**SPOILERS FOR SEVERANCE AHEAD**
Consider this: you’re living in a small town, working in a job you hate. Or maybe you can’t keep a job and you don’t know where to turn. Just when you’re thinking about what to do next, the big corporation in your small town comes out with a procedure that can separate your brain into two consciousnesses: your regular self (your “outie”) and your work self (your “innie”). One can’t remember the experiences of the other, allowing the former a less painful existence with no ethical concerns whatsoever… right?
Severance, created by Dan Erickson and executive produced and directed by Ben Stiller, released on Apple TV in February 2022. The thriller series follows the dual lives of “outie” Mark Scout (Adam Scott) and “innie” Mark S. after Scout’s decision to sever himself following the loss of his wife, Gemma. As season one progresses, we find out that there are, in fact, many ethical concerns associated with the severance procedure, with one version of the self condemned to the endless monotony and exploitation of corporate hell while the other is none the wiser to their suffering. In the finale, Mark S. and Macrodata Refinement (MDR) co-workers Helly R. (Britt Lower), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), and Irving B. (John Turturro) hack the system at their workplace, Lumon, and are able to see into the lives of their outies. Irving searches for his innie’s love interest, Burt Goodman (Christopher Walken), and is saddened to find that Burt is married in the outside world. Mark finds out that the workplace wellness counselor, Ms. Casey (Dichen Lacherman), is actually Gemma, his outie’s supposedly deceased wife. But perhaps most shocked among them is Helly, discovering her outie to be none other than Helena Eagan, daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan, who severed herself as a publicity stunt to defend the controversial procedure. The season ends on a cliffhanger with their boss, Mr. Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman), intervening and shutting down the hack.
Released three years after its predecessor, season two leaves viewers with even more questions. Many episodes take time to focus on the individual stories of specific characters, or put them in a different context. In episode four, Mark, Dylan, Irving, and Helly travel to the snowy woods on a work-based excursion. During the trip, Irving figures out that Helly has actually been Helena pretending to be her innie since the season began, and he submerges her head in cold water until Milchick brings the real Helly back. This act of discovery and defiance results in Irving’s termination and, essentially, the death of his innie. Whether or not he will return for season three is unknown, given Lumon’s continued control over his consciousness through the severance chip.
Episode seven focuses on Gemma and her experience on the lower floors of Lumon, giving a glimpse into Mark and Gemma’s life before her disappearance. We find out that her consciousness has been severed many times and exposed to experiences ranging in levels of fear and discomfort, like going to the dentist or plane turbulence. The final room Gemma has yet to enter is named Cold Harbor, the same file Mark needs to finish in MDR. This episode also reveals that the numbers being sorted in MDR are Gemma’s different emotions. Mark’s task to finish the file could suggest that Lumon has been preying on him since her disappearance, possibly through some kind of technology that hasn’t been revealed yet. This could act as a parallel to big corporations in real life using your information to cater apps to what you want to see, like an algorithm. However, in this case, the implications are much darker. Rather than forecasting some dystopian future, the show reflects the corporate greed that already exists, and the way our lives and well-being are continually sacrificed for profit.
One of the most illuminating episodes is episode eight, where we dive into the backstory of Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), previous manager of the severed floor. As she returns to her childhood home in Salt’s Neck, we learn that it is a former Lumon company town, its residents now few, ailing, and addicted to ether. Cobel reunites with Hampton, her childhood friend and, as is revealed, ex-child-colleague at the town’s ether factory. In a Tesla/Edison-esque reveal near the end, we find out that it was Cobel, not the Eagans, who pioneered the plans for the severance procedure, along with potentially hundreds of other designs buried under the Eagan name. We thought this episode masterfully complicated the picture of Cobel, turning her from a mysterious Lumon higher-up into a complex character whose actions have been governed by Lumon since childhood. Further, the episode brilliantly critiques the way corporations obscure or outright steal intellectual labor, especially from women. It also serves as meta-commentary; until this point, we have seen the story largely under the dominance of the Eagans, but here we get a glimpse at those who actually built the show’s world. We also appreciated the cinematography here: we see Cobel pulling her notebook from the otherwise-empty head of a bust of Jame Eagan.
The final episode delivers an exciting mixture of plot twists, nail-biting anticipation, and even marching band dance numbers. The episode starts with innie Mark in a birthing cabin, talking to outie Mark via camcorder and the help of Cobel and Mark’s sister, Devon (Jen Tullock). While outie Mark initially assumes innie Mark will agree to help take down Lumon, innie Mark is hesitant, since this rebellion may result in his and his friends’ death. Eventually, however, he agrees, returning to Lumon the next day to complete Cold Harbor. Amidst this plot, Dylan tries to quit work, devastated because he is no longer able to visit his outie’s wife, Gretchen (Merritt Wever), further showing the lack of freedom and fulfillment afforded to innies. Mark tells Helly about the plan to get Gemma free, and she writes down the directions to the elevator leading to the testing floor where Gemma is being held. After completing Cold Harbor, Mark is ambushed by Milchick, who comes out with a big marching band to “celebrate” his achievement. In the logic of Lumon, Mark’s very human impulse to save his wife, or some version of him’s wife, cannot be met with brute force alone. It has to be drowned out with spectacle, and, briefly, it stuns Mark, burying the deep emotion of the episode under something artificial and absurd. Like the company’s finger traps, fruit gifts, and waffle parties, the performance is an attempt to placate Mark, “rewarding” him for continuing his own subjugation; we see the same thing when Amazon gives warehouse workers a pizza party instead of fair pay and conditions of employment.
After almost reaching the testing floor, Mark runs into higher-up Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) and Lorne (Gwendoline Christie), a woman caring for the goats seemingly sacrificed each time Gemma is severed. Before another goat can be killed, Lorne asks Drummond, “How much more must we give?” showing how Lumon is taking from people with no plans of giving back. Mark wrests Drummond’s gun from him, saving the goat, and he and Lorne send Drummond to rest with Kier together. This is not only a great performance by Christie but another one of the show’s important acts of collective resistance, uniting Lumon’s workers despite lies that they should hate or are fundamentally different from one another. This is also paralleled by Helly and Dylan in MDR convincing the marching band to help them keep Mr. Milchick from interfering with Mark’s liberation of Gemma. Mark goes down the elevator and finds Gemma right before she finishes Cold Harbor, which is revealed to be her taking apart a crib, like the one she and Mark had built for their baby before they discovered Gemma’s infertility. Her finishing of this task would’ve likely left Gemma unable to remember who she is, but Mark saves her on the brink of self-erasure. Together, they go back up the elevator, and Mark’s outie and Gemma embrace, overjoyed at being reunited, before they revert back to innie Mark and Ms. Casey. Mark urges Ms. Casey/Gemma through to freedom, closing the door to the severed floor behind her, but cannot follow. Instead, he turns to Helly, who has been waiting behind him, and takes her hand. Together, they run back down the hallway as Mel Tormé’s “The Windmills of Your Mind” plays in the background.
Severance has been renewed for a third season without a definite release date but, according to production, on a more expedited timeline. Next season could present new problems and mysteries, like whether or not Gemma escaped, backstory on the mysterious Mr. Milchick and how he got to Lumon, teenager Ms. Huang’s (Sarah Bock) time at the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center, and even the possibility of Helly/Helena’s pregnancy. Until then, (We’ll) Be Seeing You.