Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside

An important, at once taking stock and breaking out episode 1.6 of Severance up on Apple TV+ yesterday, in which a wide range of our central characters move forward in their own development and our knowledge of them.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Mark gets sent to the hateful "Break Room" by Harmony, but gets even more rebellious.  He leads his three severed compatriots to Burt's Optics and Design division, which seems like a supermarket in comparison to Mark's four-person operation.   All of four of them are wondering aloud about the ultimate purpose of Lumon, and what everyone is really doing in their work on the severed floor.

Irving is ready to be friends with Burt, but not yet with any benefits.  Dylan gets a visit at his home from Lumon, which tells us how deeply Lumon has the outies under its thumb.  We've already seen and are seeing more of Harmony mucking around in Mark's life on the outside.  Would be interesting to learn more about how Harmony came to be next door to Mark on the outside, and what role that played in Mark going for the severance.

Back to Dylan -- I said last week that Dylan's rebelliousness as an innie might be a cover for his being a Lumon plant in the innies, but the visit he got at home pretty much disproves that.  Yet there's much more story to Lumon and its agents in the outside world.  We're beginning to get an inkling of that with the politician -- husband of the woman Mark's sister meets in the birthing cabins -- and the news story that he supported the implementation of severance at Lumon.  This means there was public debate about that move.  We need to know more about the people who opposed it.  Where are they and what are they doing now?

Petey's story could provide more information and insight into Lumon on the outside.  The company is obviously not happy about reintegration working.  Did they kill Petey, or did he die because of ill-effects from the reintegration?  The budding relationship between Mark and Petey's daughter could provide some answers.

And I'll be back here next week with a review of the answers and questions we get in the next episode of this unique and fascinating series.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives