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cover of episode PCC Multiverse #429- Wrestlemania Preview, XBOX On The Rise, And What's Next For Severance!

PCC Multiverse #429- Wrestlemania Preview, XBOX On The Rise, And What's Next For Severance!

2025/4/18
logo of podcast Pop Culture Cosmos (Radio Show Edit)

Pop Culture Cosmos (Radio Show Edit)

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Don't be alarmed. The quasi-shimmering light before you is a trans-dimensional gateway to other worlds, other voices, other thoughts, and other realities. Up feels like down, and down feels like the number seven on a Wednesday morning. Don't worry. That quivering, blood-boiling sensation under your eyebrows is all a part of the charm. Welcome to the PCC Multiverse. Welcome to the PCC Multiverse.

Once again, it is The Great One, TJ Johnson, along with me, Gerald Glassford. Thanks again for watching this thing right here at the Pop Culture Cosmos. I wanted to go ahead and talk to you about your list of pop culture stuff that you need to go ahead and get off your chest.

Xbox, my friend. Xbox, you know, we talked about previously Warner Brothers Discovery doing well now after having some rough times. You know, they're now Minecraft movie, which we'll relate to here in a second. With them also as well, The Last of Us. With them also as well, The White Lotus. With them also as well, Hacks. That's now a series that they're having a series of successes now.

for them that is being appreciated by audiences worldwide. Same thing can be said for Xbox after years of mismanagement and Phil Spencer, you know, pointing the finger at you when I do years of mismanagement years of court settlements, court, this, that, that as far as injunctions and hearings and all that.

Xbox has finally got its act together. Now, it may be too late, or it probably is too late, or yeah, okay, I'll just say it. It is too late for the console war, although I would have handled that differently knowing what I know now about what Xbox is doing. But since, what,

maybe September of last year, where they started putting out like Flight Simulator 2024. They put out, of course, Indiana Jones. They put out other really solid games through the mix, my friend. Since then, they have been on a roll. This has been no contest. When it concerns the battle between Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, it has been no contest. On top of that, they're gaining extra revenue by putting it out

Despite our best judgments, they put it out, some of these games, on PlayStation 5 and have achieved great success on that.

I just finished Avowed at 73 hours. I liked every bit of it. I'm going to say I had a lot of fun with that. The mechanics were really something I could get into. Whether or not I enjoyed the story at parts, it was what it was, but I could still always go back to the gameplay first and foremost was absolutely a fun time.

for 73 hours. I wouldn't have done it unless I enjoyed it. 73 hours you had to enjoy. Yeah, exactly. So like I played like an almost an hour a day while it was, you know, since it came out. So it was just something I really, really relished. And I didn't even finish. I mean, I finished the

the campaign, but I didn't even just a hundred percent everything. So kudos for that. And of course the, you know, the outer limits too, or the outer worlds too is still coming out from, yeah, from Obsidian too. They come out with about, we've got Indiana Jones, you've got South of Midnight, which just debuted. You've got Doom on the way. You've got other games that they've had. Now there's other games on Games Pass with Adam Fall that start out. That

Xbox is having a renaissance, my friend, along with their property, the Minecraft movie, which is their IP. Your thoughts on the success of Xbox?

You know, I've been on a record with you taking Phil Spencer to task and saying that, you know, this is he needs to find a way to right the ship. His goodwill was running out or had ran out at this point. And I can also successfully say that

Xbox, the end of 2020, the last six months of 2024, and obviously now, you know, a few months into 2025 as we are, four months, four and a half months into it already at this point. It's been all Xbox, bro. I mean, if we can think about the last real solid release on the PlayStation over the course of the last six months, and when I say real solid, I'm talking about like a PlayStation-owned IP that really took off. I can't

I can't name it. But as you just mentioned, we just popped off about three or four from Xbox that really surprised a lot of us. I mean, looking at the Indiana Jones, looking at Avowed, we're looking at now the... Was it the Midnight? What's the name of the game? The Midnight one? Oh, South of Midnight. South of Midnight, which people were iffy on that at first, and that's come out to really, really positive, really strong reviews. So the...

The problem, the problem for me, well, first, again, kudos to Xbox and the Xbox team for staying their course.

And what I mean by that is there had to be a lot of people who heard a lot of the external noise and heard a lot of people calling for jobs, calling for their heads, calling for all the above. You know, very similar to Ubisoft situation where they were like, you know, this company needs to go. The person that runs this company needs to go all the above. And, you know, the way Ubisoft has bounced back with Assassin's Creed Shadow, which I am still loving to this day. I'm

That is right now my game of 2025 easily. I can really say that Xbox has stayed the course and has made the decision to continue with their vision and see their vision through. I'm very, very... I'm...

proud is not the word because I had no, I got no, no skin in the game. But I think I can appreciate them sticking to their vision and seeing it through and then seeing the fruits of that labor. Finally. I mean, these acquisitions that happened and a lot of these things were being developed, you know, again, at the height of COVID-19 and there's, they were still trying to figure out the way to, to, to move around that. And I think we're finally really starting to see the fruits of that labor. Now, again,

you know, is it too little, too late? It depends on what you're looking for in regards to what you want their sales to be. As far as the console wars, again, it's what you're looking for. As far as console sales, absolutely, it's too little, too late. It's not going to happen. But as far as what they're looking to do for the Xbox brand, it's still yet to be seen, but I can tell you that they are absolutely on a roll. I think my bigger concern

concern now, if you will, that we've got all the praise out the way. And it was quite a bit of praise and it was well-deserved. But my bigger concern at this point is who is Xbox?

