"Severance": Working 9 to 5:15 Quiz

In the opening shot we see from above a young lady lying unconscious on a business meeting table. She's wearing business work clothes, a skirt and pumps. We know straight away this is a different kind of show. This is season 1, episode 1, scene one of "Severance", an AppleTV+ 2022 streaming series.

The camera dwells on the inert figure.

This pilot episode was directed by Ben Stiller. Written by Dan Erickson. With award-winning production design by Jeremy Hindle. The hint, no picnic, was meant to suggest a table, and that no one is having fun.

The lady lying on a business table wakes up, looking dazed. She hears a man say "Who are you?" repeatedly, from a speaker on the table. The room seems otherwise to be empty.

The voice asks if she'd be willing to take a survey of five questions.

The woman (played by Britt Lower) seems disoriented and alarmed. The camera shots linger a long time, on her face, on the room, and from above.

The hint "Who Are You?" is the theme song for the popular TV show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation", by The Who.

Coming to on a table without memory of who she is, with a disembodied voice asking her to take a survey, seems to freak out our unknown lady, who starts yelling, "Let me out of here!" rattling the door handle, and pounding on the door.

The voice on the speaker continues to talk about taking a survey.

The hint is the 1965 Animals song, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place":
...We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
'Cause girl there's a better life...

The lady locked in a room does not know the answer to four of five survey questions. The basic survey questions are:
Who are you?
Where were you born?
Name any state.
What is Eagan's favorite breakfast?
What color are your mother's eyes?

The lady has no idea what her name is, where she was born or the color of her mother's eyes. She names the state of Delaware, so we know her brain is working okay. "What's happening?" she asks. She begins to cry. The voice on the speaker reassures her it's all right for her to answer "unknown".

"Severance" earned high praise for this mysterious, unique, very slow pace in the pilot episode, conveying with few words an eerie danger, which some characters appear to be cheerfully ignoring.

In this scene a door to the office room opens, where a man stands in partial shadow, scaring the unknown lady. "That's a perfect score!" he says happily, seeming very pleased with her.

She's bewildered and angry. "What the hell have you done to me?"

Although they are both still nameless, this is the first we see Mark Scout (played by Adam Scott) interact with Helly R. (Britt Lower). She's asked the essential question of this episode: What HAVE they done?

In a jolting change of scene, we're suddenly in a vehicle watching a grown man sob and wipe his face with tissue. It's the mysterious survey man.

He's wearing a winter coat, and parked in an office lot. He dries his eyes, walks alone and enters a large building, where he stops to check in with the front desk, and is approved to go in.

He swipes an entry card, walks downstairs, and we see "SVR'D ACCESS" on the wall. He's still sniffling a little, but trudges heavily along. He has to use ID access again to enter a door, and walks up to a locker.

The hint is "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. It's a good hint because this is clearly a very sad guy, until he's not:
...Well there are some sad things known to man
But ain't too much sadder than
The tears of a clown when there's no one around
Oh yeah, baby baby, oh yeah baby

Now if I appear to be carefree
It's only to camouflage my sadness
And honey to shield my pride I try
To cover this hurt with a show of gladness
But don't let my show convince you
That I've been happy since you...

When the unknown man opens the locker, there's a watch and a key card on a lanyard in there. We watch him go through a routine he seems to have done many times before. He sets his phone inside the locker, then his license and keys. He takes the watch out and puts a watch in. He removes his winter boots and puts on dress shoes. Finally he puts the key card around his neck, and leaves the locker room.

A security guard uses a wand to check he's clean. He steps into an elevator.

Adam Scott was nominated for an "Outstanding Lead Actor" Emmy for this episode. The "Rotten Tomatoes" approval rating was 97%.

Leaving the locker room, the survey man steps into an elevator. We hear "ding!" and then his eyes roll a bit, and close. When he opens them, his face has radically changed. His pained eyes are clear and alert, his tense mouth has relaxed, the deep sadness is gone.

What the...?

Later in this episode we learn that Mark Scout voluntarily underwent a cutting edge surgical procedure by Lumon Industries where he works. It's called "severance". His awareness of his working and his everyday lives has been separated. When he's at work, he has memories only of his working life. At home, he knows nothing about what he does at work. It's in the elevator each morning that his consciousness is severed.

At night they stagger their exits so they won't meet as their non-work selves (outies) in the parking lot. Which means one of them leaves not at 5 but at 5:15.

The hint is Superman's change from ordinary man Clark Kent to his super being, which he often accomplished in a phone booth.

When Mark Scout leaves the elevator he walks in easy confidence through a maze of white, sterile halls, taking about ten turns, then entering a room called "Macrodata Refinement".

There we learn Mark's name and meet his co-workers Irv (played by John Turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry). They talk about a missing worker Petey (Yul Vazquez). They all pay attention when the supervisor Mr. Milchick strides in (Tramell Tillman). Irv stands up in deference.

Mr. Milchick escorts Mark through the white and twisting hallways to Administration, run by the strange and compelling Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette).

Mark learns his good friend and boss Petey has quit without explanation. Cobel therefore gives Mark "the freedom to serve Kier" as Department Chief. This promotion, and Petey's absence, are central to the plot.

Coming full circle, Mr. Milchick sets up Mark Scout and his co-worker Irv at a video screen and microphone in a tiny soundproof room. They discuss protocol and consult a manual. Their screen shows Petey's replacement worker lying unconscious on an office table.
"She looks nice" Irv says.

Mark is nervous because he hasn't done this Department Chief task before, the orientation of a new worker. He presses the microphone on.
"Who are you?" he says.