Severance - Analyzing Mark Scout + Theory

foreign s can't get here fast enough don't worry in the meantime I've got you covered no less files here this time we tackle the final member of the macro data refinement crew the newly minted Department chief Mr Mark Scout Mark is a character I understood right away and I'm guessing that was true for most people he's kind of an every man character but I may have mistakenly written him off as a character lacking depth early on that changed by the end of the first season Mark Begins the story a broken shell of a man doing the best he can to hold it together but he comes out the other side of the story a man to serving respect Mark discovers his courage and this sets him on course for a conflict of Epic Proportions none of this comes easy though Marcus saddled with the crushing effects of grief that come from loss and finding his way out of the fog of depression takes an enormous amount of Courage on his part let's take a closer look at this character and see what we can learn from his journey so far of course we will take some time to stop and smell the roses and by smelling the Roses I mean dabble in a little speculation as always I need to warn the new people we got spoilers here all types different shapes and sizes so if you're not familiar with this episode or haven't seen the series in Full yet this is the last chance to use the emergency escape hatch don't worry I'll still be here when you're done a special shout out and thank you to the newest patrons it is my pleasure to welcome Olivia Buller Rose Palos I do want to make a correction from the last video Mr g dot Lee Jr thank you so much you guys your support means everything check for your names in the closing credits if you would also like to help out the channel and support what I do check out the patreon page link is in the description also you can join the Discord channel it's a chill place to talk TV especially Severance and the like come check us out all right all right all right tin foil tight good let's dive [Music] introduced to us in the Lumen employee parking lot we find Mark weeping in his car without any explanation as to why Mark is a man who carries a heavy emotional burden with him and no doubt this will be the mountain that Mark has to climb over the course of the story the sequence we get of him going through security checkpoints in the morning does a great job of hinting at his struggles Mark takes the elevator ride to the seventh floor and as the doors are about to open we see the pain melt away from his face as the chip Takes Over The Surreal atmosphere of these shots in the hall send and stark contrast to the emotional scene we just watched in the parking lot but wait did you catch that let's run that back there it is the seemingly insignificant Act of tossing out a piece of tissue this scene is great because it encapsulates Mark's current condition perfectly I thought this was a pretty clever scene especially when looking at it from the perspective of a metaphor for Mark and his grief any Mark hasn't the slightest clue as why he had that tissue in his pocket or what it meant to him only minutes ago and this man has no idea who Gemma even is it's just a tissue toss it in the trash this small detail gives us a glimpse into just how intricate and subtle The Narrative of the story is going to be if you're not paying attention you might miss the breadcrumbs no distractions when you're watching Severance while at work Mark is Chipper AF it's almost like the events that took place just 10 minutes earlier never happened his banter with his colleagues has him looking almost jovial man we see in the office now is divorced from the soul-crushing memories of the man in the parking lot this is all made possible by Severance the technological advancement that lets people essentially forget the unpleasant of Life by passing it on to someone else was also themselves if they so choose Audi and any Mark pass control over his body like relay Runners each doing his part to keep the ship above water each a ghost on the periphery of their counterparts existence Mark's choice to get severed is deeply rooted in a Need to Escape reality but that only lasts for 8 hours a day what do you do with the rest of the time one thing that is made clear is that this is what Mark wants he wants to be alone in the truest sense of the word far and away from the reminders of his troubles in Social settings we get the sense that he's dragging himself through it he'd rather not have to face the discerned looks of friends and family he employs humor as a defense mechanism trying to avoid honest conversation even with his sister the person he is most close to he doesn't get confrontational about Devin's well-meaning concern but he does avoid the topic nonetheless this is a key aspect of his personality confrontation avoidance and we see this with and his Audi the best proof of this is evident in how he deals with his one and only neighbor Miss selvic pest is the word that comes to mind Mark remains courteous tactful and always the Diplomat despite all of the weirdness and inconveniences because Mark doesn't want to fight with his any we see a similar attack avoid direct conflict Keep Your Head Down live to see another day one of the things I liked about how this story was written is how the writers managed to use almost every single character that matters in a concerted push to get Mark to move forward to build some inertia and over the season we watched the gradual build up from Mark the broken to The Reluctant and so on in most narratives a protag stuck in a rut is struggling to get their life back on track whatever that means Mark is a bit different that he not only jumped into the ditch but he also has no intention of even trying to climb his way out of it he can't be helped in this state it'd be like throwing a rope down into a figurative ditch only for Mark to choose to ignore it he has to want to help himself first but what happens when your own well-being isn't reason enough for you to get started for Mark's journey to begin he will need a reason to change and we already know that doing it for himself hasn't been enough to get him the budge but that begins to change the day Helly