OK, theories on the numbers, what do you got?

i think they’re killing eels in the ocean to make it habitable for humans to live in after the apocalypse

I have a theory that they are refining the minds of the severed employees by “taming the four tempers” as kier supposedly did.

Something I haven't seen discussed is the possibility of each member of MDR representing one of the tempers. It would explain why there seem to be necessarily four of them, and why they can't interpret eachother's screens. My guesses would be: Dylan -- Frolic Mark -- Woe Irving -- Dread Helly -- Malice

As i was rewatching season 1, there was a scene where the crew was nervous that Helly wouldn't complete 100% of the file on time to reach quota. In this scene, it shows Mrs. Cobel watching Helly through her monitor and i wondered "why is cobel just watching her face instead of the file details to monitor her progression? Is there something from Helly's facial reactions that provide the same insight?" I'm beyond excited waiting to see what season 2 brings! My theory: the second season could focus on MDR before Helly's introduction

Lumon is trying to transfer consciousness. Most likely so they can move it from one body to an other. But getting all of what a person is can’t be done by computer only. They need humans to capture the emotional components. MDR is working on making sure the consciousness is being accurately copied/recorded/transcribed.

The work is mysterious and important!

There is a real condition called "Synesthesia" where stimulation of one sense can overlap and induce others -- people can taste sound or hear color, things like that. There is also specific types called "number form" and "ordinal personification" that are hinted at in the show. Obviously this is rare, so if this is the case then MDR would indeed need "special people". It may also explain the reason for their severance and that of other departments -- by cutting out most of the world's external stimuli and memory bias, the employees can focus on their specific types of synesthesia responses. Obviously the deeper "WHY" is the main mystery, but the "HOW" makes a lot of sense if this is the scenario. MDR and the other departments are indeed doing real work with real results. Also, loving the channel!

I don’t agree that having them actually just moving numbers while not producing anything real is lazy… I felt like the writers were alluding to the way humans fall victim to “groupthink” so easily. At first she realizes it’s nonsense (if the numbers were actually causing physical emotion she would have been able to feel it immediately). Slowly she is pulled into the weird world they inhabit and becomes one of them. I think making them actually just random numbers in boxes makes the thought of severance that much scarier. It implies that the numbers are not the things being observed and manipulated, the employees are. I don’t think my theory is correct or anything but I think it actually adds more depth to the story, the idea that those numbers mean didly squat.

I think it cannot be a coincidence that the deadline for MDR is the same day as the friends-of-LUMON grand gala event...

I think MDR is slowly cracking the code of human emotion/psychology. Lumon is in the business of mind control but despite their advances this tech still has a long way to go. It is MDR's job to refine the code future chips will have.

I'm just as hooked on these theory videos as I am on the series. Great work!

This literally has been the best thing since my breakup 2 months ago lolol

Can we talk about Alexa next? Can we trust her completely? (Or did Cobel find her after the terrible first date, ask her to go on more dates with him and report back to her, but then Alexa started to slowly get feelings?) Also I noticed when they talk about the specifications of their job: Irving falls asleep When Helly said she wanted her outie to "have the life sucked out of her and know it was her who did it": only then they found the other department edit: more things I thought of: Petey's doodles on the map lightly suggest mind control -- which makes me think of How Gemma "died" (and Cobel's mother) and maybe instead of death -- they're in a coma? And being controlled?

I feel like what they do is either not important to the overall plot, are a metaphor for mindless busywork in corporate America, or is pointless busywork as Lumon performs some sort of experiments on the team. Also, please do a theory on why Helly didn't tell anyone about trying to hang herself. The writers seem too smart for huge plot holes, and the board not finding out immediately seems super odd, given her dad is the CEO.

Most of the names of towns are places in New York. Dranesville is in Virginia, and there was a battle there in 1861 in which the union army killed and wounded many people. Lumon was started in 1866, so just 5 years after that battle. I don't know what the place names have to do with the numbers, but every set of numbers has a place name at the top of the page. The town of Keir is supposed to be in either Deleware (DE) or Prince Edward island (PE); I think both abbreviations are on documents we see in the show. Also on Prince Edward is a town called Montauk. Again, not sure if that has anything to do with any of this; there is also Montauk N.Y. where the "Montauk Experiments" supposedly took place. This is just information, not answers, but make of it what you will.

