Warning! SPOILERS ahead for Severance’s season 2 finale!Confirming a popular fan theory, Severance’s season 2 finale finally explains exactly what Macrodata Refinement’s numbers actually represent and what their purpose is at Lumon. The hidden meaning of the numbers and what the Macrodata Refinement department was actually doing has been one of the biggest points of confusion in Severance, with the Innies themselves even being ignorant of their true purpose until “Cold Harbor.” Back when Mark tried to defend their jobs to Helly in season 1, he simply stated, “The work is mysterious and important,” but he had no idea how dark their tasks actually were.
As Severance’s The Lexington Letter companion book revealed, MDR’s job is to sort clusters of numbers on their screens based on what feelings they elicit in the refiners. There are four categories (WO, FC, DR, and MA) that these clusters can fit into, with the refiners ultimately completing a file after filling five boxes with these four categories evenly distributed in each. However, unknown to this Lumon department’s Innies before Cobel explained it to Mark in Severance season 2’s ending, the numbers always had a darker role in Lumon’s plans with Gemma, testing severance limits, and serving Kier’s mission.
MDR’s Numbers Balance The Four Tempers & Create A New Consciousness For An Innie
The Numbers Represent Different Tempers In A Subject’s Mind
When Cobel and Devon have to convince Mark’s Innie to go along with their plan to rescue Gemma on Lumon’s Testing Floor, Patricia Arquette’s Severance character finally discloses the truth about his work. According to Cobel, the numbers from Mark’s files are “a doorway into the mind of [his] Outie’s wife, Gemma Scout.” The feelings that are elicited by the numbers are woe, frolic, malice, and dread, which correspond to the Four Tempers outlined by Kier Eagan in his philosophy of the human soul. Cobel elaborates that the number clusters are Gemma’s tempers, “the building blocks of her mind.”
|
Temper |
Associated Emotions |
Symbolic Representation |
|---|---|---|
|
Woe |
Melancholy, sadness |
Bride |
|
Frolic |
Joy, frivolousness |
Jester |
|
Dread |
Fear, anxiety |
Crone |
|
Malice |
Rage, intent to harm |
Ram |
Every file that is completed by Mark and MDR creates a new Innie consciousness for Gemma on the Testing Floor. By balancing Gemma’s tempers in each room, her new Innies are stripped of her original personality, which has been refined to reflect an “idealized” balance of Woe, Frolic, Dread, and Malice in her mind. By getting these tempers to a specific balance within Gemma’s mind, her disposition is controlled, she becomes more calm, she lacks overtly angry reactions to situations (Malice), her fear is minimized (Dread), her sadness is decreased (Woe), and she loses a certain level of playfulness (Frolic).
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Severance Season 2 Reveals A Massive Secret About MDR’s Computers & Their Real Purpose
As Severance season 2, episode 7 finally journeys down to Lumon’s Testing Floor, some long-standing mysteries about MDR’s computers & work are solved.
In Severance season 2, episode 7, the show’s exploration of the Testing Floor revealed that wires connect MDR’s computers to various outlets on that level, seemingly transmitting the “refined” information to another storage location for all of Gemma’s different consciousnesses. Gemma only has one severance chip in her brain, but, similar to how Lumon can switch on the Overtime Contingency Protocol or the Glasgow Block, they can adjust the settings to switch on a different Innie depending on her location and what activity she’s doing.
Every MDR File Corresponds To A Different Testing Floor Room & Innie Consciousness
Allentown, Siena, Cold Harbor, Etc. Each Create A Distinct Consciousness For Gemma
Severance’s MDR employees have unknowingly created numerous consciousnesses for Gemma through their files, each created to correspond to a different simulated experience or activity. While she remains the “original” Gemma in the hallways, each time that Gemma enters a new room on the Testing Floor she becomes a different Innie specifically designed for that location. MDR’s files like Allentown, Siena, Tumwater, and, the most recent one, Cold Harbor, are also the names of different rooms down on the Testing Floor, with each having a different Gemma conscience assigned to them.
Before Cold Harbor, Mark reveals that he has already completed 24 files, meaning he was responsible for creating 24 different Innie consciousnesses for Gemma.
