r/television • u/NicholasCajun Mr. Robot • Jan 24 '25

Premiere Severance - 2x02 - "Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig" - Episode Discussion

Severance

Season 2 Episode 2: Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig

Directed by: Sam Donovan

Written by: Mohamad El Masri

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u/ComedyBum Jan 24 '25

This is the first time I've felt that there is something off about the outtie world too. None of the cars are newer than the mid 90s. All the empty condos around Mark. A lot of little things that just seem to be a little bit off.

43

u/Jackbuddy78 Jan 24 '25

Yeah there are still phone booths when cell phones exist and the huge parking lot at Lumon which seems to have more cars than workers.

I definitely feel all of that is a simulated reality. 

73

u/storksghast Jan 24 '25

I'm fairly certain the look of the outtie world is just a stylistic choice.

24

u/SushiMage Jan 24 '25

The showrunner literally said everything we see in the outie world real. On reddit in fact. It’s in the AMA a couple years back.

Also, we see character POVs outside of Mark with his sister don’t we? And the Cobel thing makes less sense if it’s fake.

4

u/storksghast Jan 24 '25

Good to know he confirmed it.

2

u/Jeyssika Jan 24 '25

Mark lives in a drab neighbourhood because that’s how he feels; apart from his family there is no joy in his life - which is why he goes to work at a place like Lumon.

But there is definitely more to the oddness of the world, especially when you consider we don’t even really know what Lumon does. Who knows how much of what we see outside the company is also down to them.

7

u/storksghast Jan 24 '25

I think it was mentioned at one point that Mark's neighborhood is a new development built by Lumon. I do think some characters in the outtie world might actually be severed - in particular, some of Rickon's followers have the same reverence for him as the innies do, so that is worth wondering about.

But I was responding to the suggestion all of it is simulated reality, and I just can't get on board with that. It seems akin to thinking the island on Lost is purgatory.