What is the Whole Mind Collective?

Severance is slowly exploring many ongoing mysteries. Season two continues some from the first season as well as adding even more to the pile. Whether or not all the series’ many questions truly need to be answered is up for debate, but it seems that creator Dan Erickson and his writing team have a general plan in mind, even if they haven’t ironed out every detail.

One ongoing mystery has been with the show since its very first episode, and is being teased out piece by piece: the identity of the Whole Mind Collective. While their name may sound like a socially conscious hip-hop group from the 90s, in the world of Severance, they’re an underground organization dedicated to undermining Lumon Industries and the severance process at every turn. Who are these enigmatic figures, and how far are they willing to go in their pursuit of ending severance once and for all?

The Whole Mind Collective’s Dangerous Work

The series first introduces the concept of severance resistance in its second episode, “Half Loop.” Mark (Adam Scott) encounters a group of student protesters handing out fliers denouncing severance while out on a disastrous date with his sister Devon’s (Jen Tullock) midwife Alexa (Nikki M. James). He gets into a verbal altercation with the group, but ultimately writes them off as a bunch of kids who don’t know anything. It isn’t until a man approaches him at a restaurant who claims to be his work friend Petey (Yul Vazquez), having undergone a process to reconnect his severed mind, that things get more serious.

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After Petey’s “reintegration” leads to his death, Mark’s curiosity gets the better of him. He can’t help but answer the cell phone that’s been ringing constantly, leading him to the movement’s enigmatic leader, Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge). Despite Petey’s rather gruesome end, Asal maintains that reintegration is possible, and she’s the only one that knows how to do it, because she’s the one that put the chip in their heads in the first place. Things get quiet after Mark and Asal’s meeting is discovered by the severed floor’s head of security, Mr. Graner (Michael Cumpsty), leading Asal to bludgeon him to death in order to prevent Lumon from finding her.

Asal returns in season two, episode three, “Who Is Alive?” She offers Mark another chance at reintegration, claiming that she’s improved the procedure to make it (hopefully) less lethal. Desperate to see his wife again and with no other way to contact his Innie, Mark agrees to the procedure, kicking off episode three’s stunning cliffhanger where the two halves of Mark’s mind crash into each other.

It seems that whatever hand Asal had in creating the severance process has caused her lasting regret, enough that she would risk the wrath of Lumon by secretly reintegrating its severed workforce. Given how powerful Lumon is, it’s a dangerous proposition to try to resist them. But if Asal is willing to kill Mr. Graner to protect her operation, she’s clearly unafraid.

Not Everyone Loves Lumon

The town of Kier, named after the messianic Eagan patriarch, is clearly a company town, one built by and for Lumon and those who work there. But as the Whole Mind Collective shows, not everyone in town buys into the Eagan family gospel. Beyond the student protesters, Asal, and whoever might be working with her, there’s also Fissureman, the punk band that Mark and Alexa watch on their much better second date in season one, featuring Petey’s daughter June (Cassidy Layton) on guitar. They play songs bashing Lumon, leading the audience in a defiant chorus. Clearly, the town’s relationship with Lumon is complicated. It supplies most of the jobs, but June’s not the only one who’s had something taken from her by the company.

More broadly, there seems to be a lot of resistance to the idea of severance, with even those outside the Whole Mind Collective trying to get it banned. The scope of severance’s impact outside the borders of Kier has only been hinted at, but Dylan’s disastrous job interview in season two, episode two shows that there’s some stigma around the idea and those who decide to do it. Dylan’s interview for a job at a boring door manufacturer seems to be going well, until he tells the manager interviewing him (Adrian Martinez) that he’s severed, and the interview is cut short. It seems some are so opposed to the idea of severance that they don’t want to associate with anyone who’s chosen to undergo the procedure.

Lumon is facing resistance on multiple fronts, from student activists raising awareness, to former employees like Asal reintegrating their workers, to more broad resistance from local governments and citizens. Not to mention, they’re also dealing with a rebellion growing within their own walls, as the Innies work together to uncover Lumon’s secrets. One of the most exciting parts of Severance so far is seeing how all these pockets of resistance will come together.

Severance

Release Date

February 18, 2022

Showrunner

Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman

Directors

Ben Stiller

Writers

Dan Erickson

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  Tramell Tillman

  Seth Milchick