What is Xbox? If I could borrow a line from my buddy from Drax, who is Xbox? What is Xbox? What's your identity? Who are you? What are you trying to be? Are you a brand? Are you a software publisher at this point? Are you a console maker? What is Xbox? And

I think I'd like to have seen them be a bit more protective over their IPs, be a bit more protective over what it means to have the Xbox brand and just be more protective of the brand in general. Now,

none of us will ever know the inner workings of what it really took to get a lot of these deals done. And I'm sure that there had to be a lot of caveats in order to do the acquisitions that they've been able to acquire and how they're going to allow those acquisitions to still be prevalent on other consoles. They had to give up a lot. I'm sure they did. And there are a lot of things that probably had to be done behind the scenes that we will absolutely never know about. But it doesn't change the fact that from a perception of

The consumer, Xbox has lost its brand. They've lost who they are. They've lost what they were trying to do. And they're evolving into whatever they're evolving into at this point. Now, again, I understand that things have to change. But there are some things that you need to, in my opinion, hold true to.

What's the purpose of me buying an Xbox console if I can get the same experience or if I can get a very similar experience on a different console? Why is it that I was completely fine with the idea of

Us having Indiana Jones first or us again, Xbox having Indiana Jones and then ultimately giving it to the PlayStation. I'm completely fine with the idea of Starfield being on the Xbox and then ultimately having the opportunity to go on a PlayStation. I think that's that's great. I really, really do. But it's not reciprocated. You know, where's Spider-Man on Microsoft platforms? When's the last time we've played with Spider-Man on a Microsoft platform?

it's been been a good little while right been a while that's been a while since we played it you know and it's things like that where sony continues to say well yeah we're going to use your stuff but you're not going to touch ours you don't get the opportunity we're not this is this is not a kumbaya moment you know as much as xbox wants to be kumbaya nobody else is saying yeah we're kumbaya we're we're in this together nobody else is saying that and

Xbox, Microsoft's ultimate goal is clearly to make money. We've talked about corporate greed. We've talked about how Nintendo does it. Microsoft does the same thing. I think that Activision purchase...

change their perspective on things. It had to. It had to because the dollars had to make sense. For you to spend that money, you had to find a way to make some of that back. So yes, it's no different than Marvel back in the day before they were all brought back into Marvel Studios. They had to farm out a lot of their properties to different places just to stay afloat. And I feel like Microsoft is in a very, very similar situation. The problem is as a consumer of Microsoft product, I don't feel like it's necessary for me to really

consume Microsoft product anymore because Microsoft is now giving away a lot of their good stuff to other consoles and allowing other people to play the games that, you know, you should be buying a Microsoft product to be able to play. So it really kind of depends on what you're looking for out of your

brand loyalty, right? This whole idea of brand loyalty, and I'm always going to buy a Sony product. I'm always going to buy a Microsoft product. Well, what do I, as a Microsoft brand loyalist, if you will, quote unquote, get for my loyalty? What do I get for my years of dedicating my hard-earned dollar to Microsoft's platform, Microsoft's product? What's the payoff for that?

And it really doesn't seem like there is one, or I guess it kind of depends on, again, what you're looking for as far as what your payout is supposed to be. You're still going to get the opportunity to play a Microsoft product. You just don't have to necessarily buy a Microsoft system to do that. I think we just need to have a concrete, this is where we're going. There's such a...

there's such a a dance of who we are who we're trying to be who we were going on right now that we just don't know what's going on with xbox now i feel like that's the biggest problem at this point because they've already got the acquisitions they've clearly shown that they've got some of the talent now and you're starting to see a lot of the fruit of that that labor again they've been hitting over the last six to eight months if you will um

you're starting to see a lot of those things pay out. The problem is, what did it take for us to get there? How much did we lose? You know, we go back to, you know, Gamora asking Thanos, you know, what did it cost? You know, it cost everything, you know, or it, it,

Does the ends justify the means? And I think we've yet to see if it does. So I'm happy that Microsoft is getting some wins. They've much deserved, but they are not, I repeat, they are not out of the woods yet. They've still got a long way to go in the matter of public opinion. And that absolutely goes to Phil Spencer as well.

The one thing I'll add on is, you know, despite all the good things that they've done in recent months, TJ, the one thing they still haven't done is done a mass market blitz on Games Pass and shown the value. In a time where people are really trying to stretch that dollar, Xbox has by far and when, I've been saying this for years, the best value in gaming.

I understand they raise the price to $20 a month, but for that $20 a month, you still get access to so many more options than PlayStation gives or Nintendo gives. And I do not understand me for the life of my, for the life of me. I don't understand why.

Microsoft with all of its money and backing and resources, if you're not going to push any of the games, if you're not going to go ahead and put them out, many of them on a, I guess, you're just going to keep it on additional format.

In many of these cases, if you're going to go ahead and just send a lot of these titles, not all, but a lot of these titles over to PlayStation and whatnot, the least you can do is do a mass market blitz on PlayStation.

