Severance Season 1 quotes

Ricken Hale

Your so-called boss may own the clock that taunts you from the wall, but, my friends, the hour is yours.

Ricken Hale

It's said that as a child, Wolfgang Mozart killed another boy by slamming his head in a piano. Don't worry. My research for this book has proven the claim untrue. As your heart rate settles, though, consider the power an author, which we'll refer to as Me, can hold over a reader, heretofore called You. But what, indeed, is You? How can You mean different things to millions of readers around a vast earth? And, perhaps most importantly, who are You?

My name is Helena, and I'm an Eagan. So one of the things that you learn growing up as an Eagan, is that the workers are our family. And I remember being confused about that as a kid, because I thought that meant I had a few hundred thousand literal brothers and sisters scattered around the world. [laughs] Oh, my God. But as I grew older, I learned that it's about shared ideals. My dad used to make me recite the nine core principles before bed every night, which I can't say I always did happily. Sorry, dad. But those are now the values that I share with everyone who works at Lumon, and that's what makes them my family. And I would never ask them to do anything that I'm not willing or excited to do myself. Look, my dad would love for me to sit here and say that I'm taking this job out of loyalty, and that it was the spirit of pure Eagan calling me to service. But I took a severed job because it sounds freaking awesome. So, no, I don't think severance divides us. I think it brings us together.

Mark has b-- I mean, out here, you have been trying to figure out what Lumon does. What you do.

Okay. I just... I just want to know why. Why he put me in there.

He lost his wife. You lost your wife. A little before you started at Lumon.

Gemma.

It was a car accident, and, at first, you tried to keep teaching.

I was a teacher?

A professor. Of history. You tried to go back to teaching three weeks after she died, and it was a disaster. She was just still in your veins, you know? Making everything hurt. Which I why I guess you thought the severed job would-- He hoped you'd be spared from the pain.

It's a nice name. Gemma.

Yeah. We were all really close. It was great. She was wonderful. She made you wonderful.

Helena. You look so nice. Like a film.

Thank you.

Are you... Are you still in pain?

I'm not. Not anymore.

I cried in my bed when they told me what she tried to do to you. What that innie tried to do. I-- Thank you for going through with this. The Grandfather would cherish what you've done. And one day you will sit with me at my revolving. Are you feeling well?

Yeah. I think, I think the drink just hit me a little bit.

You'll be all right for the speech?

For my speech. Yeah, of course.

Do you remember when I brought home the first chip to show you? The prototype. It had the blue and green lights back then.

Yeah.

I remember when you said to me, 'It's so pretty, daddy. Everybody in the whole world should get one.' They will. Because of you. They'll all be Kier's children.

But I'm here tonight to tell you that we are on the verge of a revolution. A kind and empathetic revolution that puts the human being at the center of industry. And yes, it's a business revolution too. We need no longer see those ideas as mutually exclusive, because the truth is we can have all of it. Increased productivity, improvements in morale... a happier workplace. A happier world. It's a vision that was first dreamed up by a humble military doctor you may know named Kier Eagan. A man who saw humans in agony and decided we could do better. He may never have seen a Severance chip in his lifetime, but it represents his elegant and gentle philosophy made manifest.

My name is Helly R. I'm an innie. And everything they told you about Severance is a lie! [crowd laughs] No, no, no. Listen, we're not happy. We're miserable. They torture us down there! We're prisoners!

Forgive me for the harm I've caused this world. None may atone for my actions... but me. And only in me shall their stain live on. All I can be is sorry. And that is all I am.

[in a video] Under my literal nose unfolded a human drama of danger and intrigue, inspiration and love.

I want it to be over.

Okay. So then after you find the black hallway or...

I want the pain to be over. If he's gone and I'm gone...

Stop saying that.

...then somehow, we'll be together.

He wouldn't want that.

How do you know?

Because I don't want that. Because I would be sad, and I would be less productive, and I'm really good at what I do here, whatever it is. And you're part of what makes me good at it. So please, do not go.

Dylan. I'm your favorite perk.

Don't bring them into this.

Seth Milchick

Take a look. These are blueprints for a new renovation, of which I chose not to inform your colleagues. It's called the Outie Family Visitation Suite.

Are you saying I could see my family here?

Seth Milchick

If you take the name of the room at face value, I'd say yes.

Holy fuck.

Seth Milchick

The holiest.

Why are you a child?

Because of when I was born.

Harmony Cobel

You don't value me. You fear me.

We fear no one.

Ricken Hale

But surely beer and juleps cannot fill the void left by love. Indeed only wine can achieve this, but it is famously costly, which is why sadness is among the most recurrent issues facing the poor.

[to Helena] Helly was never cruel.