Severance

In the post-apocalypse, Candace is awake late in her tent, listening to Ashley, Evan, and Janelle talking by the fire. Although she likes them, Candace feels shut out by their closeness. She listens as they discuss the Facility and make a pact to abscond together if they don’t like it. Janelle suggests bringing Candace into the pact as well. They discuss the NY Ghost, which became the “de facto” source of news about New York after the apocalypse—no one knows that Candace is behind the blog. As she starts to drift off, she hears the group driving away from the campsite in Bob’s car.

A few days later, Bob gives Candace back her iPhone, which he found during her rescue. He has intentionally broken the phone so that she cannot access her old data. Bob states grandiosely that the loss of the internet is a good thing, because it stops people from living in the past.

That night, Candace catches Ashley, Evan, and Janelle as they are sneaking away from the campsite, heading on a secret stalk of Ashley’s childhood home, which is in nearby Jordanwood. Candace asks to join them.

Entering Ashley’s house, the group finds the body of her father being consumed by maggots. Candace panics and wants to leave, but the rest of the group is determined to finish the stalk. While searching her old bedroom, Ashley stops to try on some of her clothes. She tries on dress after dress after dress, entering a trancelike state. When they are unable to shake her out of it, the group realizes that Ashley has caught Shen Fever. It’s almost morning, and soon Bob and the others will wake up and find them gone, but Janelle is unwilling to leave Ashley behind. As they debate what to do next, Ashley opens her mouth and emits a disturbing, monotonous sound of pain. The sound triggers a visceral negative reactive in Candace, who instinctively runs from the house. She is joined by Evan, and the two of them run back to the camp, where they find Bob waiting.

A while after the shark fin soup party, Candace and Jane’s leases are terminated. Jane moves out early, and in her absence, Candace falls into a sedentary routine. She doesn’t see anyone except her neighbor Jonathan, who offers to help her move to her new apartment in Bushwick. On the day of the move, he picks her up from the Spectra offices and helps her drive her belongings to Bushwick. Shortly afterward they sleep together and begin dating. During the first year of their relationship, Candace often has a recurring dream in which she wanders around a Bible Sales Expo, searching for something she can’t describe. The dream always ends with her meeting her mother, who asks if she is hungry and gives her a bowl of delicious-smelling shark fin soup.

Bob drives back to Jordanwood, where he leaves Evan and Candace in the car while he enters Ashley’s house. Candace proposes that Ashley’s Shen Fever was triggered by the nostalgia of her surroundings, but Evan is doubtful. He offers her Xanax from a stash he’s hoarded from previously stalks. Candace declines, admitting that she can’t take any drugs because she’s pregnant. Evan advises her to tell Bob about it because he’ll probably view it as a miracle. Candace disagrees—she still wants to make good on the escape pact with Ashley, Janelle, Evan, but Evan isn’t sure if that’s happening anymore. After some time, gunshots ring out and Bob emerges from the house. He tells them that he shot Ashley and claims that Janelle died after throwing herself in front of the bullet. When Candace vocalizes her disbelief, Bob calmly warns that there will be consequences for their disobedience when they arrive at the Facility. A few days after this interaction, the group reaches Needling.