Games Pass itself because this is something Nintendo and PlayStation do not have anywhere near the level of Xbox. And I just don't get for the life of me with all the money that Xbox has, Microsoft has, that they don't push Xbox Games Pass as much

big of a thing as you know what netflix is call it the netflix of gaming whatever you want to call whatever you want to say it just is such a great value and i don't understand why for the life of me microsoft hasn't pushed it more it just boggles my mind tj boggles my mind you're listening to the pop culture cosmos i don't know if i understand it either um i really i

I want to, I want to get it. I want to be able to say, okay, they're making sense. And I think that's really the biggest question mark at Microsoft. Again, what, what, what's your end game? What are you trying to get out of this? But, you know, it doesn't change the fact that right now they've got some wins under their belt and I'm hoping that they continue to do so. But I just, you know, as, as, as I mentioned earlier, I don't want it to cost them anything.

I don't want it to cost their soul of who Xbox is or what they've come to do. And again, as a consumer, what reason do I have for wanting to stick to the brand loyalty that is Xbox, that my brand loyalty to Xbox? I just don't have it. And with the Game Pass that you were talking about, I'm hoping that as we see more and more information about this next wave of consoles, you know,

PlayStation 6. There's already talks about PlayStation 6. I know there's a new Xbox coming and they've been very, very quiet on their hardware front. That's concerning to me as well. You've already heard all the rumors about PlayStation 6. Obviously, we're finally starting to see the Switch 2, but there has been nothing about Xbox. Now,

I appreciate the fact that they didn't do a mid-generation upgrade. I think that's very, very, especially for this generation, very, very poor thing to do. Sony did it.

And again, you're going to have your peers out there that are going to go into it. But by and large, I don't think that you can call the PlayStation 5 Pro a success. It's fallen on deaf ears, my friend. Unless they slap the PlayStation 30-year anniversary stuff around it, it has fallen on deaf ears. Yeah, and that's what I would hope.

hope it would because again, this generation, it took too long to get this generation off the ground and you already talk about a mid-generation upgrade. Again, we've talked about that already. This is not the time to beat up on PlayStation. But the concern for me ultimately is with these

different announcements, right? With the announcement of the $450 price tag on the Nintendo Switch 2, this would be the absolute best time. And I know they have an event coming up on June 8th or the 9th, I want to say. I know they have an event coming up. This would absolutely be the best time to say, hey,

With everything going on, Xbox is still the best value. Here's why. And like you said, full-on marketing blitz about Game Pass, what Game Pass offers. Yes, it's the Netflix of the gaming consoles. And yes, they raise the price of $20 a month in regards to how much it costs to access this

But the value of this is well worth $20 a month. You could pay $30 to $40 a month. You could pay $50 a month for this, and the value is there. $50 a month is a bit excessive, don't get me wrong. But my point is, there is such value in what you're getting in return for that.

That I can absolutely see Microsoft hopefully leaning into that, especially now with the announcement of the price points for the Nintendo Switch 2 and games and accessories that go along with it. I mean, it's going to be ugly. So this would be a great time for Nintendo to remind those consumers, the ones who are getting screwed into not being able to purchase the Switch 2 because they're priced out. Hey, you might be priced out of that, but I've got so much for you right here. You don't even need to worry about it.

This would absolutely be the time if Microsoft was a bit more aggressive on their tactics and a bit more, I don't want to say cutthroat, but more willing to ruffle those feathers. And this would be a great time for them to do that.

So before we head on out, my friend, I wanted to go ahead and make sure I got the rest of your list as best we can. I want to get to your list. You put it out there. You took the time to go ahead and say it. I want to make sure we knock it all off. First up, my friend, it is, of course, the WrestleMania hype. As we talk about this, WrestleMania is just around the corner. The announced as of this airtime.

You know, a lot of matches already been announced. Some of them, which has not been finalized on which day it's going to be. Some have going into it again. I had said previously on the state of pro wrestling that I was not excited until the John Cena turn. You know, once that John Cena turn happened, I am excited for WrestleMania coming here to Las Vegas. I think it's set the tone for everything.

Your thoughts on what you're looking forward to. I'll give a rundown of many of the matches so far. Of course, again, you've got John Cena challenging for the WWE Championship from Cody Rhodes. You also have a triple threat match for the Women's World Championship, B.O. Sky versus Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley. United States Championship, L.A. Knight versus Jacob Fatu.

Four-way match for the Intercontinental Championship. Braun Breaker versus Penta, Finn Balor, and Dominic Mysterio. Jade Cargill versus Naomi. AJ Styles versus Logan Paul. Rey Mysterio versus El Grande Americano. If you want to follow that along as far as the storylines, I think you know that might be Chad Gable under the mask.

A women's tag team championship as Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez will defend the show, defend the titles on the show. Drew McIntyre versus Damian Priest. Also as well, the World Heavyweight Championship, Gunther defending against Jey Uso and...

coming off one of the most interesting back and forth as far as interviews. Oh my goodness. Yes, promos with each other. Tiffany Stratton versus Charlotte Flair. Oh, wait, wait, TJ. Hold on, TJ. Oh my God. Kaiser just slid into my DMs. Uh-oh.

