Severance - Season 2 Preview

[00:00:08] Don't pervert a handbook passage to me, okay? Welcome to a Properly Howard and Lorehounds joint production on Severance, the hit TV show from Apple TV+. I'm John, and with me today, I'll introduce you one at a time. We've got the man whose heart is in conflict with itself, David. I'm so conflicted. We've got the guy who didn't like the penguin as much as you did, Anthony. I didn't like it as much as anyone did. I guess.

[00:00:38] And the guy who can't be scripted, Steve. Hello. And here today, we're going to talk about our hopes and dreams for Season 2 of Severance, our coverage plans, and our thoughts on Season 1. So, let's go around and just give a quick background on our Severance histories. Anthony, do you want to start? I do. I think that this is the perfect show. I feel like I've been waiting for this show for...

[00:01:05] I don't know, 35 years. I feel like sci-fi has... I feel like the history of science fiction on the screen had to evolve in order to give us this show. I think first off, when you'd see a sci-fi show or a movie, visually it looked bad. The writing was bad. The acting was bad. But it might have had a really cool concept.

[00:01:35] And then after a while, we got sort of like, oh wow, this production is really fantastic. The visual effects are amazing, but the writing's still bad and the acting's still... And then we got sort of like, all the way to Black Mirror, where it's like, oh, the writing's good and the acting's good. And unfortunately, taking itself very seriously. And finally, I feel like this, which is a... I would consider a hard sci-fi...

[00:02:06] Does take itself a little bit seriously at times, but I almost feel like it's a comedy. And I feel like it sort of is running the gamut of my emotions in a way that any good drama should. It just happens to be a hard sci-fi. So I love this show. I think it's... I really do think it's a science fiction achievement.

[00:02:31] Does any one part of the show stand out more for you than the other? Like the visuals or the characters or the moral dilemmas or the ethics or... Or is it a real equal balance? I think the first time I watched it, it was sort of the concept and Dylan. I like... I came for the concept... Concepts... You stayed for the Zach Cherry. Yeah, right. Yeah. I just... I laughed every single time. And then Steve and I did our rewatch.

[00:03:01] You did. Right on this feed that we're on right now. That's right. That's right. Yeah, we did our rewatch. And I think I really enjoyed the sort of the mystery box element of it. Trying to unravel the mystery. And then I just watched it last night with my daughter for the first time.

[00:03:21] She did a binge and I sat down to watch the last three episodes with her. And she was just pointing out like things about the way that color is used. She's a visual artist, so she notices things I don't. The way that the colors are used in this and, you know, the sort of the symbolic value of the color orange, which I had never seen before. So a lot of attention paid to detail. Maybe you should get her on the podcast. Yeah, if I... Look, I don't have to come back.

[00:03:53] I do not have to be here at all. Anyway, I really... I've appreciated something different every time. Cool. Steve, what you got for us on your severance history and everything you learned covering season one?

[00:04:07] Yeah, I mean, I'll echo a lot of what Anthony says. I haven't had a lot of really great experience with hard sci-fi on television. And this one is... It's an interesting concept. It's so it kind of pulls you in. And I think it took me like maybe a moment into watching even the first episode that I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm watching sci-fi.

[00:04:33] Even though I kind of understood, you know, this is a surreal concept. This is playing with technology. It's sort of, you know, unknown when this takes place. So there's all the different sci-fi elements. But I was so kind of wrapped in the characters and just the basic notion of the concept that it was... It took me a minute to realize, well, I'm engrossed in this. And it's also this hard sci-fi, which is to me, it's a hard task, right?

[00:05:03] To pull off to where you can be engrossed in the actual characters. And each character has two characters, you know, with one, which I think is fascinating, right? And they're developing that in such a way that it trusts you to know what's going on to some degree, at least in terms of this is how these worlds would work.

[00:05:24] So it doesn't belabor that, right? And it sort of just thrusts you into it. And it pays you the compliment of saying, you can get in here and you can, you know, even though there's things you're not going to figure out, that's in the intent.

[00:05:38] But you're in the world, both worlds. And that really is super impressive to me. I do find it really funny at times, which is necessary, because this is a very deep, dark take on the concept of work-life balance,

[00:05:58] on the concept of just work and what we do in life to try to cope with whether it's tragedy or just the monotony. And which, you know, maybe they're not mutually exclusive, the concepts, but I find myself loving the mystery almost to the point where I don't want a solution.

[00:06:23] Steve, am I correct in the assumption that you are the... Well, no, John has a day job. You have a day job too, right? Yes. And does it resonate with you, the cubicle life, sort of? Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of that that feels like... I mean, I don't mean to diminish your stand-up comic persona.

[00:06:45] No, no, no, exactly. But that's... Well, that's an interesting, right? Because I do, like, that's the whole idea, right? For having a stand-up comedy life, I feel like I need to sever from my day-to-day monotony, right? And it's like, but the idea that one doesn't lead into the other is the antithesis of what the show is talking about, right? Like the show says, we just cut it off. And part of what makes the balance work is the fact that you are teetering into two different worlds.

