S2E45-REWATCH10-PT03-Cold Harbor

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Severed The Ultimate Severance Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey they're Refiner. Great to see you back on the
Severed Floor. Our full rewatch of season two wraps up
this week with part three of the Severed breakdown of
the season two finale, Cold Harbor. You may be here
for the very last podcast of the season, but I'm
still going to say it spoilers. There are spoilers everywhere
throughout this podcast. This is Severed, the Ultimate Severance Podcast.

(00:35):
I'm your host, Alan s. It's time to finish up
our full rewatch of season two. If you're a ready refiner,
let's open the file called Cold Harbor for the final time.
Before we go any further, a quick note about the title.
It seems like a no brainer, right. The file is
Cold Harbor, the new room is Cold Harbor. Everyone is
wondering what's going to happen when Mark finishes Cold Harbor.

(00:58):
Naming the episode cold seems like it would have been
a given. It definitely was not, since Mark goes from
his any on the severed floor to his out on
the testing floor, then back to his any on the
severed floor. Dan Erickson wanted to call this episode something else.
He told Deadline his working title for this chapter of
the saga was any sandwich? Yeah? Can you imagine? And

(01:21):
he P and I were both relieved to hear Ben
Stiller talked Dan out of this weird title. Checking back
in with the folks. On a testing floor, we see
a close up of Gemma's nurse's hand. She is positioning
it for the blood draw that will allow her to
open the cold Harbor door. We cut an even closer
as the needle descends and a sample is taken. This
is a reminder to us that this lock uses blood,

(01:43):
not fingerprints, as the only means of identifying the user.
The door opens and Gemma enters. There's a Zalie and
a new Innie is revealed as the door closes behind her.
These new Innis that show up in testing floor rooms
are remarkably composed. Remember Helly and how she was totd
freaked when she woke up on the conference room table.
This all new. Gemma any scans the room with her eyes,

(02:06):
but she doesn't move or speak. Got to a closeup
of a green button. A thumb depresses the button and
we hear Mawer's voice enter the room. So I guess
this talking to the newly emerged innies over an intercom
is a common practice. There's a quick cut in here
of maur from the side That silver microphone he's talking
into as a classic, even though it probably doesn't really work.

(02:29):
That's an Electro Voice nine twenty six crystal microphone. It
was sold in the nineteen fifties under the Night brand name.
The only difference between the nine twenty six and the
six twenty three was the six twenty three had an
on off switch. The nine twenty six used a crystal
element as a pickup. The crystal sounded good, but it
wasn't very durable. The nine twenty six is being paired

(02:50):
here with the four to thirty two a desktop stand.
This was a unique and good looking studio mic, although
delicate and prone to failure. Every used version I found
on eBay was being sold as is or it was
listed as non functional. Jemma slowly walks down a short
hallway into a brightly lit white room. There in the
center of the room as a prop we've seen before.

(03:12):
This is the very unique and stylish Charles Webb crib
first introduced in the episode Chee I Bardo. This is
the one where the production could only find one copy
for the longest time. It's a custom made crib from
the nineteen eighties. It's not like they're stocked at Costco.
Eventually the production was able to obtain a second version
of this same design, So this is it Refiner. This

(03:34):
is Cold Harbor. The name is a bastardization of the
name that was on the box for this crib. We
saw the name during Cheek I Bardo. It was actually
Cold Day Arbors col space d apostrophe R Boer. This
crib is the focal point for all the pain and
disappointment the couple experienced while trying to get pregnant. It's
being presented here as an icon. Jemma pauses in the

(03:58):
doorway at the end of the short haul. I don't
think she knows exactly what this is. She's just being cautious.
We hear the intercom get keyed again. Maur is getting impatient.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Enter the room.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Check the framing on Maur When we cut to him
behind his monitor, he's being minimized into a tiny little
quarter of the screen. Then we check in with Captain
Creepezoid and the executive viewing suite. A camera is located
up high in the Cold Harbor room opposite Gemma. Jame
is watching her as she enters the room. His eyes
are unblinking and intense as he studies this scene. Back

(04:34):
down on the testing floor, Jemma has undered the main
area of the room. She's walking up to the crib.
She pauses about eight feet in front of the crib
and stops. Maw Our keys the mic again and asks
a familiar question, who are you? Indeed, this must be
the first question you're supposed to ask in any There's
a straight on view looking at Jemma's new Inne's face,

(04:54):
this question has her almost gasping for air. It's like
her brain locked up. A reaction shot from Jame as
Gemma answers, I don't know, we didn't find ourselves. Catching
up with Lorn and the goat transport, She's continuing her
track through the severed floor hallways. This time we get
more of a look at her outfit. This ensemble has
a very old world European look to it. Gwendoline Christy

(05:18):
talked to CBR about this look and the costuming of Lorne.
She said, Sarah Edwards is a brilliant costumer who really
collaborated with Christy on this style and still Are and
Dan Erickson also contributed their thoughts to the look and
feel of this suit. It needed to be ceremonial, but
she also needed to be able to fight while wearing
the outfit. It was designed to be extremely feminine, but

(05:40):
in a traditional sense. It's almost a folklore style costume,
which fits in nicely with the pomp and ceremony, cure,
imbues and everything. Christy loved how this look was ceremonial
and traditional but also otherworldly. It looks like something you
might find in the history of a Germanic culture, but
it most is not. The hair, the pink eyeshadow, it

(06:03):
all added to the strangeness of the look. Some of
this creation was even influenced by properties like Star Wars
and the Princess Leah hairstyles and outfits. Then Lauren's outfit
had to look deteriorated. There had to be aging. Gwndelene
Christy said the idea was to make this very feminized
dress look like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.

(06:24):
Her hair, as we noticed when following her from behind,
has the same messed up esthetic down in Mammalian's nurturable
You get this sense they'll put up with the costumes
and ceremony, but they don't really like it. This attitude
gets the idea that cures Attempts at pomp and ceremony
are always a bit subverted. The Luminites are able to
recreate the look of something traditional and important, but never

(06:47):
with any of the spirit. Lauren stops walking and turns
the goat card sideways in the hallway. She doesn't knock
or say anything. She just stands there with the goat bleeding.
She's looking at a panel of hallway wall that you
would walk right by if you didn't know something was
back there. Another quick detour inendo video game influences here.
Remember the completely hidden doorways in the original Doom and

(07:11):
even more so in Wolfenstein three D. Also in the
Sierra Online games, there were hidden doorways with no hint
they were there. Finding them was all trial and error.
If you didn't seek them out, you could miss a
lot of the game. Some games would show you the
percentage of treasure recovered or how much of the level
you actually discovered at the end of a level playthrough.
Sometimes you could be missing a third of the game

(07:32):
if you weren't running around pushing on walls searching for
hidden doors. Lauren knows all about this hidden door. She's
been here before. In a few moments, the wall opens
to reveal Drummond. Behind him is what looks like an
entirely tiled room. It isn't really, The tile was faked
by the setbuilders, but it looks great. Drummond looks deadly serious.

(07:53):
Lauren looks like she's about to burst into tears. There
is ceremony involved in this meeting.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Aliens Nurturable brings an offering.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
It's a planned reading that works like a call in
response password. Has it verve one of the nine principles.
If you wanted to make sure you had a good party,
you'd invite people with a lot of verve. It does verve,
bordering on feisty wiles. Are you kidding me? Not only
does this goat have wiles the most of its flock.

(08:25):
Drummond looks down at the goat with a dismissive expression.
He turns back into the room. This room, as we'll discover,
as a dedicated goat sacrifice chamber. We don't know if
it's the only one, since Lauren had to make quite
a trick to get here. I'm betting there aren't many
of them. If there is another one, this room is
very clean and sterile place designed to facilitate goat sacrifices

(08:47):
for major events. Variety asked Dan Eriksson if the existence
of the goat sacrifice room indicated what Luman is doing
to Jemma has been done before. He didn't go so
far as to say they'd done the same thing to
someone else, but he did confirm this chamber has been
used before. He said, quote, Whether that means the goats
have been used for this exact purpose or is some

(09:09):
other purpose is an open question. But it's fair to
say that some warm mammalian blood has been spilt down
there before, be it human or goat. Unquote. The entirely
tiled room, walls, ceiling, everything would indicate this is a
room designed to be hosed down. A lot of theorists
were bummed. This is the reason for the goats ceremonial sacrifices?

(09:35):
Is it the only reason for the goats? What about
goats being containers for severed personalities, goats being temporary chip holders,
or goats being cloned. Nope, those might be alternate uses
for the goats, but it sure doesn't look like it.
It appears goats are being grown entirely so they can
be offered as sacrifices. Not sure who these sacrifices are

(09:55):
even for. Drummond will mention the meal leading the deceased
Gemma to qure door. It sounds like there is some
bit of mythology tied to the goats. I'm sure it's
addressed somewhere in the handbook. Once Lorn has entered the chamber,
Drummond raises a remote that closes the door behind her.
She cringes just a bit when the door begins to close.
We cut to one of those side two shots they

(10:17):
love to use when we have a man and a
woman on screen. Here, Lorn is to the left of frame,
Drummond is to the right. The cart with the goat
in it is in front of Lorn. A large white
something is sitting in front of Drummond.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
The beasts. We're being tuned with a cherished woman.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
This is the first indicator we've heard from one of
these folks down here working with Jemma that she is
in fact going to die. Sure. Up in the c
suite they talk very cavalierly about finishing this process. When
you get down close to where things really happen, they
don't talk as freely about the endgame. It sounds like
this sacrifice room is borrowing from the Egyptians.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
Whose spirited the skuy Toques.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Dora spirit guides has a long history. It was common
practice to provide sacrifice beasts to accompany the pharaoh's soul
into another world. Pharaoh's would sometimes be buried with whole
herds of donkeys, all sacrificed so as to serve the
ruler in another world. Once again, we are being told
Jemma is going to die. Now we find out her

(11:20):
death is also going to trigger the death of young Emil.
Here still no details as to who is going to
kill this cherished woman or how she's going to wind
up and tombed with a goat. This little ceremony and
the sacrifice chamber continues to play out.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
Is it up to the task.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
It is the task of dying. Oh, you mean the
task of escorting Jemma through thenother world to Keir's door. Okay,
got it. Emil jumps up and nuzzles gwendolen Christie's hand.
I'm sure it was all she could do to keep
herself from laughing and petting. Peggy Gwendolen has said numerous
times in interviews she just loved the goats, and the
goats loved her. She'd also been bonding with them extensively

(12:01):
on her brakes. Gwendolen told Collider that Ben Stiller was
just too important a director to laugh through his takes.
There were too many people and too much money involved
in the chute for her to be breaking down while shooting.
Resets take time and are expensive. She said it was hard,
but she was able to suppress her laughter until after
the take. Drummond is about to get to the real

(12:23):
nitty gritty about this room. Before he does, why don't
you go refill your coffee cup refiner Severed will be
right back.

Speaker 5 (12:33):
Hey, this is Ben Stiller. Thanks for listening to Severed,
the Ultimate Severance Podcast.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Back in the Hidden Goat Room, Drummond walks away from
us over to a small compartment in the wall. It's
the only thing breaking out the yards and yards of tile,
so it's hard to miss. This is a bolt gun
wall holder fabricated by the set construction crew. Everything in
this room, including the goat transport cart, the sink, the
goat trap and the bolt gun wall holder. We're all

(13:01):
created by the set deck crew. There is a close
up of Drummond's hand as he opens a glass door.
This compartment holds a stun gun. It's also sometimes called
a captive or captured bolt gun. Javier Bardem's character used
one extensively in No Country For old men. You primarily
find them in slaughterhouses. This one is an antigue from

(13:22):
the venerable British manufacturer Acles and shelv Ok. This model
uses a blank twenty two caliber shell. The shell is
fired in the bolt gun the same way it would
be fired in a rifle. The explosion of the fired
blank is captured in a chamber just behind the bolt.
The pressure forces the bolt forward violently. It all happens
in a fraction of a second. You can see Drummond

(13:43):
push the bolt back into the gun. The muzzle of
the bolt gun must be touching the animal in order
for it to work. The bolt fired into the forehead
or base of the neck stuns the animal, basically cutting
off all feeling prior to slaughter. At least that's the theory.
The bolt enters the animal but never leaves the gun.
That's why it's referred to as a captive bolt. All

(14:04):
the user asked to do after a stunning is pushed
the bolt back in reload with another blank shell, and
the butcher is ready to stun another animal. An alternative
to the gun shot powered captive bolt gun is air powered.
Pneumatically powered stunners are more practical for repeated stunning like
in a slaughterhouse. We get a shot of Drummond, who
is also being swallowed up by the frame. He's down

(14:26):
in the lower third. A minimizing shot is not an
easy thing to do with someone the size of Drummond.
I think we're supposed to get the sense that Drummond
might be a bit in over his head here too.
Lorn's sad eyes are following Drummond. She does not look
happy about any part of these proceedings. Drummond presses a
button in a single twenty two shell is dispense. There's
a close up of the big man's hands as he

(14:48):
loads the bolt gun. Drummond only guts the one round.
He seems confident that's all he's gonna need to take
care of this one small animal. Lorn is miserable as
Drummond steps to a spot behind the b white things
sitting on the floor. He's holding the bolt gun with
both hands in front of him. He has one final
line after being told the goat is up to the task,
then give me its life. Lauren really would rather not,

(15:12):
but this is a part of her job. All the
positives of this job must outweigh the occasional unpleasantness. I
am curious how often Lauren is forced to break out
the special dress and make this track to the sacrifice room.
We cut away from Drummond to back in the Cold
Harbor room. We're looking at a shot from Gemma's POV.
She is approaching the crib. As she gets closer, we

(15:33):
can see a small object is laying on the crib mattress.
There's a cut back to Maurs, still wide eyed in
front of the watcher monitor.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Take it apart.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
We also get a super creepy close up of Jame
here his eyes are bright under his snow white brows.
The item sitting on the mattress is an Alan wrench.
The basic Alan wrench is the universal tool for as
symbol at yourself furniture. There's usually one tucked into the
bag with the assembly instructions to date. I Kia reports
it has distributed more than two point one billion of

(16:04):
its Allan wrench sets with their furniture. The giveaway wrenches
never have the cool wooden handle like this one does. Though,
I'm concerned about doctor Maer. His shining, almost manic eyes
tell me he may be getting a little too into
this procedure. I wonder when he was last evaluated by
a Luman staff psychologist. He's maybe spent too much time

(16:26):
down on the testing floor. A good doctor might need
a metal health break. Jemma looks down at the small
tool sitting on the mattress. With a gulp, she picks
it up, preparing to follow Mauer's command. Whiplash cut. Here
mister Miltchik, bathed in blue light, is violently kicking at
the MDR bathroom door. The script called for three total kicks.

(16:46):
This did not seem nearly violent or desperate enough. Tremelle
Tillman told Vultrey ask Ben Stiller if maybe he could
just wail on the vending machine. A bit after the
second kick, Ben told him to go for it. Wow,
does he ever? On the other side of the machine,
Heley and Dylan are fighting to hold it steady Meltchic's
onslaught is really moving the machine around. Tremil Tillman said

(17:07):
after one of the takes where he was doing a
donkey kick when ben yelled cut, he could hear people
applodding in the back. Tremuel said it was the first
time he'd ever received applause for defacing property. In the
MDR space, Helly and Dylan are navigating chaos. Meltchik is
trying his best to knock over the vending machine while
the band is still aggressively playing in the midst of

(17:28):
the fracas. Don't miss the items in the vending machine
behind Dylan. Tansy Micheau told us about creating water drop
containers for food pellets, but she didn't think they ever
made it to screen. Yes they did. They are right
there in the vending machine positive if he can when
Dylan is backed up to the glass, and you'll see
Tansy's packaging creations. Jeffrey Richman was the editor who put

(17:49):
these Marching Band scenes together. He was very nervous about
it because he claims need never made a music video before.
The band rehearsed over a period of five days and
these scenes were shot over the course of four days.
We leave it as stressed and out of breath Miltchick,
so we can catch up to any Mark out in
the halls. Mark's looking back over his shoulder as he runs,
checking for anyone who might be in pursuit. Little Disky

(18:12):
know mister Miltchik is otherwise occupied. Mark checks the directions
and darts down the hallway to frame right back in
the goat sacrifice chamber, we see a close up of
the heartbreakingly cute goat being played by Peggy. There is
still more to this ceremony taking place in the goat chamber.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
We commit this animal to Kyre in his eternal war
against them.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Eliminating pain seems to be the overriding justification for killing
both people and goats. As Drummonds speaking, we're seeing inside
shots of the hieroglyphics that appear all around this sacrificial table.
Lead graphic designer Tansey Micheau told us in an interview
she created these hieroglyphics that appear on the container. They
completely surround it. Dary Olison commented on how cool they are,

(18:58):
but most of them never make to screen. Drummond's comment
is the first, we've heard about Keir's war on pain.
Stunning a goat with a captured bolt gun doesn't seem
like a path to reducing pain. In a side shot,
we can finally see the purpose for that white object
sitting in the middle of the floor. It's a goat
containment device. A meal has been moved from the transport

(19:20):
cart to this device. Only Emil's head can be seen
protruding from the all white container. Drummond and Lauren are
now standing on either side of the container. Louren to
frame left is it Emal's head. Drummond standing frame right
is in a perfect place to stun the goat from behind.
Cat Miller discussed his goat chamber in an interview with US.
She said it had to accommodate a wide range of

(19:43):
goat sizes. When they started building the chamber, Peggy the
goat had not been born yet. She was about fourteen
weeks when she went into the chamber. Goats grow quickly,
especially in the first six months of their lives. Kat
said this chamber had to be designed keeping in mind
it could be housing a goat range anywhere from a
few pounds up to an adult. The chamber is made

(20:04):
of resin and brush stainless steel. It looks like Drummond
is about to execute a meal when twist Drummond hands
the bolt gun over to Lorn. He got it all
set up and was looking like he'd be the heavy
with goat blood on his hands. But no, the dirty
work is being shutted off to Lorne. No wonder she's
been looking so distressed. She knew what job she'd be

(20:26):
called on to perform. As a part of this perverse
little ceremony, we get a great Lorn pov. As Drummond
is handing over the stunner, he looks dour and serious. Meanwhile,
out in the severed floor halls and he, Mark has
arrived at the testing floor elevator hallway. Uh oh, his
blue Mdr Key card does not open this door. You

(20:46):
must need a higher security clearance and a severed Mdr
refiner in order to gain access to this hallway. We
cut back and forth into the goat sacrifice room. Mark
starts to throw himself against this unyielding door. Lauren has
the bolt gun positioned almost at Emal's forehead. She pauses
before pulling the trigger. How many I knew what she

(21:08):
was asking Drummond doesn't have a clue.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
How many what goats?

Speaker 2 (21:13):
You dufus read the room?

Speaker 1 (21:16):
How many lost?

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Second, it does seem to be a big part of
your job, unless Luman has some large scale goat's milk
production going on. Providing goats to this sacrifice room seems
to be the only mission of the m N department.
Drummond sums it up. How many more?

