Get the latest gossip
Ricken Got Lumon-ed
The self-help author’s shift from naysayer to bootlicker reveals what the Severance corporation actually produces.
And it’s underlined again in this week’s “Trojan’s Horse,” when self-help author, husband, father, neti-pot user, and turtleneck devotee Ricken adds another entry to his list of identities: complicit cog in Lumon’s brainwashing machine. Lumon’s sense of mystery has been integral to Severance from the beginning, a way for the show to lean into stylish aesthetics and bizarre divergences like rooms full of goats and waffle parties with dancing Tempers, while remaining vague and opaque about what “industries” the company is actually involved in. When Natalie arrives unannounced in Ricken and Devon’s home in the third episode, “Who Is Alive?,” flatters him with praise for his “profound” book, and persuades him to write a version of The You You Are with “certain verbiage to which Innies respond more favorably,” she’s giving him the acclaim he’s always wanted.
Or read this on VULTURE