[00:07:14] And you have... And it's... The balance is the goal, so to speak, in that regard. And that's why I just think this show just really works on so many different levels. From a sci-fi perspective, from a life-in-the-cubicle perspective, like I said, just... I like not knowing things, which is really easy for me because I don't know a lot in general. So this is right in my wheelhouse. And baby goats, come on. Are you kidding me? I love goats. Baby goats. Very good. I'm really excited to see the explanation for that.

[00:07:44] And I think you're hitting on a really, really interesting point, Steve, which is that it is hard sci-fi technically. But the way that they implement it is like, let's just take sort of late-stage capitalism where we are in the world right now. Let's just change one aspect of it to be more literal than it is figurative in the real world. And go with that. And that's why it feels so relatable, even though we don't have a procedure like severance in the real world. We do have bosses who say like, hey, your work is your work.

[00:08:13] And nothing should happen from the outside world in your work life, right? We do have people who try to put up these hard walls between their work life and their home life. Or tell their workers that they're a family, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or sate you with eggs. I love you, LER. Oh my God. Sure. But I mean, I am a podcaster who uses a pseudonym. And I treat my podcasting persona as sort of a character.

[00:08:40] And so for me, like, yeah, we all put different faces on for all different interactions. And it just so happens that in this world, that's literal. Instead of something that clicks in your mind, this is something that is implanted in your mind. And yeah, no, I could. Yeah. As someone who's sort of like. I can really relate to this, John, because.

[00:09:05] There are certain things that are more passion projects like in this last episode of season one, we find out that Irv is an artist. Who's sort of has a monotony, like something about his art that is repetitive, right? And yet it is his passion project over and over and over. And yet his work life. Is monotonous in a different way.

[00:09:35] He's rounding up numbers, basically. But he's looking. He's sort of looking for artwork around his very limited environment at work. To try to feed that part of his creativity. And so I think that there is an aspect of that that I feel like. You know, I would like my work life to feel a little bit more creative.

[00:10:01] And maybe I would like my creative life to bleed a little bit more into, you know, my myself holistically. But it's interesting that each of these. It seems like each of these characters are severed for a different reason. Yeah. I don't know if we know Dylan's situation yet, but. Yeah, it could just be he was offered a promotion and they were like, you have to work on the severed floor. And he goes, cool. You know, it could have just been as simple as that.

[00:10:30] The muscle shows were in pain as well. So, David, we haven't gotten your take yet on season one. Do you want to give your two cents? Yeah. I like a lot of what you guys have been saying. There's something that Steve said that kind of struck me. That this show treats us like adults. Right. It's not it's not doing exposition dump.

[00:10:54] There isn't Johnny exposition there to, you know, deliver two minutes of dialogue to explain the political context of things. There isn't. We're just in the world. And the show treats us like we can figure it out. And I think that's I appreciate a show that does that. It's very refreshing. I can't help but think of sometimes when I see them in their cubicles doing the macro data refinement.

[00:11:22] And I'm thinking of Andor and what's our friend Cyril Karn when he's doing whatever the fuel analysis stuff. And there's just sea of cubicles. But, you know, because we like to mix our IPs around here. But the I watched eight and nine last night and I'm kind of contemplating doing a reverse watch order like watch season one but backwards.

[00:11:47] But I was so struck last night by the visual design and the simplicity of the sets and the production design. But the thing about the simplicity of it and the cleanness of it and the intention of it's that's harder. That's harder to do to get those camera angles to work to get those lighting scenarios to work.

[00:12:14] There were some scenes of them running down the hallways like that was incredible. The camera work that is going into like when when he's holding the switches at the end. And it is a phenomenally well crafted show. And I guess we've read some news media reports here and there or something like that the showrunner and the director writer. I don't know.

[00:12:37] Is it Stiller and Erickson or something like there's a lot of active animosity on set like they hate each other or something. And it seems to be like one of those pressure cooker boiler situations of creativity that is just producing this exceptional result. It's Michelin star level TV entertainment. You can sit down. You can watch this. It's entertaining. It's visually compelling. The acting is amazing.

[00:13:07] I mean to have to Toro our cat and walking all on screen together is like what a feast. I bet you the showrunners just had Mr. Milchick come in in character and just sit him down and say like listen smile on his face. You got to get this together. It's time to get it together. So before we do this season two business. That's right. Tramiel Tillman is amazing as Milchick.

[00:13:33] Like just it's it's so well put together on every single level. And then it's a mystery box. And then it's a hard sci-fi. Like those are the outer rappers for it to me. You know and then it's moral and philosophical questions of work and life and truth and lie and identity and all of these things. Like the further out you go these these these wider and wider spheres of it.

[00:14:02] But at the end of the day it's just a really freaking entertaining television show. Yeah. And I am a known detractor of mystery boxes. You are. It is true. Every time I see a mystery box come up in like rings of power or something I'm like motherfucker. I don't I don't need this. I don't need it. You don't need it. Just tell me a story. But this show it's so central to the plot and it's so it's satisfying the way that every episode seems to reveal just enough to keep you satisfied. Yeah.

