Severance basically crawls under your skin and sets up shop. Dan Erickson’s Apple TV+ thriller takes the blandest idea of office work and turns it into existential horror. So much so that even fluorescent lights in hallways feel hostile and corporate policies feel as suffocating as religious doctrines. The show's retro-futuristic design forces us to confront its shocking plotlines and how easily systems can flatten our suffering into a process.Here are five Severance storylines you can’t look away from, even when you desperately want to; trust us on what you'll read below. Spoiler alert for those who haven't caught up with all the episodes yet. 5 of the most painful Severance plotlines1) Helly’s suicide attempts View this post on Instagram Instagram PostHelly R.’s arc on Severance is by far the most confrontational. Her innie repeatedly attempts to escape Lumon by harming herself in rebellion. Each attempt reminds us her consciousness is trapped in a body owned by someone else.The cruelty peaks with the elevator hanging scene, but sadly enough, that is followed by the video message from her outie. She gets dismissed and essentially told that the innie that her suffering doesn’t matter. Does that make severance self-inflicted torture, because can you really split bodily autonomy?2) The break room confessions View this post on Instagram Instagram PostDespite its cheerful name, the break room is one of the most disturbing spaces on TV in general. In this room, we see Innies are forced to recite scripted apologies again and again until a machine decides they “mean it.” This plotline mirrors real-world workplace discipline, though of course exaggerated into something ritualistic and punitive, so religious allegories are there too. Lumon wants belief, and characters break under its demands.3) Ms. Casey’s true identity View this post on Instagram Instagram PostMark (Adam Scott) slowly realizes in the course of the second season that his supposedly dead wife, Gemma, is actually Ms. Casey, aka the detached wellness counselor. The reconstruction of a torn photograph is heartbreaking enough in this context, but the truth it reveals is much worse for soft-hearted fans.By repurposing Gemma as an emotionless employee, Lumon weaponizes grief itself! This plotline retroactively poisons Mark’s entire backstory.4) Petey’s collapse and death View this post on Instagram Instagram PostPetey used to work in the MDR department before, and his freedom represents hope. It made Mark (and us) believe that severance can be undone and that wholeness is possible. But after reintegration, his body and mind fail.He hallucinates and gets disoriented, and eventually collapses in a convenience store. Reclaiming himself thus proves to be fatal. Petey’s death is Severance’s most brutal idea: the system punishes those who try to be whole.5) The violent escalation of Lumon enforcement View this post on Instagram Instagram PostAs the series goes ahead, we see Lumon’s authority shifting from psychological manipulation to outright violence. The top dog enforcers stop behaving like corporate disciplinarians that they used to act like at first to fool the workers and us. They now start acting like a private militia.Their escalation feels logical, though. Once control is threatened, every policy suddenly carries the threat of force, as violence will follow.Severance, Seasons 1 and 2, are streaming on Apple TV+.NEXT UP: Hate me if you want, but this Apple TV show is the G.O.A.T. in the psychological thriller genre