History Characters / Severance2022

* Determinator: Helly is completely devoted to escaping Lumon, to the point where she'd rather die than obey, even under the orders of her own outie. At first this causes friction with the other MDR team members but eventually they join her.

* DumbassHasAPoint: While his book is one absurd IceCreamKoan after another, there are some genuninely motivating words in there about valuing yourself over your job which help inspire the Innies to escape.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His attempts to give himself power or amusement tend to ''dramatically'' backfire against him towards the end of the show. Enjoying the SoBadItsGood elements of Ricken's book results in it making it way to Mark and instilling new anti-corporate feelings. Meanwhile, his manipulation of Dylan eventually results in Dylan attacking him in the office and successfully activating the Overtime Contingency for his friends.

* MeaningfulName: Scout, as in "a person sent ahead for reconnaissance". Mark's innie and outie are both investigating the goings-on at Lumon, albeit from different ends. Also, "Mark" referring to someone who makes an impact or a wound, and Mark is both a HurtingHero and the protagonist.

* SketchySucessor: In-universe. Nobody who knew Petey is happy when Mark is suddenly promoted, and all make it clear that they don't think he'll be as good as Petey at the job, least of all Mark himself. They do eventually bond, though.

* SketchySecessor: In-universe. Nobody who knew Petey is happy when Mark is suddenly promoted, and all make it clear that they don't think he'll be as good as Petey at the job, least of all Mark himself. They do eventually bond, though.

* TheUnSmile: ''Constantly'' flashes a unnervingly fake smile that doesn't reach his eyes. It borders on [[SlasherMile maniacal]] at times.

* SuckSecessor: In-universe. Nobody who knew Petey is happy when Mark is suddenly promoted, and all make it clear that they don't think he'll be as good as Petey at the job, least of all Mark himself. They do eventually bond, though.
* TheUnSmile: Innie Mark isn't particularly great at expressing his emotions towards other people, or even really empathizing with them on a deeper than surface level, which means that his attempts to express specific emotions when prompted to do so is rather... ''lacking,'' to say the least. Even Mr. Milchick is rather unnerved by his various attempts at 'kind eyes' in the aftermath of Helly's hanging, though Helly herself doesn't seem to be particularly fazed.

* FreudianExcuse: It’s heavily implied that she grew up in an orphanage run by the Eagan foundation, which instilled her furious loyalty to the man.

* TheUnSmile: ''Constantly.''

!!!Other Staff

->'''Portrayed By:''' Britt Lower

->'''Portrayed By:''' Tramell Tillman

->'''Portrayed By:''' Michael Cumpsty

->'''Portrayed By:''' Jen Tullock

->'''Portrayed By:''' Karen Aldridge

* BenevolentBoss: He's the head of Macrodata Refinement and initially seems like a complacent stickler to the rules, but as early as episode 2 he's willing to throw himself under the bus to spare his underlings from punishment.

* ReplacementScrappy: In-universe. Nobody who knew Petey is happy when Mark is suddenly promoted, and all make it clear that they don't think he'll be as good as Petey at the job, least of all Mark himself. They do eventually bond, though.

** It actually serves as something of a big deal when we see him ''not'' drinking alcohol when he could. During his second date with Alexa, he chooses to stick with water even while she has wine, showing that he's actually trying to make the date work this time.

* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Innie Mark is very blase about all the creepy aspects of the severed floor, much to Helly's consternation.

* MeaningfulName: Scout, as in "a person sent ahead for reconnaissance". Mark's innie and outie are both investigating the goings-on at Lumon, albeit from different ends.

* DamnedByFaintPraise: Perhaps less dramatic than "damned", but when outie!Mark asks Petey what their relationship was inside Lumon's office, Petey states that he is Mark's best friend. He then pauses a second and states that also Mark was his very good friend.

%%* GoMadFromTheRevelation: He was reintegrated, so he's aware of his innie and outie lives simultaneously, and knowing the bizarre nature of his innie existence drives him mad because he still can't understand what goes on in Lumon's severed areas.

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After being fired, she [[BrokenPedestal is disilluded with Lumon]], even breaking her shrine for Kier, and wholeheartedly supports Mark when he talks about quitting. Then she [[SpottingTheThread spots the thread]] that the innies might be in control and snaps right back, doing everything in her power to stop them.