[00:14:29] But then it raised more questions in the way that sort of like early lost did that. Right. I think it's just an incredible and incredibly done thing. And so I'll take anything if it's well done. You know. That's a big lesson for the mystery box is not to do lost where we're six seasons in and we're like still asking questions and discovering mysteries and we haven't solved anything from one or two. Look lost ended in a way that satisfied every viewer. So I don't.

[00:14:57] So Steve and I have had this conversation a lot. I do at times enjoy shows that have a nice neat bow at the end. And Steve, you can correct me if I'm wrong, Steve.

[00:15:16] You do prefer I think that you prefer the more broadening horizon where the viewer or reader at the end has to decide for themselves what happened. I like. Well, yeah, I think it's we've talked about how I really enjoy short stories versus full novels. I like to pop into a world and then get pulled out.

[00:15:41] I like that.

[00:16:11] I like to pop into a lot of concern. And you mentioned lost and maybe it's still PTSD from lost. Whereas when you create something that's like where the mystery becomes almost so rich that you're like, well, the more that you start to reveal and the more it seems to be fraying away from maybe where I thought it was going to be. The bigger the challenge is to try to tie these things together. And that's when I start getting concerned on that effort.

[00:16:37] Like sometimes, you know, just staying weird is fine as long as it's captivating and it kind of makes sense in the world that you've created. But like I can't even conceive right now of how I would want this to end in a way that would be like, oh, and now it all wraps up. Well, I think I think the mystery has to serve the characters and not the other way around. Right. Like the characters have to be the center of it, which they are in the show. And I think that's why it works so well.

[00:17:07] And the mystery is just another challenge for them to navigate. Right. And with with the idea that each character is essentially two characters, there's it feels that there's an inevitable death. Right. For each one of them. Unless they can figure out reintegration. Oh, yeah. Something. But then went to what end? Right. And what is that? You know, OK, you reintegrate. But essentially, like you've combined two and maybe killed two at the same time. And it's almost a rebirth.

[00:17:36] They create a third to some degree. Right. Well, we're getting a little bit into our speculation for the future for season two. So I want to talk quickly about our coverage plans and where you can find the show, because that's really important on the show. So this is a Lorehounds properly Howard joint production, which means this is only going to be on the severance feed. So this episode and maybe episode one, we'll talk about it. We'll be on probably the Lorehounds feed and the properly Howard feed.

[00:18:04] But the full season will only be on the severance feed. So that will be on the joint feed. It'll be linked in the show notes if you are on not the severance feed. And so if you want to get full coverage, you got to subscribe. You got to hit subscribe right now. Go do it before you forget. And then you'll get nice notifications. And it's free. Just go do it. Click the follow button on your podcatcher. Podcatcher, are we doing that now? Of choice. So go do that. Pause and unpause.

[00:18:34] All right. You did it. You're subscribed. You're here. What are our coverage plans? David, do you want to go through our weekly coverage? We're going to do weekly coverage. That's great. You did a great job, man. Thank you so much. I'm a professional. You know, I've worked for years to hone my craft. The four of us, as scheduling allows, you know, as life happens, but we will always have a quorum of three.

[00:18:59] And we'll be taking feedback to severance at the lorehounds.com. And we'll filter that up. And if we have a preponderance of feedback, then we might have to spin it off. But we'll try to tack it on at the end. It depends on length and scheduling. I don't know that we've worked out that particular detail, but we always do prefer your emailed feedback. We also take voicemails. You can just send a voice recording to that same email address.

[00:19:29] And of course, we have our Discord. And that'll be in the show notes as well. You're welcome there. It's a great community conversation space. We have a great moderator team keeping things running. And we'll have episode threads for each episode so that you can watch at your own pace. And if you're not quite caught up, you can still have conversation before jumping into the next week's show. All of that will be linked in the show notes. Yep.

[00:19:58] There's a nice little link tree you can do everything in. So for now, I think let's take a quick break. When we get back, we're going to talk about our hopes and dreams for season two. And we're back. So we've got season two coming. I think everyone's excited based on the first 20 minutes of our conversation where we did nothing but gush about season one.

[00:20:27] But we've got some new players coming in. So I wanted to sort of bring in some of those. We see some stills in the trailers where we see like Alia Shokat. Shokat. I can never say her name right. Right. And we know Gwendolyn Christie is coming in as an unknown character. Like what? What's everyone? Steve, you want to start? What are you excited for in season two? Yeah. As I sort of mentioned, I'm excited because I'm nervous.

[00:20:53] Because I'm like, I, the idea that new characters are coming in, like, sort of vexes me to some degree. Because I'm like, well, wow. And, like, we're just, we're still getting to know two layers of these other, these main characters. And so I get a little bit anxious about the idea that, like, are we introducing new, you know, when The Office started to grow, you know, the series The Office started to grow.