I think the Lexington Letter slightly gives away the answer. I won’t spoil it because it’s better to have not read it honestly, but that might be a definitive answer as to why they needed to reach 100% by a specific point in time. truly scary shit from lumon and I can’t wait for season 2

Fantastic video! I love thinking about the mystery of the numbers. I honestly have no idea what they could be, but the fact that each MDR employee has emotional reactions to sets of numbers is obviously extremely important. If I had to guess, the emotional reactions are related to their own chips, but they’re not refining their own chips. The theory that they’re somehow constructing code that can "resurrect" people who might be brain dead does seem to fit well with this. The MDR employees are teaching the software how "regular" people react (emotionally) to all sorts of different situations, so they will be able to have people like Ms. Casey be more...lifelike? Normal? Something like that. The chips allow the severed employees to see the situations being simulated in the numbers/code. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s going to be a looooong wait for season two...

Dude, Your the man. Thank you for these videos. I can’t express my gratitude enough.

7:23 Your Body Snatchers theory is the best one yet I’ve come across amongst dozens and dozens of videos. At this point in the series (end of season one), I’m going to bookmark it here and now that this is the true reason for refinement.. to capture a person’s consciousness and refine the parts of the brain (that retain one’s personality) that are dying, in order to preserve a person’s identity, or as their brain mirrors it at that given state to be used in a clone.. or to a further extent, refining removes any portions of a one’s personality that conflicts with Eagan’s core principals. Time will tell if this theory holds true.

What a nice surprise to get a video drop notification from Nautilus :) I subscribed to the theory that MDR was working on severance chips - until I read the Lexington Letter. Now I’m curious to know how the numbers could correspond to real-world events. The implications are horrifying. But I’m so curious to find out how and why Lumon are doing it.

Congrats on 1k subs!

Awesome video as usual. I think the numbers definitely match the four tempers, because the progress bars are WO = woe, FC = frolic, DR = dread, MA = malice. It seems then like the number sorting brings some kind of balance to something (or throwing something off-balance, as in the case of Peggy?) It's kind of neat that the four tempers are ominous. Even frolic isn't necessarily good. I tried to match the four tempers to the four humors, just to see. To my mind sanguine (friendly) = frolic, melancholic = woe, choleric (angry) = malice, and that leaves phlegmatic (calm, detailed, unemotional) = dread. I'm not sure that phlegmatic exactly = dread, but - the two descriptions of the numbers were "scary", which equals dread (or malice), and "calm" which ... is phlegmatic. So, could be something, could be nothing. And, which figure in _Kier Taming the Four Tempers_ matches to which temper? The man dressed as a fool must be frolic. I'm going to match the ram with malice because rams can be pretty aggressive. The old woman could be dread, facing mortality? The bride is woe? And wow, hey look. Someone already did this work at the severence wiki, although they match things a bit differently: severance.wiki/theories_about_the_four_tempers

Please keep the severance videos coming, They are fire! You deserve more subscriber’s, I can tell you have put a lot of work into these videos.

I have to imagine that the Lexington letter wasn’t a red herring. At least I don’t think it was. If it is true the files being completed relate to things that help Lumon. But I find the idea that their work relates to the severance chips appealing as well. I like that I don’t know. It’s exciting.

My first thought was that the refining was some sort of decryption/encryption process of sensitive data, and that the key to solving the encryption lay in the emotional response triggered by their chips

You should add a Superthanks button! I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d like to support your channel financially

Keep it up! Love your videos!!

I am definitely of the mindset that the numbers are particularly presented to the individual viewing/sorting them (or possibly the particular severed chip of that person?) However....I think we're ALSO being served a full seafood dinner of red herrings in this regard, so the mystery can be uncovered in a timely way. (The viewers sorting our own numbers so to speak). It's also possible they're a bit of stage dressing but I am hoping not. Also, as I post this, you're approaching 1k subs, so congrats!!

You should really consider doing some asmr or something along those lines. Your voice is so soothing and seriously put me at ease. I was having trouble sleeping and it came at the worst possible time.... while I was trying to binge watch Severance. I was super late to the game on this show but I found your videos and had to get an apple tv subscription. Any who, your voice is so great.

