Severance Season 1 Episode 7 Review: Defiant Jazz
Mary Littlejohn
at
.
Updated at
.
There's no going back to the way things used to be.
On Severance Season 1 Episode 7, things get heavy and philosophical thanks to the brief introduction of Rugabe, the woman who administered the severance procedure and now is responsible for reintegration.
With Doug Graner dead and Ms. Cobel doing reconnaissance, Milchick is in charge, and he loses control fast.
In Severance Season 1 Episode 1, one of the things Helly asks is if she is livestock, to which Mark scoffs. But Rugabe is pretty blatant in that severance brings sentient life into the world to fulfill human's base desires without caring about their wants or needs -- sounds like livestock to me!
You brought him into this world without his permission, based on your own desire for emotional convenience.
Rugabe
Severance posits a question that Mark didn't consider. He is doing what it takes to heal from Gemma's death, to switch himself off, which is his coping mechanism.
It's probably not healthy, but he didn't consider that he was hurting anybody. As clear as it is to us viewers, now, the ethical scope of severance is not something that many people seem to consider when electing to get the procedure.
Lumon certainly doesn't focus on that aspect of it -- in fact, they don't even really get into it at all. Outie Helly believes that her Innie self isn't even a person.
It asks the question -- is it our memories and lived experiences that make us human, or is it something else, deeper and more basic?
It gets even more horrific to think about the implications of Devon's question to Mrs. Selvig.
Suppose Gabby was severed for labor (which I theorized in my review of Severance Season 1 Episode 6) and potentially pregnancy. In that case, that means her Innie exists only to give birth which is reminiscent of livestock, again.
Imagine going through the agony of childbirth without consenting to it and then having your child taken away. Not to get too political, but the real-world human comparisons are rife here, too.
It's one thing to have an Innie life of monotony and drudgery going on a few years, but something like this situation is basically forcible surrogacy.
This brings up another thematic throughline. Rugabe refers to Innie Mark as a baby in this episode -- he's only two years "old." In Episode 6, Ms. Cobel called Mark a "child," and she meant it.
Is this show presenting a metaphor about bringing children into the world for the wrong reasons and questioning why we create sentient life for our emotional fulfillment, without regard to how it affects the children?
The Innies are, in a sense, children, but they obviously have the bodies of adults and some memory of information and how to function as humans, or else how would they manage to do their job and even understand what a job is?
It makes sense thematically since we have a woman (Devon) who gives birth, and her midwife (Alexa), as central characters. Alexa is a midwife for real babies, but Rugabe is the midwife of Innies, helping the Outies give birth to new versions of themselves that they will never know.
(Also, for the record, I'm glad Alexa is not putting up with Mark's behavior. She went out on a limb for him a few times, and it's not her job to fix him).
The Music Dance Experience has to be up there as one of the greatest scenes in the series.
Irving and Mark were so very awkward, and Helly actually seemed to be enjoying herself. The whole sequence was visually engaging (who knew the lights at Lumon could do that?), and the use of music to increase the terror was effective.
Plus, Tramell Tillman as Milchick had some sweet dance moves!
Are Milchick and Cobel the only middle-management left now that Graner is dead? If it's a two-person job, who was operating Dylan's on/off switches back at Lumon while Milchick was with Dylan?
Poor Dylan. I love how the memory of his little boy has lit a fire under him.
It speaks to Dylan's character how quickly his confidence and courage expanded when he had something to fight for that is real and meaningful. Instead of finger traps and caricatures, he has his son, his friends' freedom, and his own freedom at stake. Now those are incentives.
It was interesting to know how severance is managed and how easily the system can be manipulated.
The prospect of the Innies escaping into the outside world is exhilarating.
Let’s burn this place to the ground.
Irving
Burt's retirement was devastating. Did he know it was coming? Is that why he was reckless in expressing his feelings for Irving? Was it because he had nothing to lose, or was Irving right -- was it punishment for their behavior?
While watching Outie Burt's speech, you could tell it was hitting some of his team hard. It was validation but also an acknowledgment of the invisibility of their work. Irving sees it as death, but what if it isn't?
I am certain you will remain with me in spirit, in some deep and yet completely unaccessible corner of my mind.
Burt (Outie)
I'm not sure that Burt is completely gone. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but we didn't see his "final moments."
If these Innies can continue to exist just on the chip, perhaps they are somehow quasi-immortal? The allusions to Hell in Severance have always been pretty heavy-handed, so it would easily align with that metaphor.
This would also explain why Ms. Cobel was so determined to get Petey's chip out of his head -- not just for the information about reintegration, but because it is Innie Petey. This is probably how Innie Gemma Casey survived.
The Ms. Casey reveal was shocking, but it didn't quite feel earned.
My wife was extraordinary. My wife was allergic to nutmeg. And when she sneezed, she always sneezed twice. My wife liked other people’s dogs. My wife thought cardigans were ridiculous. I loved all these things about her equally.
Mark
There were only a few moments that even hinted at something between Mark and Ms. Casey. He carved the tree where she "died" out of clay in a wellness session. They passed each other awkwardly in the Break Room hallway. Earlier in this episode, Mrs. Selvig asked Devon if Mark ever "thought" he saw her.
Does Gemma/Ms. Casey have an Outie life at all, or does she live at Lumon? It just brings up more questions! This twist feels like another mystery to be solved, not an answer to a question.
It never crossed my mind that Gemma was actually alive because it undermines the whole throughline of Mark's grief -- or, maybe in some way, makes it more tragic. Innie Mark has access to Gemma, but he doesn't recognize her -- he doesn't even know he was ever married.
Another visit from Natalie suggests that we will be meeting the board and some of the Eagan family very soon.
Ms. Cobel is generally the last person I thought I'd be rooting for, but it was satisfying to have her speak to the board "directly" and see the usually unflappable Natale shaken up.
How will Rugabe figure in all of this? Will Cobel go after her for Graner's death? She has to suspect Rugabe, since she knew that's where Graner was headed.
Rugabe said she would contact Outie Mark, but will she somehow encounter Innie Mark on the outside? Will we ever know more about Dylan, Helly, or Irving's Outie lives?
Severance is perhaps not what it initially appears to be. On a surface level, it's about office job ennui, corporate exploitation, grief, and how we heal from loss. Below that surface, there is the examination of the ethics of creating sentient life just to exploit it, be it human, animal, or something else entirely.
You don't get to be this abstruse in a highly metaphorical but also all-to-real setting without having some deep-rooted ideology and moral stances.
It will be interesting to see if by the end of it all (or at least the end of the first season), Severance the show actually takes a stand in one philosophical corner, or if it merely presents the ideas up to the audience and leaves us to decide for ourselves.
What do you think Severance is really about? Share your theories in the comments.
Mary Littlejohn Mary Littlejohn was a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic.