%%* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Innie Helly is driven to despair at the realization that her outie self doesn't consider her human.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: He was reintegrated, so he's aware of his innie and outie lives simultaneously, and knowing the bizarre nature of his innie existence drives him mad because he still can't understand what goes on in Lumon's severed areas.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Innie Helly is driven to despair at the realization that her outie self doesn't consider her human.

* WentCrazyWhenTheyLeft: Mark still hasn't recovered from his wife's death, [[spoiler:or at least her apparent death.]] His Innie is also shaken up when his best friend Petey suddenly goes missing, and though not the only reason for him developing a rebellious streak, it does help kick it off.

* LoveRedeems: Though never a bad guy, he was fanatically loyal to the company. Once he meets and falls for Burt, he becomes more willing to bend the rules and [[spoiler: turns against Lumon in response to his retirement.]]

'''Beware of spoilers.'''

!!Helly "R"/[[spoiler:Helena Eagan]]

* AssholeVictim: Outie Helly suffers a horrific experience when [[spoiler: innie Helly hangs them both]], but she is a monster who threatened to torture her innie [[spoiler: and the finale reveals she is planning even greater evil with her family]].

* BungledSuicide: [[spoiler:Helly tries to commit suicide to get herself out of her job; however, she's found in time and given medical attention.]]
* CreateYourOwnHero: [[spoiler:Helena Eagan's attempt to prove that severance is a safe and effective procedure by undergoing it herself created Helly R., a new version of herself who is just as driven and clever but has none of the loyalty to her family and company. From the moment she first wakes up, Helly immediately begins trying to take down her captors.]]
* {{Deuteragonist}}: She is the first character we meet in the show before we know anything about the setting, she serves as the AudienceSurrogate to the severed offices, and for the first 4 or so episodes, it's her attempts to leave that drive the plotline inside the Lumon office initially. It isn't until [[spoiler:her attempted suicide]] and Irving meets Burt that the other members of MDR begin to gain concerns other than refining numbers.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Helly's outie. [[spoiler:If your innie would rather cease to exist (effectively dying) than continue her severed life, and you are the person who is ultimately responsible that she can't, what exactly is stopping her from physically committing suicide (and thus taking you with her) during the time when she's 100% in control of your body's actions?]]

* {{Foil}}: Interestingly, she is a bit of one to Irving. Her innie absolutely hates her life situation as essentially a slave to Lumon with no way out while Innie Irving is 100% loyal to Lumon and is generally the voice that protests any rule breaking. Comparatively, [[spoiler:Outtie Helly, or rather Helena Eagan, is doing her damnedest to push severance and is the heir apparent to the Kier dynasty. Outtie Irving on the other hand is doing everything he can to bring Lumon down.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Outie Helly's identity is hinted at by [[spoiler: Milchik emphasising the honour of Helena joining the Severance Floor, and the fact that Helena is desperate enough to promote severance that she'll risk death and disfigurement.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Helena's scheme to prove the alleged safety of the severance procedure ends up getting herself injured and nearly ''killed'']] by her other self.
* HydePlaysJekyll: [[spoiler:Helly R pretends to be Helena Eagan at the Eagan Family Gala in the season 1 finale.]]

* NoSympathy: Outie Helly's [[spoiler:official recording of her refusal to resign and allow her innie self to leave]] is so actively nasty and unforgiving of her innie's plight that it manages to spark a full-on DespairEventHorizon for her. In the Season 1 finale, it's revealed that [[spoiler:she's so cruel because outie Helly is actually Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon's CEO, and her undergoing severance was part of a PR stunt to "prove" severance's benefits.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Her outie is Lumon CEO Jame Eagan's daughter Helena. Helena's callousness towards Helly is due to the fact that she severed herself as a PR move to "prove" severance is "safe"]]

* HydePlaysJekyll: [[spoiler:He pretends to be Outie Mark at Ricken's book party in the season finale.]]

