Noticed a detail about the break room
It’s obvious the break room is punishment by brainwashing and exhaustion, but I think there’s more to it. In season 1, after Helly leaves the break room she briefly talks to Dylan and mentions she heard a voice behind the door. Dylan asks, “Crying baby you mean?” And she says “No, like the angry mumbly guy.” Which seems to me like they experience hallucinations related to their outties lives. Dylan hears a baby because he’s a father and that’s one of his kids and Helly hears her father Jame Eagan. These would both be potential sources of shame since Dylan got severed because he couldn’t support his kids and Helly got severed for her creepy CEO cult leader father. Also, when Mark has a reintegration vision of Gemma in season 2, you can see he’s walking out of the friggin break room! Why is there some connection to their outties memories via the break room and why is that part of their psychological torture? My theory is that Lumon uses this as a way to force the innies to feel shame subconsciously or maybe to detect if their shame is genuine. What could that mean for Lumon’s control over severed people? The implications are nuts. If I’m right, this could also mean Mark is ashamed of how Gemma died and isn’t simply grieving. No way of knowing for sure until the circumstances of her death are revealed, but the break room might be more sinister than we thought.
TLDR I think the break room tortures innies with their outties’ shame.
It’s obvious the break room is punishment by brainwashing and exhaustion, but I think there’s more to it. In season 1, after Helly leaves the break room she briefly talks to Dylan and mentions she heard a voice behind the door. Dylan asks, “Crying baby you mean?” And she says “No, like the angry mumbly guy.” Which seems to me like they experience hallucinations related to their outties lives. Dylan hears a baby because he’s a father and that’s one of his kids and Helly hears her father Jame Eagan. These would both be potential sources of shame since Dylan got severed because he couldn’t support his kids and Helly got severed for her creepy CEO cult leader father. Also, when Mark has a reintegration vision of Gemma in season 2, you can see he’s walking out of the friggin break room! Why is there some connection to their outties memories via the break room and why is that part of their psychological torture? My theory is that Lumon uses this as a way to force the innies to feel shame subconsciously or maybe to detect if their shame is genuine. What could that mean for Lumon’s control over severed people? The implications are nuts. If I’m right, this could also mean Mark is ashamed of how Gemma died and isn’t simply grieving. No way of knowing for sure until the circumstances of her death are revealed, but the break room might be more sinister than we thought.
TLDR I think the break room tortures innies with their outties’ shame.