Did you notice this eerie similarity between Severance and the Companion movie?

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Severance & Companion and the author's interpretation of plot similarities.

Both Apple TV+'s Severance and the new sci-fi thriller Companion explore the unsettling effects of identity manipulation on personal relationships. Severance looks at work-related amnesia and its impact on the self, while Companion focuses on how programmed loyalty can be used as a weapon. Both highlight love, memory, and control in their storytelling.

In Severance, Mark shares an intimate moment with Helly/Helena, not entirely thinking about his deceased wife, Gemma. This situation shows how identity can affect intimacy. Meanwhile, Companion's AI character, Patrick, gets reprogrammed but still finds his true feelings for Eli. This raises the question: if identity can change, is love genuine? These two narratives have a lot in common.

Mark and Patrick's experiences show the complex nature of love and memory when control is involved. The way these stories are told makes us wonder if love can survive when someone's identity isn't their own.

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The distorted love triangle on Severance

Severance creates a spooky situation because Mark has two different lives. His "innie" is a part of him that doesn't remember what happened outside the workplace. This "innie" gets close to Helly without knowing that in his other life, his "outie," he felt sad because his wife, Gemma, passed away in a car accident, which he begins to remember after his reintegration that Reghabi helped him with.

Helena, who is Helly's "outie," causes trouble, but inside the place where they work with no memories, she and Mark have a strange, childish relationship. Of course, the whole thing gets turned on its head when Helena infiltrates the Innie world with the Glasgow Block and practically has sex with Mark without his knowledge of her real identity. Who does Mark see? Gemma, for a second.

The people who made the show say that this is a very complicated idea. Ben Stiller, executive producer of the show, talked to Time Magazine about it.

He said:

“For Mark’s outie, Helena is someone he finds frightening… yet, I think these two people, one way or another, have a connection of some sort.”

Severance has a scary plot: when people's identities are split apart, human connections get hard. Mark's forgotten memories make a shadow that sticks around. This makes us wonder if the feelings we see in the show are even real or if they're there because of what's happening in the Innie world.

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Companion's AI love and programmed devotion

Drew Hancock's Companion takes us to the near future, where we meet an AI love robot, Patrick (played by Lukas Gage). Patrick is programmed for years to love a guy named Eli. However, in the end, Josh (Iris' handler) comes along and starts messing with Patrick's programming to get back at his robotic companion, Iris. This leads to Patrick getting confused and losing his true feelings for Eli.

But a memory from a programmed Halloween party pops into Patrick's mind when Iris reminds him who he is and his love story with Eli, oddly human, sure, but also more human than expected from a robot. This memory is strong, and it helps him break free from what Josh put in his head. Now, he remembers how much he cares for Eli, though (spoiler alert) he was already dead by then.

This journey is about the fight between real emotions and being controlled. It shows us what it's like to deal with love and make your own choices in a world of technology. It's like the character Mark in Severance, who has a tough time figuring out who he is and who he loves (is it Gemma or Helly?) because of outside influences messing with his memory. Both make us think about how important it is to have true feelings and be in charge of our minds.

Vulture notes the film’s ability to:

“[Navigate] a few more surprises and ramp up the violence as it goes along.”

Companion shares similarities with Westworld and Ex Machina, but with a twist. Instead of sticking to the cautionary tone of those movies, they bring a lighter touch with dark comedy. It looks at how society uses AI in ways that ignore ethical concerns, especially when it comes to satisfying human desires.

Severance and Companion reflect a scary fact: when identity gets played with, even love turns into a battlefield. In Severance, it's about a company that controls memories, and in Companion, it's about AI being reprogrammed to shape feelings. This loss of control over emotions leads to grossly awkward situations.

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Watch Severance on Apple TV+.

Companion is in theaters and will be on digital platforms later in 2025.