What is the message of the Severance?
Asked by: Kiley Bartoletti III | Last update: June 25, 2025Score: 4.1/5 (3 votes)
It's about whatever your personal mental state, biases, wishes, experience is. You paint onto the series what you want it to be. The story is just a vessel for a bunch of themes, and you will focus on whatever theme occupies your mind.
What is the meaning of the show Severance?
For those less familiar with Severance, the series follows workers at a company known as Lumon, where some employees can undergo the severance procedure which separates the consciousness of their personal self and life from that of their work self and life.
What is the main message of severance?
'Severance' brings to light the impact of standardisation and siloed work environments on employee experiences. The departments in Severance are many miles apart, and employees are forbidden from talking to each other.
What is the big reveal in severance?
This moment leads to a rollercoaster of reveals, including the fact that Helly is actually Helena Eagan, descendant of company founder Kier Eagan; Irving is investigating Lumon on his own; and Mark's innie now knows that his dead wife may not be as gone as he thought.
What is the meaning and significance of severance?
money paid by an employer to an employee whose job the employer has had to bring to an end: The management have offered employees one week's severance (pay) for each six months they have worked at the company. a severance agreement/deal/package. formal. the act of ending a connection, relationship, etc.
The Hidden Meaning of Numbers in Severance Series - Explained - Apple TV+
Why is severance controversial?
The Severance Procedure Is Highly Controversial
Innies aren't treated as real people at Lumon, often being scolded and even mentally tortured if they don't behave as expected.
What is the literal meaning of severance?
The phrase "severance pay" means the deal a company offers to an employee who's being fired. Severance comes from the word sever, "to cut," whose origin is the Latin separare, or "separate." Definitions of severance. noun. the act of severing.
What do the scary numbers mean in Severance?
The numbers could also be an empirical representation of the tempers, and the Refiners are performing machine learning by classifying the data. It really depends on how Lumon uses the data, but the numbers seem to relate to Eagan's four tempers somehow.
Why did Helly get severed?
As Helly and the audience soon learn, this is because she voluntarily participated in a process called severance, where a chip in the brain allows one to keep their work life and personal life entirely separate, creating two different versions of the same person.
What does the black goo mean in Severance?
I've come to see the black goo as representing subconscious thoughts (trauma) that the subject can't handle. I also suspect that implant keeps the trauma (that happens to the outtie) at bay, EXCEPT, if the subject starts to dose off.
What is severance an allegory for?
The sci-fi series “Severance” styles itself as a tidy allegory for the misery of the modern office drone.
What do the goats represent in severance?
There is a scene where Harmony Cobel demonstrates how severance works via a black rat. Many believe that Lumon is using the goats to test different versions of their technology. Other strong theories suggest the goats are examples of clones or symbolize the god Pan, from Arthur Machen's novel, The Great God Pan.
What is the point of the Waffle Party in severance?
A Waffle Party is one of many incentives used by Lumon Industries, granted to the Refiner of the Quarter. According to Ben Stiller, it is intended to include prostitution while wearing masks of Kier and the Tempers, to inspire reverence of Kier and Lumon while fulfilling personal needs.
What is the main theme of severance?
Severance is a psychological thriller series featuring Adam Scott as Mark Scout, an employee at Lumon Industries who undergoes a "severance" procedure to separate his work and personal memories. However, as work and life personas mysteriously begin to collide, it quickly becomes clear that not all is as it seems.
Is severance about slavery?
Activists and journalists are trying to expose the truth about severance and condemn what they regard as a form of slavery. The innie is, in a sense, held hos- tage by his or her outie. Every time an in- nie begins a new working day, it is because their outie has taken the decision to make them do so.
What is the plot of severance?
Employees working on highly classified projects at the biotechnology corporation Lumon Industries are required to undergo "severance", a medical procedure that implants a device causing them to lose all memories of the outside world while working within the basement floors, and having no memories of their work while ...
What is the big twist in Severance?
Through severance, 50% of Mark's life will be lived without the overwhelming sadness that his wife is dead. However, Severance season 1's biggest theory resulted in a major twist when it was revealed that Mark's wife Gemma is alive, only working for Lumon as the severed Ms. Casey, Lumon's wellness counselor.
Why can't Helly resign?
For her part, Helly has the most challenges adjusting to severance as she tries to quit from the start, and her many, even violent resignation requests, are denied by her Lumon heiress outie, who tells her that she is not a real person.
Is Helly Kiers' daughter?
As we know, Helly's Outie is Helena Eagan, daughter of current company boss Jamie Eagan and descendant of Lumon founder Kier Eagan. At the end of season 1, Innie Helly discovered this – although she hasn't disclosed this to the rest of the MDR team just yet.
What are refiners doing in Severance?
The job of the Refiner is to search the screen for groups of numbers that elicit emotions corresponding to Kier's four The Four Tempers: Woe, Frolic, Dread and Malice, a skill that takes concentration and practice to master.
What is the symbolism in Severance?
To deliver this commentary, “Severance” uses cryptic religious symbolism that anchors Eagan as Lumon's God and the innies as his dutiful disciples. The show is chock-full of Christian allusions, including Compliance Handbooks that mirror the exact layout of Bibles and characters who frequently quote Eaganas scripture.
What is the slime in Severance?
Turns out, the goo is actually black paint, because his outie is obsessed with painting THE ELEVATOR TO THE TESTING FLOOR!
What is the deeper meaning behind severance?
It's about the inhumanity of corporate life. Of course there is no actual procedure in real life, but we are expected to be a totally different person at home as we are at work, and we are expected to not let our personal values influence our decisions in the work place.
How do you understand severance?
Understand What Severance Is
It often includes a lump sum payment, but it can also encompass other benefits like continued health insurance, outplacement services, or even the retention of company equipment. The purpose of severance is to ease the transition while recognizing your contributions to the company.