Nice video! I think this is the mystery I’m most interested in

I have a feeling that it has something to do with bombings. I found it almost confirming my idea when Dylan's theory also included bombings, even though his theory is "bombing the sea of eels to clean it up to live in". But that could easily be hinting at a meta metaphor that the "eels" are people Lumon doesn't want in their space. Of course, Dylan the character, just thinks it might be literally about cleaning up the sea. Which tbh, is a decent guess, tho we know as viewers that because it's a tv show that the answer will be more overtly sinister. Of course someone wouldn't want to think they're doing evil, so as a worker he'd guess something that sounds well intentioned. -even tho *actually* fucking with the sea like that is also bad haha. Anyway I was watching another vid that mentioned The Lexington Letter (companion book to Severance) and it mentioned a bombing theory as well, because the book has a character wonder if an incident that happened after they finished an MDR file with the name of the same town the incident happened in was related. Of course, that is just me sticking with my first thought for now since idk, something about a meta concept of, "this show is a criticism of capitalism" *and* when I read the list of states in the answer manual at the beginning (not realizing that all those Armed Forces territories on the list are real- I thought it was more likely a dystopian future hint about the world the characters were in where America already took over some territories or something, but after I finished watching the show I looked it up and was unsettled by those actually being real), so that it being an effed up military thing makes sense and was already on my mind. Like, that it'll end up meaning to be a criticism of how much American military does imperialist bombings to steal resources bc capitalism, alongside the more centered workplace related critique on capitalism. Its a big abstract reach but that was my thought process on why I feel sure it has something to do with them unknowingly bombing what is likely loads of towns. Lumon attempting to become the global superpower itself in that way as well as controlling people with the chips of course. But because most of it was just "that was my first idea" and its also still pretty vague, it'll probably be something else *or* that but way more specific and relating to the towns within the country, as hinted in the show & book.

O&D having different reactions to the hatchets lines up with the idea that refiners can’t see each other’s number groups which solicit different emotional responses as well. I think they’re doing the most subconscious work on their emotional reactions, hence their title “refiners.” They may be “taming their tempers” or cleaning up the last, deepest, hardest to label bits of their own subconscious feelings

They could be even more of a test subject, 'refining' their own reactions. After all, by the end of season 1, there's a pretty good argument that Lumon is responsible for the 'humors' in the MDR team. They're the ones incentivizing Dylan's behavior, terrifying Irving into a state of religious rapture (until it fails), plausibly causing Mark's entire tragedy, and of course Helly's 'malice' - her need to work her will on every situation - is pure Eagan.

I agree that the first theory feels light compared to the detail and depth of everything else, but the realization by the innies that their entire existence is just busy work because they are lab rats could be haunting and in line. The building is set up like a maze. The whole thing have me vague John B Calhoun's mouse Utopia experiment vibes

The Lexington Letter is very interesting and seems cut and dry, but why would they release one of the biggest mysteries of a television show in a written document rather than in a dramatic fashion on screen? Many viewers won't even know it exists. Are they planning to reveal it on the show, which will be less dramatic as some of us already know, or are they planning to completely disprove the Lexington Letter as simply a theory that was incorrect? (Keep up the great work, I binge watched the entirety of season 1 yesterday and your channel is exactly what I came to KZfaq looking for!)

So one problem I have with the last theory, is if that was the case, it would have made more sense for the "awful thing" in the Lexington letter to have happened BEFORE the file got refined. The awful thing presumably put a lot of people in the hospital, so if MDR really was severing people on life support, the lexington file would have needed to be refined after all those people got put in the hospital. I think that the severance chips do more than just severing people, I think that the end goal is to essentially turn people into slaves/drones for Lumon, and that extra work needs to be done by the chip for people that are full on being controlled by Lumon. MDR is working to suppress any strong emotions that these Lumon sleeper agents have so they don't wake up and take back conscious control. Note that Dylan/Irv say that Helly needs to "fence of the bad data," which makes me think that they are suppressing any strong emotions that a severed/mind-controlled person would have about, say, committing violent acts of corporate espionage.

Intro is an absolute banger in this one. 🤣

For new shows I would like doing a breakdown on The Resort. Amazing show as well

I share the same busy work theory. The work is just to test them. The work most likely is meaningless and they are in some kinda experiment to verify if severance works. Eventually they sell severance as a product to other big corporations.

Subbed, you do some damn good vids.

