Severance Season 2 Episode 9 Review: ‘The After Hours’ Pushes Everyone to the Brink

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!

After a couple of episodes that subverted the show’s typical format and added texture to the dystopian landscape of Severance, Season 2’s penultimate episode amped up the pace to get our characters into position for next week’s whopping 76-minute finale. As a result, ‘The After Hours’ might benefit from a whiplash warning. Its many plotlines alternately sprint and stroll through the episode, in stark contrast to the isolated slow burns we’ve experienced for the past two weeks. In any case, the episode brings all of our characters to the edge of a precipice, and the stakes couldn’t feel higher ahead of the finale.

We open in a pool with Helena Eagan (Britt Lower, High Maintenance). She is engaged in a morning swim routine. We fall in with the rhythm of her breathing. Unfortunately, things don’t stay settled for long. After the swim, Helena sits down to a meal with her increasingly creepy father, Jame Eagan (Michael Sibbery,  Jessica Jones). Of course, this isn’t just any meal. Helena is seated to partake in the ritualistic consumption of a hard-boiled egg. After using an egg wedger to break the egg into six equal pieces, Helena carefully arranges them around the face of a figure on her ornate plate that features the image of a youthful elite being forced into a chair by two puritanical figures.

This plate is likely from the 19th century, so of course, all of the figures are creepy children. As if this attention to detail were not unsettling enough, she proceeds to use a fork and knife to slice impossibly tiny bites of each segment with the precision of an entertainment journalist attempting to parse an episode of Severance frame by frame. Before we have time to psychoanalyze Helena’s repressed eating, Jame finds a way to further unsettle us by saying he would prefer she ate the egg raw. Perhaps this is nothing but atmospheric table-setting from the creative team, but join us in the “Tempering the Evidence” section to hear our thoughts on the possible larger implications of this egg sequence.

Helena Eagain isn’t the only character having a bad day. Just ask Ms. Huang (Sarah Bock, Bruiser). She has received her Wintertide Fellowship and complimentary Kier Eagan bust, but she seems deeply disappointed to leave before the end of the quarter. This doesn’t faze her superior, Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman, Barron’s Cove); he informs her that she is about to be transferred to the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center in Svalbard, where she will “work to steward global reforms.” Additionally, Mr. Milchick almost seems to delight in asking her to destroy a totem of personal significance as part of the acceptance ceremony. He asks her to smash her Kier Eagan ring toss game to smithereens. After she crushes this final tether to her youthful innocence, we next see our favorite child laborer waiting for a lonely shuttle to carry her away from Lumon headquarters.

Sadly for Mr. Milchick, this is the last time he gets to feel a sense of control. When Helly R. reports to the office and demands answers about her boyfriend’s whereabouts and health, Milchick’s attempt to threaten her for this insubordination falls completely flat. She jokingly reminds him that he should really be calling her Helly E. (Eagan) based on her secret identity, and even defies his order to leave the office door open.

Hot off of this failure, Milchick soon finds himself further castigated by the imposing Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Somebody Somewhere) for failing to see the Cold Harbor file to completion on time. After initially submitting to Drummond’s abuse and patronizing demands that he simplify his advanced vocabulary, Milchick decides to fight fire with fire. He invites Drummond to “devour feculence!” (eat shit) and makes it very clear that the lives of employees beyond the walls of The Severed Floor fall under Drummond’s jurisdiction. If anyone has failed Lumon, Milchick suggests, it’s the burly enforcer with the frolic tattoo. Surprisingly, this overstep seems to pay off in the short term. More importantly, this episode primes Milchick to defy Lumon more openly a bit later in the episode.

Before we cover that exchange, let’s check in with Dylan George (Zach Cherry, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and his personal march toward darkness. His trouble begins in Outie form when his wife, Gretchen George (Merritt Wever, Godless) reveals that she has been canoodling with Dylan’s Innie. She seems to hope this revelation will serve as a crowbar to pry open the repressed layers of her marriage and unlock the emotions of the man she once loved. Instead, she gets nothing but rage. Dylan instantly rips into a tantrum, dumps his health shake in the sink, and storms out of the room while threatening to quit his job and effectively end the life of his Innie. Despite the dark irony at the center of this particular love triangle, it’s painful to watch.

