SPOILERS AHEAD (obviously…)
In 2022, Severance, a series created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller, was released. Its popularity grew very quickly due to the storyline’s originality and immense attention to detail. The series follows protagonist Mark Scout, who works at a renowned company called Lumon, within their macrodata refinement department on what is known as the “severed floor” of the building, where all employees undergo a procedure known as “severance” upon starting work. This procedure essentially splits an individual’s memory in two, so that when they exist outside of work, they have no recollection of what happened when they were on the clock, and when they are at work, they have no memory of what their life is like at home. These two designated sections of the individual’s brain are known as the “innie” and the “outie.” When Mark’s outie is confronted by his work friend, Petey, who left Lumon mysteriously, and Mark’s innie is encouraged to feed his curiosity about the true motives of the company by a new coworker, he and the microdata refinement team uncover the sinister secrets of the world in which they were forced to live.
The opening credits sequence for Severance, created by Oliver Latta, better known as Extraweg, features an animated version of Mark experiencing the worlds of his innie and outie bleeding into each other. This striking animation piece won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design and has sparked acclaim from critics and fans alike. The series itself holds many secrets to be discovered, but the opening credits sequence alone houses many allusions, symbols, and foreshadows, revealing lots of juicy secrets awaiting the series’ audience.
Painting a Clear Picture
Paint plays a large role in Severance. Many paintings are spotted and talked about within the Lumon building, including “Kier’s Taming of the Tempers.” In the painting, the tempers of anger, joy, fear, and sadness are represented by four characters that later come to play a larger role when they put on a performance for Dylan at his waffle party. It is also revealed that Irving’s outie is a painter who has fixated on painting a creepy dark hallway with an elevator at the end that only goes down…many…many…many times. Before this is fully revealed, it is teased throughout the season, like when Irving’s innie chips at black paint underneath his fingernails, or when he hallucinates a sort of black goo (to be later understood as black paint) spilling over the walls of his office cubicle. This black goo is seen several times in the show’s title sequence as well.
Within the first few seconds of the title sequence, innie Mark discovers a recycling bin oozing black paint onto the snowy ground. In the final seconds of the sequence, the audience returns to a similar scene when an outie Mark in addition to many innie Marks are sucked up into a syringe and transformed into black paint that engulfs a larger Mark’s head. The shot pans out to reveal many people fully engulfed in paint, and then pans out even more to reveal that the paint people make up one large paint shadow that is pulling the signature blue nametag of Mark’s outie.
Mark’s innie is originally shown in this scene discovering the recycling bin oozing paint, but when this scene returns, it is his outie who is struggling to pull away from the paint. This could mean that all the events that happen in between during the title sequence are a manifestation of the paint, acting as the liaison between the two worlds of Mark’s innie and outie and allowing them to float between each. It can also be noted that at the beginning of the sequence, Mark’s innie is curious of the paint, examining it, while at the end of the sequence, outie Mark is struggling to escape it. This is clearly representative of how, despite Mark’s innie and outie sharing the same vessel, they hold entirely different memories and experiences, causing them to act as two different individuals.
RGB Color Model
The color scheme used in Severance is a prominent aspect of the series. Red and blue as well as the juxtaposition between the two is shown frequently. For instance, in a shot where Mark is leaving Lumon for the day, an aerial view shows the parking spaces divided by a strip of snow. On one side is a blue car, and on the other, a red one, while Mark’s car is a neutral color. Another example is Helly having red hair but wearing some variation of blue in nearly every episode. Mark owns a red and blue fish, whose tank is severed in the middle. Mark’s house is blue while Irving’s is red. The list goes on. This obvious and continuous contrast puts emphasis on the world being split, or, wait for it…severed. See what they did there? This theme is also reminiscent of the renowned red pill and blue pill seen in The Matrix. In this film, protagonist Neo is given the choice between the two pills, which are ultimately metaphors that serve the narrative’s purpose. The blue pill essentially means living in ignorant bliss while the red pill represents the choice to learn potentially disturbing and life-changing truths. This is similar to how the innies in Severance know nothing of the world outside the workplace and the outies know nothing of what happens inside Lumon. That is, until they take the red pill so to speak and venture to uncover the nefarious secrets of their realities.
Completing the Severance color scheme is green. While green can represent positive aspects such as nature and balance, it can also symbolize sickness and isolation. The office is full of green. The carpet is entirely green as well as the boards that divide the cubicles. Couches throughout the building are green as well as the bathroom walls, and again, the list goes on. The colors of red, green, and blue are shown together frequently throughout the season. The packaged paper inside the office is all red, green, and blue. Shots that show the microdata refinement team in the office encompass red, green, and blue. This prevalent color scheme is reminiscent of the RGB color model, which reproduces a large array of colors by combining various intensities of red, green, and blue light. The RGB color model is mainly used for the display of images in electronic systems, such as computer monitors. Technology is a marvel in the Severance universe, because even though the storyline seems to take place around present day, the technology in the universe is reminiscent of the 1970’s and 80’s. The RGB color model used throughout the series could play a large role in the realm of Lumon technology and the mystery surrounding it.
These three colors, just as they are throughout the series, remain prevalent in the opening title sequence. The recycling bin that oozes paint is blue. Mark’s outie wears red pajamas in addition to his signature blue Lumon name tag. Outie Mark sits in one of two green chairs in a stark white room, clearly reminiscent of those found throughout the series within the Lumon building. Outie Mark then melts into the floor with his chair, leaving a red drip, a green drip, and a blue drip falling through the floor to the lower level of the building, onto another outie Mark, who is surrounded by innie Marks in green cubicles. The entire office space is green, just as it is throughout the series.