Speaker 4 (21:33):
As many as the phone de.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Cons Somehow they've twisted this ritual around so it is
being prescribed by Kir. Was Keir killing goats is a
form of celebration and sacrifice back when he was first
coming up with those sabs and potions. Possibly, I think
a lot of things get attributed to the founder as
a way to legitimize the behavior. Why do we kill goats?
Because Kir said to Oh okay? Lauren puts the bolt

(21:57):
gun down even closer to Emil's four head. Suddenly, a
noise from just outside the door distracts her. She looks
up towards the door. Anything to put off killing this poor,
sweet little goat. Peggy looks so completely helpless and so
completely unaware. In these closeup shots, Lauren and Drummond both
look towards the door out in the hall. Mark has
gone to kicking the testing floor elevator door like he's

(22:20):
mister Miltchik. The noise is enough to cause Drummond to
put up a hand. The killing of the goat is
put on hold while he checks to see what's happening
out in the hallway. Lauren is relieved she doesn't have
to pull the trigger just yet. Mark is trying to
climb the doorjam when Drummond opens the hidden doors across
the hall. I think he was considering trying to get

(22:40):
through the overhead transom. The shot looking up the hallway
is pretty funny. Mark is about a foot off the
ground in mid climb. Drummond is now standing against the
farm wall, taking in the bizarre scene. The doors to
the goat sacrifice chamber close behind him on their own.
Mark drops and turns to face Drummond. He has no
idea who this guy is, or even where he came from.

(23:02):
Drummond definitely knows Mark marks. Mark stammers a bit, then
says he's at the wrong door. Sure, no worries, Sorry
to bother you. I've got the wrong door. Mark tries
to walk away. Drummond reaches out with a huge paw
and grabs Mark by the shoulder. Before he can get
too far, Mark brushes him off.

Speaker 6 (23:20):
I'm leaving them.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Uh no, not okay. Drummond puts a hand in the
middle of Mark's chest and slams him up against the
hallway wall. They pause for a second or two to
look at each other. Then, like a snake striking, Drummond
reaches out and punches Mark s right in the nose.
It's fast and shockingly brutal. Wow, they are definitely done
with Mark as a refiner, aren't they two days ago?

(23:44):
There's no way Drummond would have punched out the oh
so valuable Mark s. After the punch, Mark is stunned.
He bows his head and starts to put his nose
in his hand. He tries to make use of the
pause as a way to escape. He ducks his head
and runs away from the camera. Nice tribe, but this
is not happening. Drummond grabs Mark by the shoulders and
throws him up against the wall. To frame left, Drummond

(24:07):
is towering over Mark. This isn't much of a contest
until Mark bites him. Drummond wrapped a beefy arm around
Mark's nag, putting him in a headlock. Mark was able
to move his head down a bit so his mouth
could connect with Drummond's forearm, even through the fabric of
his suit coat. It's enough to make the big man
scream in pain. He releases Mark, well, not released so

(24:28):
much as he throws Mark down the hall. Mark is crawling,
scrambling along the floor, trying to put some distance between
himself and this business suited behemoth. Drummond catches up to
him and kicks Mark hard. This fight scene is about
to yield a real injury before it does, why don't
you wash your hands? Refiner Severed will be right back.

Speaker 5 (24:53):
Hey there, this is Haley Ericson Gelzer Dan Ericson's sister,
and thanks for listening to Severed the Ultimate Podcast.

Speaker 7 (25:01):
I do.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
The fight scene in the Severed floor hallway continues. Mark
rolls over and gets in a quick shot to drummonds groin.
It's enough to allow Mark the chance to try to
skid her away again. This time, Drummond grabs Mark by
the feet and pulls him back. Then Drummond swings Mark
around by his feet and smashes his head into the hallway. Wall.
You might be thinking, Wow, that was pretty hard. I

(25:25):
hope that stunt person is okay. Shockingly, this is not
a stunt person, and no, they were not okay. Darry
Olifson and Adam Scott worked extensively on the choreography that
went into this fight scene. There's not a lot of
physical violence in severance, and they wanted to make sure
they got it right. Stunt coordinator Dean Nistat consulted on
the various fight moves. Ben Stiller even brought in a

(25:47):
guy named Phil Nielsen to help with the final fight choreography.
The production made every effort to protect Adam Scott injuring
a key performer can shut down a production for weeks.
Adam would have been five, and if he'd been able
to follow the directions he'd been given, they did his
hallway fight scene multiple times. There are other shots of
Adam hitting the wall where he puts his forearms up

(26:08):
as a cage to protect his head and face. It's
what he was directed to do by the stunt guys.
On this particular take, Adam wasn't able to get his
hands up in time. Darry swung him around and Adam's
head went full force right into the very real hallway wall.
That's the reason this take has such a visceral, real
feel to it. I cringe every time I see it.

(26:31):
The impact was enough to concuss Adam. On top of
getting a pretty solid concussion, hitting the wall also bloodied
Adam's nose to the point it would not stop bleeding.
Adam eventually had to go to the er where they
cauterized the interior of his nose to stop the bleeding.
Dary Olivson was mortified he'd hurt anyone, let alone the
star of the show. In New York Post interview, he

(26:53):
said when Adam was in the hospital, he took him
an Icelandic chocolate bar as an I'm sorry gift, He said,
quote Adam works so hard in the show, like he
is there all the time, and you don't want to
knock the lead actor out. Mark is down and groggy.
In a distant shot, we see Drummonds straddling him, preparing
to finish him off with a brutal strangulation. Mark's face

(27:17):
is purple with blood smeared across it. Drummond is in
a rage, ready to kill. You can see his frolic
tattoo running along Mark's jawline. Ollison was not surprised the
script called for Drummond to kill Mark. He doesn't think
Drummond initially planned to, but once Mark had completed his function,
it didn't really matter. Drummond figured, who cares. No one's

(27:37):
going to say anything if he just kills Mark right here.
Mark pissed him off quite a bit by fighting back.
Darry says Drummond was born to be an enforcer, so
making these life and death decisions is not new to him.
He despises severed people anyway. Olison said, it's a dangerous
thing when someone feels they are so far above you
that you're like an ant to them. Drummond had this

(28:00):
perspective when it came to the severed floor Innies. Mark's
vision is fading, Drummond is grunting, adding even more pressure
to Marx Trachea. We've got a great intense closeup shot
on Drummond's face when Louren arrives to save Mark's life.
We can see the out of focused bolt gounn appear
upper frame left. It's pressed against the back of Drummond's skull.

(28:22):
When pull of the trigger in that bolt would penetrate
his skull and sink itself well into his brain. The
camera pans up to a distressed looking Lorn. This culture
of violence is just too much. She's armed. She can
be an agent of change. She decides to step up.
Drummond releases Mark's neck. You can see in his eyes

(28:43):
He's not gonna stand for this threat. He's explosive. Suddenly
he throws a hand back and up. He catches Lauren's
arm and she goes flying. Gwyndoln and Christie started working
with her trainer as soon as she knew about this
fight scene. She said she hadn't intentionally been avoiding roles

(29:04):
with combat since Game of Thrones. She didn't want to
be typecast as someone who only plays action scenes. She
decided to do this because it felt so necessary as
a climactic moment. The fight scene was integral to the story,
and her character was not only about battle. Lauren is
truly the opposite. She's a pacifist until she is forced

(29:25):
to step up and protect her flock. Lauren gets up
off the floor for a moment. She and Drummond her
face to face across the hall. This is when Gwendolyn
Christy goes full on Lady Brienne. Actually, she said she
felt even freer in these fight scenes than her famous
dust ups from Game of Thrones. She said she felt
like her acting had been rigid in the past. Here

(29:47):
on the seventh set, she felt more free flowing and
able to really go with her fighting moves. She said
there was a huge amount of trust placed in Ben
and the production team. Having that support was a huge help.
I'm also guessing she's not worried about overpowering or hurting
Derry Oliveson. They are a rather formidable pair rolling around
in the hallway. There is a fun backstory here. Darry

(30:10):
Oliveson happens to be friends with Rory McConn, who played
the Hound on Game of Thrones. McConn was also one
of Lady Brienn's challengers. Darry said he was an incredible
fan long before he and Gwendolen ever met her. Character
on GT was one of his favorites. When he got
to fight with her here in the Halls of Lumen,
Darry said he was truly starstruck. He said, quote, I

(30:32):
never thought I'd even meet Gwendolen, let alone get to
work with her, and I was kind of like, oh
my god, unquote. He says, next time he goes to Scotland,
he's going to compare notes with McCann about this fight.
It's kind of a weird thing to bond over, but
Olison said he's happy he got to share this experience
of fighting Gwendolyn with his good friend Rory Wow. Drummond

(30:52):
draws blood with a round house to Lauren's face. This
only seems to make the lady mad. She goes off,
throwing Olivson out up against the wall and bearing a
knee and is growin over and over and over. It's
a brutal hand to hand battle. The way it shot,
it's almost like we're in the middle of the fight.
This shooting style reminds me of Paul Greengrass and the

(31:13):
way he shot those incredible fights in the Jason Bourne movies.
It puts you in the middle of the action to
the point you think you're going to come away with bruises.
She throws Drummond too the floor. He lands on his
back on Mark. Mark takes advantage and holds Drummond down
by his coat collar. Lauren drops to a knee and
starts to brutally beat Drummond with her fists and elbows.

(31:40):
Drummond's phase is a bloody mess, but she keeps beating
on him. I think she's venting some pass frustrations brought
on by other goat sacrifices. When he's subdued, she grabs
the bolt gun off the floor. She pushes the bolt
into Drummond's forehead and is ready to fire. Mark starts
shouting at her to stop. Lauren's mouth wh's smeared with

(32:02):
blood and she's gasping. Mark is begging her not to
bury that vicious bolton Drummonds gray matter. It would kill
him instantly. Sure, he was just beating the hell out
of Mark, but killing him in such a brutal way
seems like an awful price to pay for it. We
hold on a gasping Mark. In the distance, Billy Holliday
can be heard making one more appearance. She's providing the
soundtrack to Jemma's supposed misery. We transition on I'll be

(32:27):
seeing you. It seems to be playing in the cold
Harbor room. The crib itself must not have been distressing
enough on its own. They had to add in some
additional pain. That Billie Holiday tune was Gemma and Mark's
favorite song. We've heard it multiple times throughout both seasons.
Our view of Gemma is through the monitor Jame is using.

(32:47):
Gemma is making some progress on the crib deconstruction. There's
a close up on James as he continues his creepy
watching The corners of his mouth almost twitch into a smile.
Almost Jemma's Cold Harbor. Annie is working diligently. She has
the mattress out and one crib wall detached. She's on
her knees working at freeing the next corner. She doesn't

(33:08):
seem to be upset by any of this. I think
that's why they fired up the Billie Holiday. Mauer is
encouraged by her actions.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
The barrier is holding.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
We transition from a close up on Maur's eyes to
a closeup of Jame and his creepily staring eyes. She
feels nothing other than some consternation as to why she's
tearing down a baby crib. The question being answered by
Cold Harbor seems to be can she handle the pain?
The situation created in this room is designed to deliver

(33:39):
maximum soul crushing pain to Gemma. Outy Gemma would be
in tears the way she was that night at the
top of the stairs when Mark was drunkenly ripping this
crib apart any, Jemma, the any created for this room
has no recollection of that night or the pain. It's
a crib and nothing more. She's taking it apart only
because the voice from the intercom told her to. As

(34:00):
Mauer told Jaime, the barriers are holding slow dissolves to
Jemma as she continues to wrestle with the Allen wrench.
Mauer is seeing a lot more in this room than
I am.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
It's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Twenty five rooms of torture over more than two years,
and it's all been building to this. We jump ahead
a bit as the transitions continue. Gemma now has the
entire crib apart. We get a shot of Jame from
over the front of his monitor. His expression is almost greedy.
He's also loving what he's seeing here in this cold
harbor room. We dissolve into the testing floor elevator hallway.

(34:34):
The door from the severed floor opens to reveal Mark
now forcing Drummond down the hall. Mark has the bolt
gun pressed into Drummond's neck. He's not taking any chances
if the big Man tries anything, the bolt will instantly
puncture his jugular with a huge gaping hole. Drummond's bloody
and swollen face his testament to the beating he endured

(34:55):
at the hands of Lorne, speaking of Lorn. The door
leading to the hallway opens behind them. It's Lauren standing
there with the now freed Peggy. Mark looks back at her.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Lorne looks radiant standing in the bright lights of the
goat's sacrifice chamber.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Emil, thanks you.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Mark stands silently. He doesn't know any Emil.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Emil is the name of the goat.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Oh okay, and such a cute goat she is too.
Emil aka Peggy is relaxing in Lauren's arms.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
Oh okay.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Mark continues down the darkened hallway with the bolt gun
jammed into Drummond's neck. The door of the hallway closes
on a bloody faced but smiling Lorn. This is the
last we'll see of Loren for the season. Before Gwendolen,
Christy says goodbye. I wanted to mention one more incredible
story about her performance. Gwendolen is a huge Severance fan.

(35:50):
She was thrilled and honored to be a part of
the second season, but the knowledge she gained while playing
Lorn created a huge problem for her. She was just
certain she was blab to somebody complete with spoilers. MS.
Christy did not want to spoil the season for anyone,
so she took some extreme measures. Gwendolen Christy had herself

(36:10):
professionally hypnotized to forget what she'd done as Lorne. Ben
Stiller heard this story while being interviewed by Vulture. He
said it was like she'd actually undergone the Severnth procedure.
Gwendolen was as surprised as anybody when these episodes dropped
and she got to see herself in action. The hypnosis
memory block worked so well, Ben was saying he might

(36:32):
look into it for the other cast and crew during
future seasons. As Mark and Drummond make their way down
the hall, the testing floor elevator opens on its own,
as it always has. Mark drags Drummond on with him.

Speaker 6 (36:45):
Okay, on a second, I need to change to my
body and then you were getting to be kept.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
But the elevator is in motion. The switch is happening.
Mark's eyes roll up in his head as we hear
the Zalie sound. Something Mark didn't count on, or maybe
wasn't even aware of, is the muscle spasm that occurs
when a severed worker switches from any to AUDI. It
was enough to cause Mark to pull the trigger on
the bolt gun. He didn't intend to do it, but

(37:18):
the result, as predicted is instant Drummond death. As advertised,
the bolt severs his jugular and a huge amount of
blood sprays out everywhere. Drummond is gasping for air, making
a horrible guttural sound in his throat. While shooting these
gunshot scenes, Darry Ollipson said he and Adam Scott passed
the time between takes talking about old movies. They are
both big fans of the classics. The blood gushing out

(37:41):
of Drummond is a mix of real stage blood and
computer generated effects. Although there is some computer created blood,
Ollipson said there was a lot of the real stuff.
At one point. He described it as a carry level
of blood flow. It went into Adam Scott's eyes and
he couldn't see at all. It also would get in
his mind mouth. Even though CGI blood was added in,

(38:03):
this was a pretty messy scene. Adam Scott wasn't the
only one who didn't like all that blood, Jeremy Hindel
told the New York Post. Real blood is a nightmare
for everyone involved with this set. Real fake blood rex
floors and walls. In order to reset for a take,
all the blood has to be cleaned off everything. Sometimes
it will even stain, especially on white surfaces. If Hindel

(38:27):
had his way, all blood would be cgi. Audi Mark
comes to with Drummond and his death throw Saudi Mark
is panicking, not sure exactly what happened. A redditor brought
up an interesting point here. Both sides of Mark have
to be thinking the other one is a killer. I
remember how the Whole Mind Collective posed the question what
if you're killing people? As his severed worker. Well, here

(38:47):
Audi Mark appears to have proof that his Any has
brutally killed Drummond. When Mark transitions back to his Any,
his Any will be covered in drummond blood and thinking
it was his Audi who was the killer. This is
a knund for legal minds. A murder has been committed
on the testing floor elevator, Who gets arrested and who
goes on trial? Do you blame any Mark? He was

(39:08):
his Inny when he first took the prisoner it was
kind of outie Mark who pulled the trigger, but not really.
It happened more during the transition between the two. Would
both any and OUTI need to be called on to testify.
If no killing was intended, but the switchover caused the accident,
is that manslaughter and he Mark did have the bolt
gun in a threatening position before the switch this might

(39:31):
make him culpable. This Severance chip may have created a
whole new area of legal study. Before Mark makes his
way into the testing floor, you should hit the vending
machine refiner. Severed will be right back.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Hello, refiners, this is your beloved leader Ker Egan. Actually
it's Mark Keller who plays Ker Egan on Severance. For
the latest on stopping the MDR Rebellion, I like to
check in with Severed, the Ultimate Severance Podcast.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Mark and his bloody elevator companion have arrived. The camera
angle cuts to a high up view from the testing floor.
We're looking at the elevator door as it opens. A
very dead Drummond heavily falls through the door onto the
testing floor. His feet are still inside the elevator. The
elevator doors begin to close, hit Drummond's feet and reverse
open the doors keep cycling open and closed, adding to

(40:28):
the eeriness of the scene. This is a move right
out of every space station based video game and a
lot of deep space horror movies. The continuously cycling elevator
doors in a darkened space station are super creepy. If
the thing making them cycle is a dead body, it's
even creepier. Darry said it was his stuntman who took
the fall out of the elevator from there. Stunt people

(40:49):
were supposed to lie there in the elevator door during
the following scenes. It could mean lying face down for
hours while they blocked and shot the scenes. All of
Aden made a strong caisse that he should be the
one lying there, not a stunt person. Eventually they allowed
Darry to be the one on the floor. They put
down a small mat for him to lay on. He
said it was the perfect final dot to add to

(41:11):
his character. A blood soaked Mark carefully steps around Drummond.
We can see a pool of blood already forming Drummond's head.
He is well and truly dead. Adam Scott said after
this scene his wardrobe became nothing but blood caked every
day when preparing for shooting. He said it was a
little gross having you put these sticky and bloody clothes

(41:31):
back on. Mark stocks away from the elevator, holding the
bolt gun like it's an actual pistol. Without another twenty
two blank, this bolt gun is pretty useless. It looks
good in Mark's hand, but it's not going to do
him any good. If he tries to use it as
a gun. Pointing at it, someone might be intimidating. We're
now with outie Mark making his way through the testing
floor in search of Gemma. The front of Mark's shirt

(41:52):
is almost entirely red with Drummond blood. We cut to
a handheld POV. Mark is unsteady as he makes his
way down this new hall oh way. It looks a
bit like this severed floor, but it's also different. The
elevator keeps opening and closing, reversed in each cycle by
the corpse of Drummond. As Mark comes around a corner,
we can still hear the elevator. It's making a mechanical

(42:13):
thunk that reverberates throughout the testing floor. Mark pauses at
a room labeled Minsk. Minsk is the capital and largest
city in Belarus, and he chanters Seinfeld fan refiner all
I can think of when I see Minsk is the
fictional movie Rochelle Rochelle. It was a staple of the
Seinfeld universe. They first want to see it when it
was released in theaters. Later George rented it from the

(42:34):
neighborhood video shop, and eventually it was turned into a
musical starring Bette Midler. The logline for the movie was
a young girl strange and erotic journey from Milan to Minsk.
Minsk is not a file from Mark's list. The sound
is muted. As we check in on the MDR area,
mister Miltchik is still freaking out on the vending machine.
The band, of course plays on. Miltchik is doing some

(42:56):
climbing back in the bathroom. He's eventually able to peer
over the top of the vending machine. Helly sees what's
happening and grabs a trombone from one of the band members.
Yes eight trombone, which, as we learned earlier in the season,
is the French word for paper clip. Helly pushes the
trombone through the opening up of the vending machine and
wax Miltchic in the head with it. She hits him
hard enough to knock him back into the bathroom once again,

(43:19):
Miltchic is done in by a stupid paper clip. Seth
hits the counter, then falls all the way to the floor.
Cut back to blood soaked Mark down on the testing floor.
He's now stalking through the halls with more purpose. We
see him pause at the tumbwater door. This is the
file Dylan was working on when we first met him.
He must have finished it, but we don't need to
go in there since it's not a Mark created room.

(43:42):
Up at MDR, we can see Helly has started a
little project. She's grabbing up trombones and souzophones, jamming them
into the space above the vending machine. Sharpeyed former band
members might be wondering where the tubas are in this
brass section. Kat Miller told Propmaster Guild magazine the tubas
were too tall. Tubas have that big horn that sits
up high on the shoulder of the tuba player. They

(44:03):
were far too tall to fit in the hallways around MDR.
The band was forced to pivot to suzophones for their
low end horn support. Helly's effort seemed to be working.
The brass instruments are blocking Miltchic, at least for the moment.
One of the CNM gangs yelling at Helly, telling her
those instruments are the property of CNM. She shouldn't be
using them like sandbags and a dyke. Down in the

(44:25):
room marked Cold Harbor, Jemma continues her demolition of the
baby crib. She's got it down to individual spindles now
parts are scattered around her on the bright white floor.
Miltchik is pulling himself up off the bathroom floor. He's
yelling through the door.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
Choreography and merriment.

Speaker 8 (44:40):
Return to your department.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Now the band stops playing. We can hear a whistle.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Fall back to CNM.

Speaker 4 (44:50):
He performance has become from hend.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Check it out. Another shot of Dylan with those water
drop containers in the vending machine behind him. Helly comes
down off the vending machine. She doesn't want to lose
this band. Backup.

Speaker 6 (45:01):
No wait, wait, wait, wait wait.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Kelly runs over to the diamond desk and climbs up
on it. She is about to deliver a mark level speech.
This reminds me a bit of Sally Field's famous unionizing
speech in the nineteen seventy nine movie Norma ray. It
also harkens back to Helen his address to the goat people.
Helly gestures to the diamond desk.

Speaker 6 (45:19):
His desk used to have four seats.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
The band members pause to look at her. She's trying
to catch her breath on top of the diamond desk.

Speaker 8 (45:27):
Our friend Irving is gone, and they want our whole
department gone.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Elly points to Miltchik back in the bathroom. If he
gets out, we're dead. There's a great cut in shot
here of Miltchik peeking out from a slit next to
the vending machine.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
They're gonna turn us off like fucking machines.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
As we're hearing Helly, we are looking at Mark now
outside of the Waynesboro room on the testing floor. This
is one from Mark's list. It was the eighth file
he completed. Helly has the band's attention.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
You've seen them do it.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
She's stalking the desktop. In an up angle shot, we
get reaction shots from the band members. She's holding their attention.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
I know you've lost friends too.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Quick check in with Mark. Then back to Helly.

Speaker 6 (46:06):
You could be next.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
She pauses to let that sink in.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
You could be next.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
There is concern on the faces of the band members.
They're completely ignoring their orders to return to CNM. This
speech has a lot of the same feel as the
speech Helen delivered to the Mammalian's Nurturable crew about Ms Casey.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
They give us half.

Speaker 6 (46:25):
A life and think we won't fight for it.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Down on the testing floor, Mark is continuing his search.
He comes around a corner and pulls up short. There
it is the room labeled Cold Harbor. Back at MDR.
We get a POV shot from Seth in the bathroom.
Helly looks over to address him, right Melchik. The reverse
angle reveals Seth's one staring eye peering through the slit
made by the vending machine. The band is silent, mesmerized

(46:50):
by the red haired ladies standing on the desk. She's
pleading please Almansa. The band members silently consider her request.
Down on the tip floor, Mark has yet to encounter
anyone else. That's about to change. He stumbles in the
direction of the Cold Harbor door. What you didn't he
Jema's nurse Sandra Bernhardt comes bursting out of the Cold

(47:10):
Harbor entryway. Jesus Wow. Mark is his sight to behold.
His shirt is soaked with blood, his face streaked with it.
Mark's not going to be intimidated by the lady in white.
Open the door. Little does he know who he's dealing with.
Step off, fuck out, yep.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
She said.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Fuck oh. Mark raises the bolt gun menacingly do it.
As mentioned, this gun is completely useless as is, but
it's scary looking enough to cause the nurse to pull back.
Mark and Jemma's nurse then get into a hilarious shouting match.
Now Mark is waving the bolt gun as he yelled.

(47:51):
Cecily isn't sure if she should be worried about this
thing he's waving around, but decides not to chance it.
Sandra Bernhardt runs off down the hallway. She's threatening to
go get doctor Mauer. I don't know how much of
a threat that is, but she doesn't have any better
ideas at the moment as she's running away. I did
want to mention something about our nurse. Thanks to the
official Severance podcast we've been in Adam, we know that

(48:11):
Gemma's nurse is named Cecily. No where it is to
a last name, but Cecily is more than we get
from the two episodes where she appears. Mark searches the
door jam at the Cold Harbor entrance. There's no door handle,
so no way in. He then notices the biometric lock
off to the right of the door. At first, Mark
places his own hand on the reader. The needle does

(48:32):
its blood draw, making me wonder just how sanitary that
thing is. Was it cleaned or replaced after the last
blood draw? Mark reacts to the stings. The door, of course,
does not open. It only takes Marcus second to realize
what's happening. This next bit really felt like some Sierra

(48:52):
Online space quest puzzle solving to me. Through trial and error,
Mark has determined the doors require a blood draw in
order to verify the idea of the person entering. Mark
was just drenched in the blood of a llumin management type.
Is there any chance this management type might be approved
for entry into this room? Mark finds a particularly juicy
part of his tie. He places his hand back in

(49:14):
the biometric reader. This time he places the blood soaked
tip of his tie between his finger and the needle.
The blood draw is taken from Drummond's very generous blood
sample on Mark's tie. It worked. The blood goes up
the needle and the door opens. Drummond was approved for
entry into Cold Harbor. Mark looks around before entering. He
slowly crosses the threshold into the Cold Harbor foyer. The

(49:36):
door closes behind him. At this point in the entryway,
Jemma had already zolid into her Cold Harbor any. Mark
does not transition. Mark's chip is not a hybrid model
like Gemma's. It doesn't create multiple innies. In response to
these various rooms, Mark pauses when he sees what's happening
in this very stark room. Jim, No, it's Gema's any

(49:57):
This one is brand new and only appears when Jema
enters this room. Jemma had been kneeling on the floor
with her back to Mark. When Mark speaks, she jumps up.
She grabs one of the rails of the crib with
both hands, wielding it like a sword or a club.
It's the same instinct to grab a weapon. Hell he
felt back in MDR when Jame came calling. Mark puts
up his hands.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
It's OK, that's me.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Me doesn't mean a whole lot to this section of
Jemma's mind. Jemma's expression doesn't change. She still has the
crib rail that they're ready We got a cut in
shot of Mauer continuing to watch the action from the
safety of his monitor. Mark walks into frame from under
the camera. Mauer looks distressed. Mark has his hands up
and is trying to calm Jemma's any.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
I'm your husband.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
No, you're not. You're her Oudie's husband. You really should
have gone over this part more thoroughly with Cobell.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
I'm your husband.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
You can keep saying it, but I don't know if
she's going to believe you. Mark decides, maybe he's getting through.

Speaker 8 (50:56):
Your name is Jemma Scout.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
We've been married four years.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
We're hearing this through the speaker and James monitor. All
we can see are his eyes over the top edge
of it. He is not happy. Maur is equally distressed.
Mark is trying to sell her on their history. We
got a life together, maur again, key's the intercom. Don't
speak to that man too late. That man has already

(51:25):
spoken to her. He's tainting the test. She can't know
anything about her out his life, or it might affect
her response to the crib. Mark's info potentially destroys the experiment.
Mark looks around for the source of the voice. He
says the guy who, by all accounts, who's planning to
kill her when he's done with his experiment. Mark is

(51:46):
selling this any hard on the life they had and
could have again.

Speaker 7 (51:50):
And if you come with me right now, we can
get it back.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Mauer's eyes are wide. His precious Gemma isn't listening to him.
On the monitor, we can see Mark disarm Gemma. She's
letting her guard down a bit. Maur is still frantically
trying to get some control.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
This is not a part of the test.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Breath.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Don't let him touch you.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Mark is reaching out to Gemma. Even with all the blood,
He's looking super sincere and believable.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
We have to go.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
An inside shot shows us Jemma taking Mark's hand.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Stop.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Doctor Mauer is freaking out about it. In the executive
viewing suite, James sums things up nicely. Fuck Mauer grabs
the phone, mister Trummond. Mister Trumman, got some bad news
for you, Dr Mauer. I'm afraid Drummond is already down
here on the testing floor, but he won't be able
to take your call. Mark is telling Jemma it's okay

(52:46):
as he slowly leads her away from the deconstructed crib.
Jame has a comment on this as well. Whoa Before
Mark and Jemma start their dash to the elevator, you
should refill your offee cup refiner. Severed will be right back.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Hello, refiners, this is your beloved leader Ker Egan. Actually
it's Mark Keller, who plays Ker Egan on Severance for
the latest don Stopping the Mdr Rebellion, I like to
check in with Severed, the Ultimate Severance Podcast.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Out of one of the hallways of the testing floor,
we see doctor Mauer combursting through a door. He's coming
from the watcher room. I figured the watcher room sat
on its own level between the Severed and Testing floors.
It looks like the watchers may be positioned in their
own room. At one end of the testing floor. Nurse
Cecily is in the halls waiting to meet the scrambling mour.

Speaker 6 (53:46):
It's the fucking spas.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Maer is in a full run as he screams back
at her, I'm telling you it's not gonna do any good.
In the Cold Harbor room, Mark is opening the outer
hallway door. Gemma is behind him, hesitates. When she gets
to the threshold, Mark turns back to her from out
in the hall.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Okay, you can come.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
It takes some coaxing, but eventually she steps across the threshold.
The door closes behind her. As she's Allie's we hear
the luminous sound. Jemma needs a moment, but then her
face breaks into a smile. Audi Jemma recognizes him. This
is Audi Marked with outy Jemma together for the first
time since the night of the car accident. Mark can

(54:31):
barely contain a huge grin, blood caked and completely gross.
Mark then throws his arms around Gemma. He's kissing her
and getting blood all over the place. Gemma and Mark's
intense reunion is interrupted by an alarm. The entire testing
floor is bathed in red light as a clason starts
to blare.

Speaker 7 (54:51):
Come on.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
In addition to all of the weird lighting patterns required
by this episode, Jessicaly Ganie said there was something else
she also had to test to make sure the red
flashing lights didn't trigger anyone with epilepsy. Even though shows
now include a flashing lights warning, most productions try to
stay away from the worst triggers. This is intended to
protect the audience, but also the performers. Flashing red lights

(55:16):
are a huge epilepsy trigger. We get a wide shot
of the very red hallway as the two lovebirds rush off.
Jeremy handle City fought for red in these scenes because
red is the color of love. Down on both these
severed and testing floors, here we're seeing a visualization of
the love Audi Mark feels for his wife, Oudy Gemma
Jemma grabs Mark's hand and pulls him around a corner.

(55:37):
She's been walking these halls for two years now. The
lady knows where to go. Up in MDR the alarm
and red lights are also going off. Miltchik is peering
out of his vending machine prison. Helly is still up
on the desk. She's now backlit in red. The band
members are looking around with panic in their eyes. We
close in on Helly's face. Her expression is melancholy. She

(55:57):
knows what the red lights and siren really mean. Mark
has reunited with his Audi wife. On the testing floor,
Mark is scrambling to keep up with Gemma. The calisthenics
and yoga she was doing in her room seem to
have kept her in shape. No muscle atrophy, even after
two years in captivity. Mark, we have to remember, is
an AUDI who may be suffering from alcoholism and who

(56:17):
never exercises. No wonder Gemma is dragging him along behind her.
We get cut in reaction shots from around the MDR room.
There are quick shots of Helly, Dylan, Miltchik, and the
band members in the MDR bathroom. Miltchik is looking seriously
at himself in the mirror. I think he's going over
the strange sequence of events that caused him to wind
up here in the bathroom as his precious severed floor

(56:40):
goes to hell. Down on the testing floor, we can
hear Maurs shouting no one is listening to him. Mark
and Jemma continue their sprint through the hallways of the
testing floor. Make sure to check out Gemma's running style
in these shots. She is definitely borrowing her form from
Tom Cruise. Check those blade hands. The head thrust forward

(57:00):
PC would be proud. We get some crazy handheld POV shots.
Down on the testing floor. Mauer goes rushing by and
cuts down a side hallway. Robbie Benson is also getting
in some good cardio during these scenes. Keep in mind,
refiner mister Benson was sixty eight years old when these
scenes were shot. As someone who just turned sixty one,
I salute his athleticism. Mister Miltchik is now standing in

(57:23):
the middle of the MDR bathroom. His earlier freak out
on the vending machine has been replaced by an eerie calm.
His face says he's done, defeated. This is all over
in his mind. Mark is looking back over his shoulder
as Gemma is making a bee line to the testing
floor elevator. We can see the body of Drummond is
still laying in the doorway. It's a good thing no
one was calling that elevator from above. It's not going anywhere.

(57:46):
Having Drummond act like a giant door stop turned out
to be a big bonus for Mark and Jemma. They
don't have time to wait around calling an elevator. Jema's nurse, Cecily,
is also running through the hall, shouting her name working
down on the testing floor. Keep you young. As Bernard
was sixty nine years old when these running scenes were shot.

(58:06):
Mark and Jemma reach the elevator just as maur is
rushing down the hall towards them. Mark throws Drummond's feet
out of the way, bending his legs at the knees.
It's enough to clear the threshold so the elevator door
can close. The last we see of maur he runs
right into the closing elevator door. I think the all

(58:28):
he's referencing would be the twenty five innies that now
reside in Gemma's brain. Now, hold on, wasn't Jemma's scheduled
to die after she'd experienced the cold Harbor room? Killing
Gemma would also have killed them all. I don't know
why Mauer is so concerned about it here, just an
excuse to keep her on the floor. I guess the
door is closed and the elevator starts moving. Mark grabs

(58:48):
Jemma to kiss her. Their faces are smushed together. When
we get a double zollie, Mark and Jemma both distort
and the rising elevator. They've passed through the barrier and
are now under the control of the severed floor. Means
Mark has become his any and Gemma has become Miss Casey.
We can easily see it's Miss Casey when she pulls
her face back from Marks. Mark is also looking a

(59:11):
bit confused because this is now Mark s he doesn't
have any romantic involvement with ms Casey. Why was he
kissing her? Oh right, that's his Audie's wife, or at
least some version of her is his Oudie's wife. Miss
Casey has become her usual, meek and mild mannered self.
She doesn't want to rock the boat, but she is
curious about what's going on, what's taking place. Anie Mark

(59:35):
gets out an um just as the elevator arrives on
the severed floor. When the elevator door opens, it is
Mark s who takes the lead. He's the tour guide
for this floor, the way Gemma was leading Mark around
the testing floor. Deejen Lachman talked to Variety about becoming
Ms Casey one last time. She said this transition was
a bit easier because Miss Casey's physicality is such a

(59:57):
huge part of her character. Deechen was excited from his
to have a little bit of a final moment back
here on the severed floor. This is the character Diechen
had spent the longest time with. Deechen was also glad
Miss Casey was able to get a bit of time
with Mark S, even if it is hectic and harrowing.
The last time Miss Casey emerged on the severed floor
was during Gemma's failed escape attempt. It was confusing from

(01:00:19):
his casey and she was immediately sent back down. As
Mark and ms Casey are racing down the darkened hallway
made famous by Herb's paintings, we cut back to Seth
still trapped in the MDR bathroom. It looks like mister
Milchik has made a decision. He rushes the vending machine hard.
He drops his shoulder and rams into it like he's
taking on an NFL defensive line. On the other side,

(01:00:41):
we see Dylan get rocked by Miltchik's hit. There's a
close up of the water drop packages being knocked out
of their holders in the vending machine. Dylan's battle with
the vending machine is being intercut with Mark s and
ms Casey racing through the severed floor hallways in the
MDR bathroom, Milchick has gone as far as he can
to the other side of the room. He's trying to
get had some serious momentum going for another attack on

(01:01:03):
the vending machine. Dylan is rocked even harder as he
tries to hold back the Miltchik onslaught. It's a quick
cut but we get a close up of the items
sitting in Row A two. The pouches are currently being
dislodged by Meltchik. There are the Christmas Mints, one of
the promised new vending machine items from the building animation video.

(01:01:25):
In the Lumen is Listening video animated Dylan was going
crazy scarfing down these mints. Real life Dylan not a fan.
The Christmas Mints are also contained in one of Kat
Miller's Lumen water drop containers. Out in the halls, mark
As hits a crossroads and isn't sure where to go. Gemma,
I mean miss Casey is dutifully running along behind, trusting

(01:01:45):
Markus to get them somewhere. Miss Casey was never clued
into the finer details of the birth and cabin plan.
Oh she knows is she came to on the severed
elevator while kissing Marks with no explanation at all. He's
now dragging her at a full run through the severed
floor hallways. It all has to be a bit disorienting
from his Casey Miltchic takes another run at the vending machine.

(01:02:06):
This one causes all the trombones and other brass instruments
stacked on top by Helly r to come crashing down.
Dylan is backed up to the machine, pushing hard against it.
It's all he can do to keep it upright. Miltchic's
shirttail is out. He looks a bit disheveled, but he
thinks he's got this vending machine situation in hand. There's
another hard hit to the back of the machine. We
see Dylan get thrown forward, but then there's a cutaway

(01:02:29):
to Mark Gas and Miss Casey. The vending machine is
rocking forward. Miltchic is not giving up. We get another
cut in a Mark and Gemma. Then Dylan got out
of the way just in time. The vending machine crashes forward,
landing on the glass face. Mister Miltchik is framed by

(01:02:50):
the doorway of the bathroom and now prone vending machine.
He's stalking the space like a wild animal in a cage.
We zoom in on him as he surveys the chaos
happening out in the MDR area. Trammell Tilman told TV
Guide he loved doing his own stunts in the bathroom,
but he actually jammed his shoulder well, knocking down the
vending machine. Mark's almost got miss Casey to the delivery point.

(01:03:12):
He turns a corner and we can see the severed
portal at the end of the hall. In Mdr. A
triumphant Miltchik jumps up on top of the vending machine
and crouches. Originally, Trammel Tillman said the script called for
Miltchik to fall through the opening with the vending machine.
He said they were thinking more like a bad boys
or lethal weapon kind of gag where he goes over
with the machine. Tillman said, they told him to just

(01:03:34):
go for it. When it came to toppling the machine.
Tremmel Tillman really and truly did kick over the vending machine.
He said, once it was down, nobody yelled cut knocking
it over and gave him a shot of adrenaline. He
continued to react to the situation in character. That's when
what he calls the marvel hop happened onto the back
of the prone vending machine. He felt like it was

(01:03:55):
the badass move Miltchik would make after doing something as
violent as toppling the vending machine. Ben and the production crew,
of course, loved it. Mark is at the severed barrier.
He turns to give miss Casey instruction.

Speaker 8 (01:04:07):
You have to go on.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
Through the door. That's all you need to worry about.
Just go through this door. Come on, you gotta go
right now, go, don't you sew Mark keeps saying you
need to go, not we need to go. Things getting
a bit too hectic. Refiner, you should probably take one
last trip to the vending machine. Relish the moment of quiet.
Things are about to get really crazy. Severed will be

(01:04:31):
right back.

Speaker 5 (01:04:35):
Hey, this is Ben Stiller. Thanks for listening to Severed,
the Ultimate Severance Podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Mark is still trying to convince miss Casey to go
through the barrier door. I have always thought Mark s
was planning to dump miss Casey through this door then
return to the Severed floor. He didn't just do this
on a whim. He promised to help get Jemma out.
When she's out, He's met whatever obligation he may have
made to Kobel and Devin. Now any Mark has decided

(01:05:01):
to take control of his own life and his own future.
Innies have never exhibited this sense of self. They've always
lived in the shadow of their Audi, believing the Audi
held the answers. When it came to big life decisions
and future events. Mark Gas has decided he can take
at least some control of his own destiny. In Mdr
Miltchik is still standing on the vending machine. We get

(01:05:24):
close up shots of the CNM folks. They look serious,
bathed in the red light of the alarm. We cut
to a wide shot. Dylan is standing to the front
of this very imposing group of CNM personnel.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Fuck you, mister Miltchik.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
Sound familiar. It's the same line Dylan used at the
end of season one. It's the last thing Dylan has
said in both seasons. Gotta love that severan symmetry at
de sivered barrier any Mark has finally convinced Miss Casey
she needs to go through this door. We are watching
her from the other side of the door. She's Zlli's.
The transition returns Miss Casey to her outy Gemma scout.

(01:06:06):
The door closes hard behind her. She immediately turns, trying
to go back through. The door is now locked from
the outside. No one can go from the stairwell onto
the severed floor without the right key card.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Come on, Come on, Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
Mark could easily hit the trouble bar from the other
side in order to let her back through the barrier.
He could, but that's not a part of any Mark's plan.
Mark as is looking at the newly switched Jemma through
the window that Helly broke back in season one. He's torn.
For a moment, he considers joining her. We see any
Mark start to put his hands on the trouble bar.

(01:06:42):
He pauses. Gemma is rattling the handle from the other side,
continuing to beg him to come on Mark. Any Mark
can't do it. He pulls his hands back from the
trouble bar. His look is haunted. He's making a life
altered ring decision here. He knows going through the door
would switch him to his Audi. His Audi would then

(01:07:05):
supposedly go on to live a happy and fulfilling life
with his newly resurrected wife Jemma. This scenario means any
Mark is lost and gone forever. Sure, Audie Mark was
making big promises about reintegration while they were at the
birthing cabin. In reality, would Audi Mark want to continue
with this rather dangerous procedure once he's free from the
severed floor. Probably not. Any Mark is frozen. He's now

(01:07:31):
looking at Gemma through the barrier window. Ah, but the
severed floor is home to any Mark. He's already here.
Have you heard that old adage about home is where
the heart is. Any Mark realizes his heart is down
here with Helly R. Jemma is starting to freak out,
rattling the door handle. It's becoming obvious something is wrong.

(01:07:53):
Any Mark is expressionless. Does he have to go with her?
He doesn't think so. The objective laid out by the
Birthing Cabin gang was to rescue Gemma. Jemma is rescued.
Any Mark is feeling like his job here is over.
He kept his commitment to Devin and Cobell. Over Mark's shoulder.
At the other end of the hall, we see a
familiar figure enter the frame. What oh yeah, it's Helly R.

(01:08:16):
Mark must have given her the bare bones of the
plan earlier this morning, when he was finishing the file.
She knew she would find him here at the severed barrier.
Any Mark turns. The reverse of the camera angle shows
us Gemma now over Mark's shoulder. She looks frantic through
the barrier window. Deechin Lockman told Vulture they had to
put up a strip of padding on the door to
protect her hand. She was so into the character and

(01:08:37):
this scene she was banging on the door to the
point she was actually hurting her hand. They hold for
a long time, we get reaction shots. On top of
reaction shots, Gemma is freaking out, but any Mark is
ignoring her. Now imagine it ends here. We know where
this is headed, and we know that any Mark chooses
to stay with Helly R. We can hold on to
that little bit of information until season three. Could you

(01:08:59):
imagine's them ending it before Mark made his choice. Ben
Stiller wanted to. He told Variety there was a brief
moment where he thought the cliffhanger would be Mark between
Jemma and Helly. He said it wasn't long after that
they decided people would kill them if they tried something
like that. Ericson has said in multiple interviews this is
where they were headed. From the first scene of the

(01:09:20):
first episode of S two. They knew it was going
to be any Mark choosing to stay with Helly R
on the severed floor. Thankfully, they also decided to let
us in on the choice before they ended the season.
Jemma is freaking out. She's screaming and rattling the locked door, handle.
Mark is in a suspended animation. He turns in slow motion,
ignoring the woman in the window who was Ms Casey

(01:09:42):
just a moment ago. Mark turns towards Jemma, but then
starts to back up. I think this is the moment
where she truly understands what's happening. Jemma really starts to
freak out at panic levels. Gemma understands what's happening. She's
been getting switched from Any to Audi and back again
on a daily basis. I would imagine she's become very

(01:10:04):
aware of the switching sensation. She can also recognize the
sense of confusion in Mark's eyes. She can tell this
version of Mark is an inny. This isn't her husband,
and unless she can get him through this door, she
won't be able to make contact with her husband again.
Variety asked Ben Stiller who we were supposed to root
for here, any Mark or Audi Mark. Ben said, quite truthfully,

(01:10:27):
I don't know. He's wanting part of the audience to
be rooting for any Mark. In another section, saying, come on,
just go through the door, Gemma, and happiness and your
oudy life is all right there. Jemma's pleading can't cut through.
Mark turns to Helly in a music cue begins. That
was a surprise for a lot of people. It's mel
Tourmeat doing Windmills of your mind. This was a selection

(01:10:50):
from director Ben Stiller. He really agonized over this when
at first he was leaning towards I Got You Babe
from Sonny and Cher. He said it might have worked,
but it felt a little too cute.

Speaker 8 (01:11:01):
Run like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel
within a weel, never ending, or begin on an ever
spinning reed, like a snowball down a mountain or a carnival,

(01:11:24):
like a carousel that's turning, running rings around them, like
a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of
its space. And the world is like an apple whirling
silently in space, like the circles that you find in

(01:11:49):
the wind mills of your mind.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
In a Vulture article, Stiller said he didn't know if
he was turning into his parents or something, but lately
he's been in a real mel Tourmee era. There were
other songs. In consideration. Ben said he had the last
two minutes made into a clip. He took it home
and played multiple songs over it to see which ones
had the right feel. He felt the Tormee cut just

(01:12:15):
captured the craziness and theme of it all. Ben sent
a copy of the song edited over the clip to
Teddy Schapiro. Shapiro said he hoped the Tourme's song stayed
at the end. He really liked it. The Windmills of
Your Mind was originally written for a movie soundtrack. It
was introduced on the soundtrack to The Thomas Crown Affair
in nineteen sixty eight. It even won the Academy Award

(01:12:36):
for Best Original Song that year at the Oscars. The
original version was recorded by English actor Noel Harrison. He
got the nod after singer Andy Williams passed on performing
the song. The lyrics were translated from the French. Dusty
Springfield and jose Feliciano would both record versions before Melturmee
did his take on it for a nineteen sixty nine album.

(01:12:56):
Under the heading other versions on Wikipedia. The only thing
notable about the Meltormet recording of the song is its
appearance here in Cold Harbor. If you play out the credits,
Windmills transitions to another tune. This second final song is
what we hear when the closing animation starts. It's called
Work Song by Bobby Darren. Steeler said he loved how

(01:13:19):
the two songs fit together. He also liked the idea
that Windmills is about all the craziness of the show.
Then it's back to a guy who goes to work
every day with Work Song. What he doesn't mention is
the guy's going to work every day because he's in prison.

Speaker 6 (01:13:33):
Go down and a good down and see down, Go
down and a good down and stay down.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
Mark as pauses for a moment, then takes his Helly
r by the hand. Helly can't take her eyes off
the site of Gemma in the window at the other
end of the hall. Even as they start running, she
is still straining to look back. Brill Auers said this
need to see Detcha had nothing to do with the direction.
She said it was just the most heartbreaking performance happening
at the other end of the hall. She couldn't take

(01:14:08):
her eyes off Deachin. Britt said she remembers thinking, I
can't take my eyes off her, even as I'm being
pulled away. Helly continues to look at Jemma down the hall,
even as Mark is pulling her along behind him. Where
are they headed? Who knows? It's just a few more
minutes they can be together here on the severed floor.
The handheld camera work as crazy as the two lovebirds
come racing around a hallway corner and run away from

(01:14:31):
the camera. Red light is still pulsing throughout the severed floor.
Brill Auer was asked in an interview what was going
through Helly's head at that moment as she was running
off with Mark. Britt said Helly had run to the
hallway with the intent of saving her best friend. She
went from thinking he was going to step through the
doorway and die to hey, he's alive, she said. Helly
saw Jemma through the window and has great empathy for her.

