If Severance hasnât already twisted your mind into a mangled maze of confusion and Lumon propaganda, then the recent revelations about its original script will. On the debut episode of The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott, the hosts reveal that our introduction to the Severance world was once much different than the one eventually streamed on Apple TV. And it wouldâve completely changed the entire series.
Show creator Dan Ericksonâs original idea for the pilot from his 2015 script involved Mark (Adam Scott) being divorced instead of widowed, and actually had him interviewing at a video store called Crazy Eagle Video after accidentally running over a cat. When he goes back to see if the cat is still there, he discovers itâs missing. So, he knocks on the door of a home, and its Lumon boss Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette). Itâs in this meeting that we would have witnessed the one element that wouldâve made it a very different series.
âThereâs a sequence of her showing him her pet rat, who she then tortures. But, it turns out the rat is severed. So, she switches, and suddenly the rat is now snuggling her. Thatâs how she explains to him what severance is,â Erickson says. After this encounter, Mark returns to Cobelâs house only to see it replaced with a Porta Potty, which Mark communicates to Cobel in through some unspecified way.
Notably, that rat sequence wouldâve introduced audiences to the idea that animals can not only be severed but also switched between severed and conscious states instantly. That wouldâve given a bit more explanation as to why there are goats on the severed floor later in the season, a mystery that is still one of the main unsolved questions for Severance fans.
Markâs Outie being introduced to Cobel as a Lumon employee whoâs recruiting him to be severed wouldâve eliminated one of the main tensions of the first season, as well as the upcoming second season. In the series as we know it, he goes through the severance process as a way to deal with the grief of his wifeâs passing. Itâs a major factor in the entire series, setting up the big twist that his wife is, in fact, likely not dead, because sheâs the wellness counselor Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) on the severed floors. His Innie has this revelation, and itâs one that is the impetus for much of his awakening in the upcoming second season
Another change is that the original version of the pilot script involved Mark waking up on the table at his Lumon orientation, and then being âbirth[ed] out of a giant sphincter in the ceiling,â according to Erickson. The episode wouldâve followed his first day at Lumon, where heâd be trained by Helly R (Britt Lower), get lost in a storage closet that never ends, and see his welcome video from his Outie.
This is drastically different from the pilot episode weâve all come to know and love, in which itâs Helly who wakes up on the table and is trained by Mark. She doesnât end up in an endless storage closet, but she does repeatedly run through an exit door that warps her back into the severed floor before seeing her Outieâs welcome video explaining her decision to go through the severance process. That change alone wouldâve altered the dynamic of the core cast. Instead of Helly being the one willing to write a message to her Outie into her arm or attempt suicide, all in efforts to leave the severed floor, it couldâve been Mark.
There are still eight more episodes of the podcast set to be released before Season 2’s January 17 premiere date. If these are the types of revelations weâre getting from just the first 20 minutes of the first episode, we may never see Severance the same way when weâre done listening to it all.
