Severance Show Explanation Episode 3 In Perpetuity. If you haven’t read my episode 1 or 2 write ups, you can do so right here! More importantly, if you have no idea what a Severance show even is!? Trust me on this one, you gotta check it out. Sort of reminds me of Maniac maybe? (Which I adored.) But the high level overview is that the company, Lumon, has made it possible to psychically sever the connection between work and family. So, when you come on site, you forget your personal life; when you go home, you forget your work life. Seems like it might be a solution to every problem you thought you might have had regarding your work life balance… but trust me, if someone gives you this opportunity, do not take them up on it! Hahahaha.
You can catch the show over on AppleTV. And trust me, it is totally worth your time.
Severance Episode 3 – “In Perpetuity” explanation
Episode 3 opens with Mark and Petey at Mark’s house. “It’s like having two lives stitched back together but the relativity is f%$#ed. So, my first day at Lumons is as far back as my 5th birthday, and with two pasts it blurs to present two, but they said it would get better.” Petey starts to give us the idea that maybe the work that Lumon is doing is wholly untoward. He even hints at Lumon murdering people. “What if I were to tell you that there are people at Lumon that cannot ever leave?”
Mark makes his first announcements as manager, and informs Helly that her resignation request has been denied. This causes Helly to hide out in the bathroom, and to attempt to write “Let me out” on her arms with marker. Simultaneously, back at Mark’s house, Ms. Cobel, or whatever her name is, notices that Mark’s brother-in-law dropped off a package for Mark, gets it and wanders about in the house. She steals a candle, and snoops around in the basement, all while Petey is hiding behind a bookshelf, and having weird flashbacks of Cobel at Lumon, and also there in Mark’s house, at the same time. I’d say that the guy is having serious re-integration sickness from seeing Cobel again. And it really sends him over a cliff.
Mark’s team heads off on a team-building experience to the “Perpetuity Wing”, and while touring the founder’s bedroom, Helly goes AWOL. And when Mark finally tracks her down, she is trying to shove a message through the stairwell window. After, Gerard takes Helly to the break-room in order to force a confession out of her similar to what we heard happen on the tape to Mark. Before Mark leaves for the day, he decides he will switch out everyone’s team photo. But eventually he finds a sketch of a map on the back of Petey’s old photo. (Did I call this one in episode 1? That the map needed to be sent in to Mark on the inside somehow??) Speaking of Petey, he slipped out of the house attempting to hide from the home-invading Cobel. And he wanders the roads, until he collapses in a quick-mart. The paramedics and the police come. And Mark, after not finding Petey at the home goes looking for Petey… and he finds him as the paramedics are walking him out of the store. But upon seeing Mark, Petey collapses… and the episode ends.
Thoughts on Severance Episode 3 In Perpetuity
I think Helly is our proxy person in the show Severance. Mark has been consumed by the grief of his wife’s death, and he is refusing to reintegrate. Petey has shared with Mark that there are people ready to help him leave… but Mark believes that the severance has helped him. (Which, makes almost zero sense. Think about it, in moments of grief, people bury themselves in work… not the other way around. But maybe he is able to just soak in the grief and avoid “thinking” about anything else? I’m not sure.) So he has refused to leave. But Helly? She is not going to go quietly. She tries to write a message on her arms. She’s made a break for the stairwell multiple times. She is going to continue this repetition of struggle.
Episode three is still as good as episode one. Love this show. And it really pushes the envelope for shows of this type. Which, if you’d like another show like this one, I’d highly recommend Maniac, and also Devs. Both a little different, but also similar at the same time. Maniac is literally the same show, but with a different spin. So, maybe start there?
Guess on Where Severance is Going
Possible spoilers – but heck, my guess is as good as yours. But I believe that Mark will remain recalcitrant. He will continue to refuse to leave Lumon. Petey will probably be captured after his walking away and collapsing. He will be returned to Lumon under some sort of legal maneuver claiming that that is where he legally belongs. Will he die? Will this be the straw that breaks the camels back, and will Mark go looking for him using the map that Petey left him? I do think innie Mark will become more emboldened to try and leave now that he has the map… and that will be all while outtie Mark is continuing to refuse to go.
The big question of the show is – what are Mark’s teams doing when they bin the numbers? The numbers are “scary”… why? What is going on here. Are they quarantining employees? Are they killing people? Are they eradicating the truth on the internets? I don’t know. Maybe they are strengthening the severance of employees… further enslaving them. It’ll be a seminal moment for Mark though when he finds out what his job is doing, that is for sure.
THiNC. Severance Episode Discussion List:
| No. | Title | Original release date |
| 1 | “Good News About Hell” | February 18, 2022 |
| 2 | “Half Loop” | February 18, 2022 |
| 3 | “In Perpetuity” | February 25, 2022 |
| 4 | “The You You Are” | March 4, 2022 |
| 5 | “The Grim Barbarity Of Optics and Design” | March 11, 2022 |
| 6 | “Hide and Seek” | March 18, 2022 |
| 7 | “Defiant Jazz” | March 25, 2022 |
| 8 | “What’s for Dinner?” | April 1, 2022 |
| 9 | “The We We Are” | April 8, 2022 |
Edited by: CY