So with that, my friend, your thoughts on WrestleMania as of what we're talking about right now. All right. So I think the matches that I'm most interested in seeing is obviously Cena. That's a big one for a lot of different reasons. But what I'm most interested to see, if I'm being honest with you, is Jey versus Gunther. I have to... Let me start by saying this. Jey Uso is the most over...

mid card I've ever, I've ever experienced. And I say that because I absolutely love J Uso as a professional wrestler. I absolutely love J Uso's energy. I love his, um,

demeanor on certain things. And I love the fact that he calls himself main event Jey Uso. I love that. But the truth of the matter is, he's not main event. Jey Uso, his moveset is very, very limited. He's very limited in what he does in the ring. He's very limited in his ability to be, his ability to even cut promos. What drove me nuts is they had a very, very, very

prime opportunity, and I won't get too long. I know we don't have much time left. I won't get too long with this, but they had a prime opportunity to really make this rivalry personal, to really make this something that went home when Gunther was beating up on Jimmy, and there was nothing that Jay could do about it.

They had a chance for something to really snap with him because, yes, you know, he talked about being scared, but there's such a better way that could have been played out, man. If he would have just come out the next day, still the same Jey Uso. Just picture this. He comes out the crowd, still hype, and everybody's like, this dude is excited because...

I don't understand why he's so excited. You know, his brother just got demolished in front of him. There's nothing to do. He was handcuffed to the turnbuckle. He couldn't help his brother at all. His brother was almost, you know, destroyed in front of him. And he's coming out still doing his yeets and still, you know, doing his entire thing, looking like nothing bothers him. Just to get on the mic and say, all you did was allow, like, there's a part of me that I didn't know was there. There was an anger there.

I didn't know I had. There's a darkness I didn't know I possessed. What I realize now is that that darkness is a part of me. The yeets are a part of me too, but there's this darkness building up that's here. He could have really, really nailed it, and he's just not a strong enough mic performer. I love his energy. I love his enthusiasm, but he's just not there. Them going as far as they did with Jimmy

to try to push Jay. I give them absolute kudos for, but I think Gunther retains. And I think this whole main event, Jay Uso thing goes away after this stick to the tag team, stick to the Usos. You guys are amazing together, but as, as a single guy, he just, he, he isn't it. He's really not. I want to see because I want to see it end.

To me, it reminds me of the second success story WWE has created. Yes, a lot of this is based around one word, yeet.

in regards to music success. But it reminds me of someone who was elevated by the crowd much more so than what maybe the company had plans for the second one in a row, the first one being L.A. Knight. L.A. Knight, yes. As far as someone who was put in a better position based off a fan response than what the company had anticipated, to say the least. So I'll just give a parallel between those two. Maybe L.A. Knight is a little bit more

although he's still limited in the ring as well, he is still a little bit more fluid in the ring and can provide a little bit better matches than Uso.

and obviously he could cut better promos than Uso and I'll just leave it at that. But one last thing as far as before we get to the Lakers, Cena versus Rhodes. Who do you have? I have Rose retaining. I don't see Cena as being able to, I don't see Cena as getting the 17th world title. I don't see it happening. However,

what I find to be very, very interesting about this particular diamond. And that really can go either way. I give the nod to Rhodes because of just the trajectory that he's been on and how he's helped carry the company over the last year and a half to two years. You know, especially since Roman's kind of taken a bit of a backseat after his, you know, Hall of Fame-worthy run of being the world champion. What's been interesting is that

they've dialed, I don't know if they've done this consciously, but they've really dialed Cena back. Cena, until the last promo that he did, really has not been able to cut up Cody Rhodes. And it's weird to me because this is John Cena that cut up The Rock.

He sliced up The Rock a couple times. Now, granted, The Rock ultimately won, but he went toe-to-toe with The Rock and made The Rock almost lose character. And yet he's being very in a heel version or not babyface, however he wants to go about spinning it.

He's just been very mild. I don't understand that dynamic. I think because they know that there's no chance Cody can ever compete with John on the mic, so they're trying not to highlight that.

But that's exactly what I would do. If I'm heel John Cena, I'm absolutely leaning into the fact that you have no skills on the mic whatsoever. I'm absolutely leaning into the fact that I could completely talk circles around you. And yes, my moveset may be five different moves, but those five moves have gotten me 16 world titles where you just now tasted your first drop of gold. Like, you don't even deserve to be in the ring with me right now, buddy.

Like, I would absolutely be going into Cody Rhodes like this. And the fact that they're not allowing him to do it or he's not choosing to do it, whatever the case may have, is very, very mind-boggling to me. But ultimately, I have Cody Rhodes over. I don't see them allowing Cena to retire and not retire, but retire from active wrestling with the belt.

I see that too, but I also see something with The Rock going down in the middle of this, maybe leading to something between Cena and The Rock for one last shot at SummerSlam down the road or something. They're not finished with Cena just yet. They're going to make sure they milk out this final year, if it truly will end up being the final year, which I think with his success in acting it will be. But you never say never in wrestling. Yeah, absolutely not.

Well, I'll tell you, my friend, you have brought in such great knowledge today. I truly appreciate any time we get a chance to meet and talk about the world of pop culture. I know you and I still have got a lot to catch up on. Yes, we do. Any last thoughts before we head on out? Man, just thank you for allowing me another opportunity to be on a Pop Culture Cosmos. Gee, I love every time we get to come together and do this. And I'm looking forward to being able to do this for many, many more years to come.

Well, my friend, you absolutely got it. So have I. As always, enjoy talking pop culture with you, my friend. It is, of course, the great one himself, TJ Johnson, along with me, Gerald Glassford. Thanks again for watching this thing. We'll be back soon. Talk of the world of pop culture as only we can do right here on the Pop Culture Cosmos.