* TheUnSmile: Innie Mark isn't particularly great at expressing his emotions towards other people, or even really empathizing with them on a deeper than surface level, which means that his attempts to express specific emotions when prompted to do so is rather... ''lacking,'' to say the least. [[spoiler:Even Mr. Milchick is rather unnerved by his various attempts at 'kind eyes' in the aftermath of Helly's hanging, though Helly herself doesn't seem to be particularly fazed.]]

* AmnesiaMissedASpot: Unlike his colleagues, Irving's severance has an overt bleed-through of memories. His innie repeatedly hallucinates a black ooze he sees dripping from the ceiling, which is [[spoiler: the black paint his outie uses when painting the office's corridors.]]

* CoolOldGuy: In contrast to his prim Innie self, his Outie is this. According to the facts Ms. Casey reads out, he frequently goes dancing, and is "quite skilled at kissing [[SexGod and lovemaking]]". When we actually meet his Outie, we see [[spoiler: he's an artist who wears a black leather jacket and paint-splattered jeans, paints while blasting Music/{{Motorhead}}, and most impressively, is actively compiling information to try and take down Lumon from the inside]].
* {{Foil}}: Interestingly, he is a bit of one for Helly. Innie Helly absolutely hates her life situation as essentially a slave to Lumon with no way out while Innie Irving is 100% loyal to Lumon and is generally the one that protests any rule breaking. Comparatively, [[spoiler:Outtie Helly, or rather Helena Eagan, is doing her damnedest to push severance and is the heir apparent to the Kier dynasty. Outtie Irving on the other hand is doing everything he can to bring Lumon down.]]
* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:His innie self is a passionate believer in Lumon and Kier, while his outie self is working to bring it all down]].

* OneTrackMindedArtist: His outie has been painting [[spoiler: the same image of the control room corridor (the one seen towards the end of the first season, when Ms Casey is retired) over and over; hinting at him having some deeper connection to that place.]]

* TheReveal: His outie self is [[spoiler:an anti-severance activist, and has been compiling a list of severed employee's full names and their outies' locations]].

* WentCrazyWhenTheyLeft: Irving losing [[spoiler:Burt]] leaves him determined to rebel.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's a rather abrasive man, frequently insulting others and having just a standoffish attitude in general. However, he also opts to take the huge risk of [[spoiler:waking up their innies, rather than trying to wake up himself, so that they can also have a chance to experience their real lives.]]
* LoveRedeems: Though not a bad guy, but he was fine following the company's orders until [[spoiler: learning of his son on the outside world. Though he only saw him for just a few seconds, parental love quickly overcame him and causing him to rebel.]]
* PapaWolf: [[spoiler:The revelation that he has a son leaves him reeling in rage and despair, desperate to learn ''anything'' he can about his son.]]

* BreakTheHaughty: [[spoiler: After her spectacular [[VillainousBreakdown Villainous Breakdown]] in Episode 8, she is shown sobbing on the floor of her basement, seeming to have lost all of her faith in Kier Eagan. Even when she switches back to her alternate persona as Mrs. Selvig, her kindness towards others at the book-reading get-together appears less feigned and more genuine. Even encouraging Mark’s decision to quit working at Lumon when he announces it. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when she realizes that the innies’ personas have overtaken the outies’, but even then she is more nerve-wracked and distressed when she is trying to screw over the innies during the season finale]].
* CultOfPersonality: She worships Kier Eagan, invoking his name like God's, and [[spoiler:prays to a shrine of him that she keeps at home]].
* EvilMinion: Though she initially appears to be the BigBad, easily displaying her power and authority over Mark, it becomes clear that she is little more than a cog in the machine herself when she experiences a meeting with the board and a higher-ranked employee that was rather similar to Mark's earlier meeting with the board and ''her'', complete with the board remaining completely silent the entire meeting. It becomes clear that she lacks much power beyond managing the severed floor. [[spoiler:Indeed, by the end of the season, she is fired for not keeping MDR under control.]]

* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler:It’s heavily implied that she grew up in an orphanage run by the Eagan foundation, which instilled her furious loyalty to the man.]]
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After [[spoiler: being fired, she [[BrokenPedestal is disilluded with Lumon]], even breaking her shrine for Kier, and wholeheartedly supports Mark when he talks about quitting. Then she [[SpottingTheThread spots the thread]] that the innies might be in control and snaps right back, doing everything in her power to stop them.]]

