Severance Episode 1 | EXPLAINED

[@heavyspoilers]

Sucks it took so long for you to get this through copyright but the wait was well worth it, video is awesome

[@haxDOGMA]

Thank you brother!

[@owieczkacs]

Daaaayum, @heavyspoilers is here

[@izzyxblades]

Dang, Paul's here!

[@wanggaard]

I was going to make my own separate comment, but when I saw Paul at the top I was even more inspired. This is an amazing analysis @HaxDogma perhaps even better than @nautilusfiles. Thank you for the great video, and thank you for supporting growingchannels @HeavySpoilers !

[@lovelyloops9889]

I thought the Eagan breakfast egg question was simply to find out if her memories of the morning’s conversations had been effectively wiped. I thought each question was probably a mix of personal and general. I figured it didn’t make sense to her because at this point she doesn’t even know who Eagan is much less what he eats for breakfast? Milchick probably notes a salient moment in all his conversations with new hires on their way to the severance procedure, and then puts one in the question list to see if any of their short term memory is still intact.

[@nicholasleemarks]

💯 This makes a lot more sense to me. Though I guess it doesn’t matter, the video’s interpretation still leads us to the same conclusion: severance chip is working, erasing some memories but not all

[@esztiszep6334]

Exactly, I don't think her saying "that doesn't even make sense" implies she remembers some of that conversation. I always took it as her being surprised at how random that question is and has no idea who Mr Eagan is. Also, it WAS mentioned specifically as his "favorite", Milchick himself said it that way, "his favorite breakfast". So she wouldn't say it doesn't make sense because the use of the word "favorite", instead of "only" Also, remembering Delaware isn't important because it's a geographical location, I think that question's ONLY there to test (and show the audience too) that they've retained general knowledge about the world and only lost memories regarding their personal lives

[@miraayres4868]

Watching through all your Severance videos, I've noticed all your sneaky and sweet editing quirks you slip in and they're so lovely lol

[@haxDOGMA]

Aweee, I'm so glad! I love adding these, and I love when people find them :D

[@little.miss.flawless.70]

YESSSS this is so awesome thank you Hax! Severance has had me in a GRIP since it's release. You are my absolute favorite television reviewer. I am a dork and got goosebumps when you said "Let's over think a show about..." great job, you rock

[@CSLintheCASINO]

100%

[@Dylancawater]

Wow, what a great video! Very well-spoken and pointed out some things that I haven't caught before. And good on you for trying to solve the cryptic messages in the show lol. I hope you're able to release some more videos on the rest of the series. Looking forward to it.

[@TagardMC]

As calmly as possible I have to ask I need more them episodes. This was great and I'm eating these theories up.

[@haxDOGMA]

Haha, sooooooon!

[@haxDOGMA]

Glad you’re enjoying them 🥰

[@TagardMC]

Your stuff plus LOST is coming to Netflix In July I'm probably just going to do some real rewatches this summer.

[@haxDOGMA]

Yessss! Seems like it’s time for a rewatch!

[@grayscales1864]

heck yes, this is def one of the most unique screenplays I've seen, really got invested in the story and characters by the end

[@paradoxregina]

Best nitty gritty deep dive on Severance. Keep the episodes coming :D

[@kelseylloyd8801]

When are we getting episode two? This is the best thing I’ve seen on severance and I can’t wait! Thanks for all this hard work!

[@renx81]

33:12 You forgot to mention Twin Peaks, the original "mystery-cloaked drama" made for theory-crafting fans.

[@little.miss.flawless.70]

I really want to love Twin Peaks. I feel like it's an inside joke that I don't get! Maybe I want it too much.

[@renx81]

@@little.miss.flawless.70 Maybe it's just not your cup of tea? That show is for sure not for everybody.

[@methebee]

@@little.miss.flawless.70 you have to watch the film and the new season too

[@mattgilbert7347]

Helloooo

[@lurchilurch5507]

Thank you for giving this show the hyper-attention it deserves!

[@klipronhoward]

So glad you are reviewing this series.😊

[@januka]

Finally you are doing this!

[@TagardMC]

I was told my outie has already seen your next episode and I'm getting anxious.

[@CSLintheCASINO]

yes Yes YESSSSS!!!!! Hax reviewing severance feels right as rain.

[@docweidner]

Glad to see you get to this. Sorry I didn't see it sooner, but glad you made it. Sorry YT was such a pain.

