do for the kids. You know? Are you out on cloning? I'm not out on cloning. I do believe, I do believe that there is a, there's a genetic component to this, right? The part that I find interesting is how many almost likes there are.

[00:11:07] And, uh, and maybe that's, maybe that's how this, maybe that's the perfecting of the cloning, right? Is that that's what they're working on. But it is interesting that they're bringing in the doubles and we see them, we're seeing more of them. Um, but they're not doing anything right. So I'd suggest that there might, that, that they don't necessarily speak. We don't see any of them speak unless you count, um, the door boss. So, you know, isn't this? Right.

[00:11:38] All right. All right. Go next. All right. Um, okay. So I have, I have, uh, Helena giving birth to Kier. Interesting. So she marks baby, right? Yeah. So she takes it upon herself to sneak in, get Mark to impregnate her.

[00:12:05] And with the hope that she brings back the Messiah or something along those lines. Yeah. With whatever other aspects of the, uh, the, the, cause like that's where I get, that's where I'm, I'm a little off cloning. Um, because I believe, I think there's another way. I think I do think it's, like I said, I do think it's, it's dealing with genetics and DNA, but I don't know that it's specifically cloning because I think you could have just cloned Kier

[00:12:35] if that was the case. Um, and I don't think they might try to do that. I just don't know how it fits in. So, all right. I'll choose one. Devin. I've got Devin joins the resistance and exposes a scandal that takes down a pro Lumen politician. Hmm.

[00:13:00] That's probably the logical cause I, I actually had Devin, uh, becomes a resistance agent working alongside, uh, Rigabi. Um, and, uh, but yeah, and obviously the logical cause I actually had Devin, uh, becomes a resistance agent working alongside, uh, Rigabi. The logical would be, yeah. To, to, to kind of undo the, for the ultimate goal of, of exposing. Right. Yeah. Because we have that kind of, we've got that scene in, in season one where she has that exchange with the politician's wife. Right. Right.

[00:13:28] So she's got some connection to that world. Yeah. So we're pretty much linked on that one. I go Rick and, um, and Devin are not together. Rick and becomes a Lumen shell. Poor Rick. Uh, I've got, okay. Rick and finds out that he's lived several lives. Ooh. I like that. He's forgotten each time he's written a self-help book.

[00:14:00] I think it would be really interesting for him to find a previous iteration of the same book and realize he's done this all before. And he's been reset. He gets accused of plagiarism from himself. Right. No, he gets reset and he can't help but write the same book over again. Uh, yeah. But you think that, uh, he is separated. Yeah. Um, all right. I'll go next. I've got Cobell.

[00:14:31] Cobell finds a deep dark, deep dark secret about Kier and loses her faith. I like that. I have, uh, I have Cobell, uh, not only is reinstated, but she now becomes a, a bigger part of Lumen. Um, but she has lost her faith. Okay. I don't know if you, you did Helena, but I did not.

[00:14:56] I have got Heli reintegrated and she takes over the company as a reformer. Oh, interesting. Okay. So yeah. So you've got a little bit more of a, yeah, I've got kind of a silver lining. That's an arc for, for, uh, Helena. Yeah. I think so. I think that there's something about reintegrating, having some sort of cognitive dissonance about choosing which path I want to go on.

[00:15:20] I could, you know, which identity I want to embrace and then choosing the path of reform. Yeah. You're more, you're, yeah, we're more optimistic. I kill more people. Um, let's hear your prediction for Milchick. So I see Milchick actually in the resistance. Yeah, me too.

[00:15:42] I think, I, I think Milchick, uh, I think Milchick becomes a key figure in, um, both Mark's, uh, ultimate end. Yeah. Both, you know, good and bad. But yeah, I've got Milchick betrays Lumen to help the innies find freedom. So I don't, I don't know how resistance he's going to get, but I do think that there's going to be something he'll make a choice.

[00:16:09] I, if that holds, I think that's going to be a really powerful moment for, for the show. Yeah. I think, I almost think that that's how you have to end season two. That's my thought. Yeah. That'd be, that would be, that'd be something, right? If, if you actually have a whole season of sort of this rebel Milchick. Yeah. All right. Okay. So it's interesting that we had some overlapping themes for sure. Yeah.

[00:16:38] And it'll be interesting to see how wrong we are. Yeah, I know. I know. Like immediately I'm expecting, I'm expecting tonight's episode. Oh, they're all dead. The great thing about this is that because we've made nine predictions each, we'll be able to crow at least one of them. Like we'll get one right and eight wrong, but we'll, we'll just make sure that we get credit for the one we got right. Yeah, no doubt. Um, all right.

[00:17:07] So you can find us back on the regular severance podcast feed with John and David. Uh, it, that's been an interesting experience. I, you know, what I found that I kind of interested me was the extent to which David just completely makes up his love for the show. Like it's all a put on, he hates this show whenever we're talking offline, he can't stand it.

[00:17:36] I think he called Ben Stiller the C word at one point. It was. Yeah, he did. And it wasn't even, he actually just said C word and then we, we assumed we thought it was. And he says it was, it's worse than we thought. I still don't know what it is. So, I mean a great, great acting on his part to, to make it seem like he enjoys the thing. But, um, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's kind of fun in terms of like a performance art kind of thing.

[00:18:05] A little spooky how, how, um, convincing he is and how fraudulent at the same time. Yeah. Um, I'm glad that there's some, there's, there's some geographical distance between us to be honest. He is a little bit scary. I, I'm, I don't know if you've looked into his eyes. Yeah, I can't, I can't even look at, I don't know why he has to have the camera on, but I know it's just, it's just because it's a power move. I can look at a little bit, but if I stare too long, I feel myself slipping.

[00:18:32] My own ego slipping out the back and him taking over. It's hard to tell where he ends and I begin.

[00:18:48] Hey everyone, David here.

[00:20:06] Severance is back. The Lorehounds are partnering with properly Howard to bring you in depth weekly coverage of season two. Join me, John, Anthony, and Steve, as we unpack every twist, theory, and revelation. We've created a dedicated feed just for our Severance coverage. Simply search for Severance Lorehounds in your podcast app, or find the direct link in our link tree.

[00:20:36] Our weekly episodes dig deep into the show's mysteries, themes, and bigger questions about identity and consciousness that make Severance so compelling. Season Pass and regular community subscribers get ad free access to our weekly episodes, plus exclusive content like our Supply Closet bonus series, featuring fascinating conversations with experts like the team from Nevermind the Music.

[00:21:02] We've explored the neuroscience of memory and personality, decoded the hidden meanings in the show's musical themes, and there's much more to come. You'll also get Steve and Anthony's complete season one rewatch series. We believe in total transparency with our listeners. And unlike Mammalians Nurturable, we're happy to share all of our secrets.

[00:21:28] Find the link for the Severance feed in the show notes below, or search Severance Lorehounds wherever you get your podcasts. Come theorize with us about what's really happening at Lumen.