The Gemma that walks through the door to Allentown and experiences writing thank you notes on Christmas every day isn’t the same Gemma who walks through the door to Wellington and gets her teeth worked on by a “dentist” (Lumon’s Dr. Mauer) or to Cold Harbor and has to build a crib. Unless Lumon removes a “block” or enacts certain manual protocols, these different Innies are entirely confined to their respective rooms/files. Loveland Gemma will be switched “off” every time she leaves that room, reflecting MDR’s Innies being switched off every time they go up the elevator.
Are Helly, Dylan & Irving’s MDR Files Also About Gemma?
Why Was Mark More Important When Completing These Files?
Throughout Severance season 2, Lumon’s executives put a huge emphasis on Mark’s Innie being the only one who could complete the Cold Harbor file. As such, it’s suggested that the refiners need a certain personal connection to the subject to properly refine their emotions and personality. Mark’s Innie doesn’t know Gemma, but on a subconscious level in his shared mind with his Outie, he may be able to recognize the feelings of Woe, Frolic, Dread, and Malice in Gemma’s mind and cluster them more effectively than the other refiners.
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Severance Season 2 Makes Gemma’s Torture At Lumon Even More Devastating Than I Expected
Long after confirming Gemma’s fate, Severance has finally revealed what Lumon is doing to her, and it’s more torturous than I expected.
However, that wouldn’t explain why Helly, Dylan, and Irving can successfully and speedily refine Gemma’s tempers without their Outies knowing her. Severance season 2, episode 7 confirms that Helly’s season 1 file, Siena, corresponds to one of Gemma’s rooms on the Testing Floor, so the other MDR employees’ work is still used to create new Innies for Gemma. The catch for why her husband’s Innie’s work is more important may just be that Mark refines the more personalized experiences (e.g. Christmas, the baby crib), while the others complete more generalized situations (e.g. the dentist.)
What The Real Purpose Of Lumon Creating Multiple Consciousnesses For One Person Is
It Supports Kier’s War Against Pain
When the Cold Harbor file turned out to have Gemma’s vitals, tempers, and information on the backend of the program in Severance season 2, episode 1’s ending, plenty of fan theories abounded regarding why Lumon might be balancing tempers and “refining” peoples’ minds. The popular theory about MDR’s numbers refining Gemma’s mind was confirmed by Cobel in the season 2 finale, but some corresponding speculation about Lumon’s purpose for doing so didn’t pan out. For instance, some theories speculated that Lumon intended to turn people into clones of Kier Eagan or manipulate their minds to make them “perfect” Kier followers.
However, the real purpose of creating multiple consciousnesses and Innies for one person is to relieve pain. Drummond notes in Severance’s season 2 finale that the Cold Harbor file and testing on Gemma were performed in an effort to support Lumon founder Kier Eagan’s “eternal war against pain.” That “war” began with Lumon’s foundation in the pharmaceutical industry, but has evolved into a more psychological way of alleviating pain through the severance procedure.
By refusing to see Severance’s Innies as people, Lumon doesn’t have to feel guilty about constantly inflicting them with pain and horror for their entire existence.
With every new consciousness, the “original” person is able to avoid feeling pain in various experiences. The pain of the doctor’s office, the annoyance and discomfort of constantly writing thank-you notes, the emotional trauma of taking apart a crib for a baby who died before it was born, and the pain and fear of a plane crashing – they all get to be experienced by a different consciousness, leaving a person without the memory of that pain, sadness, anger, or fear.
It calls back to the purpose of Lumon’s birthing cabins, which allow women to sever themselves to avoid feeling the pain of childbirth, instead giving that pain and emotional trauma to an alternate consciousness who will never get to know that baby. Lumon using severed consciousnesses to experience one person’s pain also explains why the Eagan family is so adamant about vilifying and dehumanizing Innies. By refusing to see Severance’s Innies as people, Lumon doesn’t have to feel guilty about constantly inflicting them with pain and horror for their entire existence.
8/10
- Release Date
-
February 18, 2022
- Showrunner
-
Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman
- Writers
-
Dan Erickson
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