I’m bringing up the spoiler warning statement for Severance fans. Read it. Again:
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!
Severance Season 2 Episode 5, “Trojan’s Horse” pens with a mysterious figure collecting some dental tools from Optics and Design in a very grim and solemn exchange. This mysterious dentist, or whatever he may be, then takes a slow, whistling stroll down the Exports Hallway toward the mysterious dark elevator that Ms. Casey disappeared into near the end of season one. Sadly, this moment doesn’t lead to any answers, just some very uneasy vibes that heighten the feeling of discomfort and disorientation that characters and viewers are forced to sit with for the duration of the episode.
After the opening credits, we check in with Mark Scout (Adam Scott) and learn that he is hiding his reintegration process from his sister Devon (Jen Tullock, Perry Mason). We also learn that Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge, Fargo) has set up shop in Mark’s basement. We get confirmation that Mark is only the second test subject for the reintegration process, so we are relieved to hear that Reghabi wants to take things slow. Of course, she doesn’t have the same sense of patience for Mark’s skills as a host. He needs to get the washing machine fixed and track down some eggnog (who cares if it’s out of season?).
Back at Lumon, we see further evidence that life for Helena Eagan (Britt Lower, High Maintenance) isn’t so privileged after all. Not only do we get proof that Kier’s teachings extend into the real world, but they even seem to dictate Helena’s medical care. She doesn’t seem particularly interested in the fact that the “doctors” believe her tempers will “rebalance,” and makes a plea to give her father a direct update on her mission. Sadly, she can’t score the face-to-face meeting with dad; her handlers, Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Somebody Somewhere) and Natalie Kalen (Sydney Cole Alexander, A Neighbor’s Vendetta), inform her that she will return to the Severed Floor as Helly R. because they don’t believe Mark will finish refining his mysterious Cold Harbor file unless they “give” him Helly. In fact, the only assurance she gets is that “The Board’ appreciates her sacrifice. Britt Lower’s performance in this scene makes us question Helena’s loyalty to the cause, so be sure to check in with the Tempering the Evidence segment for more thoughts on this meeting.
Despite her clear reservations, Helena reports back to work on The Severed Floor and finds the office in a state of utter chaos. Not only is Helly R. is the latest character to express shock and confusion at the sight of the unusually young Ms. Huang (Sarah Bock, Bruiser), but none of her coworkers can give her answers about her recent harrowing experiences. Helly is overtaken by the knowledge that her Outie has been parading around in her body and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) is hell bent on finding out what happened to Irving B. (John Turturro, Fading Gigolo) after his harrowing dismissal in last week’s episode. In fact, Dylan doesn’t give “three dry fucks” about anything else.
It’s clear that Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman, Barron’s Cove) has lost control of the classroom. His best efforts to soothe the Macrodata Refinement team (MDR) are pretty inadequate considering the extent to which the walls have come down on The Severed Floor. He only irks the team with his “pleasant” report that Irving B. has departed on an “elongated cruise voyage” and a condescending explanation of Helena’s incursion as a tradition in the spirit of the Gråkappan. According to Milchick, Helena was merely carrying on the time-honored tradition of a ruling elite going undercover amongst their subjects to better serve the community. Everybody knows it’s bullshit, and after another round of insults in the form of a redesigned trifold cubicle arrangement and a Stalinesque erasure of Irv from the MDR team photo, Dylan G. demands a funeral for his lost friend.
Boy oh boy does Lumon deliver (even though a frustrated Ms. Huang tells Milchick that the Innies shouldn’t be allowed to feel human). Irving gets a sendoff to remember in full dot matrix glory. Not only does he get a farewell banner and digital avatar, but Lumon provides a melon bust of Irving’s head for refreshment. Dylan G. adds some heart to the event with an honest (“he put the dick in contradiction”) and loving (“he was awesome and I miss him”) eulogy. It would be a bit more heartwarming if it weren’t for the fact that Mark S. doesn’t seem to care about the ceremony. He bails on the funeral early to emphasize just how much the team has fractured.
