Severance is packed with hidden meanings, but few are as mysterious—or as unsettling—as Kier Eagan’s Four Tempers. Woe, Frolic, Dread, and Malice aren’t just abstract philosophies—they’re the foundation of everything at Lumen Industries. From the eerie rituals in the Perpetuity Wing, the Waffle Party, and more recently, the revelations at Woe’s Hollow, to the cryptic number-sorting in Macrodata Refinement, these temperaments shape the very fabric of Lumon’s control.
But what if they’re more than just corporate doctrine? What if the Four Tempers are a blueprint—one that Lumen is using to engineer human personalities? With Season 2 expanding on the Cold Harbor project and the dark history of Woe’s Hollow, it’s time to dive deep into the origins, symbolism, and chilling implications of the Four Tempers.
Are Lumon’s employees unknowingly part of a psychological experiment? And is Kier’s ultimate goal even more terrifying than we imagined? Let’s break it all down.
To fully understand the Four Tempers, one must analyze their historical roots, their role within Lumon, and the unsettling parallels to real-world psychological and corporate control theories.
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