The First 30 Minutes Told Us Everything

I’ve been seeing a lot of people talking about the ending. Some disappointed, others already theorizing about s3. In my opinion, the convo between iMark and oMark is the most important thing in the episode and basically encapsulates the entire message of the show. I think many people are missing the point of that scene. oMark starts off by basically saying “Hey bro, sorry I created you, I was just really sad idk hehe my bad. They told me you’d be happy down there idrk.” I ask you all this. Really? Do we really buy this? With all the world building establishing that all the non-Lumon people absolutely detest severance? We are supposed to believe that oMark believed what Lumon told him? We as viewers need to come to terms with this fact: oMark is not a good person. I don’t think he’s evil or anything, I just think he’s guilty of something this show warns against, which is treating people as a means to an end.

First, oMark uses iMark to escape his grief. He then reintegrates not because he wants to give iMark a better life, but because it is a way to get to Gemma. Finally, he wants to use iMark as a means to rescue Gemma, even if that means the destruction of everything iMark holds dear. oMark never views iMark as someone with the same amount of worth as himself or Gemma, and that apology from oMark doesn’t make up for what he did. In fact, it almost makes it worse. oMark is basically iMark’s father, and that apology, telling him that he was only created as a way for oMark to ease his trauma, almost carries the same vibe as your dad telling you the only reason you were born is because your parents thought having you would save their marriage.

Now let’s connect this back to what many feel this show is about, which is an anti-capitalist, anti-exploitation message. While the show does have this message, it’s not totally captured by this ideology. This finale shows us the other side of that revolutionary sentiment by highlighting an objective truth. Some workers, believe it or not, actually enjoy their job. They don’t feel exploited, they don’t feel like they’re in hell, and they enjoy seeing their office crush every day (Mark), they enjoy the friendly competitiveness (Dylan), and they like obsessing over the company lore (S1 Irv). iMark explicitly tells oMark this, he basically says “we make it work, it’s all we have and we want to keep it.” oMark can’t believe this, and he basically tells iMark “Burn it all down, what’s on the other side is better, I promise.” iMark is rightfully skeptical about reintegration, and he’s worried that oMark will discard him after he gets back Gemma (he totally would have).

With this in mind, let’s go to the ending. iMark has to make a choice, cross the literal barrier into the unknown and trust his exploiter (oMark) to remember him, or go to Helly and keep the status quo. For the first time in his short life, he’s having agency over his own existence. Lumon are done exploiting him, why would he hand himself over to a new master? So he goes with Helly for this reason, but as they run away, it seems like Mark realizes it won’t work. Lumon are too strong, too powerful. The innies can’t win, but for one small moment, Mark S was a free man.