In fact, Mark S. does a lot of damage in this episode. When Helly reaches out for answers, comfort, and support she gets nothing but anger and coldness from Mark. On the one hand, viewers can understand Mark’s frustration. It turns out that his entire season two rebellion and investigation only happened because Lumon let it happen while Helena Eagan masqueraded in Helly’s body. Moreover, Mark is likely feeling shame and embarrassment over his inability to recognize the imposter; this shame is all the more poignant considering the fact that Mark slept with Helena during ORTBO last week. In addition to all of that shame and embarrassment, it seems likely that the early effects of reintegration are starting to take hold of Mark. Not only is he detached and angry, but he is downright snarky with Mr. Milchick (“horseshit” doesn’t feel like standard Mark S. terminology).
On the other hand, despite all of these emotional explanations, Mark’s behavior still feels deeply out of line. As difficult as it must be for him to acknowledge what happened, Helly deserves to know that her Outie had sex with Mark. She has been violated and manipulated, and as painful as it is, she deserves to know what happened to her body. It’s not a good look for Mark to put his emotional comfort ahead of Helly’s bodily autonomy, even if he is trying to convince himself that Helly might still be Helena in disguise.
In any case, it’s getting harder and harder to see how these Innies are ever going to reunite (reintegrate?) toward a common cause.
Of course, MDR isn’t the only Lumon department experiencing tension. We finally see where Mr. Milchick stands with the higher-ups when he faces a performance review. Even before he sits down to a litany of his many errors, we can tell he is in over his head. Milchick makes a clumsy attempt to engage Natalie in conversation over their shared horror at the sight of the reimagined Kier paintings they each received from the company to make them more “comfortable” as minority employees. Despite the fact that her eyes were screaming a couple of weeks ago, Natalie is not ready for small talk about her employers’ faults. After this first failure, Milchick continues to rack up L’s in quick succession. It turns out that Ms. Huang has been tattling on him for using big words and giving the Innie’s too much of a sense of autonomy (maybe he shouldn’t have cut off her theremin recital during Irving’s funeral!). More importantly, he is called out for replacing the MDR department, instituting humanitarian policies that hurt efficiency, and sending MDR on a calamitous ORTBO experience that nearly led to the death of Helena Eagan.
While this disastrous exchange makes us wonder if Milchick is going to switch sides before all is said and done, at least for now, he takes Mr. Drummond’s advice to bring down an iron fist. When he returns to the Severed Floor, he instantly confronts and threatens Mark S. by implying that he can tell Helly the truth about his hookup with Helena any time he wants. It seems like the Innies are about to be plunged back into darkness while they are at their lowest point.
Speaking of lowest points, a quick check in with Devon and Ricken Hale (Michael Chernus, Dead Ringers) reveals that Ricken’s conversion to the dark side is even worse than we realized a few weeks ago. We share Devon’s disgust and frustration as he parrots back Natalie’s corporate babble about reframing his work for Innies. Devon is beside herself: “Babe, it’s the literal opposite of what you were saying before!” Despite Devon’s protests, Ricken reveals his desperate need for approval. He believes that this opportunity is the only chance he has to support his family with his writing; he makes matters worse when he tries to throw that belief in Devon’s face. He also tries to sugarcoat this defeat by calling his new project a “Trojan’s horse” that will allow him to undermine the corrupt Lumon system from within – but we know he is lying to himself. In fact, Ricken’s Trojan horse malapropism puts a clever exclamation point on his blindness and complacency.
In an episode where almost everyone takes a step back, it’s fitting that Ricken’s lame excuse also functions as the episode title.
On the bright side, we do get to spend some time with Irving outside the halls of the Severed Floor. He makes another mysterious pay phone call to a yet unnamed co-conspirator, but he gets cut short by the appearance of Burt Goodman (Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter). For a moment, it looks like things are going to get ugly, but Burt quickly reveals himself to be curious about this strange man who came knocking at his door in desperation during the season one finale.
While it’s possible that Burt has a secret nefarious purpose, it feels like we are getting clear evidence that love truly does transcend Severance, as Dylan joked back in season one. Burt reveals that Lumon fired him because his Innie had “an unsanctioned erotic encounter.” While their flirtation is cute for Burt & Irving shippers, it also signals future fireworks. Burt’s invitation to Irving for a love-triangle dinner back at his place feels like a doomed enterprise, but it will likely provide viewers with great new evidence about the gray line between Innie and Outie consciousness.