[00:21:21] So it's like, well, in order for us to, you know, give Andy Bernard his just due, that means maybe some other characters are going to get a little lessened. And so I'm excited that a lot of these cast members, I'm thrilled to see how they mix in for sure. But I do get a little nervous about the idea that, like, how, part of what makes me enjoy this world is kind of the claustrophobic sense of it.

[00:21:51] And so I'm all for adding more to the claustrophobia. I just don't necessarily want my world to expand quite yet. That's interesting. How did you feel when we brought in the Christopher Walken unit of season one? See, that was a nice, it's that flirtation with there's more, right? There's so much more going on. We see a glimpse of goats. We see, we get a taste of Walken. So the idea is that there's so much more out there.

[00:22:19] And I don't know if you guys ever, I don't know if you've ever been to, like, one of these, like, interactive, like, art experiences. Like, I went to this thing called Omega Mart in Las Vegas, which is this, it's a fake supermarket. And all the products are fake. And it's all this art collective. And you go in and there's, like, you'll go, you open up a freezer door and then that takes you into a psychedelic cavern that you're not in. Okay. All right. This sounds more interesting than just fake shopping.

[00:22:48] Right, right, right. Yeah, so, like, you can, there's, like, a display of, like, tent gear and then you go inside the tent and you're crawling now into a new world. And there's, you can follow a scavenger hunt. There's all this story that goes along. It actually feels very Severance-y. Steve, are you sure this wasn't a mushroom trip? I never am. I'm not even sure this conversation is real.

[00:23:08] So, but, so there's something about that where it's, like, doing that actually kind of got me in the mindset for Severance Season 2 because I'm, like, well, here's another door and here's another weird thing. And I kind of got lost in there for a really long time. So, I guess my feeling is if there's going to be these more characters and we're going to get into maybe more parts of this building, I kind of want the series to go on. Like, take its time is what I really want.

[00:23:37] And that's what it's done so far. So, I just, I'm hoping that, you know, again, there's been so much time in between the two seasons, I start getting concerned, like, especially if there's friction on the set. Is this going to be something that's going to go on long enough? And is it going to, you know, explore the world enough to where I can continue to sort of live in each spot for a while? Yeah, that's cool. I appreciate your cautious optimism, Steve.

[00:24:08] David? Yeah, I'm worried too. I don't think I was worried until Steve sort of gave voice to my fears. In as much as it's like, okay, we've got goats and we have, you know, weird stage actors doing, you know, dances.

[00:24:26] I was thinking last night, I was watching like, who made the eggs and who made the water, you know, like there's a whole other layer of business that's happening that we're not even seeing at Lumon Industries. And I'm worried that if they do expand and they do get a little bit of a lost into it, like we're just going to have mystery upon mystery and it's never going to get solved. And maybe that's okay.

[00:24:52] Maybe if they handle that right and we don't ever find out why goats, that would be fine. I got to know why the goats. I'm not leaving that one unturned. So, I, and I don't really know a lot of the actors in the, I'm not familiar with a lot of the actors that they're, the new ones that they're bringing in. I just watched the trailer before we sat down to record as well. And yeah, I guess, I don't know.

[00:25:21] I'm, I'm, I'm just here to see what the, I kind of, I'm putting my trust in the, in the showrunner and the writer, no matter how much animosity and no matter how much difficulty there was, you know, getting hit by the strikes and, you know, after coming out of the COVID stuff.

[00:25:38] I think there is a, there's a, there's such a, there's such an intensity behind the creative team on this that I don't think there couldn't be conflict on the set in terms of getting this done. And sometimes that makes some of the best movies and television shows is because people are so committed and passionate about it. In terms of like the, the cliffhanger was so great, the way that they ramped up the tension in eight and nine.

[00:26:08] I, I'm just really, I don't have a lot of expectations. I'm not worried in as much as like, if, if I do have fears, there are these very vague soft fears, but they handled season one so well that they'd really have to screw up badly for season two. And I, I don't have any worries about that at all.

[00:26:27] It's kind of funny to me that I think what they want us to be most interested in is the fact that Gemma is alive and what's going on on the bottom floor and all that stuff where everyone I talked to is like, what's up with those goats? We're going to find out what's going on with Gemma and we're all going to be disappointed that they never explained. They were never goat related. How can they never explain where those deviled eggs come from? It's all good.

[00:26:57] It's all connected. Anthony, what's your, what's your hopes and dreams for season two? Okay. Uh, I love some of the casting choices. Like if you think of Gwendolyn Christie, like, like you, in order to be on the show, you need to do serious felt face. Well, you know, and I just think of like every episode she was in and game of Thrones. She was like serious face. She's just going to be Brianna Tarth. Right. During the show.

[00:27:27] It's the same thing with, uh, what was it? Uh, beyond the lake or was it the, the, oh shit. Gwendolyn Christie. Oh, what was she? She was in some, uh, New Zealand production called beyond the lake or something like that. I'm getting the name wrong. Um, also Bob Balaban. I mean, does anyone do better serious face than Bob Balaban? Like, have you ever seen that guy crack a smile ever? Like 40 years on the screen, never smiled once.

