The Grim Barbarity of Optics and Design

"**The Grim Barbarity of Optics and Design**" is the fifth episode in the first season of the Apple TV+ thriller series ***Severance***. It was released on the eleventh of March in 2022.

## Synopsis

Irving and Dylan confront Burt about his lies. Mark and Helly discover a strange new department.

## Plot

### Intro

Helly hangs by the extension cord around her neck in the elevator car. Mark walks down the hall. The elevator door opens in front of the empty guard's desk with Helly still hanging by her neck and kicking. The door closes. In MDR, Dylan surreptitiously read's Ricken's book. Mark sees that Helly has gone and suggests Dylan might leave for the day as well. Dylan stays behind as Mark summons the elevator and Graner runs down the hall in slo-mo. The elevator opens and Mark sees Helly hanging. He lifts her as Graner arrives and unties her. They rest her on the floor. Graner tells Mark to get in the elevator. Mark descends and his concerned innie self becomes his oblivious outie self.

### Act One

Mark arrives at work and rides the elevator down. He becomes his concerned innie self and the elevator opens to reveal Cobel and Milchick waiting for him. He asks if Helly is alive. Cobel tells Mark that Helly is in the hospital with severe bruising but no permanent damage. Mark assumes the company will let Helly go but Cobel says Helly's outie has no intention of letting Helly resign and that she'll be back at her desk in a few days. Cobel says the incident happened on Mark's watch, implying it was his fault, and that he's lucky it wasn't worse.

Mark takes Ricken's book from his desk drawer and continues to read it in the restroom over time. We hear the book's words in Ricken's voice, pompously saying he had to change literature itself before he had a place in it. He says machines cannot think for themselves, that soldiers fight for one another, that "A good person will follow the rules. A great person will follow himself," and other new-agey, somewhat rebellious self-help advice. In Cobel's office, Graner tells her that analysis of the chip from Petey's head shows "full synaptic coupling" meaning that he was reintegrated. Graner assumes that Cobel won't tell the board immediately given Helly's suicide attempt. Cobel's silence makes Graner realize that she has not yet told the board about Helly. Cobel tells Graner to further analyze the chip's data and find out who carried out Petey's reintegration so she can "deliver everything to the board at once."

As Mark leaves work, his phone shows many unanswered calls from Ricken. A voice message from Ricken says Devon is going into labor and they are leaving for the birthing retreat. In one of his many voice messages, Ricken is much too concerned about Mark's whereabouts.

### Act Two

Mark arrives at the birthing center and meets Alexa, Devon's midwife, leaving Devon's cabin. He apologizes for his behavior on their date. Mark goes inside and deals with Ricken's excessive emotions. Devon is jealous of the large cabin next door. Ricken mentions the book he left for Mark but Mark says he didn't see it, that it "must have been stolen or something." Ricken continues to overreact to everything. Devon excuses herself to get coffee. At a nearby cabin, Devon asks the woman there, Gabby, for a cup of coffee, which she gets. Gabby tells her she's having her third child and she does it with "a lot of help." In Devon's cabin, Ricken and Mark put up decorations and discuss Mark's desire not to have Devon's baby named after his late wife, Gemma, so as not to saddle the child with "some big feely baggage." Devon returns and says she made friends with "the richest lady in baby camp." Devon says Alexa would probably give Mark another chance, but he doubts it.

Devon has contractions. Mark tells her, "Lumon might be up to something," and that he's been "hearing stuff." He mentions the "businessman" he saw in Devon's yard, but she interrupts with pain from large contractions. Mark goes to find Alexa.

Mark sits on the dock at the birthing center as Devon cries out in the background. In Mark's basement, Petey's phone buzzes with a blocked number calling. At Lumon, Milchick tells Mark that Helly was her outie self when she woke up, so now is about to be her first innie consciousness since her suicide attempt. He says it's important Mark's "eyes be kind" when Helly sees him. Mark attempts to show that he can make his eyes kind. Milchick leaves Mark at the elevator. When it opens, Mark enters to find Helly gasping and on the floor. He tells her she's okay, that it's alright. He tries to make his eyes look kind. Back in their kitchen area, he tells her the extension cord and "other dangerous items" have been locked away so "you should be safe." He jokes that she can focus on finding happy numbers for a while, at which she laughs. He asks in a conspiratorial whisper if she wants to talk about it, but she rises without speaking and walks away.

