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!
Severeance Season 2, Episode Six, “Attila,” opens on Mark Scout (Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation) working through his latest reintegration session with his new roomie Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge, Fargo). He is clearly starting to question his decision to undergo the reintegration process; even his recent experience of recovering a memory of his wife on The Severed Floor “felt like a nightmare.” When Reghabi insists that he can still uncover the wife he loves, Mark is not nearly as comforted as we expect. Instead, he reflects back on the “bargaining” portion of the grieving process and all of the questions and promises one makes to themselves about how they could be a different person for the loved one they have lost. Mark seems shaken by the possibility of having to make good on those promises and leaves us wondering what sort of turmoil Mark’s relationship with Gemma (Dichen Lachman, Dollhouse) might have been experiencing at the time of her (alleged?) death. This certainly tracks with the drunken and depressed Mark we’ve gotten to know over a season and a half of Severance.
Meanwhile, back on The Severed Floor, Innie Mark seems to be in a surprisingly great place with Helly R. (Britt Lower, High Maintenance) and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). When last we saw the Macrodata Refinement Team (MDR) together, they were locked in a state of turmoil. Mark S. had failed to show proper compassion for the loss of Irving B. (John Turturro, Fading Gigolo), drawing the ire of his coworkers. Furthermore, when Helly R. needed support after crashing back on to The Severed Floor in her own state of trauma, Mark S. offered her nothing but coldness and blame over the mistakes he made while Helena paraded around in Helly’s likeness. It was clear that Helly R. was devastated and their trust was broken.
This week, all seems well. Trust is restored. In fact, MDR is already holding conspiratorial chats in the bathroom again, and even Dylan opens up. We still don’t know if Lumon is developing clones, but they sure seem to have cracked the grieving process. Who knew that consuming a melon-sculpture of a loved one was the purest form of mourning and healing?
Of course, it’s not all sunshine and roses. While Dylan does share the knowledge of the Testing Floor elevator sketch and map that Irving left behind, he doesn’t want to share too much thanks to the very special family visitation perks he has been granted in secret.
Things also aren’t looking great in our other Severed Floor partnership between Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman, Barron’s Cove) and Ms. Huang (Sarah Bock, Bruiser). Milchick invites his young protégé in for a snippy heart-to-heart after his calamitous performance review last week. Ms. Huang is throwing daggers. She asks how the performance review went and says, “I am glad for you,” in response to Milchick’s report that he is eager to address The Board’s concerns.
Of course, Milchick has a few daggers packed away as well. He seems to dangle the threat of a poor performance review of his own if Ms. Huang doesn’t show more loyalty: “You can not graduate from this fellowship until I have deemed you Wintertide material.” In the next breath, he takes his own dig at Ms. Huang’s report that he uses too many big words: “This will mean using your time well, focusing on your duties, and eradicating from your essence childish folly.” That’s right: he uses some inversion on top of that already scathing vocabulary. It turns out that petty Milchick is actually pretty fun.
Of course, a bit later we’ll see how badly that performance review really did damage the manager of The Severed Floor when Milchick makes some surprising and troubling moves. First, he curtly leaves Ms. Huang in charge for the day. This is particularly strange due to the fact that last week he seemed to be responding to pressure from Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Somebody Somewhere) and The Board to bring the hammer down on MDR. While Milchick is away, MDR continues to wander the hallways, conspire in the bathroom, and enjoy, well, all sorts of special perks (more on that in a moment). Instead of ensuring that Mark S. makes progress on his mysterious “Cold Harbor” file, Milchick locks himself in a closet to punish himself over the two pettiest comments from his performance review.
First, he subjects himself to hand-shaking exhaustion as he practices the proper application of paperclips on a big ol’ stack of scratch paper. Then, he stares at himself in a tiny mirror and slowly edits down his “too many big words” line from earlier in the episode. It shifts from “eradicating from your essence childish folly” to a very sinister, “grow.” Milchick seems to have established his own little break room, but this time, he is the character who needs to be reconditioned. While Milchick’s main goal is clearly self-flagellation, his repetition of the word “grow” does beg the question of whether or not he might be challenging himself to grow beyond the limitations of his life as a Lumon stooge. Only time will tell.
Meanwhile, we find it didn’t take much time for Helly to move on from her degrading interactions with Mark last week. Despite the fact that he was recently suggesting that Helly can’t be trusted and that he has no interest in doing anything but being a good Lumon soldier, Helly seems willing to confide in Mark once again. In fact, we find them sharing a bathroom stall as they take stock of the current situation. After a little conspiratorial talk, he decides to respect Helly and tell her about his hook up with Helena; of course, Innie Mark only knows Severed Floor Kier-cult terminology, so his exact phrasing is: “we shared vessels.” It’s such a detached and creepy way to describe sexual intercourse that the weight of Mark’s words doesn’t hit her right away. When the truth of Mark’s revelation finally sinks in, he drops out of focus in the frame. Helly removes herself from the situation and takes a barefoot walk through the halls of Lumon. Before long, she finds herself curled up and crying in the corner.
Ultimately, Helly responds to the news of this physical and emotional violation by choosing to take control of the narrative. While she likely has to suppress some disappointment over the fact that Mark couldn’t tell the difference between her and Helena, she decides to channel her feelings into asserting her independence and refusing to fall victim to this manipulation from her Outie. Helly chooses to forgive Mark and decides that she deserves her own memory and experience with him. They find an abandoned room with desks wrapped in plastic, they build a makeshift tent to recreate the circumstances of the ORTBO hookup, and…share vessels. In comparison to Helena’s dishonest assault back in episode four, we get a scene that is much less steamy; Mark S. and Helly are patient, unsure, and thoughtful about consent. It is innocent and kind, but also a bit unsettling. It’s impossible to forget the lack of autonomy the Innies are allowed on The Severed Floor, particularly when this encounter takes place underneath a transparent tarp in the cold officescape of Lumon.
Mark and Helly aren’t the only ones finding love on The Severed Floor. Just down the hall (just down the twisted labyrinth?), Dylan is enjoying another meetup with his Outie’s wife, Gretchen (Merritt Wever, Godless). While this reviewer read disappointment and sadness in their initial encounter earlier this season, it turns out that there was also a spark. In this episode, Dylan and Gretchen clearly have some heat; their encounter even levels up from innocent hugs to a very passionate kiss. Later in the episode, we get to spend a few more moments with the Outie version of this couple, and the whole picture comes into focus. Outie Dylan is completely absent from the relationship. We see them compressed into a claustrophobic tableau of suburban life, and the red flags go up when we see that Dylan is a dad with a scheme. If he buys a new car right now, he believes, the salespeople will be so desperate to meet their quotas that they’ll basically be giving him money. Gretchen only needs to hit him with some dead eyes and a groan to talk him down to a “test drive” only. It’s a sad moment, but it certainly helps us understand why Gretchen wants to take Dylan G. for a test drive at Lumon. It’s simple, really. He is present. He looks into her eyes with zero distractions and wants nothing more than to hear the details of their life together.
Of course, all of this love must come to an end. After a suave hallway walk, hand in hand, Mark and Helly share a confident kiss that gets interrupted by Mark’s nosebleed. We instantly know that Mark’s reintegration process is taking a toll. Last week, we were worried about Mark’s coughing, and earlier in this episode, we watched the contents of a Lumon refrigerator swap with visions of Outie Mark’s refrigerator. Detective Huang can also tell that something is amiss; Lumon’s perfect humidity control could never spark a nosebleed. We never get to hear the results of Mark’s blood pressure check, but we have more than enough evidence to know that Lumon is zeroed in on Mark’s potential reintegration. In fact, the show transitions back to a Reghabi session and we learn that Outie Mark is starting to recall more recent memories.
Next, we finally get to spend some time with Irving Baliff and Burt Goodman (Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter) on their much anticipated dinner date. Of course, the promise of paying off this beloved fan ‘ship from season one is complicated by the presence of Burt’s husband, Cecil Fields (John Noble, Fringe). It’s an awkward setup, but at least we finally get to talk about Birving!
Things get off to a rocky start as Burt asks Irving his food preferences after Fields has already applied the cumin glaze; the unsettling atmosphere continues to escalate as we learn that Fields and Burt’s shared pet name is “Attila.” You see, they used to call each other, “hon,” but at some point pet name switched over to this much more threatening and troublesome play on Attila the Hun.
Later, Burt makes the surprising revelation that “Jesus” brought him to Lumon. If we believe what Burt has to say, he and his religiously-minded husband realized that they might be destined to spend eternity in alternate afterlives. Apparently, Burt has a dark history of being a “scoundrel,” and the lovers agree that Burt is likely to spend eternity in hell. Fortunately, their Lutheran minister offered a solution when his sermon suggested that severed Innies have their own independent souls. In response, Burt underwent the Severance procedure; he can only hope that his freshly-retired Innie lived a life worthy of heaven.
This whole encounter proves to be too much for Fields. He does his best to be a hospitable host, but the looming reality that his husband may have engaged in an affair with Irving on The Severed Floor takes its toll. Fields lets a bit too much information slip, including the fact that Burt has been working at Lumon for twenty years – much longer than he lead Irving to believe. By the end of the dinner, Irving is suspicious, but we can still feel chemistry and the desire for a future encounter with Burt. Unfortunately, it feels like this encounter might lead to trouble for Irving.
