About the head wearing the crown- I believe this is to indicate that whoever is activated by the chip is in charge at the given moment, and also references the phrase "heavy is the head that wears the crown"- the purported purpose of getting severed is to prevent your outie from retaining "sensitive" information about Lumon, and may also be to prevent them from carrying the "burden" of knowing what exactly it is that Lumon does (especially if the theory about the bombing campaign against their rival company is correct). Bonus: This part may not have been intended by the artist at all, but I also think it ties in nicely with the "there's another personality no-one knows about" theory I've seen going round recently: there are three points on the crown (Mark S, Mark Scout, and a third Mark who is only conscious on the testing floor?), much like how there are two lights turned on in Mark's house and one broken light, which Selvig points out. ("Still waiting for that third light to turn on, Mark?" I know she was probably teasing him about failing to replace the light himself, but it seems a curious turn of phrase which could point to something deeper going on, which she likely knows about.) I can't wait to learn more about the testing floor in future seasons!
kinda... I think it means Petey- someone awake? The square in the top right that was glossed over- is open... severed. The mind has a colored in square- unsevered, or the outtie. The top is outside, the bottom, inside on the severed floor. The crown could also be non-severed people like Corbel (well....) and other workers. Bonus and semi unrelated... no one talks about the other control types listed with OTC. Beehive, open house, goldfish?!! Gemma is prob in one of these states as is Corbel and everyone else. They are prob all chipped- just at diff levels.
@@tribalstyle138 I could see beehive being a hivemind state. Open house being preparation for integration of an existing mind. Then goldfish being a reset. Though, none of the other ones (meaning beside OTC) may ever come to fruition. Due to having that bit of ambiguity as a means to show Lumon being a bigger threat than previously thought, without having to exactly define it. Using an analogy to explain: it's not so much the darkness that people fear, but rather what they imagine might be there.
If you look at the map as a brain, O and D are where the eyes are located (optics). But what I really want to discuss is the FOREHEAD! This is the area known as the frontal lobe. It is the area of the third eye, or the holy TEMPLE! Recall when Mark was cracked in the FOREHEAD, the note from Lumon said it was his TEMPLE! He then felt the side of his head first, looking for the injury, but moved over to his FOREHEAD! The frontal lobe is responsible for taming your tempers. It is supposed to control the reptilian brain (part where the guy with arrow shooting out his face) and the mammalian brain (where the houses are). The Neo Cortex is where most of the floor resides, and the WELLNESS ROOM is at the prefrontal lobe! The Temple is where the King of your mind sits on the throne(crown). In Jewish Kabbalah, sphere 1 is called Kether(crown). This also ties directly to Ms Casey! I'll share that at another time. That should be plenty of food for now.
The “Break room” is a place where they actually break you so perhaps “Team Building” is a place where they literally build new team members. Maybe it’s a cloning facility or they are growing people like livestock, which is what Helly asked when she first woke up. I think it’s possible the goats are actually babies but the staff sees them as livestock so they won’t have as many moral misgivings. If they were growing babies then it would make sense to have Mrs. Corbel as the manager due to her skills with babies.
Not sure if you've mentioned it already, but a line that stood out to me on rewatching was when Cobel/Selvig is at Devon's place and mentions something like "you don't have maids to look after you" and it got me thinking - what if Cobel/Selvig has this nursing knowledge because that was her role to the most recent generation of Eagans (and potentially the latest in a long line of like nurses/people who raise Eagan children), and so she was one of the people if not the person who looked after Helena after she was born, but now that there are no new Eagan children (?) she's taken on a different role, and that looking after Severed people is actually far more similar to looking after actual children than being a regular manager?
Team building room is referred to by O&D where they were doing the egg-drop challenge. That's when the audience was only aware of two members of the O&D group.
In all honesty, I'm so thankful for this channel. I love Severance and people making theories and this is just the best. It's informative, funny, and gosh dang it you got a great voice bro!
The Cobel theory is a really interesting one. I'm sure someone has thought of this elsewhere, but I'm just now thinking about it...what if "Selvig" is Charlotte Cobel's maiden name? I think Harmony is either channeling her mother to create the identity of Mrs. Selvig or it is some weird merger of personalities and Charlotte is sharing the same headspace. But Cobel/Selvig communicates with the severed floor outside of Lumen. So her outie persona would have to know what is going on down there. That means that it can't be as simple as Harmony is her innie and Charlotte is her outie. It's definitely something to think more about, though.
One of the issues is that we really don’t know exactly WHEN “now” is. So it’s hard to estimate Selvig’s age even if there weren’t something creepy or robotic going on. I was born in 1962, and Selvig might plausibly about my age (60 as of this writing). So it’s more likely for Charlotte to be Harmony’s mother in this scenario, not for the two to be the same. I agree that it can’t be a simple severing, since Cobel talks to others at Kumon while she’s Selvig and at home. Definitely a puzzle! Thanks for the food for thought, Nautilus Files! It’s definitely what’s for dinner! LOL EDIT: looking at your comment again, it occurred to me to wonder: how do we know that we can only do ONE severing? Maybe you could slice and dice people more than once??
Chippy = Clippy + crack pipe 😄 Excellent video as always. The first time we meet Felicia from O&D, she and Burt are on the way back to O&D from the Team Building area. They are carrying the remains of their egg-drop challenge. Fascinating theory re Charlotte/Harmony Cobel!
@@nautilusfiles The image you displayed was not a crack-pipe. A crack-pipe is simpler in form; just a straight tube with some steel wool (or other metal mesh) shoved in the end. What you showed was a meth and/or dmt pipe.