Here’s hoping that these crazy kids can figure it out, but if they can’t, maybe things will work out better for Mark and Gemma (Dichen Lachman, Dollhouse). At the end of the episode, Mark checks in with Reghabi about their next reintegration session; however, before they can finalize their plans, Mark’s mind travels back to the Severed Floor. He is seduced by the call of one of Ms. Casey’s signature wellness sessions: “Your Outie pays all of his gas and electric bills within three days. Your outie once captured a butterfly, etc.” Before long, he is staring at the visage of his dead wife. Mark cuts out of his vision on a mysterious note as Gemma says, “Your Outie is going to…”
We’ll have to wait and see if next week’s episode, “Attila,” sheds more light on Mark’s reintegration, or if this was just another little taste to hold us over until the season two finale. Luckily, there is always time to theorize!
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.
In order to best keep up with this ongoing segment, consider checking out last week’s installment of Tempering the Evidence.
Woe: Clone Development?
There is really no new movement on this theory this week. About the closest we come is a renewed emphasis on how desperately Lumon needs Mark S. to finish his Cold Harbor file. Certainly, this evokes the image of Ms. Casey’s file in progress from the end of the Season Two premiere.
We also get to spend some slightly more nuanced time with Ms. Huang this week. For a wise-beyond-her years supervisor, we see her struggle with some pretty basic concepts, like distinguishing between questions and opinions. With all of the clone imagery hovering around this season, it’s hard not to imagine that Ms. Huang could be a mysterious Lumon experiment in development.
Frolic: Helena: Rebel Rebel?
This week, we get many new reasons to believe that Helena Eagan could become an ally before the end of the series. Granted, Helena does express anger and resentment at the Innies and her most recent near-death experience at the hands of a Severed Floor employee. She even goes so far as to say that the Innies are, “fucking animals.”
This may not make Helena sound like ally material, but…what if the lady doth protest too much? Not only does the imposing Mr. Drummond boss her around with the same patronizing detachment he directs toward Milchick later in the episode, but he refers to her near-drowning at the hands of Irving B. as a minor “contretemps.” He also reveals that Helena’s father has both approved and encouraged her to continue her mission; we still don’t know why Mark S. and Cold Harbor are so important, but we know that this importance means more to Jame Eagan than the safety, well-being, and bodily autonomy of his daughter.
Furthermore, we get confirmation that Lumon’s culty religion extends beyond the Severed Floor and into the lives of the Eagan family. We learn that the medical team believes Helena’s “tempers” will rebalance quickly; they also offer to schedule another “obligement” session to help move the process along. Helena plays her emotions close to the cuff, but she certainly doesn’t seem eager to participate in another one of these mysterious sessions. All of this language seems to evoke the real-life Church of Scientology and the mysterious emotional assessment strategies that their cult uses to help keep members in line.
None of this seems enjoyable to Helena, and it seems feasible that a future reintegrated Mark and Helena could find common cause (and maybe even love) before all is said and done in this series.
Dread: Permanent Innies?
Our open question of whether or not Lumon might maintain permanent Innies seems to have been placed on the back burner once again. Technically, we do get further confirmation that Lumon has easy and comfortable control over the Innie/Outie status of their employees based on Helena’s latest assignment from dear old dad, but that is merely confirmation of something that was already abundantly clear.
Meanwhile, our clearest candidates for permanent Innies, Harmony Cobel and the staff of the Mammalians Nurturable Department, have been neglected for two consecutive weeks; if we don’t make any forward progress in episode six, it may be time to pack this theory away until the show seems a bit more interested in the question.
Malice: Ms. Cobel the Usurper?
Ms. Cobel spent another week on the sidelines while the rifts between the surviving MDR members continued to grow. That being said, Mr. Milchick suffered an embarrassing performance review this week, so perhaps Lumon is on the brink of restoring Cobel to her former position. Whether or not they do, Ms. Cobel was not in a good place when we last saw her. She clearly knows something that her bosses do not, and it’s hard not to imagine that she will find a way to shake things up when she returns to the story.
