The Severance Season 1 finale gala scene was filmed at Bell Labs, a location praised by Jon Stewart for its natural fit as a dystopian corporate setting.
After just one season, Severance has become renowned for its plot twists, and few reveals remain as shocking as the one with Helly (Britt Lower) during the first season's finale. The discovery of her outie's identity once the Overtime Contingency Protocol is triggered is a thrilling scene — and an unexpected fan of the series was there on the day to witness it.
One might not expect Jon Stewart to be a diehard fan of the show, but he was invited to join the set in Bell Labs, located just a few miles from his home. As he can testify, the location perfectly fits the scene, which takes place during a gala for Lumon and depicts a modern yet false sense of glamor just before Helly smashes that illusion permanently. Bell Labs Is the Perfect Shooting Location for ‘Severance’ Close The Severance Season 1 finale reveals Helly's outie is the current heir of Lumon Industries, Helena Eagan, which Helly herself discovers right before 'Helena' is due to give a speech to the company's investors about the benefits of severance. For a show that can feel so isolated and intimate, this was one of the only scenes with an active crowd, but that was also true behind the scenes. The gala (along with other scenes involving the exterior of the Lumon building) was filmed at Bell Labs in New Jersey, a short distance from where talk show host Jon Stewart lives. When production learned he was a big fan of the show, he was invited to set, where the crew was already hard at work filming the Season 1 finale. As it turned out, Stewart was more than impressed with what he witnessed that day. On The Severance Podcast, he gave his opinion to series creator Ben Stiller on why he thought Bell Labs was the perfect location for filming the gala in the finale, memorably referring to it “like if Mussolini wanted to build his own suburban subdivision” and that the building was a natural fit for a company that was meant to feel large and inhuman: “It's so overwhelming because it's all practical. So many times, you go into those sets and they are…I don't want to say shortcuts, but they don't have to create the fullness of experience. So when I walked in, and I saw the Severance story for Helly R, I was so impressed by the scale. I was really excited when I walked around it because the feel of it was so evocative as you're walking it.” What makes this so fascinating is that, as Stiller notes, the building had never been used for a film set before, yet it proved useful when Severance and its crew needed a dystopian-looking company to serve as the major backdrop for the series. This approach also extended beyond the building itself and into neighboring locations in New Jersey. For instance, when we see Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) driving down the road in a panic after realizing the Overtime Contingency Protocol has been activated, those shots are mostly taken from the surrounding neighborhoods, with the homes being digitally removed. Similarly, the giant Lumon Industries logo on the building was actually a water tower designed in the shape of a transistor, meaning that it already had a very futuristic feel. Related Just Give John Turturro the Emmy Already for 'Severance' I've seen enough! Posts ‘Severance’s Gala Scene Is Both Elegant and Terrifying The gala scene is still one of the most memorable in Severance so far, but not just because of the big plot twist involved. After all, the series has never been a stranger to shocking moments, and this scene has something others tend to lack. In a more technical sense, Severance intentionally has a largely grim color palette, and not just in the corporate walls of Lumon itself. Many of the outie scenes, even the enjoyable ones, come off as dimly lit, perhaps reflecting the monotony Lumon workers feel in both aspects of their lives. Instead, the gala feels slick and vibrant, showing Lumon in absolute prime condition, and the contrast feels like it's meant to overwhelm viewers in a projection of corporate power. Even still, the presence of Helly on the walls and displayed in holograms as the heir to the Eagan family reminds us that this polished exterior is a lie, one wholly built upon the image that Lumon wants to project, not the dystopian reality. Ultimately, there are many things to like about Severance and the end of its first season, but the scene at the gala truly stands out. Not only is it our only real glimpse at Helly on the outside, but it feels visually striking compared to most other scenes so far in a show that has deliberately been lacking in them. To learn that the filming location already appears so dystopian is an unsettling thought, but that also made it the perfect fit for a show like this one
Severance Ben Stiller Jon Stewart Bell Labs Dystopian Corporate Setting Helena Eagan Helly R Outie Innies Lumon Industries
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