All the Little Marks
One of the most notable aspects of the opening sequence is the idea of many duplicates of Mark existing in the Severance world. These innies and outies represent many elements of Mark’s life. At the start of the sequence, Mark is seen lying in bed wearing a suit. The suit implies that the audience is looking at Mark’s innie, but his lying in bed implies that he is at home, a place that only his outie is meant to experience. It can also be noted that this Mark is face up on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He appears lonely. Rather than lying in the middle of the bed, he resides on one side, leaving an empty space for another person on the other. This is likely symbolic of the grief Mark is experiencing since the loss of his wife, Gemma.
Innie Mark is then seen examining the recycling bin mentioned earlier that oozes black paint, making it clear he is still in the outside world. He then begins to walk through a snowy area between two lines of parked cars. The cars are all identical models and colors, and snow is covering all of them the exact same way. Circling back to the scene in the series mentioned earlier when Mark is leaving work driving a neutral-colored car that was parked in between a red car and a blue car, these identical cars all look like they belong to Mark. While innie Mark walks this snowy strip, he passes his outie, who wears red pajamas as if he is going to sleep or relaxing at home (fitting attire for an outie) but is also adorned with his signature blue Lumon name tag, something only Mark’s innie should wear. Mark’s outie is also carrying what appears to be three innie Marks melded together like they are a balloon. He pulls the balloon with force, as if he is struggling to carry the burden of all these versions of himself.
The audience then sees many innie Marks and one outie Mark walking through their own elevator doors. Upon entering, the stark white background changes to be dark and shadowy, but there is still one outie and several innies that remain. In the following shot, Mark’s innie and outie are shown separated by a wall, but when the image is flipped sideways, outie Mark appears small, sitting in a green chair, while innie Mark is large and menacing. His head dips into the ceiling, causing outie Mark to melt into the floor and drip onto another outie Mark who resides on the floor below. This melting sequence could symbolize the reintegration process, as when one part of Mark’s brain begins spilling into the other, there are dyer consequences, as seen when Petey undergoes the process. The drips from the ceiling also seem to resemble the Lumon logo, which looks like a water droplet. This can be seen several times throughout the series including the labeling of several Lumon products as well as the big water tower that stands just outside the Lumon building. There are also several files that the microdata refinement team works on that reference bodies of water, including Tumwater, Siena, and Allentown. Water may play a large role within Lumon and the opening sequence could be hinting at this idea.
After this melting sequence, outie Mark peers up at the drips coming from the ceiling before being consumed by a pool of innie Marks. These innies then spill out of a coffee cup onto a desk, revealing outie Mark running out of it. Outie Mark then jumps from the desk into a much smaller office space, which replaces the top half of a much larger innie Mark’s head. This could be symbolic of Mark’s outie controlling his innie, as he ultimately calls the shots.
In a later sequence, outie Mark and several innie Marks are sucked up into a syringe and turned into black paint that engulfs a larger Mark’s head. The shot widens to reveal many people engulfed in black paint. They seems to all be bowing, perhaps to a higher power, perhaps to Kier. This may be a symbol of the cult activity that is clearly going on within Lumon. These paint people make up one big paint shadow that grips outie Mark’s Lumon nametag and traps his feet, symbolizing his entrapment within Lumon. The shadow grips the one piece of outie Mark that ties him to the company. When he pulls himself free, he falls back into the same bed in which innie Mark still lies, filling the empty space on the other side of the bed. That is, until the two merge together into Mark’s innie, who now lays in the center of the bed. The choice to merge the two Marks into the suit version, his innie, is likely a reflection of his Lumon position taking over his entire sense of self, a common theme in cult behavior.
The many Marks seen throughout the title sequence is likely an obvious hint at duplication and cloning happening within Lumon. This would explain the mystery of Mark’s wife, Gemma, existing in the Lumon world as Ms. Casey, as well as other unanswered questions thus far into the series. In addition to this symbol and potential foreshadow, the opening sequence holds more potential implications for the future of the series.
Potential Allusions and Anecdotes
Although there are many elements seen in the opening title sequence that reference those seen throughout the series, it is possible that there are more to be discovered as the story progresses. The recycling bin that oozes black paint points to a scene in the first episode of the series in which Mark tells Mrs. Selvig where and when to put out her recycling bins. It is clear Mark is frustrated because they have had this conversation several times before. Later in the series, it is revealed that Mrs. Selvig, who is also Harmony Cobel, Mark’s boss at Lumon, has been stalking him, so the recurring recycling bins conversation was just another reason to talk to Mark. Beyond this, however, the recycling bin may also be used to represent Lumon “recycling” souls so to speak, cloning individuals and repurposing them over and over again. That is, if the cloning theory stands to be true.
The sequence in which Mark’s outie carries his balloon-like self, made up of three innies melded together, could be a hint at the second season of the show. From what has been seen of Season 2 thus far, balloons seem to play a large role. This brief moment shown in Season 1’s opening sequence could be a foreshadow of this theme.
Mark’s outie along with several of his innies are sucked up into a syringe later in the title sequence. It is seen in the series that syringes are used during the severance procedure, whereas a chip is implemented into an individual’s head. However, it is possible that the syringe could be a much larger motif. Perhaps it is used for the reintegration process as well. It could be used for other procedures that have yet to be discovered within the universe. Either way, it is likely to make a grand reappearance.
The Severance opening title sequence is a brief glimpse into a thoroughly developed universe. Despite the immense attention to detail put into this animated credit scene, there are more secrets and references within the series itself. Undoubtedly, the Severance universe continues to grow and intrigue its audience with more mysteries and hidden elements to come.