Speaking of romantic dinners, we also spend time with a frustrated Mark as he mows down some Chinese food after his most recent reintegration experience left him with the munchies. Mark’s feast is interrupted when he catches the gaze of Helena Eagan across the restaurant. Helena puts on an altogether unconvincing look of casual surprise before introducing herself to Mark and helping herself to a seat at his table.
Their conversation quickly shifts to flirtation, but Mark seems to get spooked by how quickly and naturally they have fallen into this familiar space. While Helena’s true intentions are unclear, it seems likely that she is motivated by both corporate fact finding and a genuine attraction to Mark. At one point, she pointedly misnames Gemma as Hannah. While Helena hasn’t proven to be the warmest human being on the planet, this error seems designed as a test to explore how far along Mark is on his reintegration. Mark quickly corrects the error, but he is spooked. He excuses himself from the restaurant and books it back to his place.
Upon his arrival, Mark apologizes for complaining about Reghabi’s reintegration skills (which is a little surprising when you consider how many characters are more deserving of an apology from Mark) and demands that they get down to business. The slow burn is over. Reghabi decides they can speed things along if they “flood the chip,” and before long, Mark is in the middle of a basement brain surgery.
No sooner does Reghabi state the importance of sitting still for his recovery than Devon (Jen Tullock, Perry Mason) comes knocking at Mark’s front door. He can’t ignore his sister, so he attempts to greet her at the door and calm her suspicions. Ultimately, his efforts fall short when he collapses into a full seizure on the floor of his condo. Reghabi knows the gig is up, and emerges from the basement. Devon is understandably shocked, but perhaps next week she will get a chance to use her “cutting through bullshit” powers to get to the bottom of Reghabi’s motivations and offer Mark the support he needs.
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?
Once again, this theory largely takes a back seat. We would move on entirely if it weren’t for the fact that these hints are woven so prominently into the opening credits. Instead, our time has been (very well) spent on the emotional arcs of our characters on The Severed Floor – the secrets of The Testing Floor just haven’t been front of mind since we watched that creepy dentist descend into the bowels of Lumon last week. We still don’t know if we are dealing with clones, but they are certainly building something down there.
That being said, Irving’s dinner with Burt and Fields raises an interesting philosophical question: do Innies and Outies possess separate souls? While this question is too fraught and abstract for the show to try to answer directly, it does offer some possible philosophical credence to the clone theory. If those closest to this secret project believe in souls or balances of “tempers” or whatever, it might very well behoove them to craft a new vessel for this additional soul.
Of course, the religious implications of that chat with Burt and Fields also forces us to ask another woeful question: which copy goes to “heaven” and which copy goes to “hell?”
Frolic: Helena: Rebel Rebel?
We don’t learn anything new or definitive this week, but that’s a good thing. So far this season, the showrunners have given us equal doses of Helena the dutiful Lumon agent and Helena the scorned, dissatisfied daughter. We can see the possible corporate interest in her ability to forge a relationship with Mark Scout, but we also can’t escape the fact she is thirsting for some of that sweet, sweet emotional connection that seems to be absent from the lives of Eagan children.
This is a great open question for the show to explore, because Helena probably isn’t quite sure of the answer herself yet. Britt Lower continues to play this part with impressive nuance and this mystery is worth sitting on while Helena pieces together what she truly wants.
Watching her navigate that “casual” meetup with Mark at the restaurant is one of the most successful scenes in the episode as Helena tries to suss out both Mark’s possible reintegration and the possibility that another human being could feel a connection to her. As she quips to Mark, he would be the “first one” she’s ever brought home to dear old dad.
Dread: Permanent Innies?
Much like the clone theory, the question of permanent Innies doesn’t get any particularly strong new footing this week, though it’s worth considering some of the strange behaviors of Mr. Milchick and Ms. Huang.
Early in the episode, Milchick shares a tense check-in with Ms. Huang in which he refers to her “fellowship” as a possible opportunity to get into “Wintertide.” At first glance, this feels like evidence against Ms. Huang as permanent Innie; in fact, this reviewer is starting to think that she is likely a standout from the Myrtle Eagan School for Girls, seizing a rare opportunity that very few have been granted in the past. It’s easy to imagine a young Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette, Medium) going through a similar process, for instance. We don’t know what “Wintertide” is, but the easiest implication seems to be that it is some sort of advanced school or institute for the strongest Lumon devotees. Perhaps Mr. Milchick himself also attended “Wintertide.” In any case, he seems to believe that his performance review of Ms. Huang will have some bearing on her future.