I would say the intuition part is correct. All 4 of them + Pete sought further depth in one way or another. Their intutions told them something was wrong. Bert took this to mean looking beyond for deeper meaning within the guidebooks but when he discovered they lacked truth he knew he had to point his intuition elsewhere

I really loved this show,watched it just a week or two ago, anyone has anything similar for me to watch,i love this type of shows 😊

I always click on your videos straight away!!

If the last theory is true, I think it's likely we see Petey again.

This is such a good theory, it’s ALMOST a spoiler!

I think they are refining the souls of the innies from the testing floors...I can't wait for season 2!

"If you're an Outtie and you haven't watched it yet..." 🤣😂🤣

I also really like the theory your mentioned in the goats video (great video, everyone check it out!) the chips being in the goats while being refined might be a bit too out there to make it to fruition, but I really like it

While watching, I assumed that they don't do anything, that it's busywork meant to keep them occupied while they're being observed as a sort of proof of concept for severance. This is undermined slightly by seeing the supervisor character nervous about meeting quota, implying that it's something important, and supported by seeing the party/presentation that Helly attends at the end, the purpose of which is to promote severance to the corporate partners attending. I wouldn't be surprised if it's something else, or that it links to the core ideas of the series, specifically the nature of human identity, but if it is, I'll be happy to wait and have that revealed at the right time. I hate it when I guess the answer prematurely.

You know I gotta be the first glad you back

Can’t wait to see Season 2

great video this show is so interesting

With the internet, maybe nothing is going on, and they scanning the net, and are waiting for the best most plausible theory to use for the show!

Did anyone notice when Irv paned to look at Burts house while in his car we see the same white car as Mrs. Corbell? It was a slow and specific pan. It almost felt like we should have paid more attention to that. And during the fair well party to Burt, it seemed as though he had a lot of pull with Milcheck especially when he asked him not to say any more. He may know than we think.

One thing I know for sure now is that all of MDR chips are linked together. We get an early hint of this when Peter is unsecevered and as he has his sickness and death that Mark has a clear visceral reaction even when they are in separate places unable to see each other. Later Dylan gets his refiner of the quarter reward and he chose a clear encasing of all the MDR workers in one hologram like cube in constraint to Mark’s singular head/bust spinning on his own desk in his one. This further hints they are connected and becoming more connected over time. The curtain is really pulled back during the season finale when they are all in override mode. You can see how they react and how it’s connected. I think they are connected to the point that even outside of work the chips are working on their brains. It also raises the question of if their innies are so unfamiliar with their outies when they are in override then are their outties actually outties at all or just under a different type of control from Lumen. Perhaps those core principles carry over and Lumen is trying to refine these workers to work for the best of the group and then use that information to control society at large. The more I watch this show the more I just cannot wait until season 2. As much as I dislike the long wait I’m glad to have something to look forward to and if they do it week to week then I’ll have a good 2 months or so to enjoy it. The stakes for the show are incredibly high both for the show itself and for the audience.

Interestingly, there are four tempers and also four MDR employees. Despite being severed and de-personalized, each employee has distinct character. This may be coincidental but there seems to be parallels between the show’s definitions of those four tempers, and the unique ways each employee behaves. Great video btw

My theory when I first watched it was they are refining emotions, triggers that would bring the real world to their innie. I believe that you need to be emotionally intelligent because you need to be able to identify emotion, trauma etc.

Another banger....

The work is mysterious and important.

Do you have a Patreon page or something similar? I really want to pay you for watching your videos, they are excellent and clearly involve a lot of work!

Well made video

Notice the SIZE and AMOUNT of number change as well. Sometimes the number are small and there are dozens if not hundreds on screen. Other times they are large and less than 20 on screen.

I'm pretty convinced that the numbers work can only be about themselves. Two things have convinced me - First, the level of the tech isn't nearly sophisticated enough to sort actual modern levels of data about the larger severance process or anything like dying people in other locations. I think Severance is intending the answers to their mysteries to be grounded, not "magic". Decades-old computers aren't sophsiticated enough to process the data sets you'd need to do things outside the room. They'd be unlikely to even have the capacity to interface with this kind of advanced technology. These are human brains we're talking about here, so no, those floating numbers aren't "programming" anyone or anything. They are a program running inside those individual, very limited computers for the sake of the user only. The second thing is the layout of the offices--all those serpentine hallways. It's clearly a metphor for being rats in a maze. These people are subjects of an experiment by Lumon about social control and response to stimuli. I had it in my mind that the emotional responses were pure projection. People in contained conditions where outside stimulation that's so muted and anodyne need a place to channel their feelings, so it's not so much "busy work" as compelling them to pacify their human needs into random elements through hours and hours of focus and the power of suggestion. The majority of the 'innie's' conscious time is taken up staring at these numbers with little distraction. In this way, the "deadlines" aren't to prepare data for anything productive elsewhere, but to fulfill the parameters - experimenting on their response via numbers of hours and adherence to arbitrary benchmarks. Doesn't explain the four groupings, the limited number of study subjects or countless other things, but that's what I'm going with for now.

I think it has to do with kier taming his four tempers. When they visit the perpetuity wing, the statue of kier says something along the lines of after he tamed his tempers he achieved greatness. I think they are taming the tempers for people. Controlling and manipulating. Especially bc one of the 9 values of Lumon is "wiles" which literally means devious manipulation. In the Lexington letter peg said something about audibly saying "f this job" and she has never felt that way before. So I think that's somewhat linked to what mdr is doing. Also is there a video going more in depth the tempers to the colors we see throughout the show?? Green - woe Blue - malice Yellow - folly Red - dread Which to me would make sense why we see so much green and blue in the office and is an indication of severance/being trapped. Green/woe bc if you've ever worked in corporate America. You know. Blue/malice bc lumon is actually evil Red/dread which you only really see as an indicator to the "outside world" (I put it in quotes bc I don't think any of the town of kier is "outside" I think they're all trapped to some degree.) The only time you ever see it is when someone like Natalie is on screen. She wears a lot of red. Also, side note. Mark is wearing red pj's in the opening sequence. A hint of some type of matrix stuff...? Yellow/folly which you don't see often, especially not alone. It's usually surrounding Blue or green which to me I feel like makes it an indication of an intermediary of some sort I also have theories on the color orange and how it connects to Ricken And the color purple. I could keep going but I'll spare everyone who read this much. I made a video on tiktok with my whole theories @ milk._honey

My theory on the whole show is: It´s a great satire but I hope they don´t screw it up in the next season. Stripped bar from the sci-fi elements "Severance" would make for a pretty entertaining, maybe great Updike story. But the many lose ends of season one make me fear for the worst. ("Lost" is calling.)

So, Burt's department was maintaining artworks, and there was a department which grows goats, and takes them away once growth has reached sufficient amounts. Personally, I think Burt's department is involved in marketing and PR for Lumon (trying to give them a good image). I think MDR is seeing the numbers as performance of each severed chip, and is in charge of eliminating the inefficient workers, or maybe detecting the chips which may be deficient. Though, this would be very anti-climactic, therefore unlikely.

Maybe it's not as complex as we would like it to be. Maybe the numbers/groups of numbers represent people who are interested in working for Lumon / are potential candidates for severance procedure and the MDR teams are refining lists of those people. Since Lumon is such a big corporation, they are probably hiring new people constantly so there would be a lot of numbers. We know that the MDR team can't refine everything because the numbers come and go very quickly, so maybe they're just sensing the numbers which represent potential candidates that Lumon will definitely not hire. Every group of numbers that gets sent to a bin is connected to one of the four tempers and represent unwanted candidates because of the overwhelming presence of one temper in the candidate. They only want to hire relatively balanced people.

Theory: At first, they come in, are TOLD what emotions to expect (only the 4 from the Eagan Bible), and they start 'refining'. The numbers at first mean nothing, and are completely random, but the peer pressure leads to them to start finding patterns and deluding themselves into feeling the emotions, at which point the chip analyses changes to the brain, generates the next field of numbers based off those changes, and the loops starts again. Like a machine learning algorithm using the human brain as a framework, the thumbs up or thumbs down being the feedback and the numbers being the input data. The brain itself is the algorithm, and Lumon is researching mind control/reprogramming for the Eagan cult. (Lexington spoilers) Though the whole thing with the exploding truck doesn't really fit in to this, so I'm lost. Cool theory though I think

Good video bud

Maybe they're training some sort of AI, since they're basically classifying data by dragging the feelings into certain boxes.

Here's what I think The eagans seem to have two key priorities 1) creating a family under one single rule around the world 2) control and longevity, they want to live "forever" The rooms we've seen so far seem to be categorized into 3 categories Work: 1) MDR 2) O&D Employee management 3) wellness check 4) security 5) break room Progenity and office rooms seem to fall here Development 6) expansion for future severed people with lots of empty space 7) tech testing elevator (the one Gemma went down) 8) Goats (I'm assuming here for now since idk where else it goes) Therefore, excluding the employee management rooms and offices, to me, it seems like what lumens goal is 1) rapidly expand severance and continue testing it. Its still a tech in development as throughout the series things like reintegration and the chips all seem like new tech (legislation is still pending). They want to fill up all these rooms asap with severed people. But why? To meet goal #2 They want the lumen/eagan legacy to never die. It is clear throughout the series that they want to be remembered forever with portraits and art everywhere, the progenity room and how much the eagans talk about legacy with their "bible". Therefore, I believe they are using goats to clone humans and testing it on damaged individuals with PTSD or other issues like car crash victims etc. MDR is cleaning up errors found in the severance procedure since they seem to be able to download all the code written in a chip. Therefore, it isn't farfetched that they have access to the code and run it through MDR clean up. The time crunches are coming into play because of eagans who are close to death or have ailments that they need the severance procedure to solve for. And Gemma is a clone with the capability of all her memories intact. The riot that they allude to where the departments attacked each other was real and that is also the code they are cleaning up. They are cleaning up the failed severance code of the past which is why the number of severed employees is so few and it isn't ready yet for the eagans to use it. The time crunch is coming up because of the government legislation and dying eagans so they need to prove it works and to keep the Eagan legacy alive. Helly R was another test guinea pig in all this and potentially even a clone herself. Maybe she's part of the revolving already (or she was in the past and they're testing an eagan clone and how it reacts to severance). This could be why although Helena seems bought into severance her severed version rejects it immediately. This is VERY unlike every other severed person we see that seems to accept it to some level. The difference is that Helena /Helly wasn't broken before being severed and I think given how much reverence she receives in the last episode, I believe she isn't just an Eagan but also a clone. She's an experiment in more ways than one

Whatever MDR is (or isn't), I am TOTALLY putting "Macro Data Refinement Engineer" on my resume. My guess: They're wiping important parts of ppl's memories to iron out kinks & perfect the severance process.

I figure there are different models of Severance chip, and the town names are their prototype codenames. The data is data received from the prototype chips implanted in people who are dying and their failure rate is tied to the success of the implant and survival of the host. Sort of a combo of theory 2 and the last theory

Eh, I still think it's busy work. These are really fun theories, but just because the showrunners gave emphasis to something, doesn't mean it wasn't just to throw off the viewer and gaslight them into thinking it's more than just something for the innies to do while they're being watch as guinea pigs. Pitfalls and red herrings make the world feel more deep and sinister. It's good sci-fi world building, but sometimes not knowing is part of the fun. I want to know, and a lot of these theories would be good and rewarding story telling, but it's just as fun if we never know.

I feel as a guess… the secret is in the department title… macro data refinement. I imagine they are assessing neural feedback of employee emotion… this allows them to present qualitative data that reinforces their position of severance as a global good. It could also explain why senior leadership is in such a rush before Helena Eagan’s presentation while helly makes it out via the override. 🤔

I think it's like "Lost" - the writers are setting up stuff that looks cool, but have no idea yet what it actually means or where the story is going.

Maybe the file they were working on was Gemma's and they are trying to delete her outie all together so that someday the whole world will have a new innie only Eagan worshipping persona only. Maybe this is why the first response to finishing the file they let Mark see Gemma one last time before she goes down to be tested to see if her outie is now completely gone.

5:00 - Actually I'm not sure whenever they can or can not see scary numbers

MDR immediately reminded me of the Breakers in Stephen King's Dark Tower Universe. Everything's Eventual man.

I’m behind the Lexington letter theory. And I saw that Twin Peaks gif have you or will you ever delve into THAT madness??

Is there going to be a second season, or what?!