You're listening to the Pop Culture Cosmos. So I'm back on the program with Homer Yoffes joining us as we finish off our great conversation, part three.

of our talk about Apple TV Plus' big hit, Severance. So let me ask you this, because it was said and asked on many interviews after the series to Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller's comment was, well, he didn't want to try and see if they can upstage what happened at the end of season one, and she's alive. That

you know, because how that season ended was just such a great, great way to end it on such a cliffhanger. And he said there was talk of,

uh when he was in the hallway and he had already just saved Gemma by sending her out the door into the real world and she had evolved into Gemma but he had the choice between heliar that's on the other side of the hallway or his Audi wife Gemma that's right behind the door all he had to do was choose one

There was a temptation in the original talk, I guess, was that it was going to end right there with him still deciding what choice does he make.

But they chose ultimately to go ahead and show that he made the choice. He chose any mark. Any mark chose to stay in on the seventh floor and run off with Heliar to God knows where. So you see them running off. Your thoughts looking back on it now. Do you agree with the decision to show what happened?

Or do you think that maybe it should have ended on another cliffhanger like season one? I liked how they did it. I like that we know that much at least because we still have so many things that we don't know and now questions. But everybody's saying like, oh, he saved Gemma. He saved Gemma. I'm like, did he? He got her. He got her into the threshold of the stairwell. And to me, she's still she's still in lumen. Like what's to prevent?

the next underling that's in line behind Mr. Drummond to come in, collect her, and take her right back down to where she was. I mean, as far as I see it, from the corporate point of view, she's still Luman's property and very much well within its bounds. I don't see that Mark saved Gemma at all in that moment. I see he did what he set out to do

And I think any mark thought his responsibility was done, but I don't see it as him saving Gemma and the choice he made now makes sense, you know, and always had because it would have been interesting to see them had Mark chosen the other way or gone the other way. And any Mark jumped into the stairwell with Gemma, it would have been interesting to see, uh,

or end it there to know like, what do we do now type situation. And it makes me wonder where they're going to go with it because it just created a whole new set of problems.

for me. I really liked how it ended. I love them running off to that beautiful song. And we've been talking about the production, the acting and the design, but like the music has just been incredible too. I hadn't heard that song since I played on the oldie station at one point. I believe it's the Mel Torme song. Am I, am I correct on that? Yeah.

Windmill's in my mind. I'm not sure. I believe I saw on the... Because I watch it with the captions. I think it may have been his version. I have to look it up. But even when Dr. Maurer was humming, I had to...

look up the Gordon Lightfoot song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And I was listening to that a lot during what the middle of the season, trying to get information from what that song was and what its meaning was. And it's about a ship that goes down on Lake Michigan, which again, we want to get into some theories. I feel that Lumen is in this world, wherever PE is, it's somewhere near the Great Lakes, obviously Lumen,

And the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was about a ship that went down at cold Harbor to me was pointing towards, uh, Gemma's on the testing floor, drowning possibly in the cold Harbor room did not see the crib coming and all that. I understand it, but the way I was interpreting it or, uh,

visualizing it, it was going to be something like Lumen trying to create a version of a severed individual who could somehow suffer death. And, you know, they would talk to Gemma, would you, you know, be more afraid of drowning or suffocating during a mudslide or whatever? I thought she was going to go down in Cold Harbor, drown or something like that to see if once she came out of that room or once they got her out of that room,

could you compartmentalize the trauma of death somehow that's what I thought the cold Harbor room was going to be they kept saying she was going to die had she got there and I was expecting something along those lines just based on my nonsense running around the windmills of my mind no worries it was this version was sung by Mel Torme to let everybody know out there yes so

I will say, though, it was a fantastic season. It was really hard to live up to the standards of Season 1, which I commented on earlier. I will say Season 2 did a fantastic job in what it wanted to do. It told the overarching narrative while still...

getting to develop its characters and their relationships. I know for some people, they wanted a little bit more in certain aspects, but for the most part, everyone seems to be overwhelmingly happy. And they're all asking questions on various aspects of the show. But I have to ask you, before I go ahead and bring in some fan notes, as far as someone that left on one of the Facebook forum groups, your thoughts on season two,

And where do we go from here in season three? I only have wild theories at this point. Thoughts? You're more than welcome to share. Right. So I've been harping this whole time because before season two began and even during, I went back and rewatched season one after the season two premiere.

And just seeing everything again, the new layers that unfolded and things like that, and the things I had convinced myself were true before season two was even done. The first being that Rickon is...

a severed Egan, a child of possibly Jane Egan or a cousin of Helly. I'm not sure exactly what, but he very much feels like a modern take on care. And there are so many things pointed out to it. The beds, the goat sculpture, his writings, the book, just he,

He feels like he feels like Helly's brother who wanted to opt out of the family and like didn't buy into the whole Lumen culture and wanted to wanted to make something of himself on his own. And either they severed him and he doesn't remember it or he's just, you know, he's not a he's not a good he's not a good character overall. Again, going back to season one and just seeing all the things that.

In the full spectrum of that season with the new stuff that came up in season two, Mark and Devin share a moment in that first episode of season one after the non dinner dinner party. Mark says for the life of your unborn child I won't wait till she's born and then kill you. And I thought season two.

was going to finish up with Mark somehow following through on that promise and a really terrible revelation of Devin and Rickon not being who they say they are, something like that. And then I got on a tear about Jamie again as well, too.

