The discourse surrounding Episode 6 of Season 2 of Severance, entitled 'Attila,' delves into the intricate dynamics of human relationships within the confines of a dystopian corporate structure. Aubree and Jeff meticulously analyze the episode's narrative, which centers on Mark's continuing journey of self-discovery and the implications of his reintegration experiences. The episode juxtaposes Mark's personal struggles with the overarching themes of identity and the psychological ramifications of severance. A poignant moment arises when Mark grapples with the fragmented memories of his wife, Gemma, raising questions about the essence of memory and its impact on our sense of self. As the plot unfolds, the conversation highlights the significance of interpersonal bonds, particularly in the face of adversity, as the characters navigate their complex emotional landscapes amidst the surreal environment of Lumen Industries. Moreover, the dialogue examines the utilization of hall passes as a narrative device, provoking reflections on the arbitrary nature of privileges within the workplace hierarchy, while also revealing deeper layers of the characters' motivations and desires.

And this is worth the binge.

The show where Aubrey and Jeff talk about the shows worth binging.

That's right.

Two episodes in one day.

Because we were behind.

It happens.

You know, life.

Life is crazy like that.

Yeah.

If you didn't happen to catch the date, same date as the last one.

We did not even stop it and hit record again.

We here.

We back.

We're giving you.

Giving you some behind the scenes info here.

But yeah, we're just recording.

Rolling right on through.

Yeah, let's do it.

So not a lot happened between now and the last episode for us, but we are excited to go ahead and dig into the next episode of severance.

Season 2.

Episode 6 is titled Attila.

Bonds are tested.

Mark continues on his path of discovery.

So this episode starts with Mark sitting in his living room.

He's talking to Rigabe about his reintegration experience that we left off last episode.

Mark asked for Gabi.

What are they doing to Gemma?

Because she didn't know who he was.

She was spouting out random facts.

And she says, all I know is that she's essential.

Which we've seen constantly.

Yes.

With Mr.

Drummond saying that, you know, Mark's important.

We need him to finish.

He's at 85%.

Like, we know something's essential about her and him, but we.

We have yet to find that out.

Yeah.

And we have not seen her alive in this episode, at least definitively.

So I guess we saw the clip of her in the computer at the very beginning.

But I'm looking forward to seeing her in live action.

Yeah, that'll be.

That'll be good to see.

Also seen her in Mark's memories, but not, you know, like you said in real life.

We go back to Lumen where Dylan is whispering to Mark and Heli about the drawing and the directions that Irvin left him behind the picture.

Helly says, I can go get it.

You know, I got a hall pass.

I can.

I can get it for you guys.

And where are they getting these hall passes?

They're supposed to be like treats, you know, or perks.

Yeah.

And I don't think they've done anything to get these hall passes.

Yeah, every time we see them, they're not working.

There's like some plot device like, hey, I got a hall pass.

Cool.

Yeah.

But I don't know.

Mark doesn't seem too excited about it.

He's still kind of in his done phase, I feel like.

But he says he's hungry, so he gets in the fridge.

But then the fridge changes to his home refrigerator.

I mean, that, that could be cool.

You're at work and you just come back home, you know.

But he looks around confused and we see his living room.

Any mark is in Audi Mark's living room and really, really confused there.

Ms.

Wong is called into Mr.

Milchick's office and he's talking to her about his performance review.

Milchick reminds her that she cannot graduate from her fellowship until he is deemed her Wintertide material, which I didn't really know.

We kind of find out this episode that she's doing a fellowship.

Like I didn't know why she was there before.

And what is Wintertide?

Yeah, it seems like it's winter all the time there.

So then he comes back to his big words that he got in trouble for and says something as to the effect of an eradication from your essence of childish folly.

Yeah, he's just a well spoken individual.

He is.

I feel like he's using it in spite, like, I know what you did.

Oh yeah.

He's definitely letting her know that.

But as someone who used to get made fun of in elementary school for using too big words, I felt it.

Oh yeah?

Yeah.

They used to kill me.

The human dictionary and in fourth and fifth grade, like that's kind of a serious put down.

Yeah.

You know, there were scars I held onto for a long time for that.

But Milchick, like, you know, that is something they're putting him down for, for work.

And it just feels like that's part of who that man is.

Yeah.

A little complicated.

Very stylish and well spoken.

Yeah.

I feel like especially in the black community, you, you assume that, you know, people aren't that smart.

They use, you know, bad language or they use not, you know, very big words like Milchick is using.