It’s also worth noting that Irving continues to contact a mysterious co-conspirator from that phone booth; perhaps we’ll learn that Ms. Cobel herself is on the other end of the call.
Photo Credit: AppleTV+Waffle Party: Dark Mark?
We’ve spent the last four weeks trying to convince ourselves that Gemma/Ms.Casey’s consciousness could be alive and well within Harmony Cobel; however, we haven’t seen an interaction between Mark and Cobel since the Season Two premiere, and we’ve still only spent abstract, cryptic time with Gemma and Ms. Casey. It’s clearly time to let that theory go and move to greener pastures, though we reserve the right to gloat if this possibility makes a triumphant return in the future.
So, let’s challenge our assumptions and ask ourselves: could Mark take a villainous turn? It’s tempting to simply rule this theory out of order. After all, who plays a lovable everyman trapped in a web of bureaucracy better than Adam Scott? Both his lovable reputation from Parks and Recreation and his eternal boyish charm feel like key reasons he scored the part of Mark in the first place. Plus, those aren’t the only reasons to love him or trust him. He has a super-cool sister who loves him, and the poor guy lost his wife in a tragic car accident. It’s understandable that he suffers from depression and has some sharp edges he needs to smooth out.
At the same time, Mark has slowly racked up some pretty ugly crimes. Most recently, he spent episode five showing absolutely zero remorse for the loss of Irving B. Yes, his whole world was shaken and he was crumbling under the weight of the knowledge that Lumon had been tracking his every move through an undercover Helena. That’s not a healthy place to mourn from, but it was certainly jarring to his fellow MDR members (and the fans). Similarly, it’s understandable for Mark to have trust issues with Helly after falling for Helena’s ruse, but for him to communicate it with such icy precision felt heartless, especially when he chose to withhold the detail that he slept with Helena during the ORTBO. There is no reason to keep that a secret, unless it is an act of self-preservation. Mark values his own peace of mind over his respect for Helly’s autonomy and control of her own body.
Let us not forget, Mark is no stranger to emotionally violent acts of self preservation. Earlier this season, he blew up in Devon’s face at the mere suggestion that she was also affected by Gemma’s death. Not only did Mark discount Devon’s grief, but in the act of belittling his sister, he also conjured up a hypothetical image of her husband’s charred corpse. It was pretty fucked up.
Let’s not let Mark off the hook for season one, either. Yes, he is grieving, but think about his series of increasingly uncomfortable dates with Alexa, his sister’s doula. On the first date, Mark lost all sense of self-control as he picked a fight with a couple of “Whole Mind Collective” activists in the street. Later, after what seemed like a more successful date, he scared Alexa away in a drunken rage.
Even the sweet Innie Mark we’ve come to know and love has a bit of a dark core. Back in season one, as he tries to forge a trusting relationship with Helly, he shares the story of his own first day as a severed employee: “A few years ago, I woke up on that table and a disembodied voice asked me who I was 19 times. When I realized I couldn’t answer, I told him that I would find him and kill him.”
Obviously, Helly wasn’t exactly calm herself. She famously assaulted Mark while in the throes of her own fight or flight response. Still, Mark’s violent intensity feels notable, particularly in contrast to the Innie that we think we know.
Maybe all we’ve proven here is that Mark is kind of a jerk, but what if we link his behavior to a darker, more “waffle-party-worthy” detail? Back in season one, we learned that Mark received a laser-etched glass portrait of himself after refining his very first file for MDR. This portrait also has a special feature: it rotates. Revolves.
In the season one finale, Jame Eagan spoke some creepy words of support to Helena when he declared that one day she would stand by his side at his “revolving.” Could Mark be central to this revolving? Could he be a secret Eagan, or even a vessel for Jame himself?
Mark is already feeling isolated from his friends in MDR, but maybe he is one dark seduction away from uniting with the bad guys.
Well folks, that does it for this week’s edition of Tempering the Evidence. Join us next week as we pass the halfway point of Season Two!