He's already in the perpetuity wing. And as far as we know, everybody in there is deceased. Like maybe his date of birth or date of death wasn't on there, but the whole time. And even at the beginning of season two, we see that shadowy figure kind of popping in the background, looking over Mark shoulder from down the hall when he first goes to the wellness room and then disappearing. And this whole time in season two, my mind's been, um,

mulling it all over and I don't trust anything, even my own theories. And I love that this show is doing that. But one of the biggest things I think is I don't think Jane Egan is alive or at least not in the sense that some of the other characters are. I think Egan is either dead already or he is in some kind of like vegetative state and he's

he can move around the severed floor because of some procedure. I don't know, but I feel like he can also pop in on anybody who is severed and has the severance chip and like project himself. And he's there because it's real in their heads and he's there. But I very much feel like,

we don't know what's going on with him. And I just got really ghosty ethereal vibes from him and I've been harping on it. But then cold Harbor, there were some things cause it looked like he was going to strike Heli, but they never touched. And in season one, when Helena or Heli meets her father in the bathroom, nobody else is in there. Natalie announces, you know, Helena, your father wants to speak, speak with you.

And then he's in there. Nobody else sees him. He's standing at the back of the Friends of Lumen meeting at the end of season one. Nobody's interacting with the CEO or owner or the creator of the Severance ship in that moment. Like something's off about him. And I don't think he's entirely there. I think his interactions with Helena, with any other people he's had, they don't.

they don't scream to me that that's a alive and well human being, that he feels like a ghost and whatever that is in this universe, that world. He talked about, he was so upset with Helena that he knocked over a dish of candies. And to me, you know, sure at surface level had a little fit and, you know, did that, but,

if he is not there, if he's not physical, if he's only some kind of like digital version of his own previous self that has some kind of, I don't know, photonic mass, I don't know, for him to knock a dish of candies off like his incredible technology right there. And you saw him interact, I think, at the beginning of episode nine with Helena at breakfast, right?

And he poured himself some tea, but he was moaning to himself when she was eating. Like he missed that a lot. And it just, again, nothing, nothing about his behavior screams that like one, he's a normal person. But again, I just don't think he's even, he's there in the sense that some of these other characters are, uh,

But again, I could be completely wrong and just being paranoid and projecting Maya once of all this to go again crazy theory Jamie again's a digital lumen ghost or something like that nothing is beyond the realm of Possibility with this show. Thank you. I have no longer I'm no longer going to go ahead and say ah, that's crazy or whatnot because you know what I

uh some things have been very crazy as far as what we find out with the results and some things are just straight up it's like uh for instance the goats uh the goats were like you know theorized everything from cloning to you know just just all all across the board all these crazy theories involving the goats and they just end up being sacrifices uh all along which is one of the simplest ways to do it but then other things are more elaborate in detail

And it's just very interesting to see. But once people get their hooks into this show, it is definitely hard to take them out. And that's a credit to everybody involved with Severance. Again, it's Apple TV Pluses.

Big hit. And if you've not seen it yet, you know somebody out there in the world that's already talking about it, you should go out of your way to see it too on Apple TV+. But Homer, I cannot thank you enough for stopping by. It has been an incredible chat. You are always welcome back. You can always message me. I have people messaging me, hey, I want to talk about Captain America or I want to talk about Marvel or I want to talk about a video game, talk about that.

you anything time you want to talk about something in the realm of pop culture you are always welcome to stop on by because i'm hoping it will not be another three years before we talk severance once again right

Brother, we're going to have to find a way to pass the time between the season two finale and the season three premiere. And I warned you before we started. I was like, don't give me time because I'll take it and then some. Yeah, absolutely. It was all my pleasure. Thank you. And yeah, y'all throw it up there in the comments. Like, I'm completely mad and insane. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I'm just dead wrong. Like, I want to hear it. I very much am open to that. But that's the...

that's the grandeur of the show in a universe full of possibilities. They could do anything. But one last thing, I feel like there's shows that just kind of shoot from the hip and they throw these curve balls at you to keep you guessing or whatever. This show feels like they know where they're going. I won't even say like they know the end point, but maybe they do. And they, they've admitted to Ben Stiller says he knows how many seasons it's going to run and he knows how it's going to end.

But they still are... It's the matter of writing to get to that point, I think, is always still up in the air. Absolutely. And I mean, you have an idea, but let's face it. It's not... We haven't seen it. It's not set in stone. Anything could happen, I still think. And it's great that they have that plan and they have that mark that they're trying to hit. Mark. But again, anything could happen. It's a wild show. It's a fantastic show. And yeah, I...

I would highly recommend anybody, you know, beg, borrow, steal, do what you can buy even Apple plus and do yourself a favor and treat yourself. You're listening to the pop culture cosmos. But before we head on out, I wanted to go ahead and drop something. When I asked and reached out to all these severance groups for somebody to stop by, which you have graciously, you know, allotted some time to me today for, I wanted to go ahead and put it because this is how passionate people get. Bill Pappalardo, who,

uh i really indebted to for for putting his type he typed this response out and this is a long one so i want to hear your thoughts on this so he said let's talk about this what exactly is lumen working on that could possibly change the planet they are selling him immortality because he says he believes they are selling immortality and he said here's how

First of all, I know it's lazy to just say it's all a simulation or implanted shared reality, but the clues are there and it all fits. There are no Audis. The whole town of Kyr is a simulation, which you have discussed as far as simulations are concerned, populated by multi-split NEs, just like that Lumen created that crashing plane scenario for Gemma's testing. So we know that they have the technology available to them.

