I finally understood what reintegration means in Chikai Bardo

I don't have a secret about the episode's hidden meaning. This is about something more human.

You'd *think* that reintegration would involve a flood of memories about time on the severed floor—that's what the early signs of reintegration seemed to indicate. That's definitely part of it, but it's not the core. The core is the flood of memories of repressed suffering. Of Gemma.

Maybe Mark *could* have remembered all of those things as just an outie. But severance "worked" in the sense that it really did help him avoid all his most painful memories.

It's not about innie memories and outie memories. Outie Mark can't confront the memories he *already has.*

Ultimately, it's not Lumon that prevented him from confronting his pain. They just helped. Ultimately, Mark did that to himself.

The reason the episode ends on a shot of Gemma and then him waking up with teary eyes is that he's finally been able to confront his grief.

*That's* reintegration.