[ID: A painting of Irving from Severance, in his work suit. He is wading in black goo that goes up to his chest and looking nervously to the side. The background is red, with black stains descending from the top surrounding him. /END ID]
something i really like in how carefully severance is constructed is the payoff for the seemingly fruitless acts of rebellion. like BECAUSE helly breaks the window trying to get a note outside for her outie to see, even if it’s not possible and will always fail and never work, that is what pulls mr milchick away, leaving ricken’s book in the conference room. when dylan takes the card (’laminated ideograph’) to hide in the bathroom out of curiosity, mr milchick wakes him up to see his song which gives everyone the knowledge of the overtime contigency. even though their acts of rebellion are inherently doomed to failure, it is in striving and through these acts of rebellion that they are able to create pathways to escape. it’s about the act of rebelling against the corporate structure, not the success or failure of that action. rebellion in and of itself is a success.
something that strikes me about helly r as a character is like a certain nature vs. nurture theme…the absolute horror of her character, to me, is realizing that had you been born under a different set of circumstances surrounded by different ideologies and given different opportunities, you might have chosen to do harm and cruelty and evil??? (which she DID) but then there’s the flip side of that. that if helly r. at the office with no memories and no history is at her most pure ‘nature’, than you are also able to say that that evil is not inherent, but was definitely nurtured. and anyway severance is all about how these identity lines and markers get blurred