It's all simulation, just like the Matrix. Why else would they have an obscure choice for the build in cartoon voiceover? Maybe it was Neo and not Keanu. I know first off that they actually, Ben Stiller asked Ben,

former president Barack Obama, yes, to do the role, but he respectively declined due to time issues. So Keanu was the second choice on that. I feel like that's a misdirection because it wouldn't make sense, but yeah.

Anyway, I think the mind can go in voluntarily or after a recent death. Maybe they could grow a husk body implant, maybe using the open house override that they can temporarily implant someone else's consciousness into your body if you have one.

lumen is archiving consciousnesses this is this is i that's a one that's a hard one for me to say consciousnesses uh for for best way i could say it mark said so in in episode one season one saying that his group is the corporate archiving division these archive consciousnesses

believe that they are alive whenever whether they are in a live human body or disembodied consciousness implanted in a mature and refined goat brain it gets more interesting throughout

Throughout the Lumen existence, they hold on to the sense of self-anchored by whatever year that they enter the program. This is why we see all the older cars. Remember, it's true. In the series, you never see a modern car. The most modern car is the Cobel 80s style, 80s years VW Rabbit.

Remember, it's a simulation. So in your mind, you own the car that you own last owned in the real world. And Irv has a Chevy Nova, a Buick Apollo from the 70s. Mark has an earlier gen Volvo. Bert has something from the 70s like Irv. So he's basing that from as far as their their previous memories, as far as these these consciousness being implanted in other people.

Simulations. Mark and Gemma meeting at the blood drive. The courtship, the miscarriage, Gemma's death. That was staged. Mark identifying the body, all fake and all part of Mark's testing regimen in the Cold Harbor room. Everything we have ever seen Irv do or say has been within a simulation. All of our innies consciousness have been archived in mature, refined goat brains. I did want to mention that Irv and Bert in one of the last episodes, Bert does help Irv

some treachery from Lumen because they felt that Lumen was onto him and Bert was at one time quoted by Irving as a low-level goon

It turns out that even the Audis have affection for each other and Bert ultimately helps Irving by sending him out on a train station. So I wanted to put that in there. But Irv's train station and train ride is just the end of the Lumen implanted scenario, not unlike the appearance of a train in the Matrix used to transport programs within the Matrix. That story arc reached its natural conclusion. So he is mentally heading back to a huge Matrix-esque

holding facility before his next consciousness iteration begins. And last but not least...

Same for Dylan. His current INI arc ended when he quit. We didn't even talk too much about it. There's so much discussed. We didn't talk about Dylan. Yeah. How he helped at the end. Helly R pulled off Milchak, how he was, I guess, persuaded all along because he got to go ahead and develop a relationship with his Audi wife who came to visit him and how she ultimately had to break his heart when he

any Dylan, excuse me, any Dylan proposed to his, to Audi Dylan's wife. So I got, I wanted to put that scenario on there as well. Now maybe severance also has any wonderful, it's a wonderful life type therapeutic aspect to it. Maybe now Dylan assessing the experience through the elephant override is

can reenter his marriage more appreciative of his wife, a deeper love for her, and with the knowledge he can excel at something in the real world. Maybe in the beginning, the marriage got so bad, his wife wanted a divorce and Dylan got severed to save the marriage. Who knows? Your thoughts. This is a greatly appreciated, big shout out to Bill on this. And yeah, just some great thoughts right there. Now, again,

everybody's theory is valid and anything is possible. Anything could happen here. I like the idea even though I also could feel like it would be a bit of a cop out but the idea of simulations and things not being what we think they are and taking the reality of the Audi situation for granted, nothing is guaranteed and let's face it, nobody knows. These are all great and intriguing and amazing theories and

Keanu Reeves, I caught his voice at some point during that thing. I was like, oh, interesting choice. And yeah, what that meant, even going back to the end of episode nine, the train Irving got on with radar was number 2400, which was the number of rooms they had until Cold Harbor got completed, or at least 24 people have been talking about the significance of numbers in it. And

things like that. But yet nobody's theory on what's going on is, you know, not valid or irrelevant and everything is incredibly interesting. And it just,

It's like a mandala. It keeps opening up and you keep seeing different parts of it and they just keep pulling you deeper and deeper and deeper in. But yeah, if it all we pulled back in season three or four and found that it was all a simulation within a simulation, you know, it would absolutely make sense. And it feels almost I don't know if you enjoyed your pop culture podcast. Did you enjoy Westworld?

I did. First season, I did. I think it fell apart in following seasons, which, again, anybody who's watching this show has to have that fear to keep and sustain this excellence for a period of seasons. It is rare. It is rare to keep them. I...