I think there's a huge department of Lumon that's only been hinted at but that we will get more into at some point: a department that deals with something like cloning, transferring consciousness, reanimation, body snatching, or all of those and then some! I don't think the Egans want to live forever in aging bodies, but they do want to live forever in *some* way, and Lumon is their way of trying to make that happen.
Petey feels ahead of his time. I’d love if they did a prequel series showing his journey of discovering and finding a way out. Thank you for the amazing content!
Sorry Nautilus i haven’t commented since your very first video i was your 38 subscriber, i just wanna i'm crazy proud of how far you've come and the video quality is spectacular {as always} keep up the great work!! Im beyond hype for season 2 ive never watched a show this intriguing for all the stuff we think we know we also know nothing at all which is mindbogglingly amazing experience.
I love this show and these theory’s just make me want to watch it again. I had a theory that Lumon has a whole “outside world” of people who are severed and think they’re living on the outside but they’re not. A sort of utopia world they’re trying to make. Because marks wife ask when she was sent to the experiment room “am I happy on the outside” and that’s what burts department makes all this stuff for that “outside world” idk it’s def a tin foil idea but I just can’t wait to see season 2
Ah hell yeah, perfect timing! You uploaded this just as my severance craving was getting too much to bear. I hope we get an announcement for when season two will be released soon.
Just recently discovered severance and binge watched the first season and now I’m binge watching this to keep myself from going insane waiting for season two 😂
This entro be giving Milchick vibes lol Lately I’ve been binging your Severance series, and honestly all your context in general is very addicting and enjoyable to watch :)
Appreciate the video and all your hard work! I like some aspects of this theory and I've definitely noticed the duel personalities in Cobel. I already commented in an earlier video about how Cobel is fixated on ensuring Mark re-integrates. Mark is placed in charge despite not being the senior staff member, Cobel gets proof reintegration's possible and chooses not to share that info with the board and she seemingly spends the entirity of the season at Lumon trying to encourage Mark to remember Miss Casey/Gemma, Mark is given extra wellness sessions that puzzle Milcheck and when in the finale Mark initially tells her he's planning on quitting Lumon she seems genuinely THRILLED. If there are duel personalities to Cobel Mark is important to both of them.
I think I have an idea for The Team Building area. Milcheck promises Dylan paintballing and other things he doesn’t even know about. With Irving shown to be ex-military and the theory floating they could have been the beta testers for soldiers to have separate experiences than civilians, like how an innie can be made just to give birth. Floating that all together, I think Lumon wouldn’t be above having sleeper innies on the outside that can be activated remotely. Might explain why so many of Ricken’s friends have the mental energy of small children. Edit: don’t know how this plays with EDR causing the Lexington crash, but there’s a lot of story and world to be revealed yet!
The map could have more of a antfarm perspective view. The mind looks like the outside circle layout of the building and the carprks. Their minds/outies are left up there. Just an idea
If you search for the Wikipedia entry “mortal coil” you will find a lot of interesting stuff that could relate to the Coil. “ Derived from 16th-century English, "coil" refers to tumults or troubles. .. "Mortal coil"-along with "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", "to sleep, perchance to dream" and "ay, there’s the rub"-is part of Hamlet’s famous "To be, or not to be" speech. .. the length of our life is metaphorically the length of thread that is coiled on a spool, a metaphor related to the ancient Greek mythological figures of the Fates. As humans live, the thread is unwound from the coil by the shuttle of the loom of time. .. "Coil" has an unusual etymological history. It was coined repeatedly; at various times people have used it as a verb to mean "to cull", "to thrash", "to lie in rings or spirals", "to turn"…
Always love to watch your videos! Keep up the good work! Would enjoy longer videos. You have an innate ability to keep my attention with witty humor and incredible insights. Don't hold back your talent because some algorithm says that your videos need to be a certain time limit. Don't limit your talent, my friend😎
I just found this channel. So glad. I’m so excited for the new season. There is so much going on in this show, I didn’t even bother to concoct any theories!
Once you started talking about an artificial brain and a giant underground colony I began to think of all of these overhead shots of the Lumon building at night with snow covered grass surrounding and perfectly de-iced parking lots surrounding. Maybe it's foreshadowing of the real size of Lumon under the surface and quite literally the waste heat of this colony & supercomputer? Or Eagan body freezer or whatever. Maybe the coil of doom is this heat exchanger, which happens to be next to the primary chip transmitter in/near the hall of perpetuity? I also believe the hall is under the pond in front of the Lumon building. This is pretty specific and kinda wild but it's what came to mind
Oh man... I've watched the show 5 different times since it first got out and I have watched all yours videos on it since yesterday like binge eating muffins knowing I'll end up with stomach ache but... Worth it 😏 This is a great channel and I really love your theory videos and analysis. Great voice. Love the 'I give this theory 4 and a half Milchiks' 🤣 Keep this up, we're all going nuts while the silence continues...
I was fascinated by “we are HERE because we’re not All there”. This could be taken literally, that the severed employees at Lumon in Kier, PE are needed to maintain control of people who have been moved to and exist in another, constructed place (e.g., Tumwater). A lot could have happened since Peggy Kincaid’s exposé, Lumon + the government could have developed entire cities of severed people. using severance technology or their obviously huge power over government and the media, they could keep these cities like tumwater in secret. But, they still need severed employees “locally”, to maintain their projects at tumwater, etc. This would tie in to Ricken’s comment about “my friend hasn’t had a food-based dinner in Lima in quite some time”, which really indicates that there must be some terrible famine/poverty/unrest happening in the world, from which residents of Kier are completely shielded and don’t think much about. For me, that also reflects the situation of workers in the US, where we have to work so hard and our lives are so centered around work while being shielded from a lot of the violence and horrible devastation abroad caused by companies that occurs abroad. This violence often heavily influenced by corporations and capitalism, which Lumon seems to embody. Also, I think the houses in the map are the houses of the outies in Kier. I definitely agree with the theory that many more people in this town are severed than we are led to believe!
The name Jame means “he who supplants”, so in the same way that Kier means “the dark one” and Helena means “the shining one”, Jame’s name may hint at his role. “Supplant implies a dispossessing or usurping of another’s place” - from Merriam Webster.
Someone else mentioned this, that the actor who plays Pete is also an artist. If you go to his art website the very first painting on his sight has a picture of a TV in the corner that says “psychic TV” it’s pretty fascinating it also is full of arrows, zig zaggy kinetic lines, boxes inside of boxes, eyes, crown shapes, a possible spaceship, lots of red spots…
You're getting great views on these Severance video's! I think you were under 1k when i subbed, congrats on the nice channel growth. I can't wait for S2.
John's theory could be true. Did you notice that in the first episode Harmony tells Mark at work that her mother was an Atheist, and at the end of that first episode in the outside world she tells him that her mother was Catholic.
I'm thinking the mind area is a cemetery. You can tell by the cross at the end of the circle, mimicking graves. The squiggles are the meant to be trees. Seeing as we know that they're testing on people that aren't actually dead, maybe the black box section is a pathway to the testing floor??
Another great video! A couple things - where’s the goat room on the map? why is the arrow to enter (top-left) nowhere near the 2 elevators on the map? (up/down arrow boxes) why is the only exit arrow leading to the mind storage server room? Why are there 3 houses, 3 question marks, & 3 eyesight arrows? (is someone with 2 coil chips implanted watching the houses?) where are the places he couldn’t access? (red blocks?) where are the bathrooms? (blue boxes?) where is the wellness therapy room? (smiley face box?) Maybe I’m too literal but “We’re here because we’re not all there” made perfect sense in that everyone there is severed - literally not their full selves. I still think that each person in MDR was selected because they highly embody one of the 4 tempers Kier insists needs to be tamed, so they’ll work all day boxing up/removing those traits from each of Lumon’s targets - all 4 are needed to tame all 4 of a person’s tempers successfully. Makes sense that perpetuity (endless purgatory?) is connected to the coil of doom mechanism that achieves this thanks to the refiners’ diligent work & that “Team Building” would be the only route to or out of that area, followed by the “Break Room” to cover any mishaps. So many new questions, so few answers! Thanks for latest nugget of mystery!
Team building = the conference room where Helly is “born”? And/or where chips are being implanted. Either literally building the team by planting the chips. Kind of literally building the team by orienting them with the survey. Irony because it’s in a conference room which can be kind of a team-buildy place. And where Mark (or other trainers) try to establish a relationship with a new team member
the team building space is where felicia and burt were headed from when they first ran into mdr near the perpetuity wing. so o&d were going from team building to o&d, and mdr were going from mdr to perpetuity wing. the locations make sense with where they are on petey's map.
Here's s theory for you guys. I cant help but think that the "code detector" is just another floor that the elevator stops and there's another severance mode besides outtie and innie, middie if you will (ie body and belongings inspection) and maybe many more modes.
My theory is that the "code detector" is just an alarm that goes off when an employee tries to go up in the severed elevator during work hours since there is no legitimate reason for an employee to leave during work hours. In all the instances where Helly acted desperate and tried to take a message with her in the elevator, it was during work hours. Of course an employee could easily take a message with herself in the elevator while leaving at the end of the day, but it seems that they are deterred by their experiences and the propaganda of "the code detector detects written symbols." This theory fits with the fact that Milchick thought Dylan smuggled an ideographic card out of Lumen -- he would have known that the "code detector" cannot be set off when employees leave at the end of the day. Lumen also organizes rewards that relax employees towards the end of the day, so they tend not to make plans to smuggle symbols then reducing the risk of the "code detector" arrangement.
In the field trip to Perpetuity, O&D (the 2 workers we know of at the time at least) are on their way back to their department from the team building space and meet at a corner where MDR have just left theirs. So presumably around one more white corner is the Team Building Space.
I've been thinking. What if all series took two (or more) years between releases: one year of fan speculation and one year of production. There's no way a writer (or a group of them) could anticipate the ideas all of fandom could think up in a given time, so in principle it would be beneficial for the story to see what others think of during the waiting period. Just a thought.
having just found your channel, and coming from the lexington letter video, I like the circular graphic you use when you're speaking and there aren't any other clips playing a lot better than the one in this video
So, I think this is an obvious theory but I've seen few people bring it up. Irving, I think that he has been there the longest, or much longer than the 4 years in Macro Data. I think his paintings of the testing floor elevator with the red light indicate that he used to be in Milchicks position before or with Milchick. It doesn't seem like Milchick is severed ( though I do somewhat stan a multiple Milchick theory in concept ), and maybe initially Irving was a non-severed employee as well. Maybe becoming severed was part of a much bigger subversive plan to figure out ultimately what Lumon is doing, a decoy for his intentions. His outtie obviously is well aware of the testing floor from the position of where Milchick was standing and those pages of company info and workers.
The eyes on the sleeping people is them with their eyes shut. Rather than dead indicating that Petey likely knew they weren't dead, but forced to sleep. But he points to ??? Because he didn't understand what that was.
Selvig Name Meaning Norwegian: habitational name from any of ten or more farmsteads named Selvik notably on the west coast of Norway probably so named from Old Norse selja ‘willow’ or selr ‘seal’ + vík ‘bay inlet’. Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
My theory has been that the data refiners are creating or refining Kier’s artificial consciousness. So the “mind” part of the map makes me excited that i could be on the right track.