[00:27:55] So I think he's perfect. Perfect for this. Uh, there's one thing that I kind of, like I said, I, I unabashedly love this show. I think it's almost the perfect show. The one scene in the entire first season that didn't work for me was the drilling into the corpse of PD to get the chip back. It's it seemed ridiculous. Oh God. I don't remember that. I would see what episode was that. That was earlier on, wasn't it? Two or three or something like that.

[00:28:24] Uh, Ms. Selvig, uh, Cobella, whoever she sneaks into PD's funeral. Oh yeah. Goes into the back, drills into a skull, extracts his chip. And it's all very important to do this. Very high stakes, very high risk in order to get this chip back to, to analyze it. And what they find out is that it's possible to reintegrate, right? Mm-hmm. I need that to pay off at some point.

[00:28:54] I need them to tell us why they needed that guy's chip in particular. Mm-hmm. To, to justify doing something so outlandish. Uh, so I, I really hope that they sort of bring in. And then Selvig creates a necklace with that chip.

[00:29:18] She takes PD's chip, puts it around a chain, puts it around her neck and starts wearing it around. Well, part of it is she didn't, she never told the board that that was possible, right? This was, this was something she was kind of keeping close to the chest and saving for a later date. Why does she think it's a good idea? Why do, why do, why do her and Milchick both think it's a good idea to be able to prove reintegration as possible?

[00:29:42] And why is the board so resistant to the, the idea that, that reintegration is possible? Because if, if the board's end game is to try to sell, to sever everyone in the world, you know, that's sort of like, you know, they're testing these guys in the basement so that they can then roll out the, the beta program or whatever. Um, it seems like that'd be a selling point.

[00:30:08] Like, oh, if I want to undo the severance procedure, am I able to do that? I want to know that I'm able to undo that. So why is the board resistant to the idea of reintegration? I'm going to need that explained to me at some point. See, I'm not convinced that they are. I'm, I'm not convinced that anything that, uh, in, uh, Selvig's world is what we think it is.

[00:30:35] I think it's an interesting question because if Cobell, uh, Selvig, she seems to be higher up in the organization than, she seems to have a lot of power and authority. And we don't see, cause we haven't really seen any of their operational divisions of Luman anywhere else.

[00:31:02] And so when they fire her, it's really quite a surprise because like, why are you cutting loose somebody who knows so much? Who, who's both innie and outie, right? Well, one of the things that Steve and I kind of mused on is whether this entire town might be severed on some level. Hmm.

[00:31:22] Like maybe the entire town's a bubble that's being studied because the people Rick and his friends are just as weird as anyone we meet at Luman and someone, you know, that town. I mean, it could just be the, the, this is sort of a weird Dr. Seuss kind of town and we're just kind of supposed to buy into that.

[00:31:46] But it feels like there's a larger, there's something, there's something weird going on in this particular town. Getting out doesn't necessarily feel like freedom. Yeah. Right. Cause even like the punk rock bands are singing about Luman. So it's like Luman doesn't just determine what these worker bees do.

[00:32:15] They also determine how to, how people are rebelling in this town. Like, is there anyone in this town that doesn't care about Luman? Well, it's like, it's like a logging town, but it's tech. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Well, you know, they did release a short story in between seasons called severance, the Lexington letter. And it does go to a different Luman location with a different severed person.

[00:32:40] So we know that there are more than one, you know, headquarters with severed employees. So this is definitely a big corporation, bigger than just this town. Interesting. That doesn't mean that the town isn't part of the corporation. Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. Especially cause you know, it's housing from the corporation, which like we could talk about the history of company towns and how that was kind of terrible. And we should not go back to that. But yeah, it's, it's, it's definitely a massive mega corporation.

[00:33:10] Yeah. And you could see that even just with the, the shareholder meeting that they have where, where Heli blows the lid on severance. I want to talk a little bit about some of the things we learned in the trailer. You know, we had this big cliffhanger. What's going to happen to them now that they like expose the innies to the world? Are they going to just like disappear? Are they, do they have to run? And if, look, if you don't want spoilers for the trailer, I guess. See you in a little bit. I think we're going to be talking pretty freely from here.

[00:33:39] But in the trailer, we see Milchik saying to them, like, you know, you two, you, you all caused a really painful situation for the company, but you're now the face of severance reform. And that's a really interesting thing to me. Cause that feels like I'm not mad. I'm disappointed. And that's scarier. Hmm. Hmm. But it's smart PR from a corporate standpoint, right? Is to jujitsu the, you know, flip the play.

[00:34:06] Well, yeah, but you know that with Milchik there, it's going to, it's, it's not just going to be nice guy. It's going to be nice guy, short leash. And so now we're going to have to deal with that. And, and I think that's a really interesting way to play it instead of making them like go on the run all of a sudden. It's like, no, yeah, we're going to, we're going to coddle you guys. We're going to coddle you guys so well. You're going to love it here. I don't know. Does anyone else have a thought on, on how this is going to play out?