I, in my evaluation of shows where I say the best of all time, I cannot put Severance there yet because I think it needs at least three seasons. If you have a show, if a show concludes from beginning to end and it's at least three seasons and it's of that high quality, I think you could throw it in there. It's on its way, but there is a concern. And, you know, because we've seen before, I mean, Game of Thrones, Lost,

you know, you name it. Some of these shows that really capture the, the imagination of others, they don't stick the landing like the Americans or breaking bad. It leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. So I think a lot of people are worried about what that type of thing happening with severance. I'm not worried about that because I think we've talked earlier. It's the difference between knowing where you're going and just kind of like

writing and throwing stuff and seeing what sticks. I really don't think we're going to have that. And just looking at the IMDB ratings and things like that and seeing, oh, certain episodes are less popular than another. Yeah, it'll have that. And they can't all be finales or season premieres and things like that.

but again i would i would be really surprised if you know not they didn't stick the landing but if it dipped in quality i don't see that happening whereas you have seen it in other great shows but i feel like there was a lot working against them but again

In a world of possibilities, anything can happen, even a subpar season of Severance coming at us at some point. I'm not too worried about it. I'm just excited because it's a great show. And the point with Westworld was what Lumen's doing to your friend's theory about storing consciousness, you found out that's what Delos was doing around season two, three of Westworld. They were literally downloading people's minds to be saved and used and studied. And there's so much of that happening here.

you know, that we already can plainly see. But yeah, great theory from your friend. And I saw something again on one of the groups, I believe she credited herself as Melissa B. Melissa B. put together a great

presentation about right before going into the finale what she thought it would be. It was titled It's Time for a Severance Theory. The numbers are scary. It's on the Facebook group. It's an incredible, if you will, leaflet, pamphlet, digital e-book. I don't know what we're going to call it, but a lot of great theories in there. And I need to reread it now on the other side of the finale to see what they got great, you know.

Absolutely. But this has been an incredible ride. It is Severance season one and two. Kurt Affair, who stops by on a lot of our shows, he said, Severance, what a great finale. And he has no idea where they're going to go with season three. And I think that's the best part is that no one knows exactly for sure what's

where this team is going for season three. It's amazing that Apple not only has put enough faith in them to go ahead with the show itself, but the marketing behind season two, the push that they did, they realized what they had in season one. They obviously took steps to make it more visible to a larger audience in season two and have followed that up. They've followed it up with even more marketing

press coverage in season three. Now they're now abroad right now as we're speaking overseas in the UK. They did some tremendous PR work for there. It just tells you what Apple is doing. Apple has realized what they have in Severance. And that's great to see when a network actually sees what a lot of people are seeing themselves in Severance. It makes me, again, it just makes me curious. I think I saw something briefly about

Apple TV was losing money on this series or something like that. The network as a whole, the network as a whole loses about a billion dollars annually according to reports. Yeah. And, and it's one of those things that strikes me as, you know, is that, is that more wag the dog? Are they just trying to stay relevant in there? Like, is that even true? But again, what they will gain, what they will gain in the long run, you know, uh,

Quarterly earnings aside and all that, you know, I think they're playing a longer game here You know, for God's sakes, it's it's Apple even if it's just the TV studio, you know, it's there It's their their own lumen and of themselves in a way if you will Absolutely there the irony and the fact the parallels you can draw between Apple and

and the show that they've spawned in severance, uh, are there indeed. Um, I could just say this for myself, uh, any theories in regards to season three, um,

I don't know how. Again, I just want to see what happens, what evolves as far as what happens to Gemma. Does she get saved at all? What happens if she goes through reintegration? What will happen there as far as her future? Does she have to be forced to go back into the world again?

of lumen that's the thing that uh you know must discuss and then of course the biggest questions out there uh what's the story with burt nerving will they get back together

you know, with Dylan, how is he going to continue to evolve as a character going forward? Are they going to be able to give them the same kind of growth and maturity that they gave his character, both in the end Audi during the course of the season. And then of course the relationship between helly are Mark S and

will it come to a crashing end? And is there a future for those two? And how does it all wrap up? Is it going to wrap up in season three? Is it going to four, five? Only we don't know for sure, but I'll tell you what, it's going to be very interesting to see. Six seasons and a movie, right, y'all? There you go. Absolutely. I'd pay for it.

I pay for it indeed. But Homer, it's been just great talking to you about this. Again, anything of pop culture you want to go ahead and drop on by, you're always welcome to do so. But any last thoughts before we head on out? Call me Homer Y on the show, I guess, you know, in true any fashion.

There you go. Your Audi talks at great lengths about pop culture and comes off as a huge nerd. It's like, well, yeah, that tracks. That does indeed. I as Gerald G. So I will say this again, if you get a chance out there and you've not caught it yet, please catch Severance season one and season two. It's available now on Apple TV plus. They have done a tremendous job on it. Season one. And they followed up with a tremendous season two, in my opinion,

It is one of the best things I've seen this year. Season one was the best thing I saw or one of the best things I saw in season one for that year in 2022. And season two is no less brilliant indeed. So I truly want to thank you, Homer. Why?

This is Gerald G. Truly want to thank you for watching this thing. Yes, go ahead, Tomer. No, thank you very much. And thank you to the showrunners, the writers, anybody and everybody involved and the fans. And yeah, it's been great. Thank you so much.

It's been great indeed. Again, it's the Pop Culture Cosmos. If you get the chance, please like and subscribe. And if you're listening to us on the radio stations that play us worldwide, please go ahead and thank them for playing the Pop Culture Cosmos. And also as well, if you're listening to this on a podcast outlet like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Apple, there you go. Go ahead and get that five-star review out there so we can get it out in front of more people with great topics like these right here at the Pop.

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We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!

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