Mr President Elect said:

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I don't know if I can view the show the same way anymore, they took it pretty dark. I mean there was already a slight darkness to it, but we were kind of shielded until this episode. Helena knowing about his wife and knowing what they are doing to her while pretending to help him find her... I guess we already kind of knew that, but it just seems so much more sinister now and I am totally off that love triangle.

I guess there could always be a twist and not be quite as bad as it appears, but then thinking about Burt being so certain he is going to hell, it all just makes too much sense.

So, any ideas on why Ms Casey is so robotic and not like other innies or even her other innies?

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If Helena switches sides and helps Mark & co burn her family's company to the ground, I think she can redeem herself. That said, before this past episode, I would bet just about anything that was going to happen, but now I'm not so sure where I stand. If anything, at this point Ms. Cobel has more reason to switch sides, so maybe she's the one to help Mark & co.

Not going to read all 193 posts since this aired but can someone explain wtf is happening?

Major reveals. The Tolstoy book was big (also Russian - def something going on with the Russian link), in line with the name of the episode as well. Gemma and others are somewhere between life and death, a different state of being. Another quote in that scene will prob be predictive. Gemma is Ivan Ilyich, she dies.

Secondly, the severed can have multiple of 'innies',
and innies of different levels of reset. Gemma was a diff person in each room, and also different from Ms Casey. Further, Ms Casey is clearly a harder severance reset than others.

Next, have wondered if the refiners are actually refining their own tempers, which makes a lot more sense. (Burt shares a O&D theory that MDR have pouches that hatch larvae that consume and replace them). The purpose of cold harbor may not be Gemma or a replacement of Gemma.

Lastly, I think the issues with having a child are clearly important. Mark refers to their child to be as a 'her'. Lumon was doing their IVF / blood work protocols. They are hiding what's in Cold Harbor from us, or at least its purpose. This will come into play.

I don't think Gemma took herself to Lumon voluntarily. Doesn't make much sense

FightinTexasAg15 said:

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Yeah that was a really strange turn.

The woman who was faking being a lactation consultant to get close to you and you thought stole your baby is who you think to call in this situation?

I like Devon's character, but that seemed weird.

But idk, when we're faced with traumatic experiences like your brother potentially dying, you don't always think clearly and grasp for whatever makes sense in the moment, even if it doesn't really make sense.

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I think she wanted to reach out because she thinks Cobel knows what's going on and might help because she abandoned Lumon. Thinking back to Mark confronting her when she was in her car and leaving home.

I think Milchick and Cobel are going to both turn on Lumon.

Also, opening scene they're both donating blood at a Lumon facility. Gemma is reading that same Tolstoy book. Mark ia reading a WW1 student paper. Again a reference to WW1. Recall the S1 group dinner where they discuss Great War vs WW1.

There are lots of hints about an alt timeline where Russia prevails or has some control.

Have we seen anything if the outside world other than verbal references?

They've been planting seeds of Millchick not being happy with Lumon for a while now, though he also seems to harbor some aggression towards the MDR team.

And Cobel seems to have some ulterior plan, thought it was odd that Devon chose to call her but also interesting that we haven't seen her for several episodes.

I feel like there so many off the wall little tidbits you can find if you look hard enough. It's either going to make the big reveal of this show incredible or fall completely flat without much in between.

Unless all of these little things mean absolutely nothing.

Mr President Elect said:

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So, any ideas on why Ms Casey is so robotic and not like other innies or even her other innies?

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I've wondered about this, too.

I think about how Helly responded when she first awoke and similarly, Mark S. talked about threatening to kill Petey when he awoke. They required a lot of interaction, coaching, and hand-holding early on.

You think this would take a lot of effort for every one of Gemma's innies, or Gabby Arteta's innie (Senator's wife). to participate in their roles when they are first awoken. Those innies don't seem quite as robotic as Ms. Casey, but they also don't seem as emotionally feisty as Helly.

I think Lumon has to be be able to kind of nerf their senses and emotional responses if they plan to market the technology as a way for people to create innies for things they don't want to do. Ms. Casey seems like a test-bed of sorts where they are introducing her to Mark to understand how she responses to a familiar face with these additional controls.