If John Lokc's theory is true and previous Egans are somehow able to share one mind I now think that the board is in fact just one person, old Egan, Hellena's father. That is why no one sees the board ever, they are not supposed to know it is only one person. And revolving is them taking turns in controling the mind.
I take your cobel theory and raise you another. What if harmony (selvig) and her mom Charlotte (cobel) share a body. Maybe when harmony was a child Charlotte was sick/dying, ie the breathing tube, Charlotte greenlit the ok for them to attempt to transfer her consciousness into her daughter. Maybe it didn't fully work and harmony kept some of her consciousness or maybe it was by choice to keep her. Which is why we see harmony with a kind child like aura with the braids, and the clothes and pjs. Maybe she never got to "grow up" bc Charlotte was suppressing harmony most of the time. Now idk if there's a certain trigger (like the elevator for the severed employees) that makes it go back and forth between the two of them or if Charlotte holds more of the power and can somehow consciously switch between the two of them. Also, from the baby goat video there was a theory they were testing cloning so they could clone people. I personally think if that is the case, maybe they originally had harmony working with the babies which is why she is so knowledgeable on breastfeeding. Also, did anyone else catch when Natalie fired Cobel she said "we have to suspend you, you're fired"? I thought this was odd bc suspension and fire are two different things so it was weird to me she said it in the same sentence And last ... when cobel is talking to the security guard outside her house, I'm pretty sure she called him "daddy" which at first seems like a flirty thing.. but maybe there's something more to it?
Petey could know what cubism is in severed form, it's semantic memory, not episodic. You can describe what cubism is (or name a state), but you don't remember what you ate for breakfast. You also couldn't recall any cubist painting you saw, but you could probably recreate the style based on your intuition
Would love to see theories on the other security protocols. We saw overtime, but many others were listed. One was "Lullaby" which my guess is makes everyone go to sleep.
Great video Famo I also have a theory that Milchuck is Severed but always in his innie personality but does not want to be his actual self anymore due to a past trauma. I have no evidence to support this but seems like something the writers would add to the story. Cheers!
The “coil of doom” has to be the hallway off the Perp wing that has the smiles. Somehow those “smiles” are connected to doomed people? Dylan said there was a nice mouth there before … has to relate to something. Maybe it was Hellys, as she was recently severed???
I pointed out in the comments on another video that the name 'Harmony' seems to be a clue because it can only be achieved with more than one voice, 'Harmony' may be more than one person But the name 'Charlotte' may also be a clue, it's from the French/masc version of Charles & means free man (&/or petite). It could be a person looking for freedom, a person who already has freedom, it could be ironic, it could mean Charlotte will somehow help to free the others. Who knows? But Harmony/Charlotte name choices feel very deliberate.
Given the actor's painting style, I think the head/crown is a reference to Basquiat, who uses the image in his work often. Dunno what it means, but there's a lead for you.
have you ever thought about making a podcast, i love your vids and spend alot of time listening to podcasts at work i think your insight in a longer form would be nice keep up the amazing work
After reading the the Lexington Letters, I believe John's theory is correct. The Lexington letters features a Severed person writing back/forth with her innie.
![Severance Theories #10 [Ms. Casey Theories]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Sua05tVcueQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Severance Theories #10 [Ms. Casey Theories]](/img/tr.png)
About the head wearing the crown- I believe this is to indicate that whoever is activated by the chip is in charge at the given moment, and also references the phrase "heavy is the head that wears the crown"- the purported purpose of getting severed is to prevent your outie from retaining "sensitive" information about Lumon, and may also be to prevent them from carrying the "burden" of knowing what exactly it is that Lumon does (especially if the theory about the bombing campaign against their rival company is correct).
Bonus: This part may not have been intended by the artist at all, but I also think it ties in nicely with the "there's another personality no-one knows about" theory I've seen going round recently: there are three points on the crown (Mark S, Mark Scout, and a third Mark who is only conscious on the testing floor?), much like how there are two lights turned on in Mark's house and one broken light, which Selvig points out. ("Still waiting for that third light to turn on, Mark?" I know she was probably teasing him about failing to replace the light himself, but it seems a curious turn of phrase which could point to something deeper going on, which she likely knows about.)
I can't wait to learn more about the testing floor in future seasons!
This is good! Pinned!
good stuff @Lyric Bot!
The crown & face also give me strong Basquiat vibes - how that relates I have NO idea
kinda... I think it means Petey- someone awake? The square in the top right that was glossed over- is open... severed. The mind has a colored in square- unsevered, or the outtie. The top is outside, the bottom, inside on the severed floor. The crown could also be non-severed people like Corbel (well....) and other workers.
Bonus and semi unrelated... no one talks about the other control types listed with OTC. Beehive, open house, goldfish?!! Gemma is prob in one of these states as is Corbel and everyone else. They are prob all chipped- just at diff levels.
@@tribalstyle138 I could see beehive being a hivemind state. Open house being preparation for integration of an existing mind. Then goldfish being a reset. Though, none of the other ones (meaning beside OTC) may ever come to fruition. Due to having that bit of ambiguity as a means to show Lumon being a bigger threat than previously thought, without having to exactly define it.
Using an analogy to explain: it's not so much the darkness that people fear, but rather what they imagine might be there.
I think the board of directors is the preserved minds of the old CEO's.
Hi, Geoff! Yeah, I think we're in agreement here.
If you look at the map as a brain, O and D are where the eyes are located (optics). But what I really want to discuss is the FOREHEAD! This is the area known as the frontal lobe. It is the area of the third eye, or the holy TEMPLE! Recall when Mark was cracked in the FOREHEAD, the note from Lumon said it was his TEMPLE! He then felt the side of his head first, looking for the injury, but moved over to his FOREHEAD! The frontal lobe is responsible for taming your tempers. It is supposed to control the reptilian brain (part where the guy with arrow shooting out his face) and the mammalian brain (where the houses are). The Neo Cortex is where most of the floor resides, and the WELLNESS ROOM is at the prefrontal lobe! The Temple is where the King of your mind sits on the throne(crown). In Jewish Kabbalah, sphere 1 is called Kether(crown). This also ties directly to Ms Casey! I'll share that at another time. That should be plenty of food for now.
I need more lol !! I wanna hear how ms Casey ties in
What would the perpetuity wing be? And the coil of doom?
I think this is a case of reading into it too much.
The “Break room” is a place where they actually break you so perhaps “Team Building” is a place where they literally build new team members. Maybe it’s a cloning facility or they are growing people like livestock, which is what Helly asked when she first woke up. I think it’s possible the goats are actually babies but the staff sees them as livestock so they won’t have as many moral misgivings. If they were growing babies then it would make sense to have Mrs. Corbel as the manager due to her skills with babies.
Not sure if you've mentioned it already, but a line that stood out to me on rewatching was when Cobel/Selvig is at Devon's place and mentions something like "you don't have maids to look after you" and it got me thinking - what if Cobel/Selvig has this nursing knowledge because that was her role to the most recent generation of Eagans (and potentially the latest in a long line of like nurses/people who raise Eagan children), and so she was one of the people if not the person who looked after Helena after she was born, but now that there are no new Eagan children (?) she's taken on a different role, and that looking after Severed people is actually far more similar to looking after actual children than being a regular manager?
Team building room is referred to by O&D where they were doing the egg-drop challenge. That's when the audience was only aware of two members of the O&D group.
Right! So we can assume it has pretty high ceilings.
In all honesty, I'm so thankful for this channel. I love Severance and people making theories and this is just the best. It's informative, funny, and gosh dang it you got a great voice bro!
Thank, Corban! I appreciate that.
The Cobel theory is a really interesting one. I'm sure someone has thought of this elsewhere, but I'm just now thinking about it...what if "Selvig" is Charlotte Cobel's maiden name? I think Harmony is either channeling her mother to create the identity of Mrs. Selvig or it is some weird merger of personalities and Charlotte is sharing the same headspace. But Cobel/Selvig communicates with the severed floor outside of Lumen. So her outie persona would have to know what is going on down there. That means that it can't be as simple as Harmony is her innie and Charlotte is her outie. It's definitely something to think more about, though.
One of the issues is that we really don’t know exactly WHEN “now” is. So it’s hard to estimate Selvig’s age even if there weren’t something creepy or robotic going on. I was born in 1962, and Selvig might plausibly about my age (60 as of this writing). So it’s more likely for Charlotte to be Harmony’s mother in this scenario, not for the two to be the same. I agree that it can’t be a simple severing, since Cobel talks to others at Kumon while she’s Selvig and at home.
Definitely a puzzle!
Thanks for the food for thought, Nautilus Files! It’s definitely what’s for dinner! LOL
EDIT: looking at your comment again, it occurred to me to wonder: how do we know that we can only do ONE severing? Maybe you could slice and dice people more than once??
“You’ll be next to me at my revolving.” Ok, that now sends a chill down my spine. Hellie better run!!
Chippy = Clippy + crack pipe 😄
Excellent video as always.
The first time we meet Felicia from O&D, she and Burt are on the way back to O&D from the Team Building area. They are carrying the remains of their egg-drop challenge.
Fascinating theory re Charlotte/Harmony Cobel!
Hey Sopy! Good catch! I wonder if it actually means what we would expect, or is it like the "break room"?
@@nautilusfiles ooh, there’s a creepy thought. Just what are building the team [members] FROM??
Those eggs looked like sh*t.
@@nautilusfiles The image you displayed was not a crack-pipe. A crack-pipe is simpler in form; just a straight tube with some steel wool (or other metal mesh) shoved in the end. What you showed was a meth and/or dmt pipe.
I think there's a huge department of Lumon that's only been hinted at but that we will get more into at some point: a department that deals with something like cloning, transferring consciousness, reanimation, body snatching, or all of those and then some! I don't think the Egans want to live forever in aging bodies, but they do want to live forever in *some* way, and Lumon is their way of trying to make that happen.
Petey feels ahead of his time. I’d love if they did a prequel series showing his journey of discovering and finding a way out. Thank you for the amazing content!
I was thinking the mind aspect is in reference to the mindhive in the control room!
Innies, come get your food.
What's for dinner
@@rubberducky464 nothing. It’s a foodless dinner party.
Sorry Nautilus i haven’t commented since your very first video i was your 38 subscriber, i just wanna i'm crazy proud of how far you've come and the video quality is spectacular {as always} keep up the great work!! Im beyond hype for season 2 ive never watched a show this intriguing for all the stuff we think we know we also know nothing at all which is mindbogglingly amazing experience.
That makes you an OG! Thanks so much for supporting the channel all this time. The early days are the toughest, so I appreciate the hell out of it!
New video! I’ve been binging your channel recently after having re-watched Severance. Your content is great
This show is like Truman Show meets The Office meets Portal meets Westworld
I love this show and these theory’s just make me want to watch it again. I had a theory that Lumon has a whole “outside world” of people who are severed and think they’re living on the outside but they’re not. A sort of utopia world they’re trying to make. Because marks wife ask when she was sent to the experiment room “am I happy on the outside” and that’s what burts department makes all this stuff for that “outside world” idk it’s def a tin foil idea but I just can’t wait to see season 2
Ah hell yeah, perfect timing! You uploaded this just as my severance craving was getting too much to bear. I hope we get an announcement for when season two will be released soon.
Having a date would make all the difference!
Same! Been watching Severance reaction videos to get my fix but many are so unsatisfying!
Just recently discovered severance and binge watched the first season and now I’m binge watching this to keep myself from going insane waiting for season two 😂
This entro be giving Milchick vibes lol
Lately I’ve been binging your Severance series, and honestly all your context in general is very addicting and enjoyable to watch :)
Thanks so much, Araka!
Appreciate the video and all your hard work! I like some aspects of this theory and I've definitely noticed the duel personalities in Cobel. I already commented in an earlier video about how Cobel is fixated on ensuring Mark re-integrates. Mark is placed in charge despite not being the senior staff member, Cobel gets proof reintegration's possible and chooses not to share that info with the board and she seemingly spends the entirity of the season at Lumon trying to encourage Mark to remember Miss Casey/Gemma, Mark is given extra wellness sessions that puzzle Milcheck and when in the finale Mark initially tells her he's planning on quitting Lumon she seems genuinely THRILLED. If there are duel personalities to Cobel Mark is important to both of them.
I think I have an idea for The Team Building area. Milcheck promises Dylan paintballing and other things he doesn’t even know about.
With Irving shown to be ex-military and the theory floating they could have been the beta testers for soldiers to have separate experiences than civilians, like how an innie can be made just to give birth.
Floating that all together, I think Lumon wouldn’t be above having sleeper innies on the outside that can be activated remotely. Might explain why so many of Ricken’s friends have the mental energy of small children.
Edit: don’t know how this plays with EDR causing the Lexington crash, but there’s a lot of story and world to be revealed yet!
Babe wake up, Nautilus posted a new Severance theory
Okay I had to subscribe at “love child of Clippy and a crack pipe”
The map could have more of a antfarm perspective view. The mind looks like the outside circle layout of the building and the carprks. Their minds/outies are left up there. Just an idea
If you search for the Wikipedia entry “mortal coil” you will find a lot of interesting stuff that could relate to the Coil.
“
Derived from 16th-century English, "coil" refers to tumults or troubles.
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"Mortal coil"-along with "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", "to sleep, perchance to dream" and "ay, there’s the rub"-is part of Hamlet’s famous "To be, or not to be" speech.
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the length of our life is metaphorically the length of thread that is coiled on a spool, a metaphor related to the ancient Greek mythological figures of the Fates. As humans live, the thread is unwound from the coil by the shuttle of the loom of time.
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"Coil" has an unusual etymological history. It was coined repeatedly; at various times people have used it as a verb to mean "to cull", "to thrash", "to lie in rings or spirals", "to turn"…
Petey's map made me think of Basquiat's art because of the crowns but I didn't think about cubism overall. Cool stuff.
I love the theory about Harmony and Charlotte and I think it’s definitely plausible! Love ❤your channel!
The love child of clipper and a crack pipe 😂 Nautilus I have to tell you I enjoy your humor in every vid!
Always love to watch your videos! Keep up the good work! Would enjoy longer videos. You have an innate ability to keep my attention with witty humor and incredible insights. Don't hold back your talent because some algorithm says that your videos need to be a certain time limit. Don't limit your talent, my friend😎
I just found this channel. So glad. I’m so excited for the new season. There is so much going on in this show, I didn’t even bother to concoct any theories!
Once you started talking about an artificial brain and a giant underground colony I began to think of all of these overhead shots of the Lumon building at night with snow covered grass surrounding and perfectly de-iced parking lots surrounding.
Maybe it's foreshadowing of the real size of Lumon under the surface and quite literally the waste heat of this colony & supercomputer? Or Eagan body freezer or whatever.
Maybe the coil of doom is this heat exchanger, which happens to be next to the primary chip transmitter in/near the hall of perpetuity? I also believe the hall is under the pond in front of the Lumon building.
This is pretty specific and kinda wild but it's what came to mind
Love that you call us innies and end with off you go 😂
Oh man... I've watched the show 5 different times since it first got out and I have watched all yours videos on it since yesterday like binge eating muffins knowing I'll end up with stomach ache but... Worth it 😏
This is a great channel and I really love your theory videos and analysis. Great voice. Love the 'I give this theory 4 and a half Milchiks' 🤣
Keep this up, we're all going nuts while the silence continues...
I was fascinated by “we are HERE because we’re not All there”. This could be taken literally, that the severed employees at Lumon in Kier, PE are needed to maintain control of people who have been moved to and exist in another, constructed place (e.g., Tumwater). A lot could have happened since Peggy Kincaid’s exposé, Lumon + the government could have developed entire cities of severed people. using severance technology or their obviously huge power over government and the media, they could keep these cities like tumwater in secret. But, they still need severed employees “locally”, to maintain their projects at tumwater, etc. This would tie in to Ricken’s comment about “my friend hasn’t had a food-based dinner in Lima in quite some time”, which really indicates that there must be some terrible famine/poverty/unrest happening in the world, from which residents of Kier are completely shielded and don’t think much about. For me, that also reflects the situation of workers in the US, where we have to work so hard and our lives are so centered around work while being shielded from a lot of the violence and horrible devastation abroad caused by companies that occurs abroad. This violence often heavily influenced by corporations and capitalism, which Lumon seems to embody.
Also, I think the houses in the map are the houses of the outies in Kier. I definitely agree with the theory that many more people in this town are severed than we are led to believe!
The Map looks like a circuit diagram, and the Coil of Doom looks like either a resistor or inductor going to an electrical ground
Man, I wish this channel was around back when Lost was on TV. Great work, love your editing and narration style - I can’t wait until season 2 starts.
Hey thanks, Ben! Glad you enjoyed it!
yeah theres like no lost theory videos
Can't wait to see what you have to say once season 2 comes out 💚
The name Jame means “he who supplants”, so in the same way that Kier means “the dark one” and Helena means “the shining one”, Jame’s name may hint at his role.
