💼 Many of us start and end our day with the same thought: “Back to work tomorrow...” You begin to hate Mondays and wait for Friday nights just to enjoy one day without rushing anywhere. But imagine a world where your mind is split in two. One part of you is the worker who remembers nothing about their personal life, and the other is just a regular person who has no idea what happens at work. This is the main idea behind the series Severance, which turns the world of work into a psychological nightmare.

⚗️👩‍🔬 At Lumon Industries, employees go through a procedure called Severance, where a chip is implanted in their brain to separate memories. At work (the “intra”), they forget everything about the outside world. Outside of work (the “extra”), they don’t remember anything about what they do at their job.

It seems like a perfect solution — no stress, no guilt, no overwork. But when the main character, Mark (played by Adam Scott), starts to question what Lumon is really doing, the illusion falls apart. What is Lumon really up to? Why are employees part of strange loyalty rituals? What’s hidden in the locked rooms?

Severance is a dark reflection of our modern work culture. Workers are turned into machines, their thoughts fully controlled. The “intras” live in darkness, and the “extras” give up their freedom for comfort. But maybe… we already live like this?

Visually, the show is stunning. Lumon’s offices are cold, windowless mazes with retro-futuristic computers and strict rules. Pictures of the founder, Kier Eagan, hang on the walls like religious symbols. Everything feels off — strange tasks, uncomfortable conversations, endless numbers. Every episode is a puzzle, making the mystery deeper and deeper.

The show is inspired by different media and art, including the online horror myth The Backrooms, the game The Stanley Parable, and films like Office Space, The Truman Show, Being John Malkovich, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Even the Dilbert comics influenced some of the themes.

Other inspirations include Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit and George Orwell’s novel 1984. Visually, Severance draws from movies like Brazil, Dark City, and Playtime.
So what does Lumon Industries really do?
Lumon was founded in 1885 as a small company making healing ointments. Over time, it grew into a giant biotech corporation. It now operates in 266 countries, with its main office in a city called Kier, where the story takes place.

The company follows the teachings of its founder, Kier Eagan, who believed that people should be freed from four emotions: sadness, excitement, anger, and fear. Employees are trained to follow this idea — but behind this philosophy lies something much darker.

💊 Medicine, soap, and… water?
Officially, Lumon says it works in health and hygiene. It makes soap, and ointments, and even works on water purification. One newspaper article praised CEO Jame Eagan for helping a village in Africa. But fans are not convinced — no one believes such a huge company only makes soap.

🧪 Social experiments
The Severance procedure is not just a “useful tool.” It’s a modern way to control people’s minds and test how the brain works. In one episode, a pregnant woman uses Severance so that her “extra” doesn’t feel the pain of childbirth. But someone still feels it — her “intra.” And though she won’t remember it, the emotional scars remain…

🤖 Cloning and rebirth
The show hints that Lumon may bring people back to life or copy their minds into new bodies. This could be the case with Mark’s wife, Gemma. She was said to be dead, but now works as Miss Casey, with no memories of her past. Some fans think she’s a clone. Others believe she’s an early version of artificial intelligence created using real human memories and emotions.

Maybe that’s what the mysterious goat room is about — cloning and life experiments. The goats might be part of biological tests, or maybe the room is just there to confuse and test the employees’ reactions. According to the creators, the goat room was added as a strange and unsettling surprise. But knowing how detailed the show is, there might be a deeper meaning that we just haven’t discovered yet.

📊 The secret behind macro data refinement
Employees spend their days sorting numbers — but no one really knows what those numbers mean. Some think they’re feeding data to an AI system, or maybe even helping to “preserve” Kier Eagan’s mind in digital form.

🧠 Mind control and political power
By the end of season one, we learn that Lumon is trying to legalize Severance for use in the outside world. This isn’t just a workplace tool — it’s a plan to create a new society, filled with people who don’t remember who they really are. And that idea? It’s terrifying.

Maybe the scariest part is this: some of these theories might actually be true. But who would know? After all… the intra never remembers.
A psychological thriller that plays with your mind

Severance doesn’t give clear answers. It mixes dark humor with deep questions about life, making viewers think:

Can we really separate work and personal life?
If we could, would we even want to?
Have corporations already taken too much of our identity and freedom?

This show is disturbing, smart, and impossible to forget. It keeps digging deeper into the human mind with every episode. Season 2 is already over, and fans are waiting for Season 3. Because we’ve only just started uncovering Lumon’s secrets.

So… who are you, really?
And can you be sure… your mind isn’t already split?