Severance

Severance
Season 6, Episode 12 (63)
transcript
Air date	January 14th, 2012
Written by	Jon Graham
Directed by	Jon Graham
Episode guide
Previous Femme Fatale (chronologically) New Year's Special 2011 (release date)	Next The Reunion

"You didn't have to show up that day. You could've let Claire and I get happily married and minded your own fucking business."

— Trent, referring to the events of "Collapse", to Arbiter

"Severance" is the twelfth episode of the sixth season of Arby 'n' the Chief.

Summary

Master Chief and the Arbiter target the remaining Chaos Theosis members on their hit list.

Plot

The episode begins with a player named Justin, identified as SniperDeathAngel00, telling an anonymous person over a voice message that his "product is ready".

Arbiter fighting Kylie and her bodyguards.

With only two members of Chaos Theosis left, Kylie enlists two ignorant, power-loving players who are considered to be well skilled, who wait on her hand and foot, who Kylie is using as bodyguards while she continues her quest in taking down the network. Meanwhile, Chief mischievously wakes up Arbiter by placing earphones on him and blasting "Nyan Cat Ear Rape" at maximum volume. Later, Arbiter (who is still rather irritated at him for what happened that morning) and Chief set off to take down Kylie. Remembering Kylie's offer for "nudes," Chief lures Arbiter to a desolate map with nobody else on it. Shortly after gaining Arbiter's trust and confidence, Chief betrays and kills him in-game. To Chief's confusion, neither he nor Arbiter (who has respawned) have not been banned. It is revealed that Arbiter has turned off the hack files after overhearing Chief and Kylie's conversation the previous night due to the fact he was unable to sleep and is appalled by Chief's actions. Chief defends his actions claiming that they were for love, also bringing up that his own love for Kylie is no different than Arbiter's love for Claire. Despite blatantly pointing out to Chief that Kylie is manipulating him, Chief continues to defend his love for Kylie, forcing Arbiter to attack him, driving Chief away in tears and leaving Arbiter to take down Kylie by himself.

Clyde, finally defeated

Shortly after taking down Kylie's bodyguards, Arbiter confronts Kylie. During the confrontation, Kylie points out how Arbiter's desire to take down Chaos Theosis for banning Claire is no different than Chief's affection towards her and how pitiable it is to watch. The two then proceed to battle with Kylie pinning Arbiter behind a pillar, berating Arbiter after doing so, and also says that Arbiter was just as stupid as Chief. Fortunately, Chief returns just as Kylie mentioned him, coming to his senses and after declaring that nobody would take Halo away from him, assists Arbiter in battling her. To Arbiter's shock, Chief outsmarts Kylie by using a hologram and bans her with an assassination, violently teabagging her afterward. The duo then leaves to take down the last member of Chaos Theosis: Clyde.

Clyde, whom is hunting players on his own, gets wind of Kylie's banning as well as Adam's and angrily severs his ties and monetary agreement with her after hearing she got killed by Chief, who considers to be the most retarded player on the network. Suddenly, Arbiter and Chief frag him simultaneously while he is distracted. However, after getting Clyde's user information, Arbiter and Chief discover that Chaos Theosis's plans were being driven by an enemy the duo have known from the past.

The countdown begins!

Trent Donnovich, who had bought a new console and account is meeting up with a hacker at his old church custom forge. Trent had just received a patch from Justin known as PDoS (Permanent Denial of Service), a hack patch that will ultimately destroy Xbox Live's connection by distributing malware to all users, fatally crippling the online community. Just as Trent receives the file and prepares to take off, Arbiter and Master Chief quickly arrive and ambush Trent. Arbiter chases Trent to the church's entrance intent on ending the madness once and for all. Trent then activates the PDoS, and as it slowly counts down, the final battle between the toys and Trent commences.

Cast

• Microsoft Sam as Master Chief
• Microsoft Mike as The Arbiter
• Jon Graham as Clyde, Trent Donnovich
• Elizabeth Carr-Ernst as Kylie
• Matt Dannevik and Ian Beckman as Kylie's bodyguards

Transcript ​

Main article: Severance/Transcript

Episode How-Tos

• HOW TO send a voice message in one second.
• HOW TO be a complete kiss-ass.
• HOW TO kick-start somebody's morning.
• HOW TO be a great friend.
• HOW TO stand in the way of true love.

Trivia

• In the behind the scenes video made by Jon, there are notes which described an alternate opening to the episode. Instead of her bodyguards, Kylie was to enlist a team of feminist female players, all equipped with the same hack files as she has and together would annihilate the OMN. It would be after the female players are eliminated and Kylie is cornered that Chief would double-cross Arbiter. 
• Justin's voice actor is uncredited.
• A slim, albeit possible reference to Bungie's favorite number: seven seconds pass before the timer appears on screen after Trent activates the PDoS.
• A director's commentary of this episode was uploaded on the 4th of February, 2012.
• This episode's ending is very reminiscent to episode 11 of the second season of Jon Graham's other web series One Life Remaining, in which a countdown timer is present and the song Die Fledermaus Overture by Johann Strauss can be heard in the background.

Reception

This episode was met with near universal praise upon release. Jon himself considers this episode one of his greatest, mainly due to the action scenes. However, some criticized Clyde's abrupt defeat, considering it anti-climactic.

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