Meant to post this here… A small but critical detail is that upon completing her refinement work Helly’s screen showed a full color pixel art style Eagan flying off a mountain that they joked he could fall from earlier in the tour. This is important bc the screens are black and green the rest of the time without full color. If I’m recalling this correctly, that it was in fact Helly’s screen showing the animation, then it lends credence to the concept that they are actually seeing numbers in place of images or something else. If this is the case why would they only see black and green the rest of the time? There are some blurry lines with technology in the show. They have chips implanted in their brains which suggests the future, they have cell phones which although flip phones indicates the relative present, and they have dated computers which represent the past circa 80s-90s. They also have things like colorful overhead lighting when they have the dance party. To put it simply, I am chronologically confused. At what time in history is this show taking place? Certainly this is something the writers thought about. They wouldn’t just randomly put the pixelated Eagan animation in the show. They had to have someone make that specifically for them. That change or style from the old school black and green terminal style computer screen to an almost 16 bit Super Nintendo colorful animation suggests an evolution in technology as well. Is this to make the workers feel a sense of reward? I can’t recall exactly but im fairly sure the animated video playee on Helly's work station. Did they all see the animation? Will they just begin the process again or will there be changes? Im so excited for season 2, less than a year away (hopefully).

Lumen is the archangel Gabriel? Interesting Walken connection.

It’s a psychological experiment, all of it, including the numbers. Their job really reminds me of many experiments I participated in for money.

I was really confused when Burt’s location was already marked on the map

Dying for season 2! 🎉

Groups of numbers can sometimes be seen as different depending on where they are placed, even though their true signifigance can only be parralled through their total irrelevence even when grouped in similar formats....Take Suduko and the top 9 teams in the English Premiere Leaugue Soccer table. Both grids contain 9x9 numbers and in reality they share insignificance although to millions of people they seem important. There are problems in devloping A.I. in that artificial intelligence sees numbers as neutral where humanistic interpretation is almost impossible to 'code'. It's like trying to get a sand pit on the grounds of an impressively built sand castle, we can understand the lunacy of such concepts but only because the building blocks of consciousness allow us to easily understand the rhetoric of such ideas, whereas a sandcastle built by a machine is so different from the sand pit to where they both have equal value. So as a theory the neuro network mapping of true human awareness would look like something that completely relies on instincts that CANNOT be specified or even suggested, they might have to be farmed from willing subjects with a very intuitive yet undcypherable method. I hope in season 2 they put a chick in it and make her gay!

According to Marx's Theory of Alienation the workforce owns nothing but their sheer ability to do work. They are forced to sell their work in order to sustain themselves since all things made to survive are owned by someone else. But the system leads to a high degree of compartmentalization in the work place and does very little to enable a humane and meaningful environment. We find this in the term work-life balance. Instead of being an extension of our identity, work and personal life have become conflicting concepts. The numbers symbolize the meaningless we experience in such a work space while we can sense that we are only cogs in a production process with no real emotional attachment to the final product. It is the bastardization of work that we are experiencing.

The numbers are minesweeper numbers and the grid is a map, Lumen is looking for resources, specifically water.

I didnt realize Tig Notaro was such a versatile actor

WE DANT NEED TO KNOW !

is the audio on this sped up?

Huh…does Mark’s crystal cube say “Allentown” ? The files are all named after cities or towns as far as I can tell. So much going on in this show 😮

I think MDR 'refines' the people that Petey mentions never leave.

I’m late on this series but I have a theory that Irv has been working with Petey on the outside . In the beginning when he tells mark he’s marks best friend but mark is just his good friend. 🤷‍♀️

how marketing sees you +++ASPIRERS+++ Contain sparkle, shine, and charisma. Aspirers seek to be impressed so using social proof and testimonials to create a sense of jealousy that triggers them to act. - Become a reference point in helping them define a person image. (You can easily do that with create an avatar and walking them a before-and-after story of the person they look up to.) - Most importantly show them a better version of themselves if they take action

Mason what do the numbers mean???

I think they are looking for the reincarnation of Kier. Many of the themes and processes are similar to the process of finding a reincarnated dalai lama

To me the innies have a lot in common with the hosts in Westworld. The latter were programmed to not perceive/consider anything that would tell them they're not real (repeated phrase: "Doesn't look like anything to me.") We see things through the innies' eyes while they're at work, so all we see is harmless pictorial cards (why would anyone care if someone took one outside?) and sequences of numbers. What they're actually seeing and doing may be something different altogether. For all we know they could be torturing dissidents or assembling cyborg soldiers, and the cards could be important and classified internal documents, or instruments of mind control that are too dangerous to be seen by anyone outside while they're in development. Maybe the kids (goats) are actual kids (children).