So what does all of this have to do with permanent Innies? It sounds like we’ve been making a case against this possibility. That might be true, but even if we are making a case against permanent Innies here, it does offer some rich thematic support to the idea.
What does it say about a person if they take their allegiance to Lumon too far? At what point have you become a severed version of yourself? As Kurt Vonnegut once said in his novel, Mother Night: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Mr. Milchick is clearly a man in conflict. His recent inability to have a human conversation with Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander, A Neighbor’s Vendetta) about his unique position as a Black man in the halls of Lumon made that unmistakably clear. Even if he lacks a literal severance chip, what is he at this point if not a permanent Innie – a man no bigger than his devotion to Lumon? Perhaps one function of Ms. Huang within this story is to highlight what one loses when they open themselves to Lumon. Even if Ms. Huang doesn’t turn out to be a clone, a robot, or whatever tinfoil-hat construction we can imagine, she will still be a girl without a childhood – a cog in the Lumon machine. A permanent Innie.
Malice: Birving Down
It’s absolutely wild that we’ve been away from Harmony Cobel for three straight weeks when she seems like she is destined to be such an essential piece of the endgame for this series. That being said, we can’t keep resting on our laurels with this theory when we aren’t getting anything new to work with. Perhaps, the theory that Ms. Cobel plans to turn on her Lumon overlords will return in the future, but let’s toss that thought aside for another question this week: Is “Birving” a lost cause?
One highlight of season one came in the form of the budding romance between Irving B. and Burt G. on The Severed Floor. It was a cute and innocent love story for the ages. Season two has been holding out on us and leaving us to wonder whether or not love really can transcend severance.
Well, we finally get some delightful scenes between the Outie versions of Irving and Burt this week, but they are ultimately undercut by Burt’s unmistakable suspicious behavior. He is obviously lying about how long he has worked for Lumon, and it’s easy to assume that his dinner invitation was partly a cover for Mr. Drummond to infiltrate Irving’s home.
Sure, we could be jumping to conclusions here. Burt could be lying for fairly mundane and innocent reasons. It’s also easy to believe that Lumon has the resources to figure out that Irving is out of the house without pulling Burt into the plan.
Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that the creative team decided to backlight Burt with a fireplace as if he were a secret Sith Lord or the fact that we get another sinister stare and music cue. Things get so sinister, in fact, that we are left to wonder if there is any chance that Burt was an inside man all along. Is it possible that he seduced Irving as an act of corporate espionage? If so, it might crush our spirits, but Severance certainly isn’t afraid to go dark.
Even if Burt is the worst sort of “scoundrel” we can muster up in our collective imaginations, it’s still entirely possible for him to share a real human connection with Irving. It’s also possible for them to fall in love, and it’s possible for Burt to go on a redemption arc.
That being said, it seems like we’ve lost our chance to get a pure, beautiful love story here. We can debate whether or not that is the best way to tell this story until the cows come home, but it seems likely that we’ve seen the last of “Birving” as an uncomplicated and beautiful fan ‘ship.
Waffle Party: RIP Mark?
Last week, we went DEEP on the question of whether or not Mark could prove to be an antagonist by the end of the story. We were even pretty proud of ourselves. This week, we learned that the Lumon brass aren’t the only ones handing out hall passes.
Mark was an absolutely monstrous asshole last week. Sure, that could have been a side-effect of reintegration, but it seems like it should have really started to complicate his relationships. This week, all seems to be forgiven. Mark, Helly, and Dylan are once again thick as thieves. Sure, Dylan remains conflicted and eager to hold on to his special visitation perks, but the vibe of resentment that was seeping into MDR last week seems to have washed away.
This reviewer was a bit confused by that turn, but “Dark Mark” feels like a quashed theory, so let’s move forward.
Let’s kill him.
What if Mark is dead!?
Yes, yes, yes. We know that Severance has already been renewed for a third season. Adam Scott won’t be leaving our television screens any time soon. That being said, what if the writers’ room reveals an actual character death for Mark?
We are already bursting with theories about cloning and genetics, and we already know what one “deceased” character, Ms. Casey/Gemma is alive in one form or another in the halls of Lumon. It also doesn’t seem like Severance can keep teasing us about the Testing Floor with spooky dentists and multimedia depictions of an eerie elevator forever. Let’s do this.
Perhaps we are about to cross the threshold into whatever creepy sci-fi horrors await at the bottom of that elevator shaft.
Of course, this reviewer would be just as happy with a mundane, human explanation that keeps us grounded in the characters we love.
For now, all we can do is tune in to find out what type of show Severance wants to be when we return for “Chikhai Bardo” next week.