[00:34:30] I did not see the trailer, but Milchik always has struck me as the, the nice guard in Shawshank who cut loose at any minute. To be the heavy, right? Yeah. Yeah. Which is what's so beautiful. He's a, he's an iron fist in a velvet glove. He's so personable. I want to hang out with them, but at any moment he can, like, I want him to be my dom daddy.

[00:34:59] Like he's so. Sir, this is a PG podcast. It's not a PG podcast. Well, no, you, but you're right about that because even when he's smiling, his eyes are menacing. Yeah. Like he's, he's almost that guy's smile is it. It's something it's scary. It's, it's scary.

[00:35:25] Whenever, whenever he's being nice and I almost feel more icky than when he's exactly openly aggressive. Exactly. Which is why this whole, you're the face of severance reform with the smile on his face is way scarier to me. I think this is going to be a really interesting way to approach season two. And I'm, I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens here.

[00:35:46] Um, what do we think is going to happen with Devin knowing that Miss K, I guess she doesn't know that Miss Casey is Gemma, but she knows that Gemma is alive. How are they going to tackle that plot line? Does she know that? Yeah. She said she's, uh, what's his name? Mark, any Mark said she's alive at the end of the last season. He did say that. Jenny gets cut off.

[00:36:12] Well, does she know, does she know that that's what he meant? Yeah. In the, in the trailer, it suggests that she knows. Okay. It suggests that she understands. All right. So I think they're going there. Well, and, and it adds that they've got a chip in their brain. Yeah. So, you know, at the end of all of this, there's a chip in their brain. And so what we're getting are these little, little glimpses of, of how they're being, uh, talked to.

[00:36:40] Um, and, uh, you know, maybe it's, it's lip service or whatever, but it's also like, well, what do they know now? Like, do they know, is it, are we to assume, you know, well, I'll find out, but I mean, like, are we to assume that it's like, okay, well, any, any's and outies are, are a little bit, it's a little bit, uh, congested. And the outies know what they, you know, what they're hearing that their innies did and vice versa. Or do these innies, are they, are they being fed different information?

[00:37:09] Like, I don't, it's, can you reset the chip to some degree? Right. I mean, uh, uh, maybe there are limits and that's, and that's what this is playing with. Um, that we're used to assume that, that everything is sort of picks up where it leaves off, but that's where I think the fascination for the show is where it just to have no recollection of, of, of, you know, when the inies are going in the out, where the out guys, they're just not there.

[00:37:33] Um, speaking of, of this a little bit more, I was scanning through the Wikipedia article quickly today also, just to refresh some of the details. And it noted something that I guess I didn't pick up on in season one, which is that the Senator's wife got a severance procedure to avoid the pain of childbirth. Right, right, right. Yeah. Yep. Yep.

[00:37:56] So that's a, that's a commercial application of severance beyond office culture, right? That's a, that's a whole other product line. Well, and the, and the fascinating thing there, and this is kind of, it almost feels like, um, maybe on some level of commentary on like our phones, right? Like, well, I don't go on TikTok. I don't do all this stuff. I just use my phone to text and I have a few apps. I'm not one of these guys that's a slave to it yet. I always have it with me and it's always listening. Right.

[00:38:24] And so like the chip is like, well, I only, I'm not getting the chip to make my whole life different. And I'm just doing it for specific instances, whether it's childbirth, whether it's something like, I don't want to go on this long trip because it's boring. So I'm going to just sever as I go on a road trip, but the chips there. Right. And I think that's kind of where I was getting at too, with this, the stories and everything. It's like, whatever they're being told, they're still at the mercy of whatever, to some degree, Lumen chooses that they get to know.

[00:38:52] And like, what, where are the boundaries on that? Right. Like once that chips in, it's, it's in. And, and what does that mean exactly? Right. And so like, so yeah, Senator's wife, you know, in her mind, I'm only going through, you know, a few hours or a couple of days of severance and that's it. But, you know, if you're driving a Tesla, the IT guys have got control of your car whenever they want. Exactly.

[00:39:20] So Steve, do you think they're going to cast Ian McDiarmid in season five? You know, 60, 60, 60. Is that where we're going here? That's, that's, I'm look, I think that's going to happen with most electric cars. I think that's going to happen with all of our phones. And why wouldn't it happen to the severance chips? Fair enough. Fair enough. And Rickon, my favorite character. What's it, what does season two have in store for him? You know, he's finally gotten the approval of Mark, which he's always wanted. Right. Right.

[00:39:52] And his book seems to be a hit and he has a lot of fans. That seaweed really works. It does. I love Rickon. Every scene he's in, I always think like, why is she with this guy? Like what is, what is he bringing to this relationship? That's why I don't buy the outside as being just a regular town.

[00:40:22] He's weird. He's most of his friends are weird. You know, there's, there was that one woman, Rebecca, who can't read because her eyes are too small. Yep. And she had some scratches on the back of her head. Because of her bird. She has a bird. She has a bird that scratched the back of her head. That's a writer who actually has owned a bird or had a friend who had a bird. That's like a real thing. Oh man. So I need more Rebecca in my life.

