What is the Glasgow Block? New term in Severance Season 2 Episode 4 explained

At the end of Severance Season 2 Episode 4, Milchick orders his team to remove something called the “Glasgow Block.” This is a new term in the show, and from a little bit of digging, there may be a dark reason behind its name.

This week’s Severance has left everyone gobsmacked. It follows Mark and the MDR team on their first ORTBO (outdoor retreat and team-building occurrence) in the Dieter Eagan National Forest, wandering through the woods and hearing tales of Lumon’s fabled founder.

It’s a revelatory trip, though not in the way anyone anticipated. Irving deduces that Helly is actually an Eagan pretending to be her Innie, so he threatens to kill her until Milchick brings the real Helly back.

Helena eventually begs Milchick to do it, and so he sends an urgent message to Lumon: “Remove the Glasgow block now.”

What is the Glasgow Block in Severance?

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While it hasn’t been fully explained in the show, it’s clear that the Glasgow Block stops an Innie from being active outside of Lumon, and it’s linked to the Overtime Contingency.

As soon as Milchick sends the order, Helena switches back to Helly almost instantly (again, this hasn’t been confirmed, but it’s assumed that Helena has been pretending to be Helly since the beginning of Season 2).

It’s likely a fundamental part of the severance procedure; the whole point is that Innies can’t see the outside world, and vice versa. The Glasgow Block ensures that Innies’ lives remain within the confines of Lumon (or wherever they deem appropriate).

That (probably) means that Mark, Dylan, and Irving’s Glasgow Blocks were also removed at the start of the ORTBO. It seems likely that their Outies traveled to their work excursion, and then Milchick activated their Innies as soon as they were in position.

The Glasgow protocol was teased in Severance Season 1

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If you were really paying attention in Severance Season 1, specifically Episode 8, you may have spotted “Glasgow” on the list of contingencies and protocols in the security room.

In the penultimate episode, Dylan activates the OTC for Mark, Helly, and Irving. He scrolls through nine other options before he reaches “OVERTIME”:

• BEEHIVE
• BRANCH TRANSFER
• CLEAN SLATE
• ELEPHANT
• FREEZE FRAME
• GLASGOW
• GOLDFISH
• LULLABY
• OPEN HOUSE

Every protocol pertains to a person’s memory in one way or another. Some seem easy to explain, like Clean Slate and Branch Transfer. The names of the others, like Glasgow, don’t have obvious meanings.

So, why is it called the Glasgow Block?

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The Glasgow Block could be referencing the Glasgow Coma Scale, used to assess someone’s level of consciousness after acute brain injuries, concussions, and other traumas.

In the simplest possible terms, it measures how awake you are – not in terms of tiredness, but your sense of awareness and how your body responds to external stimuli, like contact and spoken instructions. As outlined on the GCS website, the scale includes three categories of response: eye, verbal, and motor.

This helps us understand why Lumon called it the Glasgow Block: it completely inhibits an Innie’s consciousness. On the Glasgow Coma Scale, while the block is activated, they’d score “none” in all three categories.

As someone who lives in Glasgow, I initially hoped it had something to do with the city’s tower blocks, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Make sure you know when to catch the next episode with our Severance Season 2 release schedule. You can also read our guides on Cold Harbor, the Lexington Letter, and Asal Reghabi.