When Gretchen gives Dylan’s Innie a heads up, he is frustrated that his Outie can’t respect their collective happiness: “is he happy for us?” It seems that the man he used to hero-worship for his incredible “delts” back in season one has become the enemy. In a flurry of desperation, Innie Dylan makes matters worse with his innocent sense of true love and his adolescent sense of codependence. He insists that his life didn’t even start until he met Gretchen before promptly producing a handmade ring, crafted from a disassembled Lumon finger trap — one of the perks that the old Dylan G. lived for. Now, he lives for Gretchen. This is a particularly powerful metaphor when you consider the juxtaposition between Dylan’s earnestness and the difficult trap that this two-person love triangle (oh, Severance) has created for our unconventional throuple. The harder both Dylans pull at Gretchen, the less comfortable this gets for everyone involved. Despite all of the trouble, it’s impossible not to feel for Dylan as he loses control of his vocal cords in a desperate, but honest, call to Gretchen. Our Innies have been going through a sort of adolescence all season, so an uncontrollable shift in the pitch of one’s voice feels right at home in the motif.

Before we step outside the walls of Lumon, we should take a moment to catch up with Helly R. Her Outie, Helena, may have been focused on dismantling a hard boiled egg, but Helly is focused on putting her Macrodata Refinement (MDR) family back together again. She even pauses her quest for information about Mark in an attempt to comfort Dylan. She encourages him to keep his ring and seek love elsewhere on The Severed Floor. Dylan doesn’t love his prospects in the aloof Optics and Design team and the pock-marked Mammalians Nurturable department. We get it. Unfortunately, Dylan is still in teen mode, so he seizes this moment to make Helly feel like garbage. He questions her theory that Innies and Outies are any different from one another, and twists the knife in her hopes and dreams by reminding her that Mark S. (Adam Scott) couldn’t tell the difference between Helly and Helena. As Dylan puts it, “I guess I’m an asshole down here, too.” Later in the episode, he resigns. We see him awaiting his final departure from The Severed Floor and the impending “death” of his Innie.

Luckily, Helly isn’t so easily broken; she reminds Dylan that Irving B. (John Turturro, Fading Gigolo) could tell the difference between her and Helena, and sets out to follow the map to The Testing Floor elevator that Irving left behind earlier this season. It’s an empowering and exciting moment, but at the end of the episode, her plan encounters a surprising obstacle. More on that later.

Sadly for our faves, things are a mess outside the walls of Lumon as well. Irving Bailiff returns home to find his trusty dog, Radar, looking sad and chastised. In a slow, sinister reveal, we find him face to face with none other than Burt Goodman (Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter); our worst fears are realized as he leafs through Irving’s Lumon research and reads Irving’s suspicions aloud in a detached, almost mocking tone. Audience members share a collective gulp alongside Irving when Burt insists that Iriving join him for “a ride.”

On the way to what we can only imagine will be his execution or some sort of horrific forced surgery at the hands of a shadowy Lumon doctor, Burt admits that his shame and guilt about his career stems from the decades he spent taking people for these sorts of “rides” on behalf of Lumon. He objects to the term, “goon,” but we learn that is exactly what he is — the complicit soldier who sits idly by and tries to put a clean face on Lumon’s dirty work.

At least, he was the complicit soldier until he met Irving. While Burt doesn’t actually remember what happened between them on The Severed Floor, he can sense their connection and feels a pull towards the love he experienced on the inside. He can’t comply with Lumon’s orders. Instead, he brings Irving to a train station and tells him to never come back. They can never see each other again. It’s a bittersweet moment. We are relieved by the confirmation of the power of “Burving’s” love, but saddened to know that it can never come to pass in the outside world. Things are complicated with Lumon, and Burt already shares a rich life with his husband. The pair mirror their near-kiss from season one as they stand close together in the train station. In season one, a shy Irving wasn’t ready to kiss the man he loved, but now, Irving is ready; he repeats “I’m ready” repeatedly and melts what is left of our hearts. Again, the pair never get their kiss.

It’s a beautiful and terrible moment. As Irving stares out the window at the start of his train ride to nowhere, we sense sadness, but also get a subtle smile — perhaps a sense of hope for the future? It’s entirely possible that this could be the last we see of Irving on Severance, and if so, we can rest assured that he left his MDR family with a solid reminder that they are, in fact, individuals. That wouldn’t be such a bad fate for a beloved character (though, this reviewer sure hopes we see him again in the finale). We’ll ponder this question a bit more in the Tempering the Evidence section.

While the rest of the cast moves their stories to the edge of a precipice, the Scout siblings, Mark and Devon (Jen Tullock, Perry Mason) spend most of the episode waiting for their story to push forward. It’s not the same momentum we see elsewhere, but they do spend their time waiting at the edge of a literal roadside precipice, so we remain on theme.