arrives that's when the universe begins its conspiracy to slowly unravel Mark's defenses heli is like a gust of wind that blows the wee baby bird out of the forcing it to fly it's not just heli that Mark has to thank for this though Irving Petey Rick and Dylan the entire cast really even the haters you could even say that Harmony's actions played a role in his inevitable face turn the circumstances surrounding the host of characters begins to shore up the foundational motivation for Mark to take his first steps in other words Mark stepped up because his friends needed him he witnessed Dylan's experience with the OTC and how he learned about his son that he will never know he watched Irving final romance on the seventh floor only to have it ripped away by Lumen kobold's Relentless antagonizing and condescension and poking inside and outside of ricken's motivational self-help book had somehow found its way into the hands of the MDR crew Petey's weird ass notes we'll be talking about that in another video by the way of course there's heli and the romance between them which played a large part in his turn but for all of this Mark was as we said earlier just happy to be here two years in and he had adjusted to life on the seventh floor despite kobal and Company treating him like an idiot and a stooge we see occasions where Coble is outright violent towards him scolding him like a child and eating coffee cups at his head notice how he hasn't seemed surprised by any of this sure he's alert he's definitely alert but not shocked this is par for the course in these parts Mark seemingly still finds pleasure in the people he works with which is a very common scenario in the real world look at his face again after he gets off that elevator ready to begin another workday she's grinning because Mark has people in there that he likes and even cares about as I watched his story unfold this was the thing that struck me the most how Mark was able to pull himself out of a Hole by taking the focus away from his personal circumstances and turning that onto the people around him that needed him most all of these factors play a part in helping any Mark decide that he needs to take control over his own situation and try to make his life better for himself and for his friends the cowering Mark we see in the early episodes like in the team building scene well that Mark is fading away he begins to take on a new attitude no longer a spectator own life he's now taken hold of the wheel Audi Mark's transformation mirrors that of his any as that Mark begins to question what is going on at the workplace Petey's return and his ominous warnings about Lumen that's enough to unmoor a complacent mark from there his natural intellectual curiosity which no doubt stems from his background in academics fuels his search for answers and begins his Chase for the White Rabbit in the form of ragabi and of course one of my top favorite scenes in all of season one [ __ ] I refuse to apologize for that the comical nature of the writing lulled me into thinking that this character would be more of an observer type of character somewhat flat and shallow a character that I was meant to project my own definitions and feelings onto but by the end of the first season Mark had become such a very complex character much more than I ever expected which of course is always a pleasant surprise the purity of his intentions make him a hard person not to like his willingness to make sacrifices for people he cares about and his patient approach to dealing with difficulties are very admirable qualities but most of all for me at least it was the way he quietly found his courage to fully take hold of his own power and take his place as leader of the MDR team because they needed him to I think one of the other lessons we can take away from Mark's story is that when we find ourselves in a dark place and the Outlook is grim it might feel easier to give in to the grief and run from that pain whatever it is that's haunting us finding purpose in service to others as cliche as it sounds is a proven way to combat depression among other means ironically this is the same view of service that Kira spouse but Lumen has clearly lost the threat okay so we can't part ways without a little Theory time so I want to point out a theory related to mark that I find intriguing some of you have expressed something similar and I've seen this proposed in different ways on the internet the story suggests that Lumen isn't just what's inside of this building but the whole town is one giant Severance experiment in other words here PE is an extension of the severed floor Lumen wants to see how several people perform in the real world especially Mark so they are being closely monitored inside and outside of the building which explains why koble was meant to live so close to mark this could explain why she's there in the first place could also explain Rick and his fan club of suspiciously severed looking free-range individuals think Truman Show and by that I mean Mark is Truman he's not the only person who didn't get the memo this theory has a ton of implications that I think are interesting to consider let me know what you think about that in the comment section or what you just think about Mark in general how do you feel about the character I may need to explore this Theory at length in another video but that about wraps this one up if you list now you're the goat hope you enjoyed the video and if you did you already know what to do keep an eye out for a community Post in the coming days I've got some questions I want to ask you thanks once again to the patrons and everyone who has been so supportive be safe out there and until next time off you go [Music]

Channel: Nautilus Files

Views: 32,761

Keywords: severance tv show, severance apple tv, severance characters, severance tv analysis, severance season 1 one, severance show breakdown, severance scifi, severance analysis, Mark Scout Severance, Mark Scout character analysis, Mark Severance story explained, Gemma Severance, MDR Severance, severance tv show explained, severance tv show theories, severance tv show review, adam scott severance

Id: 4K5Zq33vIB8

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 29 2023