In Apple TV+'s new series, Severance Innies and Outies are the terms used to describe two distinct selves of the employees working at Lumon Industries, who have undergone a surgical process of Severance. This process helps them to keep their personal and professional life separate and not let one hamper the other.
The series showcases several cases of the characters for example Outtie Mark is depressed and spends time in a dark room while his Innie is leading projects at the company.
Helly's Innie constantly attempts to escape the oppressive structure and is vocal about the manipulation the company is up to while her Outtie is unaware of the same. When she files for her resignation, her Outie self denies the same therefore posing an internal conflict.
Severance has used Outties and Innies to create drama and keep the audience in the dark about the real self of the character they are watching. What exactly are Outies and Innies and the difference between them?
What are Innies vs Outties in Severance, explore in detail

In Severance, Innies only exist within the confined workspace and possess no memory of anything happening outside it like hobbies, personal relationships, or even their name other than the one provided by Lumon. Innie self is fully determined to complete their work duties and its life practically revolves around Lumon.
Outties are the personas with full memories of their personal world while excluding what the Innie experiences within the work hours. They are the ones who know that they agreed to get severed. Once they are out of the workplace their Outtie self gets activated which never budges them with work-related problems in their personal lives.
How do Outties and Innies Impact the Character's Life in Severance?
In the series, Mark decides to get the procedure done as a result of grief after he lost his wife. He was unable to stand working with her every day after getting separated.
Helly, on the other hand, struggles to escape from the oppressive structure. She tries to communicate with her Outtie by writing messages on her body. The Innie Helly decides to resign from Lumon while the Outtie Helly denies the same.
One day when the company hosts a "Wakeup Protocol" temporarily letting their Innies have control over their Outties the characters encounter shocking details about their lives. Mark realizes that he is every day working with his ex-wife in the office. Helly is shocked by knowing that she belongs to the Eagan family, the capitalists of Lumon, and is the CEO's daughter, she initially volunteered to be severed to prove the method's success.
Similarly, another character, Irving's Innie forms a romantic relationship with Burt, another employee from Lumon. The relationship ends abruptly after his retirement. During the Wakeup Protocol, he tries to find Burt and gets to know that he is happily retired with another partner in real.
The process of Severance comes with ethical dilemmas and can make a person delusional with their original Innie being unaware of a part of their lives. Mark and other employees are traumatized by the fact that they don't know who they really are outside the office.
Later the company made it to the headlines for initiating a process like this that presumably controls the brains of their employees. Several protests also happened against how the Innies are treated inside the workplace in Severance.

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