I’m bringing up the spoiler warning statement for Severance fans. Read it:
I am thankful to have been warned of potential spoilers, my fall cut short by those with wizened hands. All I can be is thankful, and that is all I am.
I believe you mean it! Let’s get started.
After nearly three years of waiting, reflecting, and theorizing, fans of the Apple TV+ series Severance finally returned to Lumon’s Severed Floor over the weekend. It was a rough wait, but “we must be cut to heal, mustn’t we?” Fortunately, Mark Scout (Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation) and the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) gang came in ready to match the intensity of their fans.
In fact, when we rejoin Mark at the start of the Severance Season 2 premiere, “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” he is running through the impossibly white hallways of his workplace after experiencing his most strained elevator transition to date. After nearly two minutes of running, Mark makes his way to the “Wellness” office in a desperate attempt to find Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), his outtie’s late wife (at least, allegedly late wife). Unfortunately, the room has been hastily decommissioned. It’s a shock for Mark, but not for the fans who watched Ms. Casey’s tearful walk to the creepy Testing Floor elevator nearly three years ago.
Fans are a bit shocked to catch a glimpse of a shadowy figure lurking in the hallway.
Mark instantly seeks out more answers back in the MDR office, but he is disturbed to see his team replaced by newcomers Mark W. (Bob Balaban, A Mighty Wind), Gwendolyn Y. (Alia Shawkat, Arrested Development), and Dario R. (Stefano Carannante, Hey Joe); however, the sight of the sinister Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning) bearing his “kind” smile and a bouquet of Mark S. balloons is equally troubling.
In quick succession, we are told that Mr. Milchick has been promoted to manager of the Severed Floor, Harmony Cobel is no longer with the company, and that five months have passed since the “uprising” at the end of season one when the MDR innies were able to hijack their outtie bodies and make contact with the outside world. What’s more? According to Milchick, the operation was a success. He reveals a Kier Chronicle newspaper article heralding the MDR outties as whistle-blowing heroes who have ushered in an age of kindly reform for the Lumon Industries severance program.
Mark S. (and every viewer) is skeptical of this story. As amusing as it is to hear Milchick describe Cobel’s infatuation with Mark as a sexual fantasy to develop a romantic throuple with his innie and outtie, it’s quite clear that her interest in Mark back in season one was tied to something much bigger.
In any case, the Severed Floor management team is sticking to this story. One possible indicator of this “friendly” shift in corporate ideology is the fact that the new Deputy Manager (Milchick’s former title) appears to be…a child. Yes, we meet Ms. Huang (Sarah Bock, Bruiser). She is certainly less physically imposing than Milchick, but she still knows how to set a boundary: “That’s nice, Mark, but I have to remind you that I’m a supervisor, not a friend.” Despite her friendly exterior, the implication of child labor and/or severed children allows this newcomer to unsettle us just as much as her predecessor. While this is certainly a fun subversion of last season’s rules, fans can only speculate about her larger significance; there is only so much to be done with the information that she previously worked as a crossing guard or that she is a child, “because of when she was born.”
Mark S. is clearly overwhelmed by these confusing and unsatisfying changes, so he sets out to get his old team back. We don’t get much time to reflect on the new team’s questions for Mark about the outside world before he attempts to frame Mark W. as the author of a threatening message. This is extra sad thanks to Balaban’s masterful performance. Not only does his severed employee offer Mark S. some kind words about how nice it must have been to have a team he cared about, but he forever renames Mr. Milchick in the fan discourse when he misidentifies one of the show’s scariest characters as “Mr. Milkshake.”
After Mark S. creates enough of a distraction to get the attention of the board, they appear to meet his demands. The next day, all of our old favorites from season one return, despite the fact that Milchick claimed that they had all chosen to retire. Dylan G. (Zach Cherry, Fallout) steps off of the elevator full of questions and is surprised to learn that they are not in any trouble. Irving B. (John Turturro, Barton Fink) reawakens still pounding the door of the elevator, shouting out for his soul mate, Burt Goodman. Finally, Helly R. (Britt Lower, Man Seeking Woman) runs through the elevator doors and back to the Severed Floor. It’s an exciting development for fans, but something seems off. Perhaps it has something to do with the “Kier Pardons His Betrayers” painting outside the elevator doors; the title may speak of forgiveness, but it still depicts four enemies buried to their necks in sand as Kier looks over them with a saber (the betrayers in the painting evoke the MDR team). In any case, this development certainly casts doubt on earlier claims of a kinder, gentler Lumon.
