So, Nordic Noir is one of my favorite genres. It usually takes place either in Scandinavia or Iceland (which I don't think is part of Iceland, but don't quote me on it). At its best, the genre combines crime with scenery so cold you want to put on an L. L. Bean winter coat indoors -- wait, I think anything (like the latest True Detective) that takes place in Alaska is also a kind of Nordic Noir -- but getting back to this eighth episode of the second season of Severance, which we're told in the creators' epilogue takes place in Newfoundland, it certainly delivers a deep Nordic Noir chill.
As for the story ... [here's the spoilers ahead advisory ...]
Well, as for the story, it pretty much delivers one thing, but that one thing is pretty important: Harmony Cobel is apparently the inventor of the severance process! I mean, it's not clear if she actually built it, but she came up with the designs for the process, including how to deal with its complications, and that's impressive. I guess this makes her the Charles Babbage of Severance. (Babbage came up with the design for our digital computers -- his analytical engine in 1837 -- which Turning liberated from paper into the ancestors of the digital computer more than a hundred years later, and we all have in our laptops and phones today, which my students tell me is in turn now in the process of being transformed again into astronomically-fast quantum computers, even as I'm writing and your reading this).
I doubt that Lumon will have much to do with quantum computing -- though, come to think of it, Cold Harbour could be some kind of code for quantum computing -- but as of now, Lumon seems very much rooted in the 19th century, almost literally so. On the other hand, in addition to Cold Harbour, since Severance is science fiction, anything that in retrospect is plausible could well be the way this season goes.
See you back here next week.
See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans ... Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies ... Severance 1.4: Innies Out in the Snow ... 2.5: Watermelon Man ... 2.6: Tables ... 2.7: Gemma and the Dentist
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