Mr.Milkshake said:

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Also, opening scene they're both donating blood at a Lumon facility. Gemma is reading that same Tolstoy book. Mark ia reading a WW1 student paper. Again a reference to WW1. Recall the S1 group dinner where they discuss Great War vs WW1.

There are lots of hints about an alt timeline where Russia prevails or has some control.

Have we seen anything if the outside world other than verbal references?

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We are venturing into Shamalamlam territory here which could actually be where we are going.

I think the severance wall is going to fail in someone, and they'll remember all the ways in which their various innies were tortured.

The rooms / files seem to be experiences also that are somehow integral to the tempers.

Instead of MDR refining their own tempers, it may be that a test subject (Gemma) is sent to a room/experience, and the codified tempers are sent to MDR for refining.

That would explain Mark's breakthrough as well

This was my reaction as well - drastic situation, drastic measures - but ultimate reason prevailed.

BenTheGoodAg said:

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Mr President Elect said:

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So, any ideas on why Ms Casey is so robotic and not like other innies or even her other innies?

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I've wondered about this, too.

I think about how Helly responded when she first awoke and similarly, Mark S. talked about threatening to kill Petey when he awoke. They required a lot of interaction, coaching, and hand-holding early on.

You think this would take a lot of effort for every one of Gemma's innies, or Gabby Arteta's innie (Senator's wife). to participate in their roles when they are first awoken. Those innies don't seem quite as robotic as Ms. Casey, but they also don't seem as emotionally feisty as Helly.

I think Lumon has to be be able to kind of nerf their senses and emotional responses if they plan to market the technology as a way for people to create innies for things they don't want to do. Ms. Casey seems like a test-bed of sorts where they are introducing her to Mark to understand how she responses to a familiar face with these additional controls.

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Maybe Ms. Casey is their first attempt at an innie using a revised chip/program that uses all of the progress made from the other innies that have had to go into the torture rooms? Which might explain why she's so blunted? She's had the "fear" removed, but removing all fear leaves all your other emotions completely blunted. Like people who take anti-depressants. They're no longer depressed, but oftentimes they're no longer truly happy either.

Filming locations

So…what are the other refiners refining? It's been established that Mark has a special connection to Gemma which makes him uniquely capable of sorting through her conscience/experiences. But what are the other ones doing? I haven't paid close enough attention to remember if they're all working on the same file names at the same time…?

The only thing that makes sense is that the severance chip in Gemma's head is providing some kind of data feedback, and the refiners are looking for data that makes them uncomfortable and closing it off. That uncomfortable data has to be some kind of bleed over the chip is missing and has to do with the Kier emotions, and the refiners are helping the chip isolate them.

The weird thing is that you'd think them closing it off would lead it to being 100%, but we know Mark is working on Cold Harbor at 95% and Gemma says that is the only room she hasn't been in. That seems significant, like maybe there's another severed version of her that doesn't know she hasn't been in there or something. Like, why are they still "testing" the dental room if that project is at 100% already (I don't recall which ones were at 100%, maybe the dental room isn't yet).

Has the theory of Milchick (and maybe Cobel) being severed been talked about? Seeing the severed "multi-verse" of Gemma in the last episode made me think about this a bit.

Basically what if Milchik (and maybe Cobel) are actually in severed lives 100% of the time (both at home and work)? Milchik definitely doesn't seem to be 100% "there" in his head so I'm wondering if he is living his entire life severed off from some part of himself (either knowingly or not).

Milchick says that he is unsevered but he could be mistaken or lying.

I've definitely gotten the vibe that Milchick is permanently severed.

I think milchick is unsevered in the sense of the show, but severed in the sense of his true self vs the corporate persona he has to put on. That's what that whole conversation with Natalie about those weird racist paintings was around.

Scotts Tot said:

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TCTTS said:

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Speaking of Ms. Cobel, IMO this was the only misstep in otherwise phenomenal episode...

Absolutely shockingly out of character in a way that I will simply choose to ignore in order to keep enjoying the show https://t.co/dRbw6lBvjR

— Cosmonaut Marcus is Back (@CosmonautMarcus) March 1, 2025

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Ehh I didn't think it was all that crazy. She thought her brother was dying and Cobel was literally the only person she knew who might know anything about the chip and how he might be saved.

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I don't get good vibes from Devon. I would not be surprised if she's tied to Lumon somehow.

Scotts Tot said:

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So…what are the other refiners refining? It's been established that Mark has a special connection to Gemma which makes him uniquely capable of sorting through her conscience/experiences. But what are the other ones doing? I haven't paid close enough attention to remember if they're all working on the same file names at the same time…?

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I'm pretty sure they are working on different files. If I remember correctly, at the end of last season they were all waiting on Dylan to complete his file so they could get the waffle party. Everyone else was done, though, implying different files.

That said, I don't know that they are all working on Gemma files. They could have other people in the building, too.

schmendeler said:

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I think milchick is unsevered in the sense of the show, but severed in the sense of his true self vs the corporate persona he has to put on. That's what that whole conversation with Natalie about those weird racist paintings was around.

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One theory I have there is that he's severed, and the paintings elicited a strong internal response that his severed self didn't understand. Natalie had such a sad look on her face during that conversation, like she felt so bad for him that he didn't understand why he felt that way.

schmendeler said:

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I think milchick is unsevered in the sense of the show, but severed in the sense of his true self vs the corporate persona he has to put on. That's what that whole conversation with Natalie about those weird racist paintings was around.

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Agreed which is why I think he will buck the system. He was insulted by the paintings because they were so patronizing. Blatant virtue signaling and it pissed him off.

He's adhering to protocol now, but I think he's going to crack again later.

I'm wondering if there's going to be some underlying spy element to this show. The room costumes for Gemma, the international city names of the files, the weird Russian links (Tolstoy, Mark's watch, the snow suits, brutalist architecture, etc.). I just realized how part of the theme song sounds like a twisted version of the mission impossible theme.

Irving's outtie was up to something. Go back to episode 2 or 3 when he goes out to talk in the phone booth and watch it with subtitles on.

And the Navy items in his trunk…

BDG02 said:

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I'm wondering if there's going to be some underlying spy element to this show. The room costumes for Gemma, the international city names of the files, the weird Russian links (Tolstoy, Mark's watch, the snow suits, brutalist architecture, etc.). I just realized how part of the theme song sounds like a twisted version of the mission impossible theme.

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I was about to comment how beneficial it would be to have sleeper agents who can be turned on and off...then I remembered that The Manchurian Candidate is already a thing.

BDG02 said:

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I'm wondering if there's going to be some underlying spy element to this show. The room costumes for Gemma, the international city names of the files, the weird Russian links (Tolstoy, Mark's watch, the snow suits, brutalist architecture, etc.). I just realized how part of the theme song sounds like a twisted version of the mission impossible theme.

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I don't know about a spy element, but I do wonder if they pull a Westworld after either this season or the next and "leave the park," so to speak. Or maybe we follow at least one character who needs to journey outside of Keir for whatever reason, all while cutting back to the story/characters in Keir/the Lumon building. We're not there yet, but I do feel like at some point the show is going to have to expand past the same Keir/Lumon sets.

AustinAg2K said:

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Scotts Tot said:

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So…what are the other refiners refining? It's been established that Mark has a special connection to Gemma which makes him uniquely capable of sorting through her conscience/experiences. But what are the other ones doing? I haven't paid close enough attention to remember if they're all working on the same file names at the same time…?

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I'm pretty sure they are working on different files. If I remember correctly, at the end of last season they were all waiting on Dylan to complete his file so they could get the waffle party. Everyone else was done, though, implying different files.

That said, I don't know that they are all working on Gemma files. They could have other people in the building, too.

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I believe Helly completed Siena, which was listed as one of the rooms on Gemma's floor.

javajaws said:

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Has the theory of Milchick (and maybe Cobel) being severed been talked about? Seeing the severed "multi-verse" of Gemma in the last episode made me think about this a bit.

Basically what if Milchik (and maybe Cobel) are actually in severed lives 100% of the time (both at home and work)? Milchik definitely doesn't seem to be 100% "there" in his head so I'm wondering if he is living his entire life severed off from some part of himself (either knowingly or not).

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Honestly there are several characters where it wouldn't surprise me if they are severed, such as Ricken and his friends (Rebeck and the black guy), Natalie, Milkshake, Cobel...

There is something strange about so many of the outside characters, but we don't really get much interaction with them, so it's hard to tell if the show is just being silly or if there is something more to the outside world.