‘Severance’ Season 2 Review: It’s Time to Clock Back with the Innies and Outies of Lumon [A]
You can be anyone you want to be at your job. It’s a complete break from regular life: when the time-clock is punched, the edges of the outside world begin to blur. A looming possibility remains, however, that the world outside those walls could begin to slip in with injections of reality. Even the smallest objects or most fleeting interactions are added to our personal arsenal of memories that offer context to our decision making process, but can simultaneously be a hindrance to professional productivity. After a three year hiatus, AppleTV+’s Severance returns to further investigate the separation of professional and personal in a darkly hilarious and thoughtfully mysterious sophomore season.
Lumon Industries operates with the use of severed employees – those who have undergone the severance procedure that now exist as two separate people: the Outie version that exists outside of the job and the Innie version that clocks in to work every day. The person on the inside has no knowledge of their Outie’s life, the only connection between the two being the body and name they share. Mark S. (Adam Scott) works on the Macro Data Refinement floor, a position he opted into after losing his wife in a car accident, but has increasingly noticed strange occurrences that have had him questioning his existence within the walls of Lumon. The first season saw Mark and his MDR coworkers – Helly R. (Britt Lower), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), and Irving B. (John Turturro) – launch an investigative offensive into their workplace to gain answers to their many questions, the simplest including what their job actually entails. Answers on the severed floor beget more questions, shrouding the enigmatic job in a mystery difficult to decipher with it being impossible for the Outies to know the goings on inside Lumon.
While the Innies work diligently to refine data and figure out their situation, Harmony Cobel (Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette) was working overtime to undermine their investigation while keeping a watchful eye on Mark S. and his Outie. Unfortunately for Ms. Cobel, no one knows what they’re doing or what data they’re refining, so they’re mostly trying to figure out their current situation. As head of the severed floor, Ms. Cobel’s presence in the office has an eerie effect on the workers: she’s cold and professional to a fault, her sole existence now dedicated to the work for which she feels unappreciated. Her underling, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), is the supervisor of the severed floor and the only person in the series with a scarier aura. He works to maintain contentment on the floor, throwing parties to keep morale high amongst providing other (awful) amenities for employee engagement. He’s the most uncomfortable person you’ve ever been around trying to make you feel better about your current situation. Under the supervision of these two, the MDR staff manages to figure out a way to activate the Overtime Contingency Protocol that overrides the system and pulls out the Innies wherever their outies are. Most notably amongst these is Helly being at a Lumon event as a major part of the company and Mark being at a party surrounded by family and friends, where he realizes – and announces – in the final moments of the season that the wellness coordinator at Lumon, the robotic Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), is his deceased wife, Gemma.
Now that the severed employees have activated the OCP and officially pissed off Lumon, only Mark S. returns at the beginning of the season. Attaching him to a new team in the hopes of him continuing his increasingly mysterious work, the corporation misjudges the bond he shares with his former coworkers. He immediately demands them back if there’s to be any productivity, a compromise the ever-elusive Board grants without almost any pushback. Mark S. is developing nerve inside the confining walls of his job, pushing back at even small injustices placed in front of him. Once all back together, the four resume their hunt for answers on what goes on in other departments as well as what they’re doing, what data they’re refining, and what the numbers mean. The series wraps each character’s motivations beneath layers of paranoia and distrust for others, making it difficult to discern each individual’s true goal while they unearth the truth about the place they find themselves in. Helly finds herself in an uncomfortable position after finding out her Outie is Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon’s founder. Britt Lower brings her quick energy back to the role while finding a darker side to tap into during the second season, allowing her a bit more diversity than she was able to give in the first season. Mark’s goal is to find out what happened to his Outie’s wife, though he’s having increased difficulty concentrating now that his feelings for Helly are beginning to cloud his judgement and decision-making. He’s attempting to reckon with the reality outside of Lumon while maintaining the relationships he’s built inside the walls of his workplace, a balancing act he’s attempting on a tightrope with weights in both hands.
Adam Scott is at his best this season, a new hunger evident within him for this story as Mark unravels the mystery around him. For Innies, losing a job means the end of life, so Mark’s attempts for clarity are life-threatening for both him and his coworkers. His attempt was inevitable, how can one live without eventually questioning their existence? It’s a reality for Outies, so it only seems a natural progression for this existentialism to permeate to an Innie. Severance propels itself to a league all its own with the narrative dedication to world-building, extra care being spent fine-tuning details that accentuate the series. The series could easily be unnecessarily labyrinthian for narrative complexity, but would lose the warmth created in moments where its characters find a genuine understanding of their purpose in the enigmatic organization. The Innies are finding themselves, which means small moments of humanity still shine through to them differently than someone on the outside: a first love, a first kiss, an unexpected laugh at a crude joke. In creator Dan Erickson’s hands, these moments are much larger as the introspection in Lumon is magnified. The mystery manages to become larger without being all-consuming and taking priority to narrative development.
Over the six episodes provided to critics for review, the ante is raised considerably for the employees of Lumon. There’s a restlessness to the MDR employees, only relieved by Dylan’s constant joking that is Mr. Milchick’s biggest irritant in the entire office. Tramell Tillman is hilariously dedicated to his role, with even the smallest frustrations of Mr. Milchick coming across with palpable irritation. Some of the funniest moments of the season come from his reaction to the employees he supervises, so clearly fed up with their antics that his aggravation subtly exists in his every interaction with them. He’s trying to do his job, which means getting them to do theirs. This is nearly impossible when they’ve all but abandoned their posts to figure out what’s going on inside the walls of Lumon. The tension in the office increases as everyone becomes more unsettled with their reality, every action taken by Lumon only making the discomfort worse. Even Dylan’s jokes dry up, though Zach Cherry’s performance never does. He’s reliably consistent throughout the series and is a bright spot whenever Dylan’s story is the focus, able to intuitively maneuver through scenes with a precise humor and mastered empathy for human loneliness. Severance presents itself as a story where its characters are disconnected from themselves, but each episode unearths moments that are indicative of creating secure connections with others.
Severance is laying the groundwork for the series to push itself into even more fascinating territory than the first season prepared audiences for. By building on the story and pushing the characters to new limits, the series is able to upend expectations and constantly create novelty for itself, an ability that allows the show to exist within its own category. An incredible series like this wouldn’t work without dedicated performances from its cast, a group of performers that continue to craft some of the weirdest, funniest, and uncustomary performances currently on television. After years spent waiting, Severance returns with a season so good that you’ll clock back in with no hesitation.
Grade: A
The second season of Severance begins streaming January 17 on AppleTV+.
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