In any case, it feels great to hang with our favorite sarcastic siblings. As they drive to their tense meeting with Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette, Medium), they exchange barbs. Devon wins round one with, “I’m sorry, the wind was whistling over the hole in the back of your skull, so I didn’t quite get that.” Later, when Harmony arrives, Mark unleashes his sarcasm at full blast. When Harmony asks Mark how he’s doing, he turns on the snark: “Oh my god, so good! My wife’s being held prisoner at Lumon, and I just had brain surgery in my basement.”

After that, the crew decides to hang out until they can infiltrate the Lumon birthing cabins under the cover of nightfall. It seems like it was probably a long, boring day for them, but Harmony’s insistence that Mark call in sick leads to a fascinating exchange with Mr. Milchick. Mark’s attempt to fake a sick day falls apart almost instantaneously, but he recovers masterfully by effectively “admitting” that he needs a mental health day for “life stuff.” On the other end of the call, Milchick is fresh off of his confrontation with Drummond, and Mark’s words appear to take root. Milchick loses his office affectations as Mark insists that Lumon claims to be about work/life balance: “I mean, work is just work, right? Do you know what I mean, Mr. Milchick?”

This is not only a fascinating moment for Mark and Milchick, but it’s also a callback to Mark and Harmony’s conversation in the Season 1 finale. Mark delivers nearly the exact same words to Harmony while she tears herself up inside about whether or not to go to war with her former employers. Mark’s words appeared to take root in this earlier conversation as well. Obviously Severance is a complex show with a deep mythology, but to hear the show reaffirm its basic satirical premise near the end of a lore-heavy season gives viewers hope that this show will never lose sight of what made it so successful in the first place.

From this point forward, the episode is simply setting us up for the finale. Harmony is able to sneak Mark and Devon past the gates of the birthing retreat. Harmony says that Devon is “one of Jame’s” mistresses while Mark hides under a tarp in the back of the pickup. Once they get Mark inside the cabin, his Innie self awakens just in time for Devon to shuffle him off to an intimidating face-to-face meeting with Harmony.

We don’t get a lot of answers. It’s unclear what information Innie Mark has to offer about this operation, and we don’t get a shred of evidence to suggest that Mark’s very invasive reintegration process has had any impact on his psyche whatsoever. While these questions are a bit grating, it’s hard not to get excited for next week when the exchange ends on the same words as the Season 1 finale: “She’s alive.”

Of course, the biggest twist of the episode actually comes a bit earlier back on The Severed Floor. As Helly prepares for her voyage to The Testing Floor, a shadowy figure, not unlike the one that appeared over Mark’s shoulder in the Season 2 premiere, slowly comes into focus. It is Jame Eagan himself. Not only is he alone on The Severed Floor with the Innie consciousness of his daughter, but he is also waving a potential twist in our faces when he says, “You tricked me, my Helly!”

What does it mean!? Did we get another identity swap? Was Helly always a pet name for Helena? Which consciousness tricked Jame? When!? We don’t know!

All we can do for now is wait…and 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.

Woe: Severed Death?

We didn’t get much new insight into the Severance procedure this week, but we did get an important line of dialogue that continues to hint that the completion of Cold Harbor is synonymous with Gemma’s demise. According to Harmony, if Mark has completed the file, “she’s already dead.”

Only time will tell if this is a reference to Gemma’s physical body or her sovereignty over her own consciousness — but in any case, Severance seems to have some stake in the human relationship with death — be it an escape from the pain of death, a method to overcome death, or some merging of the two.

Frolic: Ether for the Masses?

Again, we didn’t get much new info to support or refute our theories about the Severance procedure this week, but we have to keep this one on the table as we make our way into the finale next week. Between the in-depth peek at The Testing Floor in episode seven and the recent visit to a painful past that might make Harmony Cobel dream of a world without pain, it remains practical to believe that Lumon is in pursuit of an escape from suffering that might permit folks a life of perfect leisure.

That being said, this theory takes a small hit this week. When Mr. Drummond confronts Milchick about his failure to deliver on the completion of Cold Harbor at the anticipated time, the stakes feel personal to the Eagans and/or whoever else makes up the Lumon board. This felt like more than a misunderstanding about bottom lines or an innovative new public identity for Severance technology.

For now, we’ll have to manage our suffering the old fashioned way while we wait for some answers.

Dread: Farewell Irving?

Last week, we kept the theory of programmable permanent Innies alive, but based on the lack of new information this week, there isn’t enough on the table to differentiate this theory from our larger thoughts about Severance as some sort of Soma for the masses. It’s time to take things in a new, more personal, direction.