[@KB-313]

top tier quality summary! good stuff

[@B.Fontray]

Yeaaahhh I'm gonna need you to do the remainder of the series now

[@instantchildbirth2746]

you jinxed it

[@JeremyIVfr]

22:55 I think the line "Good News About Hell" goes deeper in its meaning here, apart from just being a great line. It's a hint. Ms. Cobel is suggesting that while hell is merely a morbid figment of human imagination and doesn’t exist in a supernatural sense, humans have the capacity to manifest it in reality - just as they have done with the severance program, creating a tangible version of a nightmarish existence. In other words, hell doesn't exist, it is just a product of human imagination. But whatever humans can imagine, they can create, such as the severance program, which traps people in a nightmarish existence of artificial separation and control. Like the pretentious dude Patton in the "no dinner" dinner scene says, your innie is trapped inside forever, which is actually like living in hell.

[@no_one_of_that_name_here]

Very happy to see you talk about this show! I do need to know, what is a lifeless table? 1:50

[@nicholasleemarks]

Looks like you answered your own question 😜

[@Mobay18]

Thank you for doing Severance videos! Side note, there is some kind of reverb when you talk. Like maybe the spring on a microphone stand or something. Anyway looking forward to your next video!

[@Ayelord_khory]

We Out Here

[@TheCollection...ofBooks]

Bell Labs is where proof of the Big Bang, the Cosmic Background Radiation, was discovered. Possibly a meaningful note.

[@haxDOGMA]

Oh snap, that’s really neat.

[@little.miss.flawless.70]

15:53 always get jazzed when I see the number 19, thanks for pointing this out! Its a Dark Tower thing, not sure if anyone here is into that yet. I hope you cover the series when its finally made

[@Shakes_The_Clone]

I was just thinking about a rewatch. How often are you planning to upload these?

[@haxDOGMA]

No hard schedule just yet, but somewhat regular! Fallout Lucy Timeline should be my next vid!

[@SethCohn23]

​@@haxDOGMAsomewhat regular time later.... now? Soon? Plz can we haz?

[@davidr1431]

Great work . Thanks for your effort.

[@griefscapes]

Eagans breakfast would also be known to her as a family member. On the name any state question, perhaps it's really about verifying they don't remember personal information, but they haven't destroyed fundamental knowledge

[@akaidatenshi]

Love your analyses. Missed your in depth post when Westworld ended

[@TheJepps1]

I was kinda listening to this in the background, so maybe I missed something. Nonetheless, regarding the sticky note: The workers look at numbers on the screen and get a feeling that something is wrong, or scary. Could the sticky note be a Rosetta Stone deciphering how to interpret the pattern in the numbers leading the user to understand what trashing these numbers actually means? Murdering people for 8 hrs a day to cull dissent? Without the cypher, the brain processes the information, but is only able to communicate it as fear. p.s. I'm only up to Episode 5, so this may be explained later on in Season 1.

[@SilkBuckets]

such a good show, I cant wait for season 2 babyyyyy

[@mattgilbert7347]

Extraordinary show. Rewards a rewatch. Appreciate the breakdown & analysis. I think you are onto something with regard to the nature of MDR & what they're actually doing. It makes sense that the Severance Floor (floors ?) is like a "closed circuit" & that Mark, Helly, Dylan, & Irving are monitoring and influencing, albeit indirectly, other severed employees at a subliminal, subconscious level. The entire point of the severed floor employees is: Severance itself. We know it is being sold to, and used by, certain elite customers who aren't directly employed by Lumen - it is a product/service with a realisable market value - but I don't think that's what the severed employees work on, I don't think they affect anything outside of their "circuit" or "loop". They're working on each other and on refining the Severance procedure itself. I worked in Call Centres for years. Market, Social, & Political Research. This show is a superb, Swiftian satire of that office culture. Have a *productive* day.

[@frankief.9827]

Why is the "what's for dinner?" line iconic?

[@JenzDrake]

It's an inside joke. The joke is they don't know what's for dinner.

[@frankief.9827]

@@JenzDrake Thank you!

[@TheEbonyEngineer]

Finally!

