this article contains spoilers for severance season 2 episode 1-3
“She’s alive!” are the final two words Mark s. (Adam Scott) yelled during the final episode of season 1 of Dan Ericksons Severance. holding a framed picture of himself and his passed wife Gemma. now, after a three-year-wait it is finally time to find out what truly happened at lumon.
yes, Severance is finally back on appletv+, and the first three episodes of Season 2 waste no time in diving deeper into Lumon’s mysteries. for everyone who hasn’t seen the show. Severance is a psychological sci-fi thriller about a company called lumon, in which people can choose to sever their private selves from their work selves. the person they are at work cannot access the mind of the person they are in the outside world. which draws a lot of questions. most importantly: what is they actually do at lumon? The audience follows mark s. and his friends Helly (Britt lower), Irving (John turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry), workers for Macrodata refinement (mdr). in season 1 they have figured a way out to access their “outties”, which caused way more questions for everyone, with mark finding out that the wellness instructor miss Casey, is his “outties” dead wife and hellys outtie being Helena the actual mastermind behind lumon.
season 2 opens with a time jump—well, sort of. it has been five months since the events of the Season 1 finale, Milchick even claims they’ve been trying for weeks to get Mark’s team back together, but as always, the reliability of Lumon’s narrative is questionable. which we immediately found out in its second episode, where the events of season 1 happened 48 hours ago. The sense of temporal disorientation remains one of the show’s strongest elements. for now let us talk about first impressions and theories.
episode one is full on taking place within lumon. the audience finds out what happened to mark s. right after the cliffhanger they were left with in the season 1 finale. He is faced with a new mdr team and finds out that the wellness center Ms. Casey (or Gemma) worked at is gone. the claustrophobic desperation is truly caused by staying within the lumon walls. it starts off with an iconic running sequence that has been shot so beautifully, this alone made the three year wait absolutely worth it. After mark s. finds a way to speak to the board he demands his team to come back. even though mr. Milchick made him believe that their “outties” decided to quit themselves. the board agrees to marks wishes and we see the band back together by the end of the episode. although Irving seemed hesitant at first. His love interest burt (Christopher walken) is seeing someone else outside, which truly broke his heart. Seeing him back with the team after Dylans pep talk was a great outcome.
apropos Dylan g. one of the developments in these episodes is Dylan G’s sudden refusal to help search for Ms. Casey. Unlike the rest of MDR, who are eager to uncover more about their lives and the company’s secrets, Dylan waves off any attempts to recruit him. The reason? Milchick has told him about the visitation wing and sworn him to secrecy, warning that revealing the truth to his coworkers would only lead to resentment. which may come off as another Milchick lie turned out to be one of my personal favorite scenes in episode 3. Dylan is taken to the new visitation wing by Ms. Huang, where he finally sees images of his outtie with his wife Gretchen (merritt wever). Then, she appears in person. Gretchen is visibly nervous, meeting her husband’s innie for the first time. Their interaction is oddly touching. it feels like the audience can see how the couple first met years ago. while Dylans outie lost the ‘spark’ in their relationship a little bit, seeing these two interact was interesting to watch. Dylan also realizes his outie never really found his “thing”. being severed was the only part of his life that ever made sense. His final words in the scene, “I’ll be good. I’ll make you all proud,” may be hinting at at an internal conflict for his arc going forward.
Speaking of Ms. Huang: introducing a child as a Lumon manager is an eerie choice. what is she doing? How did she get there? The show has always thrived on uncanny corporate dystopia, and the idea of a young girl smiling while enforcing the company’s oppressive policies adds yet another layer of unsettling absurdity. Actress Sarah Bock does a fantastic job. ms. huang is this cheery, yet unsettling intense person you do not want to mess it up with. As director Ben Stiller noted, “When you cross her, something dark opens up.” Her presence complicates the dynamics for the innies. there’s an instinct to protect her, but she’s also an enforcer of their oppression.
also in episode 3 and I need to talk about it: Mr. Milchick receives a promotion gift from the Board. Natalie, Lumon’s PR spokesperson and intermediary, presents him with “inclusively re-canonicalized” paintings of Kier Egan. only this time, Kier and the people around him have all been changed from white to Black. Milchick’s reaction is quite telling: what was meant as an honor clearly disturbs him (and the audience) His hesitant attempt to express gratitude, followed by a silent moment of barely contained anger, speaks volumes. This scene is layered with commentary on representation in media. Much like how *cough cough* some Hollywood productions often retrofit diversity into historical narratives without addressing deeper systemic issues, Lumon’s gesture to Milchick feels hollow and condescending. Is this really meaningful representation, or just corporate tokenism?
Helly’s arc is another major thread in these episodes, and it raises an important question: why is she lying about what she saw on the outside? She made the most horrifying discovery possible: she’s an Eagan. She is what she hates most, and the weight of that knowledge is unbearable. There’s shame in her silence, and a fear that her friends will reject her if they know the truth. Fans raised the question whether we truly see the Helly we know and love in season 2 or if this is Helena in disguise. In the second episode we saw her repeatedly watch Helly and mark kiss in the hallways of lumon. she may have realized there, that her statement “I am a person, you’re not” is actually not quite true, since Helly is very much her an individual and seems to have quite more stamina and strength compared to the reserved and eerily calm Helena the audience met.
now onto the thing that had many on the edge of their seats. the final minutes of severance episode 3. Reghabi confirms to mark that Gemma is alive. which ultimately makes him want to get a reintegration to access both his “innies” mind as well. which is a huge step for outtie mark since the audience barely saw him be proactive. brilliantly directed by ben stiller, the episode left me speechless and I desperately want to skip time to be able to watch the next episode.
so far: Severance Season 2 is off to a great and gripping start. we got three episodes, the story keeps on giving us new info and it is amazing how one can simultaneously see the characters grow by every single episode. this show is truly one of the most impressing shows out there right now. I am impatiently awaiting each new episode with excitement and we may have to wait to fully find out which one of our theories might be true and which will remain behind closed doors for now. I am so happy its back and I cannot wait to see the rest.
Severance season 2
Cast: Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Trammel Tillman, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, Sarah Bock, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette
Creator: Dan Erickson
premiered: January 17. New episodes air Fridays on Apple TV+
Trailer for severance season 2: