History Series / Severance2022

** Actually, all of the perks Lumon offers qualify as such-- the small treats and merit badges that model employees get are more akin to rewards for eager first graders than actual company incentives. But since the innies don't have access to their real life experiences and therefore lack any frame of reference, they're easily enticed by them. (Which in a way makes sense, since in more than one regard they actually ''are'' like first graders.)

* FascistButInefficient: Lumon ''wants'' to project an image of indestructible rulership... but the truth is the entire place is a dog-and-pony show. There's not even anyone in the ''security office'', [[spoiler:the MDR group managing to plan their escape with virtually no intervention, with the fact that it took Graner several minutes to actually notice Helly's suicide attempt is itself insanely damning, especially considering her outie's real importance]]. Without severance making it so nobody really knows ''what'' they're doing, the company would be an absolute mess.

* CorporateConspiracy: Whatever Lumon, Inc. is up to, it's so bad/controversial/ominous that employees aren't allowed to remember what they do there. (The public is concerned enough about it to protest it with fliers.) [[spoiler:Part of their plan is to implant '''''[[TakeOverTheWorld everyone]]''''' with the severance chip.]]

** Red, by contrast, is associated with the outside world: Outie mark wears red in the intro, The You You Are has a red cover, and [[spoiler: the elevator that takes Casey up has a red light.]] Outie Mark has a fish tank in his apartment divided into two sides containing respectively a red and blue betta fish to represent his split psyche. Further, when [[spoiler: Dylan gets a glimpse of his life outside and his son, the lights are red when he attacks Milchick for keeping his son's name from him.]]

** Actually, all of the perks Lumon offers qualify as such - the small treats and merit badges model employees get are more akin to rewards for eager first graders than actual company incentives. But since the innies don't have access to their real life experiences and therefore lack any frame of reference, they're easily enticed by them. (Which in a way makes sense, since in more than one regard they actually ''are'' like first graders.)

* CrapsaccharineWorld: The severed floor seems to function as one of these all on its own. Contrast melon parties, group photos, and bright blue Chinese finger traps with a written word message scanner (that can even identify any kind of symbols through one's own ''stomach lining)'', the terrifying, will-breaking experience that is the break room, and everyone's complete lack of knowledge as to what exactly they're actually doing as they work, all topped with a thin veneer of corporate cheer. Eeep.

* EnemyWithin: It applies to all of the characters to some extent, since they chose to be severed and thus condemned their innies to a meaningless and joyless existence of drudgery. Helly is the biggest example, as it seems as though her natural stubbornness makes her refuse to accept her fate as an innie as her outie refuses to accept her innie's resignation for any reason. This sparks a war between each side of her personality. The stakes get raised even higher when her true motivations for becoming severed are revealed: [[spoiler:her real identity is Helena Eagan, heiress to Lumon, and is working on the severed floor as part of a PR stunt to prove the safety and effectiveness of severance, so she's completely committed to the job as an outie even as her innie plots the downfall of the company she was born and raised to run someday]].
* EpilepticTrees: In-universe, The Innies, having no concrete idea of what their job actually accomplishes, theorize wildly about what exactly they're doing. Dylan theorizes that they actually live [[AfterTheEnd in the post-apocalypse]], and that the numbers they're crunching control drones that are terraforming the ocean floor for undersea habitation, while Irving thinks [[MediaWatchdog they're simply censoring bad words on movies]].

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: In the season finale, [[spoiler: Innie Mark tells Devon how he's Mark's "innie" and then asks why "my boss is here." A confused Devon gets him to talk on how she's dressed and realizes Cobel and next-door neighbor Mrs. Selvig are the same person...and she just gave Selvig her infant daughter to watch...]]

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: At the end of season 1 episode 7, Mark lists his late wife's various qualities while taping her photo together. He ends the list by saying: "I loved all these things about her...[[spoiler:equally", echoing the words spoken by Ms. Casey in wellness sessions. An astute viewer can thus realize Ms. Casey is Mark's wife several seconds before we are shown photographic proof of that fact.]]

** As Helly's outie is going through the severance process, Milchick mentions how excited they are to have her. This seems to just be him schmoozing or referencing her résumé, but it's actually because she's [[spoiler:the [=CEO's=] ''daughter'' and heir to the Lumon throne]]. Her video response to [[spoiler:her innie's recorded resignation request]] is also much harsher than one would expect, but makes perfect sense considering [[spoiler: she's an Eagan, her dad runs Lumon and she very much needs her severance to go well for propaganda purposes]].