“Supplant implies a dispossessing or usurping of another’s place” - from Merriam Webster.
"We're all here, but we're not all there" is a quote from Muppet Treasure Island, Cabin Fever song
A very secondary point but given “Break Room” is a pun (it’s where they break you) maybe “Team Building” is too, and there’s an actual building there.
Someone else mentioned this, that the actor who plays Pete is also an artist. If you go to his art website the very first painting on his sight has a picture of a TV in the corner that says “psychic TV” it’s pretty fascinating it also is full of arrows, zig zaggy kinetic lines, boxes inside of boxes, eyes, crown shapes, a possible spaceship, lots of red spots…
2:46 love love love the Bob & Seinfeld reference… Kramer said Bob was a ruffian 😂
You’re the GOAT for consistent severance content! Hoping for a late 2023 release date of s2!
You're getting great views on these Severance video's! I think you were under 1k when i subbed, congrats on the nice channel growth. I can't wait for S2.
Ah, I remember you! Thanks, Hugh! It's been a wild ride so far, but you won't find me complaining. Thanks for coming through!
John's theory could be true. Did you notice that in the first episode Harmony tells Mark at work that her mother was an Atheist, and at the end of that first episode in the outside world she tells him that her mother was Catholic.
I'm thinking the mind area is a cemetery. You can tell by the cross at the end of the circle, mimicking graves. The squiggles are the meant to be trees. Seeing as we know that they're testing on people that aren't actually dead, maybe the black box section is a pathway to the testing floor??
Another great video! A couple things - where’s the goat room on the map? why is the arrow to enter (top-left) nowhere near the 2 elevators on the map? (up/down arrow boxes) why is the only exit arrow leading to the mind storage server room? Why are there 3 houses, 3 question marks, & 3 eyesight arrows? (is someone with 2 coil chips implanted watching the houses?) where are the places he couldn’t access? (red blocks?) where are the bathrooms? (blue boxes?) where is the wellness therapy room? (smiley face box?)
Maybe I’m too literal but “We’re here because we’re not all there” made perfect sense in that everyone there is severed - literally not their full selves.
I still think that each person in MDR was selected because they highly embody one of the 4 tempers Kier insists needs to be tamed, so they’ll work all day boxing up/removing those traits from each of Lumon’s targets - all 4 are needed to tame all 4 of a person’s tempers successfully. Makes sense that perpetuity (endless purgatory?) is connected to the coil of doom mechanism that achieves this thanks to the refiners’ diligent work & that “Team Building” would be the only route to or out of that area, followed by the “Break Room” to cover any mishaps.
So many new questions, so few answers! Thanks for latest nugget of mystery!
Team building = the conference room where Helly is “born”? And/or where chips are being implanted. Either literally building the team by planting the chips. Kind of literally building the team by orienting them with the survey. Irony because it’s in a conference room which can be kind of a team-buildy place. And where Mark (or other trainers) try to establish a relationship with a new team member
the team building space is where felicia and burt were headed from when they first ran into mdr near the perpetuity wing. so o&d were going from team building to o&d, and mdr were going from mdr to perpetuity wing. the locations make sense with where they are on petey's map.
Here's s theory for you guys. I cant help but think that the "code detector" is just another floor that the elevator stops and there's another severance mode besides outtie and innie, middie if you will (ie body and belongings inspection) and maybe many more modes.
My theory is that the "code detector" is just an alarm that goes off when an employee tries to go up in the severed elevator during work hours since there is no legitimate reason for an employee to leave during work hours. In all the instances where Helly acted desperate and tried to take a message with her in the elevator, it was during work hours. Of course an employee could easily take a message with herself in the elevator while leaving at the end of the day, but it seems that they are deterred by their experiences and the propaganda of "the code detector detects written symbols."
This theory fits with the fact that Milchick thought Dylan smuggled an ideographic card out of Lumen -- he would have known that the "code detector" cannot be set off when employees leave at the end of the day. Lumen also organizes rewards that relax employees towards the end of the day, so they tend not to make plans to smuggle symbols then reducing the risk of the "code detector" arrangement.
I would love a “tinfoil gang” T-shirt by the way… you say at least five things per episode that are T-shirt worthy
In the field trip to Perpetuity, O&D (the 2 workers we know of at the time at least) are on their way back to their department from the team building space and meet at a corner where MDR have just left theirs. So presumably around one more white corner is the Team Building Space.
Love it, as always!
You're the best! 🙌
@@nautilusfiles no YOU!!
3:43 could be why Helly is the only one fighting the system, because she's not troubled or depressed in the outside world.
I've been thinking.
What if all series took two (or more) years between releases: one year of fan speculation and one year of production. There's no way a writer (or a group of them) could anticipate the ideas all of fandom could think up in a given time, so in principle it would be beneficial for the story to see what others think of during the waiting period.
Just a thought.
having just found your channel, and coming from the lexington letter video, I like the circular graphic you use when you're speaking and there aren't any other clips playing a lot better than the one in this video
Just found your channel. Your analysis is fantastic, your editing is great, and I love your voice. 10/10
So, I think this is an obvious theory but I've seen few people bring it up. Irving, I think that he has been there the longest, or much longer than the 4 years in Macro Data. I think his paintings of the testing floor elevator with the red light indicate that he used to be in Milchicks position before or with Milchick. It doesn't seem like Milchick is severed ( though I do somewhat stan a multiple Milchick theory in concept ), and maybe initially Irving was a non-severed employee as well. Maybe becoming severed was part of a much bigger subversive plan to figure out ultimately what Lumon is doing, a decoy for his intentions. His outtie obviously is well aware of the testing floor from the position of where Milchick was standing and those pages of company info and workers.
