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Thoughts on the ORTBO (Severance Season 2)
Simulation or reality?
When I originally watched S02E04 of Severance (AppleTV+) I was convinced the Outdoor Retreat and Team Building Occurrence (ORTBO) was a simulation, not a real outdoor experience. My thoughts shifted after watching S02E05 to thinking it was an actual outdoor activity. Now, my thoughts are somewhere in the middle. If you haven’t watched the episodes, be forewarned I’m about to go into spoilers.
My biggest clue that the ORTBO was a simulation came from the fact that Irv didn’t suffer any effects of hypothermia after spending the night in the woods and even falling asleep for an unknown amount of time. He didn’t react to the cold in any way. This suggested the environment was far more controlled than it appeared to be.
The second clue that the ORTBO was a controlled environment was in the way the fourth appendix of Kier Eagan’s book was displayed. This was straight out of a video game. Either that cave was inaccessible to anyone but Lumon employees or that book was planted there. There is no way that book would be there, untouched, in a national park. It was illuminated and sitting on a pair of pegs, begging for attention.
A third clue that the ORTBO was a simulation was how the sun moved across the sky. It didn’t move evenly, and it seemed to linger long enough for our MDR…
