What is ORTBO? - Severance Theories #severance #severancetvshow #lumon

It makes sense this episode begins and ends with Irv In fact this shot completely encapsulates how alone he is We're in the middle of an icy lake and I gotta wonder how they got Irv's outie to agree to come all the way out here As far as we know Helly or should I say Helena was the only person not to wake up on this lake She tells us she awoke on the cliff a far safer choice for the woman set to take over Lumon The lake itself with its towering bluffs and thick ice is reminiscent of the lake we see in the intro credits The same lake that has this drowning car Since Miss Casey died in a car accident I wonder if there's a connection here You'll notice our characters wear these Russian-inspired outfits The Soviet Union was known for its one-party rule repression surveillance and censorship much like our innies face at Lumon so this design choice is an apt one Dylan is the only one to be stoked about being outside Remember he didn't get to experience the outside last season as he was too busy making sure the overtime contingency worked But if things couldn't get any weirder our innies are treated to a DVD video introducing them to ORTBO or the Outdoor Retreat Team Building Occurrence If you rearrange the first letters for this acronym you get the word ROBOT which isn't ominous at all There are a few interesting details here For example the image that appears on the title screen is the painting Kier invites you to drink of his water which we saw in Season One You'll notice that the lakes in this painting vaguely resemble those of the Great Lakes I'm curious if this place which we'll find out is the Dieter Eagan National Forest is the inspiration for this painting Believe it or not this isn't the first time Dieter has been mentioned In Episode 202 Milchik passes a bar which has a band named Dieter's Brother playing It's pretty obvious that this video was recorded a long time ago and not specifically for Mark Irvin Dillon Milchek talks about our innies experience meadows thickets and brambles which you can't really see or do here because everything's covered in snow This retreat is in response to the innies desire to see the outside world However I'm not entirely sure that's true Lumon needs MDR to complete the Cold Harbor file so having them away from work for 2 days is kind of a big deal And we don't really know how much time has passed since we last saw Mark undergo reintegration There could be significant development developments that have happened we aren't privy to as this episode is told from the Innie perspective