What do we make of MDR’s work and how it correlates to the rooms/Gemma’s testing floor experience? Mark got this reward after refining Allentown in a single day, based on dialogue from the show’s first episode. And it seems there is additional dialogue where Mark says Gemma hates writing thank you notes (I believe Allentown was the Christmas room)
I think the severance chips sends data about what people hate, find discomfort in, and it’s MDR’s job to organize that info so the rooms can be ready because the data isn’t “refined” enough to know. Hence the notion about the “scary numbers”. This is also the first time we’ve seen someone can be severed into multiple personalities, so is it something where Lumon wants to see how many times someone can be severed before their brain is full time mush. Or maybe what’s the extent they can push a severed person. I think about the dialogue when Gemma was asked if she would be more scared of drowning or suffocating. Petey mentioned the testing floor being one where people don’t leave, so I don’t think Gemma is the only one down there. I still stand by my theory that Lumon wants severance to be a consumer product in some capacity. Obviously their motives are not great since I think they could have a population of people at their disposal whenever they feel like turning on the chips a la the OTC.
Cold Harbor is gonna simulate death, that's why they asked her about drowning or suffocating. Every room will be a simulation of every unpleasant experience so they can just sever people for any one of them
I can buy that, and that Gemma is (one of) their guinea pig(s), but I'm still curious about Lumon's endgame. They seemingly want to sell severance on a wide-scale--but why? Is it to gather the masses' intellectual data / maybe produce a legion of severed people indoctrinated in Kier ideologies? And where do the other MDR employees fit in regarding this? Who are they refining for? Is it also Gemma?
Also wondering why they had Gemma as Ms. Casey managing the wellness center. They only sent her to testing as a sort of punishment after wandering the halls with MDR.
after last night's episode, i took that as more of a permanent punishment. she told Mark that her Ms. Casey personality only existed for a little over 100 hours, meaning they probably kept her downstairs in testing until she was needed for wellness sessions. Cobel sending her downstairs reads to me that she's being sent back down to never come up again.
Episode kinda took an emotional sledgehammer to any Mark and Helly shipping. The Mr. Millchick as Snape redemption fan fic also continues to be tough to root for after seeing him panting at the end of that hallway.
Also personally I don’t think Milchick turns. I get the sense he’s a company man through and through. Cobel though? She’s gonna fuckin snap.
One thing that was tripping me is the timeline of Gemma downstairs - do we think what was going on in the episode is close to real time with where Mark is? I had a hard time understanding when things were happening to her based on the flashbacks. The only thing that made me think it’s recent is they referenced Mark being stuck at 96% while watching her at one point
It’s happening around the same time. If you think about it, Ms. Casey was only sent back to testing a few days (weeks?) ago, in terms of the show’s timeline.
We need to do the Star Wars thing and just date things by the Out of Office protocol lol Gemma's car crash happens Testing on her begins Some of what we saw in this last episode WE meet Ms. Casey More of what we saw this episode Ms. Casey punished and sent to the testing floor More of what we saw this episode including her attempted escape / mark re-integrating process Is I think kinda what it looks like
It seems that Gemma didn't know that Ms. Casey would get activated taking the elevator upstairs? Does that mean Ms. Casey was always Ms. Casey?
Ms. Casey is just one of her several innies. It seems the testing floor allows your outtie to roam the halls but entering a marked room activates another persona.
I really want to know how outtie-Irving knows enough / has enough residual memory about the testing floor to paint it