Series cliffhangers are a dime a dozen, but “Severance” made television history by ending its first season on a visceral note. The innies on the severed floor concocted an elaborate coup to break out into the world outside, and this spirited plan almost works. Almost, because the claws of corporate hegemony dig deep into the skins of their workers, forcefully dragging them back to the site of deceit and disenfranchisement. [Innie] Mark (Adam Scott) stumbles upon the portrait of his outie’s deceased wife, realizing that it is none other than Lumon’s wellness therapist, Miss Casey (Dichen Lachman), who is very much alive. The impact of innie Mark’s impassioned “She’s alive!” before being forced out of his body lingers even after the credits roll, feeding into the anticipation accompanying the three-year wait leading up to Season 2 of the Apple TV+ show, “Severance.”
Well, it’s (almost) time, as “Severance” is back with the intention to hook your interest in solving its tight, challenging puzzle box, which keeps jutting out mystifying crevices and secret compartments that fit snugly into the larger puzzle. Every curveball thrown at us is worth it, as series creator Dan Erickson and director Ben Stiller ensure that all misdirects and quasi-revelations serve a greater purpose while solidifying the ethos of this buzzy, thrilling tale. With the first 8 minutes of “Severance” Season 2 currently available for viewing, it is amply clear that the boundary-pushing elements that made the first season so satisfying are more heightened and persistent in the latest installment. If you haven’t watched these 8 minutes yet, please pause here, as — spoilers! — we see a discombobulated Mark traversing the labyrinthine hallways of the severed floor, with nothing to steer or anchor his journey back to MDR.
Familiar and new faces further disorient Mark: Mr. Milchick (Trammell Tillman) is now the face of authority on the severed floor, with an impassive Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) serving as deputy manager (she is a child, which raises more questions about Lumon’s dubious hiring policies). Mark’s colleagues have been replaced by new recruits and Milchick reframes the MDR jailbreak as a revolutionary act that the outside world has purportedly lauded. When pressed about the whereabouts of Dylan (Zach Cherry), Helly (Britt Lower), and Irving (John Turturro), Milchick states that none of their outies elected to return and that Mark has to continue the Lumon legacy alongside the freshly hired team.
What happens beyond these first 8 minutes is the tense disentangling of a conspiracy that rears hydra heads every few minutes, where Mark is forced to concoct his own Ariadne’s thread to navigate the labyrinth of the severance procedure. The previous season also cemented the outie identities of the rest of MDR: Helly’s outie is Helena Eagen, who does not view the severed as people, while Irving’s outie seems to know a lot about Lumon’s best-kept secrets, including an ominous elevator pointing downward. Although Dylan had stayed behind to facilitate the hard-earned jailbreak, we had previously learned that his outie is a husband and a father, which complicates innie Dylan’s outlook towards existential worth.
Season 2 weaves these established threads into beautiful, intricate (and messy) character tapestries, constantly questioning our understanding of split consciousness and behavioral conditioning. Someone like innie Irving would want to merge with his outie to persist in his love for Burt (Christopher Walken) — whose innie “retired” the previous season — no matter which consciousness he is inhabiting. On the flip side, we have Helly, who would want to keep Helena at a wide, wide berth, as she is nothing like the calculating daughter of the Lumon CEO who views the severed as less-than, pulling their strings like a smug puppeteer.
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Then there’s Mark, who is now aware of the Gemma/Miss. Casey dichotomy: Gemma’s death prompted outie Mark to undergo severance, allowing innie Mark to escape the heartwrenching grief of loss, but this catalyst has now been completely negated. Gemma is alive, albeit in a separate consciousness as Miss. Casey, which complicates both innie and outie Mark’s impulses when it comes to saving her and getting to the bottom of the Lumon rabbit hole. At the end of the day, every severed person shares a body, and their separate consciousness is bound to spill over in a deep-seated manifestation of latent joy or trauma. These unspoken workings allow “Severance” to bend the rules of what a sci-fi world looks and feels like, where surreal absurdity makes for a much stronger impression in a story committed to exploring psychological interiority.
Can you compartmentalize knee-jerk emotions, like instinctive rage, an impulsive kiss, or the crushing blow of losing a dear friend? Season 2 gets to the root of this central severance problem, its fascinating facets and discomfiting caveats exposed for all to see. Wild card characters like Miss. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) exist to add delicious intrigue to an already dizzying mystery, forcing us to dig into every overlooked symbolism or blink-and-you-miss-it detail that spells out a branch of the labyrinth. By the time we reach the heart of the maze, the metaphorical minotaur charges right at us, leaving threadless beings without an anchor with no choice but to face these demons head-on.
Adam Scott continues to shine as the series’ highlight, capturing the maddeningly subtle differences between Mark’s innie and outie selves with startling efficacy and grace. It is worth noting that the bonkers premise of “Severance” works only because every performance feeds into one another to form a cohesive whole, be it Trammell Tillman’s Milchick oscillating between unnerving power plays and quiet, subdued inner-doubt, or John Turturro’s Irving conveying worlds of pain and resilience through his eyes alone. Every performance contributes to this near-perfect ecosystem, leaving us ravenous for a closer glimpse into the darker corners of Lumon, and beyond.
Season 2 of “Severance” makes for great television. It makes for an even greater follow-up to one of the most engrossing explorations of what it means to be human, and how these definitions keep changing in a volatile world.