** In the first episode, Cobel tells Helly: "Weaponizing office equipment on your first day. You are gonna be fun." Helly continues stirring things up indeed.

* IronicEcho: After one too many instances of rebellion, Helly R is sent to the "Break Room" where she is forced to repeat a mantra about how guilty she is, how sorry she feels, and how grateful she is for Lumon's guidance endlessly until a lie detector believes she truly means it. It takes over 1000 forced recitations for it to "stick". [[spoiler:In the final episode of season 1, when she learns that she is in fact Helena Eagan, the heir of the Keir empire and future CEO of Lumon, and that she convinced her father, the current CEO, as a child that the entire world should be severed, she begins to recite the mantra to herself, leaving out the "grateful to Lumon" part to a mirror.]]

-->"My wife was allergic to nutmeg. And when she sneezed, she always sneezed twice. My wife liked other people's dogs. My wife thought cardigans looked ridiculous. I loved all these things about her...equally."
* ManBitesMan: In episode 7, Dylan has a freakout during the musical dance experience and attacks and bites Milchick in his arm.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Mark expounds on the elevator's "code detectors" at great length, which can supposedly detect any form of written word, letter or number, even partial symbols, even through your ''stomach lining''. It's suggested the stairwell is equipped with these, too. However we never see any actual proof they work, as each time [[spoiler:Helly tries to smuggle a message out she's either talked out of it by Mark, or we see Milchick speaking into his radio beforehand, and the extensive surveillance means]] the alarms could have simply been triggered manually. Even with the stairwell incident, it's possible the alarm was triggered by [[spoiler:Helly shattering the door window with a fire extinguisher, rather than setting off a "code detector" with the note.]]

** [[spoiler: Mark's outie, when describing the list of ways he loved his late wife, says that he "loves all of them equally" - the exact same phrase that Ms. Casey uses during the wellness sessions. Ms. Casey ''is'' his wife.]]

* MouthOfSauron: Any communication with the Board is done this way, with their liaison Natalie being the only one who can hear from them or talk with them directly. Harmony, who is the unfortunate recipient of one of these Board meetings, is only able to judge what they might actually be saying through the static a box on her desk emits.
* MundaneLuxury: The perks Lumon offers for meeting performance targets include Chinese finger traps, "music dance experiences", and waffle parties. These are the only enrichment the innies have outside of their work, and they (especially Dylan) take them seriously. [[spoiler: Though, when we see what comes ''after'' the waffle party, it's anything but mundane.]]

** Cobel, while snooping on Mark's outie, takes the book Ricken left Mark and brings it to Lumon; Milchick then leaves the book in an area accessible to the innies. The book ends up being a catalyst for Mark to question Lumon and the work that he is doing.

** When Mark finds Ricken's book at the office with a written dedication to him, he and his co-workers are puzzled. Irving suspects it might be a SecretTestOfCharacter same as with the "spicy candy".

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: A variation. The innies do not know their last names and are only addressed by their first name and last initial. Only Mark's outie's last name (Scout) is known for most of the series; Dylan, Burt, and Irving's last names of George, Goodman, and Bailiff are revealed in a FreezeFrameBonus in the season finale, and Helly's last name [[spoiler:turns out to not begin with "R" at all, and is, in fact, Eagan.]]

* PreciousPhoto: Outie Mark keeps a photograph of his deceased wife on his shelf. In a [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy fit of intoxication]] he tears it to pieces in front of Alexa to demonstrate that [[SymbolicallyBrokenObject he is through with the past]] but once sober he pieces it back together.

* PropagandaMachine: Lumon is adept at weaponizing this both inside and outside of the severed floor. Inside, employees are encouraged to view the CEO as deities and create strange lore about departments attacking each other for the sake of keeping the workers separated. Outside, [[MouthOfSauron their spokesmen]] are shown easily twisting the words of their critics to make any opponent seem delusional or anti-science. As the finale reveals, [[spoiler: Helly herself is a long-term propaganda strategy to fully legalize severance and propel Helena to a CEO position.]]

* RetroUniverse: Though it seems fairly modern on the surface, it is shown both inside the severed floor and outside of it that characters still actively use old, clunky computers and tape decks, and Petey is shown using an old flip phone for the majority of his communication, although modern smartphones do seem to exist as well.

