The Eerie Severance Fan Theory That Patricia Arquette Agrees With

The opening theme song for the corporate dystopian series "Severance" is as eerie as the show itself. Composed by Theodore Shapiro, the "Severance" theme begins with a repeated bass piano note, alternating with a string of semi-dissonant, jazz-like chords. The unharmonious chords imply a lot about the series that viewers are about to watch. This will not be comforting, the music warns; this will be unnerving and unbalanced. You may think you have a solid foundation to stand on with those bass notes, but the jazz chords offer an element of gentle inner chaos. Shapiro was able to communicate all of that in just a few seconds of music. It should be noted that he won an Emmy already for its composition.

Thematically, those first few notes house a further meaning. Because the left hand of the pianist is playing the bass notes, and their right hand is playing the jazz chords, one might say that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. One hand is controlled, while the other isn't. This plays into the premise of "Severance," which follows several characters after they have had their memories surgically "severed" before going into work at the mysterious company Lumon. The show centers on a certain kind of brain implant that erases a Lumon employees' memories when they arrive at the office. They work all day with no knowledge of their lives in the outside world. At the end of the day, the chip deactivates, and their non-work memories return, while their office memories are repressed.

The memory dichotomy effectively creates two people in the same brain, an "innie" and an "outie." What you end up with is two personalities in a single body, a little like the left and right hands of a pianist. In fact, this very theory was proposed by a TikTok user named Djivvi, whose video was watched by the "Severance" cast in an amusing on-camera interview hosted by Entertainment Weekly. The show's actors were impressed by Djivvi's analysis, and co-star Patricia Arquette, in particular, was in total agreement.

Arquette plays the inscrutable Lumon manager Ms. Cobel on "Severance," but the character also masquerades as Mark's friendly neighbor, Mrs. Selvig, when she's not at the Lumon offices in season 1. Here's what Arquette had to say after watching said musical theory video.

"I appreciate your musical analysis. I think you're right. And I also do think that there's something normal about one hand — the sustained note — while we do have these dissonant other chords. I don't know if chords can be scary, let's just call them 'scary chords.' I don't have any insight that that was intentional, and yet I imagine that really was intentional. Because choosing a score for material — film or television — is very specific. So, I don't think there was any happenstance that happened here. I think that it's absolutely intentional." 

Of course, one can indeed ask Theodore Shapiro what his own inspiration was when he wrote the "Severance" theme, as /Film has in the past. At the time, he talked about the electronic middle portion of his theme song, which boasts humming electro-violins and a computer-like concussive thump for its percussion. As for the opening four chords, he knew that was going to be part of the show when its executive producer, frequent director, and almost co-star, Ben Stiller, reacted positively to it. To quote Shapiro directly:

"I wrote a piece that was largely electronic, and it had this middle section that [Stiller] really liked. And so I made a mental note: Let's try to expand on that idea. It was based around four chords and I thought, 'I wonder what would happen if I took those same four chords and just tried a different palette?' I sat down at the piano and started playing the idea that ultimately became the theme." 

The interview also offers other musical insights, like how the crackling "static" like sound in the theme song is actually a single piano note that's been reversed and slowed down. Mysterious and important work indeed.

"Severance" is currently streaming on Apple TV+.