(01:14:54):
But Helly's also thrilled she's the one who gets to
stay with Mark. She said she was thinking and she
was running. They're like wild horses set free but still trapped.
Dan Erickson told Variety the lovebirds have no plan. He said, quote,
they're running away from non existence. They're making a choice
that they want a life, whether that's five more minutes

(01:15:14):
or five more years, whatever it is. They want to
continue to exist. If they want to continue to have
a life together. They're going to have to find a
way to stay on that floor. Unquote. A conspiracy theory
did persist concerning this finale. A lot of people thought
we were still seeing a fake Helly. There was a
strong belief this was really Helena, who had finally perfected

(01:15:34):
her Helly r impersonation to the point she could trick
Mark s into running away with her. Both britt Lauer
and Dan Erikson have stated in no uncertain terms that
this is really and truly Helly Mark is running away
with Don't worry another minute about it. Our Starcross lovers
continue to race through the hallways with Mel Tormae singing
his heart out. I hope Mel got a bump on

(01:15:55):
iTunes downloads after this episode. Yeah, Ready, here comes the cliffhanger.
We see Mark and Helly side by side, running at
full speed. Helly has kicked off her shoes and Mark's
bloody shirt tail is out. Is it just me or
is there a lot less blood on that shirt once
he made the move from testing floor to severed floor.
I'm pretty sure this shirt got a lot less blood caked.

(01:16:16):
We watched him run towards us then freeze frame. You
should be saying to yourself, hey, this freeze frame has
a grainy, classic film look to it. They went to
a lot of trouble to get that look. Ben was
going for the kinds of endings you found in action
movies from the sixties and early seventies. It would not
be unusual to see a couple like this in front
of something exploding or crashing and then freeze frame. The

(01:16:38):
scene itself was shot digitally, the way they shoot everything else.
Ben then had the final scene transferred to film and
blown up so the grain was more obvious. Then they
zoomed in on it so it had that old school
film grain look to it. Ben also told Indy Wire
this change in the look of their surroundings was signaling
a different tone for the characters. He said, quote, hey,

(01:16:58):
we're going into a different tone here. Now we're going
into a different reality for these people. Unquote. After the freeze,
the frame goes to red, which we know from Jeremy
Handel is the color of love here on the severed floor.
The closing credits also have a great sixties era movie
animation feel to them. Hitchcock loved to do these kinds
of animations in his opening credits This animation was created

(01:17:21):
by Teddy Blanks. Teddy is one of the founders of
the Brooklyn based graphic design studio Chips. Teddy is experienced
with title sequences for both film and TV. This is
not Teddy's first contribution to Severance. He was also an
Emmy recipient along with Oliver Latta for the work they
did on the opening sequence for Severn season one. For

(01:17:42):
more background on Teddy and his work, check out the
website artofthetitle dot com. You'll find a bio on mister
Blanks and samples of his work. So that's it. Refiner
credits have rolled in the second season of Severance is over.
Ben Stillers said they shot to ten episodes for the
season of the course of one hundred and eighty six
shooting days. Since the show is shot in location order

(01:18:02):
like a movie, it's hard to get a feel for
how long each individual episode took to shoot. One hundred
and eighty six does average out to just under nineteen
days per episode. The amount of footage collected for the
second season was staggering. According to the editors of Cold Harbor,
they had more than eighty three thousand gigabytes of high
quality raw footage just for the finale. How much is that, Well,

(01:18:24):
it's roughly sixteen hundred full length four K DVD movies.
Before we leave for the day, Refiner, I need to
discuss a couple of things. First off, what is the
function of this Cold Harbor room. Mark's arrival stopped the process,
but what was supposed to have happened there? Mauer and
Jame Egan were both watching with intensity. Mauer said it

(01:18:45):
was working, but it felt like they were waiting for
some big and visual thing to happen. Jame made a
special trip to a viewing room so he could see
whatever it was they were hoping to see. Variety asked
Ben Stiller if Luhmann would literally killed Jemma if Mark
hadn't stepped in. He said he didn't know. He said,
they're obviously done with Mark because Drummond was more than

(01:19:07):
happy to strangle him. As for Jemma, the chip in
her head is a big part of the experiment. It
allows her to sever into multiple personalities. Ben said that
was an important part of the test. Getting that chip
back might become important to Lumen in the future. Also,
was Jemma supposed to be in some distress this room
did not seem to have any effect on her at all.

(01:19:29):
The other rooms all created unpleasant scenarios Jemma was forced
to suffer through. These other room tests were intentionally painful
and distressing. That was not the case in this final room.
This Gemma Inny was confused, but did not seem to
be the least bit distressed or in pain while working
in Cold Harbor. It's possible this non reaction was a success.

(01:19:52):
Mauer did say the barriers were holding. If the function
of the chip and the aim of the testing was
to shield this any version of Jema from the pain
experienced by Autie Gemma, it was a success. The chipped work,
the barriers held. They even added Billie Holiday on top
of the crib, and according to Mauer, she feels nothing.
It may have been a success, but as a viewer,

(01:20:15):
I was pretty underwhelmed. After Drummond's breathless hype about the
completion of Cold Harbor being the biggest thing to happen
in the history of the Earth, I was ready for
a lot more from this room. I'm still curious what
was the bigger picture, What were they working on that
was so important and so tied up in this series
of rooms and Gemma's interaction with them. We have a

(01:20:37):
few clues, but still no solid answers. I'm also not
sure why she would have to die at the end
of the process. I guess it would be because her
Audi has knowledge about what's gone on down there on
the testing floor. For the past two years, she was
kidnapped and held against her will. Within Luman, they're able
to justify this behavior, but the outside world might not

(01:20:58):
be so forgiving. I guess they decided it was best
to kill any potential witnesses for the prosecution when you've
got the chance. I'm also still completely confused as to
how the number work happening on the severed floor is
being translated to physical rooms getting built on the testing floor.
Knowing when the numbers get refined they're somehow affecting Gemma's

(01:21:19):
brain is interesting, but I'm still needing a lot of
information as to how this all works. From a physical standpoint.
There has to be a process that converts Gema's thoughts
and memories to a digital file. This file is what
MDR would be able to access. Once the file is refined,
the digital file would have to be reinstalled in Gemma's

(01:21:40):
brain for it to have an effect, the refined file
would appear to no longer contain the tempers. If that's
the case, this also doesn't make sense to me. Here
was all about balancing the tempers. He's never said anything
about getting rid of the tempers, just taming them. What
the macrodads are doing seems to be ridding the larger
digital file of the various tempers. So many questions. Why

(01:22:04):
are there rooms other than the ones Mark worked on?
What are those being used for? And why did they
even become physical rooms if they weren't tied to the
gema experiment? We loosely established the only rooms Gemma enters
are the ones created by Mark s. If this is
the case, why are there any other rooms on the
testing floor? Are there other test subjects like Gemma living

(01:22:25):
somewhere down on the testing floor. Mauer was very focused
on the Gema experiment, but that doesn't mean it's the
only thing happening. Maybe there are other researchers like Mauer
doing similar experiments with other test subjects. It is called
the testing floor, after all, I don't think they named
it that just because of Gemma. So many unanswered questions.

(01:22:46):
Is this the first time they've tried whatever it is
they were trying with Gemma. Have there been other test
subjects who have been entombed with goats? Did they get
close to completing whatever it is they were working on.
I'm still leaning towards them searching for some kind of
path to immortality. The creation of a lumin fountain of
youth would explain James's strong interest in the experiment. Will

(01:23:07):
any of these questions be answered in season three? I
hope so, but I'm not counting on it. We seem
to have moved on from this experiment. Gemma is gone,
and whatever was supposed to happen in the Cold Harbor
room didn't seem to happen. Or maybe it did happen,
but they weren't able to finish the experiment. I do
know this, Jemma has a pretty important chip still lodged
in her brain. I don't see Lumin allowing her to

(01:23:29):
just leave the premises with the chip still installed. Gemma
is going to have a tough time getting off the grounds.
I'm sure she also does not have a car. When
Gemma goes up the stairs to the surface, she's gonna
have to call an uber to get out. Of here
as the cool animated credits continue to roll. This is
where we're going to leave things for the day. Refiner.
Stay subscribed and keep watching the Severed social media pages

(01:23:52):
for updates about origins episodes. If you have any thoughts, answers,
or theories about the questions I've raised, please post them
in the comments so we can discuss. You can also
send those overly long crackpot style emails to severedpod at
gmail dot com. As always, a big thanks to volunteer
researchers slash producer Vinip for his contributions to this week's podcast.

(01:24:14):
Also a big thanks to those of you who are
supporting the podcast with your positive words. Thank you for
your comments on the Facebook page, reddit, or as an
Apple podcast reviewer. Do read all the comments and your
kind words and encouragement are greatly appreciated. Your glowing reviews
on Apple Podcasts are also bringing new listeners to the podcast.
It's time to put things away at your workstation and

(01:24:35):
shut down your computer as you're putting things away. A
quick reminder you can still sign up to be a
part of the Severed Patreon page. Support the Severed podcast
by pledging five dollars a month, we talk all things
Severance and keep you updated on the Severed podcast and
this Severance production schedule. Signing up is easy go to
patreon dot com slash Severed Pod. That's patreon dot com

(01:24:58):
slish Severed Pod. For now, Refiner, you need to get
to the elevator for the final time this season. Thanks
for taking this extended rewatch ride with me through season two,
and as always, please stagger your exits.

Speaker 3 (01:25:11):
You've been listening to Severed, the Ultimate Severance Podcast. Severed
is written, produced, and hosted by Alan Stair.

Speaker 7 (01:25:18):
Severed is not endorsed by Red Hour Productions, Endevor Content,
or Apple tv Plus. This podcast is intended for entertainment
and informational purposes only.

Speaker 3 (01:25:29):
Severance, the Severance logo, and all video and audio of
Severance and Severance characters are registered trademarks of Red Hour,
Endeavor Content, Apple TV Plus, or their respective copyright holders.

Speaker 7 (01:25:40):
Please make sure to leave a five star rating and
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