* SinisterSurveillance: Severed employees are monitored and scanned to minute detail so that nothing about their innie lives is revealed to the outside world. When Mark finds Helly trying to smuggle messages out, he informs her that there are text scanners that will read whatever she wrote -- even coded or obfuscated -- and that if she swallowed anything, it's best to let the company know when she did so that Milchick will know which end the probe should go into.

* SoulCrushingDeskJob: Working for Lumon on a severed floor appears to hold serious detrimental effects for the employee, beyond mandatory work events like melon parties, the surreal, windowless environment, and the hard limit on what can and cannot be remembered at work.

* StressVomit: After [[spoiler:Graner's]] messy death, Reghabi warns Mark not to vomit on the lab floor because of the DNA traces. He can hold it but only up to the alley in front of the lab.

* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler: Even after threatening to maim herself, Helly's outie rejects her innie's resignation request. So innie Helly decides to hang herself - even doing it on the way up the elevator to ensure that outie Helly is the one who experiences it.]]

* UnusualEuphemism: An interesting one as for most of the first season, it doesn't sound like one at all. With all the mundane "rewards" that the MDR department can earn such as Chinese finger traps and melon bars, the Waffle Party that Dylan is so interested in sounds like just another mundane reward to earn. And there is in fact a waffle dinner attached to it. [[spoiler:And then immediately after the waffle dinner is a burlesque dance/orgy with people dressed in paper-mache masks representing the four "Tempers" Kier Eagan defeated.]]

** "My wife was allergic to nutmeg. And when she sneezed, she always sneezed twice. My wife liked other people's dogs. My wife thought cardigans looked ridiculous. [[spoiler:I loved all these things about her equally.]]" The line serves as FiveSecondForeshadowing to the fact that [[spoiler:Mark's dead wife is actually Ms. Casey, who during her therapy sessions with Lumon employees would ask the employees to appreciate all of the facts stated about them equally.]]

** While at work at a wellness check, Mark is instructed to shape how he's feeling using clay. He sculpts a tree -– one that we have just seen his outie visit and is the site of his wife's fatal accident, thus indicating that outies and innies aren't so separate after all.
** Irving peeks behind a hidden door and [[spoiler:sees that the Optics and Design division actually employs about ten people, and not just the two everyone has been led to believe]].

* WhatExactlyIsHisJob: The severed employees' purpose is left deliberately vague. The members of the Macrodata Refinement division spend their days scrolling through walls of random numbers and sorting some of them into boxes based on whether the numbers feel "scary" or other feelings we don't hear about. The files are eventually completed but we never find out (at least in season one) what purpose it serves. The Optics & Design division's purpose seems clear at first (making tote bags and company-produced propaganda artwork) but they also 3D-print random objects like watering cans and hatchets for unknown purposes and also curate the company's artwork. Mark and Helly wander the hallways and encounter a man bottle-feeding baby goats, which only raises further questions.

* ArtisticTitle: The opening features copies of Innie and Outie Mark going through abstract and strange situations at Lumon, like a bunch of people pouring out of a mug, or the chair Outie Mark is sitting on melting, to convey the strangeness and alienation of the show's premise of people having a separate identity and memories when they are at work. Shots of black ink in places it shouldn't be also appear throughout the intro, representing the psychological mystery and conspiracy the cast uncovers.

** When we first see Mark walk all the way from the elevator to his workstation, he discovers a paper tissue in his pocket and throws it into a small metal trashbin along the way. Later Helly picks up the same trashbin on her way the elevator [[spoiler:to use as a stool for hanging herself]].

* AluminumChristmasTrees: "Waffle parties" are a real thing with a tradition stretching from the 1700s through the 1960s, with the 20th Century practice primarily being something among the upper class and traditionalists.

* ArtisticTitle: The opening features copies of Innie and Outie Mark going through abstract and strange situations at Lumon, like a bunch of people pouring out of a mug, or the chair Outie Mark is sitting on melting, to convey the strangeness and alienation of the show's premise of people having a separate identity and memories when they are at work. Shots of black ink in places it shouldn't be also appear throughout the intro, representing the psychological mystery the cast uncovers.

* ArtisticTitle: The show has an opening featuring its characters in very abstract and strange situations like a bunch of people pouring out of a mug, or the chair someone is sitting on melting, to convey the strangeness and alienation of the show's premise of people having a separate identity and memories when they are at work.