@bebop-cola wrote:
Most of that was clearly generative AI speak. The dashes are a dead giveaway.

Also that didn't address my question at all. The meaning of the words and how they are relevant to the episode I can understand myself. But why choose specifically the words of Smith/Powers? Are the showrunners known fans of Smith or Powers? Have there been until now a host of other nods towards classic scifi authors on the show that I may have missed? 

Any clue as to why the title references the title of Tim Powers' 1989 novel (which comes from a poem by Clark Ashton Smith} ?

This one was made especially funny considering that Ron Howard is a mediocre director at best and 'A Beautiful Mind' one of his worst efforts :-D

Almost half of the episode is just "weird for the sake of weird" with no meaning that we can ever hope to get to. I mean, those doubles...? That's just useless clutter. The show is reaching a point where too many "wtf" moments accumulate that still haven't been explained and it is on its way to crash against that same wall that "Lost" hit in its time. But Lost had 3 whole seasons to try and (only partially) recover. That doesn't happen anymore nowadays. If Severance gets 3, 4 seasons tops it wiould already be exceptional. So it's high time the story went in "resolution" mode if the creators want their audience to have any sense of closure at the end.