While it seems impossible to imagine that Severance would ever sever itself from the incomparable John Turturro, we have to wonder if we’ve seen the last of Irving B. for the season…or possibly the series as a whole. Ever since his Innie made the ultimate sacrifice to expose Helena Eagan back in Episode 4, Irving has become a bit of an afterthought.

While we still have some lingering questions about Irving’s clandestine calls from a public payphone to a mysterious recipient earlier this season, those questions have given way to questions about his relationship with Burt. During an uncomfortable throuple dinner date, we could still sense sparks between our Severed Floor lovers, but the show also made it clear that Burt was a dangerous presence.

Severance decided to split the difference. The flirtation was really real! Both Outies felt something for one another that they couldn’t quite explain. Unfortunately, Burt was also a Lumon stooge (though we are not using his preferred terminology); he was part enforcer and part … chauffeur? While he didn’t get his hands too dirty, it sounds like he made a career out of driving Lumon’s enemies to remote locations to be killed, or tortured, or forcibly severed. We don’t really know. The show leaves this detail to our imaginations.

In any case, a big part of Irving’s emotional arc feels cut off at this point. Are we really going to have him swoop in to fight corporate intrigue after his bittersweet smile on the train? That was the look of a man who was sad, yes, but also the look of a man who recently felt a weight lifted from his shoulders – a man who is eager to lead a less complicated life.

He’s far from written off of the show, but it seems like the creative team may have taken this piece off of the board ahead of the finale. We also don’t know anything about John Turturro’s interest in continuing his role on Severance. If there are any outside reasons he is ready to move on, we may have seen the last of Irving.

Malice: Harmony the Usurper?

Harmony uses her time in “The After Hours” to link up with the Scout siblings and help them access the technology at one of Lumon’s elite birthing retreats. She hangs out with the Scouts for an entire day at a remote cliffside location and weathers their dual-threat sarcasm like a pro. She also accesses her intimate knowledge of Jame Eagan’s illicit affairs to infiltrate the retreat despite not appearing on the guest list.

In fact, her familiarity with this system makes us wonder how she knows so much. Sure, it might be as simple as her former role with Lumon making her privy to a host of company secrets. Perhaps she has had to orchestrate theatrics like this to cover for Jame in the past. On the other hand, what if her experience is more first-hand? It’s possible that Harmony herself has been sent to one of these birthing cabins in the past. Perhaps she knows Jame more intimately than we realized. If so, her motivation to usurp power could have a whole new layer. Furthermore, if this theory pans out, we’ll have to ask ourselves whether or not Harmony might be the mother of a character we already know. We’ll have to wait and see if we get further evidence in the finale.

Questions of motherhood aside, we are being asked to believe that Harmony has flipped to the side of our heroes. That still feels like the correct read, but it’s hard to trust her when she is backlit by a sinister fireplace in the closing moments of the episode. Similar backlighting during Mark and Helena’s ORTBO hookup preceded the reveal that Helly was actually Helena in disguise earlier this season. Severance also used this not-so-subtle lighting cue for Burt during the failed throuple dinner back in Episode 6. Harmony might truly be a rebel, but it remains to be seen if her objectives are selfless or self-serving.

Waffle Party: Flock of Eagans?

It’s increasingly difficult to let this one go, despite its outlandish nature.

Admittedly, we don’t get any new concrete evidence this week, but we do get a lot of strange behavior. We’ve already noted the overall creepiness of the show’s opening sequence, but it was hard not to think of the mysterious ‘revolving’ Jame mentioned back in Season One while Helena was picking her way through that hard boiled egg. Not only did it feel like Helena was being forced to prepare her body in very specific ways under the watchful eye of her father, but it was notable that he was unable to participate in a meal with his daughter.

It felt like he was preparing himself for something, some mysterious step forward he was meant to take upon the completion of the Cold Harbor file. This is the sort of circumstantial evidence that the ‘Waffle Party’ section is founded upon. Plus, that carefully segmented egg arranged in a circular array certainly evokes a fragmented consciousness in the midst of some sort of rotation. It’s hard not to imagine that we are going to see a “revolving” in the Season Two finale.

Whether or not our theories hold true, next week’s episode, ‘Cold Harbor,’ shares a name with the core mystery of Season Two. Whatever those zany Eagans are cooking up, we can assume that the season finale will offer shocking revelations alongside a host of brand-new questions. We can’t wait to unpack them with you!

Severance Season 2 Episode 9, ‘The After Hours’ is now streaming on AppleTV+