[@methebee]

thanks

[@nelsonaraujo86]

I was fan of you dissecting Westworld. Now this marvel of a show. I wanna point out that the Ricken and his friends could be some experiment from Lumon about innies versions being in the world. They were weird. Also they should know that the Great War was WWI. Perhaps Ricken is Rick N

[@haxDOGMA]

Tbh, this has been on my mind recently. It seems like they could do some WILD twist where Ricken is actually part of the Lumon agenda in a really odd way!

[@nelsonaraujo86]

@@haxDOGMA imagine that! Also the way one of them reacted when they found the baby in later episodes. Like wanting to receive a prize... Keep up the good work! You're doing great!

[@haxDOGMA]

@nelsonaraujo86 thank you much 🙏🙏

[@mattgilbert7347]

​@@haxDOGMAI am fixated on your observations about Milchik and his seemingly cavalier (for Lumen) attitude towards Ricken's book. Why did he insert it into MDR? All I can think of is the concept of "Recuperation" in which potentially subversive ideas, movements, subcultures etc are often absorbed and neutralised by the very structures to which they are ostensibly opposed. Like the appropriation of anti-Capitalist protest movements by Capital, the ideas defused and then sold back to the would-be radicals. Ricken's book and little social circle is like a childish parody of Liberal Arts lefties who read Marx and plot revolution over wine and canapes.

[@ebrewste]

Isn’t the red star on the watch something his wife would have given him (Russian literature) and a reminder of his grief?

[@Draddar]

It's been a while since I watched this, absolutely loved it. Can't wait for season 2 and how else to get prepared than HaxDogma's way too deep analysis😅

[@worldadventuretravel]

Just binge-watched the first season and I remain convinced that they are not employees, but subjects of a mind control experiment. One indicator among many is the way the "company" infantilizes them all the way down to their job descriptions and incentives you'd use to motivate a third-grade classroom, not a team of grown adults doing something important. AI could easily do the "job" they're doing at much lower cost and without having to maintain a Byzantine labyrinth of deception if the "company" were really trying to accomplish some sort of production objective through MDR. They're also obviously in some kind of a cult where the lead figure and his progeny have been mythologized into some type of gods. I don't believe they're putting out a product or service at all. I think they are simply working toward the goal of an entirely compliant, mind-controlled body politic. Regardless of the goal, they're being studied for something.

[@mattgilbert7347]

I think they are literally doing Macro Data Refinement - on each other and the other departments. Refining the Severance procedure. The whole thing is like rats in a maze.

[@MarcelaAkey]

let's gooo

[@itchimo82]

Episodes vs semantic memory

[@little.miss.flawless.70]

Heyyyy I hope you're doing so fabulous today on this blessed Severance Teaser Day I am dying to know what you think!! When I saw Gwendoline's character, I only thought one thing..

[@skintxisu]

Where is episode two

[@mr.balloffur]

I only subscribed to AppleTV for Adam Scott. This show is a masterpiece!

[@juanvasquez6535]

Adam Scott looks so much like Alan Alda in this.

[@MYSTERIOMUSIK]

Damn it i lost the game

[@juanorta2679]

W

[@slimtimm1]

ObFUSSTICATION??😂

[@amefuraggamuffin]

7:35 talking about "communism" lol im done. Dude this show is about endstage capitalism and the alienation of the worker from his work. Severance is an anti-capitalist story

[@haxDOGMA]

@@amefuraggamuffin do you think maybe there is some overlap with these systems? I’m not sure what you find issue with specifically, but I completely agree this is an anti-capitalist story lol

[@BeatriceBambino]

I cringed and laughed at that too, but I still think it's a good video in general. The show is clearly political but also has other (tangent) themes. Even if that political take was very "brainwashed american" naive, the rest of the analysis was good imho

[@haxDOGMA]

@@BeatriceBambino the show is absolutely building to a narrative that both communism and capitalist do not value the individual, btw. This wasn’t a political take. Fuck capitalism, fuck communism, this truly wasn’t a stance lmao

[@BeatriceBambino]

@@haxDOGMA as I said, brainwashed american naive politically-wise, but the rest of the analysis is really good, I just finished binge watching it. keep up the good work

[@haxDOGMA]

@@BeatriceBambino cheers! :)

[@mr.balloffur]

She was already sceptical, none of that was Mark's fault. This might be the worst video I've seen on the show. Delaware has nothing to do with it,they just want to make sure that you know some stuff. Also they want to make sure she forgot what she was told that morning, like who KE was and what he had for breakfast. You're really going off into the deep end 😂😂😂😂