[00:40:47] I would like to see just a buddy comedy with Rebecca and her bird. And at one point she said, after hearing Rickon's book read, she said, I'm going to have to change my name again. I kind of want her to have a new name. I want to know what it is. Oh, and what about the, uh, I saw it in the, the previously on at the start of episode eight there, I believe it was a woman in the basement who used a bat quite violently on somebody.

[00:41:18] Like there's a whole. Oh, Ragabi. Yeah. There's like a resistance, a rebellion, right? Yep. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Ragabi is a technician at Lumen and she is the person who basically helped Petey reintegrate. And she claims that if Petey had followed her instructions, it would have gone better for him.

[00:41:43] But, um, she's, she's the one that kills Grainer. Right. She kills Grainer and tells, uh, Mark to go dispose of his clothing. So yeah. Is she acting alone? Is she part of a resistance group? Uh, we need to. One of the things Anthony and I talked about in the rewatch is just like the whole Petey part. You forget. It's only nine episodes. Yeah. And like, by the time you're like on the last three, like Petey's a, like.

[00:42:13] Distant memory. Yeah. And it's wild how that was the show for, uh, for the first part. And I think that's again, a testament to how this show tackles so many complex concepts, but in a way that feels linear without knowing how anything connects. Like, it's a really fascinating, uh, tapestry that they put together because we're only getting little segments of it. Right. We don't, uh, but it's still, it's still compelling.

[00:42:39] And then it's, you, you realize there's so many other things that have like, again, this is going to, uh, the faith I have, I feel like I have enough faith, uh, the same way as David with the, with the show, uh, runners is that they just kind of did the things that I would have been worried about. Had I not known that they were going to happen? Like, how are you going to have all of this stuff happen and still be compelling and still keep the mystery going, but still feel like I've seen characters develop and I'm hanging on to every single moment.

[00:43:07] And we're hitting 10 episodes this season. Yeah. Yeah. Which is between, you know, 40 and 50 minutes or an hour. I think the average, yeah, the runtime is between 40 and 57 minutes last, uh, season. So that's, these are going to be dense, but full. And it felt like they really understood the job of breaking a season and, and the flow and the tempo of, of building our expectations and then breaking our, you know, and then, and

[00:43:36] then breaking that tension, building the tension, breaking the tension throughout the whole season. So I, I really do feel like we're in for a really well put together plot line and pacing of the, of the, of the story. I'm glad they're doing as many episodes as they want. I have one fun question for everyone before we head out of here. How many episodes? 10. 10. Oh, all right. Okay. So I have one fun question.

[00:44:05] Anthony was severed in that moment. I didn't realize. Oh my goodness. It's amazing that we got this whole podcast done with our innies. I mean, so here's my fun question inspired by Anthony's would you rather's, uh, so you get to take one of the, of the four people, one of the quartet out for a day, one of the innies out for a day to a location that you think would surprise and delight them.

[00:44:33] Who do you bring and where do you bring them? David, I kind of gave you a little warning on this one. So I'm going to have you start. Oh, um, so it's going to be one of the things that you're going to do. One of our four primary four, right? Yeah. I mean, you don't really have many other severed people. No, it's true. It's true. I, I don't know. I think I kind of want to like to hang out with heli actually, uh, kind of a hell cat, uh, but pretty cool.

[00:45:01] Um, I don't know that I would hang with, uh, um, with, uh, Mark scout very well. Uh, he just seems like, I don't know that we'd have a lot to talk with and, and Dylan. Uh, yeah, I'd, I'd just kind of, I'd, I just, I don't know that I'd have a lot to say at the end of the day with Dylan. Now, where would you take heli though? That's a good question. I hadn't thought about that. Come back to me and let me think about it. Oh, I know.

[00:45:26] Wait, uh, uh, uh, to, uh, Farrell's ice cream parlor in which I don't think exists anymore in Portland, Oregon, which is the kind of place that they come out in like hats and they have a big boom drum when it's your birthday. And you can get a thing called the pig's trough, which is like full of ice cream and you and your friends can all share. It's got an arcade. It's just a wild, it's like a old timey ice cream parlor. That is a, uh, uh, predecessor to all the Chuck E. Cheese nonsense. All right. Very nice. Very nice.

[00:45:55] Maybe a mall and like, cause it was next to a mall. All right. So we'll do some mall shopping and then we'll go get some ice cream afterwards. You, you can include them all. I'll allow it. Thank you. It could be in the mall. All right. I'm going to give Anthony and Steve a little more time since I sprung this on them and I'll give mine. I would take Dylan any to Costco for the free samples. You show that guy and he is off the wall. Happy. I think that can make him happier than anything else in the world.

[00:46:24] Steve or Anthony, who wants to go first? Um, I think I want to take Irv ax throwing. Nice. I like that. I feel like, I feel like he'd be a good conversationalist, but also, uh, would also shut up for a little bit. Like that's what I'm thinking about. Like Dylan, I really would like to go hear what he has to say, but I think that that would get old after a while.

