Apple TV’s dystopian workplace drama raises the emotional stakes and ups the weirdness in a gripping second season. Somehow, this season creates just as many questions as it answers, keeping you guessing until the final frame.
★★★★½
Spoilers for Severance season two ahead.
Season one of Severance ended on one of the most diabolical cliffhangers in TV history, but thankfully season two wastes no time exploring the aftermath of the innies’ escapades in the outside world.
The opening scene immediately highlights the increase in budget, with a beautifully shot running sequence through the halls of Lumon as innie Mark (Adam Scott) desperately attempts to find his outie’s wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman). The season as a whole broadly focuses on Mark’s mission to save his wife, who has been taken captive and experimented on by Lumon. However, it wouldn’t be Severance without some bizarre scenes and mystifying twists, and season two has plenty. From an entire field of goats in the Mammalian Nurturable department, to another incredible Milchick dance sequence, the playful tone of season one carries through even as the mystery grows more intriguing.
Aside from the rescue mission, considerable focus is given to the inevitable conflict between the characters’ innies and outies, and their differing motivations. Most significantly, Helly R.’s (Britt Lower) discovery that her outie is Helena Eagan, heir to the Lumon fortune. This leads her to battle with the realisation that one’s outie can be someone they despise, prompting a debate on whether innies and outies are really the same person. Helena’s impersonation of Helly for the first four episodes, astutely figured out by Irving B. (John Turturro) on a work retreat in one of the season’s best installments (‘Woe’s Hollow’), further examines how different the two versions really are. As well as demonstrating the stellar acting from Lower, Scott Turturro and Cherry as they subtly switch between the two versions of their characters, this storyline adds tension and emotional stakes to the show beyond the sinister goings on in Lumon.
Whilst Helly’s arc throughout this season serves as an exploration of how different the two versions of her can be, season two also explores just how similar innies and outies are. Dylan’s (Zach Cherry) main storyline this season stems from his discovery that he has a family when Mr Milchick (Tramell Tillman) uses the overtime contingency on him. Milchick uses Dylan’s desire to know more to keep him in line, and Dylan slowly falls in love with his outie’s wife, Gretchen (Merrit Wever). The season finale sees Dylan returning to the severed floor after submitting a resignation request, where Milchick gives him a letter written by his outie. This was one of the sweetest moments of the season, as Dylan’s outie tells him he hopes to become the man Gretchen saw in Lumon someday, demonstrating that perhaps innies are just more innocent, less traumatised versions of their outies’ original selves.
Mark’s arc shows that both Helly and Dylan’s experiences with their outies can be true, as he and his outie clash over their conflicting motivations. In one of the most shocking moments of the season, episode three, ‘Who Is Alive?’, ends with Mark reintegrating at Reghabi’s suggestion. Although the reintegration plotline is slightly underwhelming, seemingly put on the backburner for the latter half of the season, it was still a bold and ambitious narrative choice, allowing both Marks to experience the other’s life in some gorgeously shot sequences. The moment when outie Mark finally sees Gemma-as-Ms-Casey in a severed memory, finally confirming she is alive, is heartbreakingly tender, with the camera lingering on Adam Scott’s devastated yet relieved expression. His reintegration illustrates how similar his two selves are, but the final episode tragically exposes their opposing motivations.
The final episode, ‘Cold Harbor’, is a jaw-dropping season finale, in some ways surpassing its predecessor. Mark’s search for his wife comes to a head, and he convinces his innie to help rescue Gemma from Lumon. The conversation between the two in the cabin is surreal and cinematically stunning, filmed via camcorder and becoming increasingly more hostile. The cinematography in general is unbelievable, with cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné creating some truly breathtaking scenes, especially in her directorial debut, ‘Chikhai Bardo’. Her use of red in the finale to light the scene, as Mark S. makes his heartbreaking choice to leave Gemma and run away with Helly, highlights Mark’s shifting allegiance. Ultimately, he leaves Gemma in the sterile white stairwell and joins Helly in the blaring red Lumon corridor, a riskier but perhaps more promising future for the innies.
This was a gut-wrenching ending, especially since outie Mark and Gemma’s reunion was the most emotional scene of the show so far. It was easy to feel furious at Mark S’s decision, particularly as a long-lasting romance with him and the innie of an Eagan feels inevitably doomed to fail. And yet the entire season has been building to this deep-rooted conflict between innies and outies. Innies are similar to their outies, but they are fundamentally their own person. Mark S. may have been selfish and chosen the love of his life, but outie Mark would have done the exact same thing. The finale is frustrating, heartbreaking but ultimately a perfect encapsulation of the moral conundrum at the centre of this show.
Although I have mainly gushed about this show, it definitely wasn’t a perfect season of television, which comes as no surprise given its ambitious storytelling. The episode focusing on Ms Cobel felt very out of place, especially as it follows the cinematic masterpiece that is ‘Chikai Bardo’. The tone of ‘Sweet Vitriol’ was slightly jarring, with the slower pace and drawn-out mystery feeling frustrating in a way that Severance rarely does. Similarly, some of the later episodes after Helena’s reveal feel less narratively significant, particularly for Irving’s character.
However, none of these episodes can be considered bad by any means. All of them have multiple elements that maintain intrigue and investment in the show’s outcome. If a more ambitious second season with highs like episodes four, seven, and ten leads to a few slightly underwhelming ones, then I am happy to compromise. Severance is still one of the best shows on TV, and this season confirms it can stick the landing every time. Although a few episodes didn’t quite work, it never disappoints and always keeps me glued to the screen.
Words by Emily Nutbean
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