Kier Eagan and the Philosopher's Stone
Let's revisit the classical concept of Aether, which was known as the Fifth Element, or Quintessence.
A couple of threads from two years ago describe how aether relates to our story, and also how it relates to Greek mythology:
The Alchemy of Severance
https://www.reddit.com/r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus/s/L4x4UJxLNo
Of Aether and the Gods
https://www.reddit.com/r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus/s/nLMWIeBdEk
It has puzzled me for ages why the MDR team must sort groups of numbers representing the Four Tempers (WO, DR, FC, MA) equally into five bins. Why five?
I also found it strange that the MDR restroom has five stalls for four employees. If the task of those employees is refinement through the elimination of impurities, that pretty much mirrors what occurs in bathroom stalls.
Selvig sees Mark taking trash out in the morning, and notes that he usually disposes of his waste in the afternoon. On the surface, this makes no sense, because both Selvig/Cobel and Mark are at Lumon in the afternoon. But Mark is literally disposing of waste at his severed job.
I've also noted several references to fingers throughout season 1, and I think our five fingers relate to the four classical elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) and the fifth element, Aether.
Helly threatens to cut off her fingers.
Devon talks about Lumon having hands in pies. Interestingly, an earlier version of the script for The We We Are has her say fingers in pies, which is the correct expression.
In the Compliance handbook, Kier tells the story of working at a furniture emporium with a child named Dell Hatch, who was missing a hand. Kier fashions an artificial hand from wooden sticks covered with chicken skin, which fools the store owner for quite some time. Eventually, the ruse is discovered, and Dell's fate is unknown.
In Irv's footlocker, he finds a newspaper article about a Severed employee whose left index finger is somehow injured at work, "rendering the digit decorative." Again, an emphasis on fingers.
The painting of Kier overlooking a vast landscape appears to show bodies of water that look like the five Great Lakes, another reference to the number five.
I don't want to repeat all the information in the linked threads, but I urge you to read them to get some idea of how Aether is related to light and color, and how even the name Kier means vat, and that's where his job at the ether factory was. The fact that he had consumption as a child is also a clue, and even the goats may have a mythological connection.
Which mythological figure couldn't tell the difference between a plain rock and a beautiful one (ahem a swaddled baby), and how did that come back to ruin him?
"Medicinal alchemy then sought to isolate quintessence and incorporate it within medicine and elixirs. Due to quintessence's pure and heavenly quality, it was thought that through CONSUMPTION one may rid oneself of any IMPURITIES or illnesses. In The book of Quintessence, a 15th-century English translation of a continental text, quintessence was used as a medicine for many of man's illnesses. A process given for the creation of quintessence is distillation of alcohol seven times. Over the years, the term quintessence has become synonymous with elixirs, medicinal alchemy, and the philosopher's stone itself."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)
The license plates for Kier, PE read Remedium Hominibus, which is Latin for a remedy for men.
"LUMINiferous aether or ether (luminiferous meaning 'light-bearing') was the postulated medium for the propagation of light."
Posted Nov 12, 2024, 8:16 PM UTC