* ManipulativeBitch: She'll say whatever she apparently feels will have the biggest impact she is going for. She tells Innie Mark that her mother was an athiest during one conversation, then [[spoiler:later tells Outtie Mark that her mother was a devout Catholic. As we learn that she definitely isn't severed, she was clearly lying about one. Later episodes imply she was lying about both, as she was an orphan.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:She's not actually severed, and keeps close tabs on her employees, especially Mark, outside of office hours]].

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Undergoes a HUGE one near the end of Episode 8 after she is unceremoniously fired for her incompetence concerning the incident with Helly attempting suicide. She arrives home in an animalistic fit of anger and disillusionment as she wrecks some of her furniture and demolishes her shrine]].

* DragonAscendant: [[spoiler: Following Cobel's firing--which may have been, in part, Milchik's own doing--Milchik takes full control of the severed floor's operations.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His attempts to give himself power or amusement tend to ''dramatically'' backfire against him towards the end of the show. Enjoying the SoBadItsGood elements of Ricken's book results in it making it way to Mark and instilling new anti-corporate feelings. Meanwhile, [[spoiler: his manipulation of Dylan eventually results in Dylan attacking him in the office and successfully activating the Overtime Contingency for his friends.]]

* TheSociopath: Milchik frequently uses overt and subtle cruelties to keep the innies in line. He is also apparently incapable of understanding their emotions, as he believes shallow rewards could sway [[spoiler: Dylan from his mission]].

* ButNotTooGay: Burt hits on Irving (who is receptive) when they're connecting over their passion for art; even though nothing comes of it beyond mere touching. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since romantic bonding is against company policy and both are devoted employees. [[spoiler: In his outie existence, Burt is in a relationship with another man.]]
* CessationOfExistence: [[spoiler: A non fatal version, as he's not physically killed, but Irving notes his retirement is still the death of his Innie, given the Innies have no consciousness outside of work.]]

* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler:Ms. Casey is supremely strange, seeming to lack much in the way of traditional human empathy and being utterly focused on her job to the point where she becomes distressed if anything unexpected happens. Then there's Cobel's remark that she's trying something new with Ms. Casey, as if she's a pet being controlled.]]
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: The reveal that Ms. Casey is in fact Mark's supposedly dead wife raises a lot of questions about what is going on with her. Is she the real Gemma? Is she a clone or a robot? Why did Lumon (which almost certainly had something to do with her disappearance) take her?]]

* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler: Her outie Gemma, Mark's late wife. Her death was the reason why Mark went through severance, since he thought it would help him process his grief better. It's eventually revealed that she is actually still alive...at least in some capacity, since she is now the severed wellness counselor Ms. Casey.]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: She's actually Mark's "late" wife Gemma.]]

* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: Of a sort. [[spoiler:Lumon therapist Miss Casey]] is also (or was, or has been) [[spoiler:Mark's dead wife Gemma.]]

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: [[spoiler:In the opening minutes of episode 7, he has his head bashed in with a baseball bat by Reghabi from behind when he goes to capture/kill her and is distracted by finding Mark.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: The Eagans are subtly revealed to be this. There seem to be thousands of severed workers all around the country, but the Season 1 finale reveals that [[spoiler:they want the whole ''world'' to be chipped.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: Their role in Lumon and their overarching plans for the severance program make them exceedingly difficult to talk about. [[spoiler: Particularly that Helly is one of them.]]

* SpottingTheThread: Devon runs into Gabby after leaving the birthing cabins and realizes she doesn’t remember her, which causes her to [[spoiler: research Gabby’s husband. When she learns that he is a state senator who supports severance, she realizes that Gabby underwent severance to avoid the pain of childbirth.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: If there ever was such a character, it's Reghabi. She's around for only five minutes in the entire season, but 1- she's the one who developed the reintegration proccess, something that shouldn't even be ''possible'', 2- she got Petey reintegrated, letting him reach out to Mark and thus kickstarting the whole plot, and 3- she [[spoiler:killed Graner and gave his access card to Mark, which enables the events of the [[WhamEpisode finale.]]]]

* SharpDressedMan: All the employees dress up for work, but Irving goes the extra mile by always wearing a three piece suit.