Irving suggests hiding inspirational quotes around the office for Helly to "stumble upon." As Mark takes Ricken's book from his desk drawer, Ms. Casey appears and says she's there to observe Helly R. "for signs of sadness and verbally encourage her to forgo further suicide attempts." Helly sits at her terminal and Ms. Casey observes her and takes notes. Irving begins to hallucinate black goop dripping onto his desk from above. A huge amount of goop begins to drip off the ceiling until Mark calls Irving out of his hallucination. Irving announces that something has come up and he must go to O&D and "seek Burt's counsel." At Mark's request, Irving makes a photocopy of the map to O&D, but out of the copier instead come two pictures, semi-realistic paintings, each showing one group attacking the other. Milchick appears and says the pictures were sent to the copier/printer by mistake, that Irving wasn't supposed to see them, and that they were just "a joke for Ms. Cobel." Irving asks if the attempted O&D coup really happened. Milchick says it did not.

### Act Three

Separately, Dylan and Irving speculate about what O&D is up to and how much of a threat it might be. Cobel admits to Milchick that she's having Ms. Casey watch Helly because, she says in a conspiratorial whisper, "I'm trying something new with Ms. Casey. Keep it between us."

Helly washes her injured neck in the restroom. She returns to MDR and Ms. Casey begins to question her but Mark spills his mug of coffee. To get clean-up materials, Ms. Casey leaves for Distribution Supply. Mark takes Helly aside. Ms. Casey passes Burt in a conference room apparently talking to himself. In a hallway with no one else around, Mark asks Helly how she is, to which she says she's really bad. In an unused office, Mark shows Helly a partial recreation of Petey's map that Mark had shredded and suggests that they can work on fleshing it out together. She says, "I'm not your new Petey," and walks away.

Mark follows Helly down the hall as Ms. Casey returns to MDR to find Helly gone. She tells Irving that Burt's in the conference room and then heads out after Helly. Irving goes to the conference room and begins talking with Bert but Dylan rushes up and closes the conference room door and locks it amid much yelling. Mark follows Helly until she slows and complains to him about her outie saying she wasn't a person. She states her desire to kill her outie. A sudden noise turns out to be squealing baby goats being tended/bottle-fed by a man who tells Mark and Helly they can't take the goats, that "they're not ready." Burt tries to reason with Dylan and Irving but Dylan takes Irving aside and tells him it's not safe to get involved with anyone from O&D. Irving formally releases Burt to go back to his department but Burt takes them to see artwork inside of O&D. Dylan finds the version of the painting where MDR are the aggressors.

In a hallway, Helly agrees to help Mark enhance Petey's map. Ms. Casey suddenly appears, glad to see them and admits to having been scared at their disappearance. As they follow her down the hall, Cobel watches them on video from her office. Graner enters and asks her if she's aware of MDR's cross-departmental activities which she acknowledges and then challenges him to find out who hacked Petey's chip. In O&D, Burt introduces Irving and Dylan to his group of seven employees as their friends.

## Cast

### Starring

* Adam Scott as Mark Scout
* Zach Cherry as Dylan George
* Britt Lower as Helena Eagan
* Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick
* Jen Tullock as Devon Scout-Hale
* Dichen Lachman as Ms. Casey
* Michael Chernus as Ricken Hale
* John Turturro as Irving Bailiff
* Christopher Walken as Burt Goodman
* Patricia Arquette as Harmony Cobel

### Guest Starring

* Yul Vazquez as Petey (uncredited)
* Michael Cumpsty as Doug Graner
* Nikki M. James as Alexa

### Co-Starring

* Nora Dale as Gabby Arteta
* Rachel Addington as Elizabeth
* Anthoula Katsimatides as Florence
* Claudia Robinson as Felicia
* Brian Rock as Goat Wrangler
* Mark Kenneth Smaltz as Judd

## Gallery

* Promotional
* Screenshots