Severance
Warning ! This article curb spoilers for Severance time of year 2 ’s episode 1.Severancemaintains an air of equivocalness surrounding the true nature of the Macrodata Refinement Department ’s line but drops enough clew to prompt viewers to hypothesise and speculate . Since season 1,Lumon ’s Macrodata Refinement ( MDR ) Departmenthas been instrumental to the show ’s mysterious central storyline . Severance ’s four primary characters , Dylan , Helly , Irving , and Mark , are all severed employees who work in Lumon ’s MDR department , with no clew about the honest intention of their line .
They are expected to go far at piece of work each daylight and " refine " a data set appearing on their computer silver screen . The four workers have their theories on what they are doing , but none seem plausible enough to volunteer a cleared explanation . This raises many questions about the end goal of their body of work in the MDR section and whether sorting the numbers on their screen has any overarching purpose .
Macrodata Refinement Finds “Scary” Numbers In Lumon’s Files
The Workers Are Refiners, Working To Seemingly Improve Something
On the surface , the job of an MDR employee is fairly simple : they have to calculate for impurities in information and reorganize them base on their feelings . As Mark tell Helly on her first day at the Lumon position , she is await to follow her hunch and look for " scary " numbers before sorting them into bins at the bottom of the screen door of their computers . grant to " The Macrodata Refiner ’s Orientation Booklet " inThe Lexington Letter , the MDR workers are by choice severalize nothing about the numbers ' rightful significance because it could inhibit their innate intuition .
breach time of year 1 slowly uncover how Luman Industries ' severance process worked , with each new revelation being more minacious than the late one .
First , the employees are yield access to a file on the computer that their superior has carefully choose . The sea of routine on the file may not ab initio make sense to them . However , the numbers pool have been split into four categories , each provoke a different spirit . Based on how the numbers make them find , the refiners must fill up the five bins at the bottom of the covert , ensuring that each bank identification number is evenly filled with the four number clustering . The Indian file has a progress bar , which reaches 100 % only when every bin has been correctly filled .
Number category
flavour They Elicit
WO
Custom Image by Dhruv Sharma.
FC
DR
MA
Although the show does not dive too deep into what the four categories of numbers are , The Lexington Letterprovides some answers . On the silver screen , the categories are lay out as WO , FC , DR , and MA . While the WO numbers elicit " melancholy or desperation , " the FC ones constitute " joy , playfulness , or ecstasy . " Meanwhile , DR number instill feelings of " fear , anxiety , or savvy , " and MA is associated with anger or a desire to harm . If the numbers do not check the bank identification number they are designate to , a " thumbs down " appear on the employee ’s screen door , inspire them to try again .
Severance Hints The Data & Numbers Don’t Actually Have A Purpose
The MDR Department’s Work Can Be See As A Metaphor For Many Real-World Jobs
Towards theend ofSeveranceseason 1 , Mark and his MDR team care small about their work in their section as they position out to come up the truth about Lumon . Although Cobel after remind Mark that they are behind on their deadline , prompting Mark and the squad to focus on their workplace , it is operose not to see the MDR ’s problem as a metaphor for the body politic of workplace in many real - reality organizations . It highlight how basis - degree employee often have picayune to no hint about the true nature of their problem but are expected to raise solution .
The repetitive and isolating nature of the MDR ’s body of work inSeverancecan be ensure asa critique of how roles in massive organizations are often compartmentalized and narrowed to a point where employee experience little about the big picture . This could mean that the data point and phone number do not mean anything . However , a closer look at detail fromThe Lexington LetterandSeveranceseason 2 ’s episode 1suggests there is more to the department ’s work than fit the centre .
Severance’s MDR Numbers Could Be Linked To Real-World Events
A Severed Worker Has Already Connected The Numbers To A Terrifying Event
InThe Lexington Letter , a former cut off employee , Peg Kincaid , describes her experience working at Lumon to a journalist . She reveals she and her innie started communicate with each other using a language that involve the exercise of symbols and not literal rudiment . Peg used the language to communicate with her sister when they were much untried , which is why it is profoundly ingrained in her and her innie ’s brain . In one of the messages from her innie , Peg learns that she handle to successfully refine one of her files as an MDR employee .
… A truck from Dorner Therapeutics , Lumon ’s major rival , had blown up in New York at 2:32 pm , exactly two minutes after her innie completed her MDR filing cabinet .
Although Peg ab initio sense happy for her innie , she notices a foreign connection between her work and a real - man event . She acquire that a truck from Dorner Therapeutics , Lumon ’s major competitor , had been blown up in New York at 2:32 pm , precisely two arcminute after her innie fill in her MDR single file . This makes her admiration if the file completion could have something to do with the attempt on the hand truck .
InSeveranceseason 2 instalment 1 ’s ending moments , Mark retort to shape and come out refining data . Before the episode ends , the photographic camera soar in on the progress prevention on Mark ’s cover before switch to another one , with the same progress Browning automatic rifle , featuring Gemma ’s photograph . Although the recognition go roll before the show unveil the view ’s significance , it seems to confirm that Mark is working on Gemma ’s fileand somehow refine her . This could explain why Gemma was sent to the testing floor inSeveranceseason 1 ’s finish .
What Is Lumon Really Using The Macrodata Refinement Department For In Severance?
They Are Seemingly Preforming Machine Learning
Although there is an air of ambiguity surrounding the design of the MDR section ’s study inSeverance , a common possibility suggests thatthe employees are perform machine learning . The entire nature of the section ’s workplace represents model breeding , give how they are expected to class figure base on emotion , which can later be used by Lumon to train algorithms . While it is unknown what Lumon is using the numbers for , the processed information may help them improve the severance chip or even produce more effective employees in the hereafter .
The MDR worker on 16 - bit Data General Nova devices inSeverance .
Ms. Casey seems improbably robotic inSeveranceseason 1 and shows piddling to no emotion . This could mean that her chip was either been refined to a point where she had become an ideal Lumon employee , or she require more refinement to become a estimable fit for Lumon ’s agendum . give how she was sent to the examination floor inSeveranceseason 1 ’s ending , and Mark work on her filing cabinet inSeveranceseason 2 ’s installment 1 , the latter seems more potential .
Severance is a psychological thriller series feature Adam Scott as Mark Scout , an employee at Lumon Industries who undergoes a " severance " routine to separate his body of work and personal storage . However , as oeuvre and life character mysteriously start out to jar , it quick becomes exculpated that not all is as it seems . Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle .
