people are certainly drawing a line between helena / eleanor, both meaning "shining light" which ties in with lumon very neatly. i'm a sucker for Meaningful Names, so fingers crossed they're doing something with that!
Oh I LOVE this. Have you heard the discussion on the elevator "ding" yet? That it plays a consistent tone for ground floor (G) and severed floor (C). But for Helly it sometimes plays a B and most recently, no ding at all (theory she has gone back in but not severed)
i have heard that! enough people are saying it that i hope they're not saving it for a finale reveal. although tbf the pace is Not Slow in other areas! s2e3 was amazing!
Mine is that there's a second Severed floor and everyone goes there for half the work day, so there's a whole second Innie for everyone who we've never seen yet.
(I haven't started S2 or read any fan theories so I dunno if this is a common theory / already disproved / whatever)
There's the bit at the birthing retreat which opens the idea of people being Severed with other locations, and I wondered if any of the main characters could have had that done and not know it. Initial answer is no because they'd notice the blank period of memory -
But they wouldn't notice if it took place during their work day. Get in the lift, go to floor A, work four hours, get in the lift, go to floor B, work another four.
And the Innies wouldn't find a four-hour work day weird because they don't know how long it's supposed to be!
it's definitely not as "spatially locked" as they claim; the overtime contingent proves that. but they know they work a 9-5 - or 9.15-5.15 - so i think the innies would clock it if they're losing time. except in the break room i guess
Okay, what is Cold Harbour. That's the big thing. Because I spent season one believing that the numbers were basically busy work while they experimented with Severance and indoctrination techniques, but now it seems the work is important, and secret, and terrible.
Also, the unsevered employees seem as much, if not more indoctrinated than the innies? So what does this extremely successful cult need with a load of people who literally clock out of the belief system at 5pm?
yes!! one theory is that life experience can cloud the emotional responses. i need to know what Mark's social significance is! why can no-one else do Cold Harbour? omg Ricken was right, your job needs you
This line of thought ends with predicting that Ricken will actually become the unironic saviour of the Innies, and with us going through every in-show extract of his book with a fine tooth comb looking for genuine hidden insights from the showrunners.
The fact the numbers have feelings and the boxes are sorted by Tempers makes me think they’re doing emotional captcha. “Select all the numbers with Frolic”
The latest I’ve seen have been Helly has been reintegrated, and that the colour palettes mean things and we should look out for purple as it’s the link between the severed and unsevered worlds?!
Opening titles also flicker between Helly & Gemma, which probably just reflects Mark's split feelings, but could also represent him having to make a difficult choice or even losing both of them
Nah yeah that 100% fits with what’s going on—if you assume MDR is refining some kind of consciousness chip, which is a fairly uncontroversial take these days.
There's definitely something involving her mother, her interest in Mark, and the success or failure of whatever they've done with Gemma. That's just my favourite batshit interpretation of how that could play out.
I remember when she was in Neighbours as Susan Kennedy's angry stepdaughter and she was really bad. Was stunned to see her turn up in Dollhouse soon after.
Comments
(I haven't started S2 or read any fan theories so I dunno if this is a common theory / already disproved / whatever)
And the Innies wouldn't find a four-hour work day weird because they don't know how long it's supposed to be!
(I have watched maaaaybe 2 minutes of the first episode, but I stand by it)
I'm not against it, I just wanted to be clear.