[00:46:48] Uh, so, but I think Irv, I think Irv would get a real kick out of, uh, letting, letting loose with some axes, axes and wood. I think his, uh, his predilect, his artist, whatever that intensity he has is in there. And to come out in the ax throwing, I think it would be really fascinating to see. I like that. Anthony? I think it's Hellie. I think she's the one that I probably most relate to.

[00:47:14] I used, I really love Dylan, but Steve convinced me that Dylan is fun to watch, but he would not be fun to hang out with. I think that's right. That's why you got to get the free samples in his mouth so that he can't talk at you the whole time. So I'm going to say Hellie and I'm going to say a monster truck show. Hmm. Hmm. Wow. Hellie's got a heck of a day. I've never been to one. Uh, I would like to go with someone. This Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Right.

[00:47:44] This Sunday only. I would like to go with someone. I'm wearing a monster truck shirt right now. This is why I don't want Steve to go. I don't want to go with someone who enjoys monster truck shows. I want to go with someone who like. Horrified by it. Be horrified or make fun of it. You know, that kind of thing. Um, Steve, I feel like would be drunk in a, in 10 minutes. He would be shouting. He's wearing a monster truck t-shirt. Oh, that's great. That's great.

[00:48:15] Okay. So yeah, no. Hellie monster truck show. Fair enough. Fair enough. And poor Mark S getting no love here. Any Mark is just a loser of the bunch. Nobody wants to hang out with him. Probably why he's so depressed. All right. That's about it. I think unless anybody else has parting thoughts on severance season one and hopes for season two. I just want to shout out the typeface, beautiful typeface. Hmm. Beautiful. Very good call. Yeah.

[00:48:43] The graphic design, whoever they hired for the graphic design on this is really knows their stuff. All right. Well, before we head out of here, I just want to say, go check out properly. Howard's a few good films. It was a really fun season. You can listen to all their, all their, uh, movies of that have to do with. I had to tell the guys that, uh, we were flying recently for the other Christmas holidays and on the flight back, I was, you know, browsing through the seat back and, uh, a few good men was there. I watched it.

[00:49:12] That's a hell of a movie. So next couple of weeks, you probably look forward to our coverage of a few good men. Uh, we are also working on money ball. Uh, that's a good one. And, uh, and this next week will probably already be out by the time this podcast comes out. Uh, ghost. Ooh. Ooh. Very nice. Oh, cocktail cocktails in there somewhere. Okay.

[00:49:41] So that's kind of a, our, our roster. You get a pitch. You got to at least pitch the, uh, the concept for a few good men film just in case for new Steve. Uh, yeah, well, we've, uh, we, we wanted to watch a few good men and then we decided we had to draft a movie to watch that starred someone from a principal character or a contributor to a few good men.

[00:50:08] Um, and we would like select, uh, an actor, a movie with the actor in it, but then that actor was not able to be selected, uh, after that. Great. Classic, classic properly Howard draft nonsense. That's right. Very nice. Yeah. We, we covered some, some really horrible movies, um, but a couple of really great movies. But as, as I've learned over time, uh, any movie is a great watch.

[00:50:36] If you get to talk to Steve about it afterwards. Oh, and we learned that on the star Wars holiday special. We had a great time. We re-released it for, for this holiday season. Fantastic. Oh, wait, did we? No, I think I just tweeted about it. Okay. All right. So otherwise on the network, we've got we'll shift us finishing up silo. I think by the time this airs, they'll be covering episode nine, the season finale. So go check all that out.

[00:51:03] Alicia's got all her spoiler cast on her subscriber feeds and everything. She's got a whole world over there. You just get over there. There's plenty of stuff. Uh, and radioactive ramblings is doing some studio Ghibli stuff. I think they just did spirited away. Studio Ghibli. I'm going to say Ghibli until I die. It's a GIF. Don't speak to me that way. Anyway, uh, they're doing Steve studio Ghibli, Ghibli, and they're doing, uh, some red rising books.

[00:51:31] They're covering the red rising book series, which is a, is a pretty good book series. I gotta say I've read it. Then, um, very quickly, uh, nevermind the music. They just did a wicked episode. So you can listen to them talk about defying gravity and they have weekly coverage of a psychology professor and a music professor talking about the intersection between the two and all the juicy lore that comes with that on the Lorehounds feed. You have a lot, uh, coming up.

[00:52:00] You got some Merillion stories. You got a Nosferatu movie review coming out soon. And, uh, we got a couple of Dune wrap up things that we got to do real quick too. We're going to do a little bit of feedback and then talk to the Dune Minute podcast guys about, uh, the end of Dune prophecy. Very nice. Plenty of stuff over there. Wheel of Time coming right on the tails of Severance. So plenty going on, on the main feed. Subscribe to all the feeds. They're all in the show notes. What are you doing? What are you doing? It's free. All right, everyone.

[00:52:26] It's been real fun on this Properly Howard and Lorehounds joint production. We'll see you for episode one of Severance season two. This podcast is a joint production of the Lorehounds and Properly Howard. Click the link tree in the show notes for links to more podcasts, our discord server, and ways to support the show. Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities. Is it the Frank or the beans?