The eyes on the sleeping people is them with their eyes shut. Rather than dead indicating that Petey likely knew they weren't dead, but forced to sleep. But he points to ??? Because he didn't understand what that was.
Selvig at one point makes reference to Clark Gable, which seems unlikely for someone born in the 1960s, after Gable himself was dead.
I have a theory
Severance. A show about a evil corporation putting chips inside the heads of depressed people to take care of them made by.... APPLE.
Selvig Name Meaning
Norwegian: habitational name from any of ten or more farmsteads named Selvik notably on the west coast of Norway probably so named from Old Norse selja ‘willow’ or selr ‘seal’ + vík ‘bay inlet’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
"I'm not a brainologist." I'm stealing that 😂😂
My theory has been that the data refiners are creating or refining Kier’s artificial consciousness. So the “mind” part of the map makes me excited that i could be on the right track.
If John Lokc's theory is true and previous Egans are somehow able to share one mind I now think that the board is in fact just one person, old Egan, Hellena's father. That is why no one sees the board ever, they are not supposed to know it is only one person. And revolving is them taking turns in controling the mind.
I take your cobel theory and raise you another.
What if harmony (selvig) and her mom Charlotte (cobel) share a body. Maybe when harmony was a child Charlotte was sick/dying, ie the breathing tube, Charlotte greenlit the ok for them to attempt to transfer her consciousness into her daughter. Maybe it didn't fully work and harmony kept some of her consciousness or maybe it was by choice to keep her.
Which is why we see harmony with a kind child like aura with the braids, and the clothes and pjs. Maybe she never got to "grow up" bc Charlotte was suppressing harmony most of the time.
Now idk if there's a certain trigger (like the elevator for the severed employees) that makes it go back and forth between the two of them or if Charlotte holds more of the power and can somehow consciously switch between the two of them.
Also, from the baby goat video there was a theory they were testing cloning so they could clone people. I personally think if that is the case, maybe they originally had harmony working with the babies which is why she is so knowledgeable on breastfeeding.
Also, did anyone else catch when Natalie fired Cobel she said "we have to suspend you, you're fired"? I thought this was odd bc suspension and fire are two different things so it was weird to me she said it in the same sentence
And last ... when cobel is talking to the security guard outside her house, I'm pretty sure she called him "daddy" which at first seems like a flirty thing.. but maybe there's something more to it?
The thing about the 3 arrows from the head to me implies there is a 3rd severed consciousness.
Petey could know what cubism is in severed form, it's semantic memory, not episodic. You can describe what cubism is (or name a state), but you don't remember what you ate for breakfast. You also couldn't recall any cubist painting you saw, but you could probably recreate the style based on your intuition
Would love to see theories on the other security protocols. We saw overtime, but many others were listed. One was "Lullaby" which my guess is makes everyone go to sleep.
Team Building sounds like it's probably where Burt and his coworker(s) were doing their egg drop, when MDR run into them in the hall!
Great video Famo
I also have a theory that Milchuck is Severed but always in his innie personality but does not want to be his actual self anymore due to a past trauma.
I have no evidence to support this but seems like something the writers would add to the story.
Cheers!
Best Severance content. Can’t wait for season 2.. I was thinking you should do content on Silo .
My best friend told me to watch Silo. He says it's like Fallout but as a television series. Sound like my style!
The “coil of doom” has to be the hallway off the Perp wing that has the smiles. Somehow those “smiles” are connected to doomed people? Dylan said there was a nice mouth there before … has to relate to something. Maybe it was Hellys, as she was recently severed???
I pointed out in the comments on another video that the name 'Harmony' seems to be a clue because it can only be achieved with more than one voice, 'Harmony' may be more than one person
But the name 'Charlotte' may also be a clue, it's from the French/masc version of Charles & means free man (&/or petite). It could be a person looking for freedom, a person who already has freedom, it could be ironic, it could mean Charlotte will somehow help to free the others. Who knows? But Harmony/Charlotte name choices feel very deliberate.
I like that end Cobel theory. It gives me biiiiiig gnosia vibes
The map is the chip! The design of it.
If there is a failsafe to deactivate all the chips, it's gotta be in the security room as one of the other options besides the Overtime Contingency
What’s for dinner, kids?
Given the actor's painting style, I think the head/crown is a reference to Basquiat, who uses the image in his work often. Dunno what it means, but there's a lead for you.
Let’s goooooo!
Dr. Doom; MF DOOM line was goated.
Maybe team building is the room that they wake up in from ep 1
Do you think the mdr numbers could be help programming consciousness personality or A.I. of some sort for the past ceos?
Great work
Stone brilliant bro
have you ever thought about making a podcast, i love your vids and spend alot of time listening to podcasts at work i think your insight in a longer form would be nice keep up the amazing work
That last theory is fucking horrifying and amazing.
Thank you!
Number 1 problem with the theory is that harmony is NOT maternal
thank you for this great content 🙏
Is that Charles Barkley.... the sports I grew up with were cricket and soccer. So there are infinite oddities of 90s NBA yet to be revealed to me.
yay new video
Love the channel btw
Sorry, just seeing this, but thanks!
After reading the the Lexington Letters, I believe John's theory is correct. The Lexington letters features a Severed person writing back/forth with her innie.
Thanks, I wrote it then saw the Lexington Letters and it just made it head cannon to me
Omg, I can't believe I didn't realize Petey had been on Seinfeld. Lol
Maybe the previous CEOs were cryo frozen until the tech was up to date enough to back them up.
7:45 “love child of clippy and a crack pipe.” Spot on.
Technically Mark shouldn't know what Sudoku is if you think about it