And so that might be his way of, you know, differing himself from that kind of culture, but here he's getting put down for it.

So.

Yeah, it's, it's rough.

They're trying to make us feel something for Milchick and I don't know how I feel about it.

I know because usually he's pretty scary.

Yes, yes.

While in the bathroom stall, Mark and Heli kind of talk about Milchick's run in with him in the elevator and he lets Helly know about sharing vessels with her Audi at the Ortville.

Yeah.

Spilling his lineage.

Yeah.

I don't think Kelly knows what to feel.

She's kind of starts off thinking that it was with Ms.

Casey.

Because she says in a wellness session, you guys were.

Yeah.

Sharing vessels.

And he's like, no, no, in your tent at the OR boat.

Then we see Milchick go in the back of his office, and he has a huge stack of papers and a big jar of paper clips.

It's his practice time.

He's trying to make sure that his next performance review.

These paper clips don't get talked about.

And then, like, anxiety on his face as he's doing it.

Yeah, was.

That was pretty rough.

It was just, again, making us feel bad for this guy.

Yeah.

We see Dylan in the family center talking to Gretchen again, and he's got his little suave boys talking like he's trying to pick up this chick.

We hear him say that he wishes they could be together more.

And Gretchen kind of reminds him like we are because, you know, we're married.

But then he kind of says, no, you're with him.

You.

You and him are, but I'm not.

And you can kind of feel this shift in her, like when he says that, that now she kind of feels bad.

Like, again, because she feels like she's cheating on her husband with himself, especially when he's separating the two of them.

Dylan apologizes and then asks if they can hug again because he really liked it.

Helly has been walking through the hallways.

We see her sitting down and crying.

She thinks about kissing Mark before the ORT bell, and Mark's kind of at his desk thinking about it, too.

But then we see Dylan and Gretchen start kissing.

Yeah, I don't think anything good is going to come of that.

I don't either.

Especially after we see what happens later.

Helly meets Mark in the hallway.

She's trying to find him, he's trying to find her.

And Helly says, mark, I want to.

I want to make my own memories of Sharon.

Vessels.

And Mark's down, so they find a place that reminds them of a tent.

Yeah.

Go at it.

Some desk with plastic.

Very romantic.

Very romantic.

What?

This was weird for me.

I don't know.

Very weird.

Yeah.

We cut to Milchick back in his office, and he has finished his stack of papers.

His hand is shaking from all the paper clips he just put on.

And then he looks at his performance review again, you know, sees the.

Uses too many big words.

And he goes to a mirror and starts talking in the mirror.

Yeah, like pumping himself up.

Mm.

He uses the line, you must eradicate yourself from childish folly.

He says that, and then he looks down and he's like, you know, he looks like he's feeling shame for getting ready to change his verbiage.

Like, it's just.

He's dreading it.

And then he says, you must abandon childish things.

And then he changes it again to, you must grow up, grow up.

And then he just says, grow, grow, grow.

It's so aggressive and, like, you can feel the pain in his voice from changing how he's.

How he is.

Yeah.

And then he turns off the light, and it's just a creepy shadow of Milchick.

Back to being an intense, scary man.

After sharing vessels, Helen, Mark are walking back in the hallway, Helly asks a strange question of was it different with me?

Like, you called it like a.

What do you say?

A creepy ex girl.

Like a, you know, girl asking about your ex.

Yeah.

Mark leans her up against the wall and starts kissing her.

But then his nose bleeds and it's not looking good for him right now.

Yeah, he's a mess.

Yeah.

They go and ask Mix Wong for help, and she's giving him.

Checking his blood pressure and asking him questions about, you know, when it started.

And then Mark's memory shifts and Rigabe's there asking him where he is.

Yeah.

That was a quick shift.

That was a crazy transition too, because I feel like even when he's there, like, we don't know if he's actually there at Lumen, like, or at least I didn't at first.

I was like, where is he actually?

Like, yeah, it's confusing.

Rugabi says that they need to speed up the process by flooding the chip.

And she says there's a slight chance of hemorrhage, which.

Scary, Very scary.

And I think that scares Mark.

And he.

He's upset.

He's hungry from this reintegration symptom.

And he says he needs to eat, which Regavi says is also a symptom of reintegration.

I think she's just saying that for everything.

Yeah.

Oh, you got a headache.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

It's a symptom.

But he was pretty rude to her when he got up.

And, you know, maybe that's also a symptom.

Being rude.