Luckily, corporate PR has an airtight plan to combat any suspicion: stop motion animation. Yes, according to Mr. Milkshake, every new innie in the building is going to watch the same cutesy video about the “Macrodat Uprising” orchestrated by our MDR heroes that has inspired Lumon to rethink its treatment of innies. In fact, Keanu Reeves himself steps in to voice an anthropomorphized Lumon headquarters. We also get an appearance from the flying Kier Eagan that greets MDR analysts after they complete a file, some new snacks for the vending machine (fruit leather, baby!), and a full homage to the Heat Miser dance sequence from The Year Without a Santa Claus. While the video ostensibly praises the data refiners, it is also quite sinister. Not only does the film clip audio from some of the gang’s most rebellious Season 1 statements as a reminder that Lumon is always watching, but it finds a new way infantilize the employees with their clay likenesses, and teases some fairly torturous perks like pineapple bobbing and a “playful mirror room” of distorted, nightmarish faces (animated Irv looks terrified during this sequence).
The gang can’t help but laugh and smile a few times along the way, but ultimately, they all assume that Mr. Milchick is lying when he tells them there are no more cameras or surveillance devices on the Severed Floor and that they will each get to choose for themselves whether to stay or go at the end of the day. Even if Milchick is telling the truth, we can still sense trouble for the MDR crew.
First of all, Mr. Milkchick has a huge chip on his shoulder. He may be in charge, but we get to see him pathetically begging for his office welcome screen to reflect his own name instead of Ms. Cobel’s, and he can’t quite hide his disdain for Mark when it appears that the board must have reconsidered his proposal to reunite the team.
Even without Milchick on their backs, our heroes still have a lot on their minds.
Irv is ready to leave for good and end his life as an innie. He caught a glimpse of Burt’s romantic life on the outside during the Season 1 finale, and now, he can’t think of a reason to exist. Fortunately, Dylan steps up to show the kind of heart that he is sometimes reluctant to share aloud. He tells Irv how sorry he is that “outtie Burt has a hot husband or whatever,” but goes on to tell Irv how much he needs his friend. It turns out that this sort of honest connection was just what the doctor ordered. Irv decides to stay, and delights in the knowledge that he has been Dylan’s “favorite perk” all along.
Although Dylan seems ready to stay, Mr. Milchick pulls him aside in an attempt to sweeten the pot. In perhaps the most obvious lie of all time, Milchick shows Dylan plans for a new “family visitation suite” and strongly implies, but very clearly never promises that innie Dylan might get to meet his outtie family if he decides to stick around.
Finally, Helly adds to the tension by lying about what she saw during the time her innie was able to access the outside world. It’s disappointing to hear a character you love lie to other characters that you love, but it’s also easy to imagine how scared Helly must be to admit that she is the daughter of Lumon’s CEO and chief Kier devotee Jame Eagan. Will her MDR family ever understand that she is part of the network and structure that they are hoping to take down together? Additionally, she seems a bit distraught to learn that outtie Mark was married and that his wife may still be alive on the Testing Floor. She vows to help with the mission to save Ms. Casey, and also starts making the case that innie Mark doesn’t need to honor any vows outtie Mark might have made in life. It looks like we might have to process a complicated innie/outtie love triangle after all!
As tough as it is to see Helly lie or watch Dylan bite on an obvious lie, these moments set up what might prove to be the most interesting character-based element of the new season. Last season, our innies were ready to burn it all down and see Lumon destroyed, but they found each other along the way. Now, they are being offered a chance to live a more respectful existence alongside their MDR family. For all of Severance’s quirkiness and incredible art direction, this show would be nothing without understandable human stakes. This season, it looks like we’ll be exploring how far folks are willing to go to maintain human connections. This is certainly fertile ground to explore, and this reviewer is excited to see what we will discover.
TEMPERING THE EVIDENCE
Severance is so full of lore, iconography, and open questions that we could never explore every possibility. Instead, we will try to make things more manageable by “tempering” the evidence. In other words we will attempt to shape our theories into a more focused and manageable arrangement. But what is a logical arrangement for such a strange and complicated story?
Fans of the show have become all too familiar with Kier Eagan’s theories about human personality as depicted in a painting, the “Taming of the Four Tempers.” In fact, a top fan theory is that the four members of Macrodata Refinement each represent one of the tempers: Woe (Mark), Frolic (Dylan), Dread (Irv), and Malice (Helly). It is even possible that their unique dispositions must work in harmony (Harmony Cobel?) to complete the department’s hidden function or objective.
Each week, we will check in on five theories. We’ll swap them out if they are resolved, disproven or otherwise lose steam along the way. Each of the first four theories will reflect one of Kier’s “tempers,” and for the last theory, we will “throw a Waffle Party.” In other words, we’ll take a big swing, hold nothing back, and attempt to tame the tempers by exploring our most bonkers prediction.
Woe: Clone Development?
This prominent season one theory is more in play than ever. Severance fans have long speculated that the work happening in Macrodata Refinement is tied to cloning or some similar endeavor. Folks have imagined that the file processing is tied to some sort of mapping of human personality. This long-standing theory gets a huge boost this week when Mark starts refining his first file at the end of the episode. We cut from Mark’s screen to a screen with a matching progress bar and an image of Ms. Casey/Gemma. Who better to map a personality onto a clone (or otherwise, stolen, manufactured body) than her surviving spouse? While this development has the potential to give outtie Mark hope that his wife lives on in some form, there is also the lingering detail of the Severed Floor’s upcoming expansion. An army of office-drone Kier devotees certainly doesn’t make for a feel-good story.
Frolic: Helena In Disguise?
This week, all of Helly’s actions can be successfully mapped on to the Helly we know and love from S1. She loves to win a fight, and she is so shocked and ashamed by her outtie’s identity that it makes sense that she might want to prove to Mark that they don’t owe their outtie’s anything. On the other hand, how did Helly end up back inside the system? She was at the center of an embarrassing corporate event during which her innie persona accused Lumon of imprisoning employees. She seems to be the next in line to serve as the CEO to America’s most powerful family. It’s possible that she is back inside for simple PR reasons, but what if Lumon pulled a fast one? What if Helly is actually her outtie, Helena, in disguise? Does she have what it takes to bamboozle the rest of MDR and unearth valuable corporate secrets?
Dread: Reintegration Sickness?
Early in the season two premiere, we spy a shadowy figure over Mark’s shoulder in the hallway. This could easily be a new character, or a blast from the past come back to life in clone form or whatever. That being said, it sure looks quite a bit like reintegration sickness. Back in S1, Petey experienced episodes in which people and situations from his innie life started casually bleeding into his day-to-day experience. Perhaps Mark underwent the reintegration procedure over the course of the past 5 months? Perhaps he is starting to experience some negative side effects? If you’d prefer a more hopeful take on this theory, maybe reintegration takes time. Perhaps Mark’s mind is finally starting to wake up. That could make for a compelling dynamic throughout the season and even enhance the Helly/Helena question raised in the previous theory as Mark remembers more and more of his outtie’s experience.
Malice: Imprisoned on the Testing Floor?
What if our innies and outties have ALL found themselves in the bowels of Lumon headquarters? What if our MDR heroes are simply split between The Severed Floor and the Testing Floor? Granted, S2 trailers indicate that we will spend time with outties in future episodes and that we will deal with some of the drama that unfolded in the Season 1 finale. Of course, if Mr. Milchick is telling some version of the truth, there are five months-worth of outtie stories to tell. It seems reasonable to believe that the outtie side of the story could end in their capture. It would certainly make for one hell of a finale twist and tease a compelling third season!
Waffle Party: Gemma’s Plan?
What if Mark’s search for his wife ends with the shocking revelation that she was/is the driving force behind whatever circumstances put her (or a clone, etc.) down on The Testing Floor? We don’t know much about Gemma apart from the fact that she taught Russian Literature, but Mark and Gemma both taught at the same school where we encounter Reghabi, one of the scientists behind the severance procedure who has since gone rogue and attempted to develop and perfect the reintegration process. Furthermore, back when Mark spoke about his wife during a date with Alexa back in Season 1, he said that Gemma was, “very pragmatic. She always had a Plan B.” In the very same episode, Dylan jokes that, “maybe love transcends severance.” If Gemma did have a preexisting relationship with Lumon, perhaps her existence in the depths of Lumon is a very complicated Plan B that will get her back to Mark (and/or help her achieve a hidden objective).