Yeah.

Irving shows up at Bert's house.

So awkward for this weird, weird dinner.

Yeah.

And Bert's like, hey, who are you just messing with them?

Yeah.

Which it kind of feels like Christopher Walken just ad libbed that.

Yeah.

To be honest.

But we finally get to meet Fields, who apparently is a recast from the first season.

But I honestly thought it was John Noble from the first season.

It looked like him.

Anyway, so they did a Good job with that casting.

Interesting to make it look like someone similar, but we know him from Fringe and, like, a few other things.

Yeah.

But they call each other Attila.

Yeah.

Which is the name of the episode.

And I still don't fully understand that.

I'm not sure if we're supposed to.

If there.

I feel like there's more to what they were saying because it's a.

It's a weird pet name.

Yeah.

You know, it's.

It's definitely not.

But then Phil says to Irving, what you're any saw in this Philistine is beyond me.

Like, trying to crack jokes.

But it's still super awkward and just.

Made it super awkward.

It's.

It's awkward, but it also feels like he's trying to.

Like, this is still my man.

And you're.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It feels that way.

Yeah.

Although as this conversation goes on, he's like, no, I'm glad that.

That any version of him had.

Had someone, you know, could experience love.

When they talk about the reason that Bert even went under this procedure being a religious one, which is something that we really haven't seen any kind of angle towards yet.

Yeah.

You know, maybe some of the protesters were against it because of religious reasoning.

Yeah.

But to do it because of religious reasoning, because they thought Bert was such a bad dude before that he was never going to make it to heaven, but that maybe that any version of him could.

But before that, then have a relationship with another man and then be with Fields in heaven.

Yeah.

Really weird.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It's just.

Yeah, it was really bizarre.

I don't quite get.

They're the same person, just different memories.

So I don't know why that would allow you access to heaven, but it's weird logic.

It is logic.

Also, what was Bert doing that was so bad that would keep him out of heaven?

Yeah.

I mean, they didn't go into it, but it seems like it must have been bad.

I guess.

I don't.

I don't know.

But then, Drummond, we cut to him, and he is letting himself into Irving's.

Apartment with his big, jingly thing of keys that he's got.

Like, he's a jailer walking around, lets himself ride in, probably knows that Irving is not home, which feels like maybe Bert gave him that information.

Possibly.

Possibly.

I don't know.

And he's looking around for anything.

Luckily, Irving had already got rid of all the paintings, but he does find that trunk with all the information in it about the severed employees.

But the Only reason we know he sees that is because he also somehow has a key for that trunk.

Yeah.

Now that really doesn't make any sense.

Unless they just have a deal with all the lock making companies.

Yeah.

You know, and he's got a master key for some of these things.

He didn't have to pick it, he just turned a key.

Yeah.

Really weird.

We see Dylan's Audi at the dinner table with.

With Gretchen and their kids, and he wants to buy a new car and is trying to convince Gretchen it's a great idea.

Yeah.

And with their implied financial situation, probably not so much a good idea.

Yeah.

He then asks about her time at Lumen with his innie, and we see that she lies to him about it.

Yeah.

Real gross.

Yeah.

She says it got canceled and she guesses he was just busy that day.

And he believed her instantly.

Yeah.

I saw somewhere that there was a plaque on the wall behind their table that showed that she got an award for being a dispatcher of some kind.

So I was thinking she was a police officer, so I guess that makes kind of sense with her uniform.

Mark is shoveling down some food at an Asian restaurant.

Shoveling, shoveling down with his little.

Like he's never eaten before.

And they zoom out and he's like, got, you know, five, six plates that he's just devoured.

So maybe it really is a thing with reintegration.

Makes you hungry.

Maybe.

And then Elena Helena Egan walks in.

And totally eyeballing him from the moment she gets in, like she's there because of him.

She leaves her table she was at and goes and sits with him, which is weird.

Yeah.

Somebody that you don't know.

But Mark's kind of looking at her like he.

It almost felt like he recognized her.

I mean, she's.

She's famous.

Yeah.

So maybe he's kind of like, why is this famous person here at this hole in the wall Chinese place?

They start joking, which is very odd.

Like they had some sort of.

I don't know, it was like they knew each other.

They were best friends.

At one point there was a moment.

Yeah.

Like a little rapport, a little chemistry there for just a moment.

She apologizes for the otc and she also apologizes for him losing his wife and calls her Hannah.

Yeah.

Who the heck is Hannah?

Who the heck is Hannah?

We don't know, but.

But yeah, Mark corrects her, is like Gemma.

You mean Gemma.

But it's almost kind of like someone tried to merge the two names.

Oh, I didn't even think about that.

Yeah.

And we did not see, when Mark was getting his attention from Ms.

Wong, the ending of that little setup there.

Yeah.

So, like, maybe in his delirium, he said something weird, and that's where that came from.

I don't know.

You thinking there's just more cameras, or are you thinking that Helena's making a very good thing now of acting like Heliar?

I don't know.

I don't know.

We're gonna have to find out.

We go back to dinner with Irving Burton Fields.

Fields is drinking like a sailor.

Yeah.

He asked if they shared vessels at work.

Yeah.

These guys need some new words for this.

Well, he didn't say that.

That was just my phrasing of it, because I loved when Mark said that in the bathroom.

But he does feel like enies deserved to experience love, and he hopes theirs was beautiful.

So weird.

Yeah.

What a weird thing to say.

At the dinner.

Mark gets home and he goes downstairs and he apologizes to Rigabi and says, let's do it.

Oh, it's on.

It's.

It's on like Donkey Kong.

He regave Cuts open his scalp.

We get to see all of Gross.

Gross.

And there's a big hole from where the chip was implanted.

So they flood it with something.

We don't know what that is.

Just, you know, it's probably coleslaw or something.

Look more like apple juice to me.

You know, I don't know what it was.

But then it immediately starts getting stronger reactions in Mark.

And, you know, he's kind of every which way, every which place, all at once, Everywhere.

Everything, all at once.

Yeah.

And, you know, that's when his sister stops by and he's upstairs, you know, after this little procedure.

Way too quick.

After this procedure.

Yeah.

She was just in your brain, bro.

Yeah, she.

Yeah.

And she's like, hey, I've got another idea since that light thing didn't work.

And he's like, don't worry about it.

I got it.

You know, I'm trying.

I'm trying.

This other thing.

Yeah.

And she's like, what do you mean, this other thing?

He's just, you know, I got it.

This other thing.

I'm trying to by myself right now.

I'm just trying to pick up this glass of water, which I can't really do.

Yeah.

His hand was like, you know, not wanting to open.

Like he's having a stroke.

Yeah.

And then he hits the ground.

You know, Devin's like, oh, my gosh.

What's going on?

What's going on?

And then rugabi pops up from the basement.

It's like, hey, don't touch him.

Don't touch him.

And she's like, who the crap are you?

Yeah.

Like, what are you doing in my brother's bed?

Amazement.

Yeah.

Super weird.

But yeah, he's.

He's down, he's out.

He's basically foaming at the mouth.

At this point, it looked like he was seizing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And now we're ending the episode and getting ready for the next one at that point.

Like, is Mark gonna make it to save her?

Like, we.

We don't know.

Series over.

Series, series.

I would be so bad.

There'd be a lot of mad people.

Yeah.

We had to wait years for.

To see what happens.

There's nothing, Nothing that can happen.

The whole series is over.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

Mark turned into a goat.

What if each employee, after they die, they put their chip in a goat and it just go.

People.

Yeah.

Everywhere.

I didn't really feel like Dylan had any great lines this episode.

Yeah.

Except maybe him trying to hit on his own wife.

Yeah.

Except for him hitting on his own wife.

But there was one person that had some pretty good lines this episode.

Yeah.

Heliar had some.

Fair enough.

She's back.

She.

She's back and she's.

She's at it.

Her two lines happen in the same location, the same scene, but she says.

So it's behind the picture of you actually being brave.

Yeah.

Like, cuz Dylan didn't bring the photo back with him.

Mm.

And didn't want to go back and get it and bring it back.

And then, you know, Dylan leaves and Mark's kind of not wanting to, you know, find Ms.

Casey at this point.

Did everybody sever their balls in the elevator this morning?

Yeah.

That's helly.

That's helly for you.

Yeah.

That's how you know it wasn't Helena.

Yes.

So I think that last one gets me.

It's.

It's the best.

I will take it.

I will take it.

So thank you everybody for listening and we're sorry again for, you know, taking so long to get these episodes out.

But we.

We love this show and we appreciate you watching.

If you'd love to call in or text and do it, do it and tell us your thoughts and feelings about these two episodes.

Then you should on 415 Podbot.

Yeah.

Do it.

So this has been worth the binge.

And we'll see you guys next time.

Later.

Bye.