Welcome to The Sternberg Report’s series where I review TV shows and label them The Good, The Too Bad, and The Ugly.
By way of definition, The Good is a show you should enjoy if you like that particular genre, The Too Bad is a show that could have (or should have) been better, or simply doesn’t live up to expectations set by previous seasons, and The Ugly is a show that completely misses the mark or is just an ill-conceived mess.
Ordinarily, each issue reviews three series. But sometimes a show is so good or so bad it deserves a report all its own. Such is the case with Severance. This series isn’t for everyone. You’ll either love it or hate it – probably no middle ground for a show this weird. I am firmly in the love-it crowd, so take my review in that context.
There have been a number of television series I’ve reviewed over the past couple of years where a strong first season is followed by a disappointing second installment. Severance is not one of those series. Season 2 not only lives up to the great first season, it surpasses it and builds on it, often in spectacular fashion. Ther are some spoilers ahead.
Severance – season 2 (Apple TV+
(Feb. 2022, Jan. 2025)`
Work-life balance is at forefront in this mystery thriller from Ben Stiller. Office workers voluntarily undergo a medical procedure known as “severance,” in which a chip is surgically embedded in the recipient’s brain, dividing memories between their work and personal lives. The elevator ride into the office activates the chip and the elevator ride out of the office deactivates it. When they are in the office, they do not recall anything about their outside lives, friends, or families. When they leave the office, they remember nothing about their jobs or co-workers.
Their work selves are referred to as Innies and their outside selves as Outies. There is extremely tight security and full body scans upon entering the building’s elevator to prevent either version of an employee from trying to smuggle communications or clues to their other self. No electronic devices are allowed in the office.
“Severed” employees work on secretive projects at the mysterious Lumon Industries. The late founder of the company, Kier Eagan (Marc Geller), is worshipped as a prophet, with cult-like devotion, and his policies and tenets, many of which are posted throughout the company, are strictly adhered to by Lumon executives with a religious-like fervor.
The series centers around “severed” Lumin employees in the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) division. At first, when we see what the group is doing with numbers on a computer screen, it seems like gibberish, and the workers don’t seem to know what it all means. But it eventually becomes clear that something insidious is going on.
Kier believed that the human soul is made up of four core tempers, or emotions – Woe (green), Frolic (yellow), Malice (blue), and Dread (red). The numbers on the computer are actually linked to the minds of “severed” Innie employees on the Testing floor, with the MDR team manipulating the numbers to identify and balance these four core emotions, thereby creating a calmer, more controllable Innie consciousness.
While the Innies and Outies are technically the same people, only the Outies have any life experience. The Innies only exist at work, and are essentially placed into a world where they have no past and no knowledge of anything or anyone beyond the few co-workers, with whom they share a windowless fluorescent-lit office space, and their controlling bosses, who dole out rewards if they meet production quotas and punishments if they break the rules.
Once they leave the office they have no memory of going home or going to sleep. Their experience is leaving the office and immediately returning to the office (and somehow feeling refreshed if their Outies had a good night’s sleep).
On the outside, the severance procedure is controversial, with many people protesting it as unethical. Some severed employees see it as a torturous existence, but if their Outie wants to work there, they are essentially trapped and can’t quit.
Here are the major players and their stories.
In season 1, Mark S. (a perfectly cast Adam Scott), is promoted to lead a team in the Macrodata Refinement division on the “severed” floor (located in the basement of the building). He is elevated to the position after the previous team leader, and his best friend (at work), Petey (Yul Vaquez), was fired under mysterious circumstances. Mark’s Outie is grieving the death of his wife, which is the main reason he agreed to become “severed.” But as his pregnant sister (Jen Tullock) on the outside tells him, “forgetting for eight hours a day is not the same as healing.”
At work, with no recollection of his outside life, Mark is relatively content, although he misses Petey and is constantly trying to deal with his replacement, Helly R., and prevent her from being punished for breaking the rules and trying to escape.
In Mark’s outside life, a man he doesn’t recognize approaches him and says he is his co-worker Petey, and has managed, with help from a secret organization, to reverse the severance in a procedure called reintegration (something which is supposed to be impossible). He goes on to tell him that Lumon industries is an evil company, but won’t say exactly what they do – he fears the company is searching for him and his life is in danger. The process of merging someone’s Innie and Outie minds is extremely dangerous, and Petey dies of “reintegration sickness.” This sets up everything that follows.
In the thrilling season 1 finale, Mark and his team try to escape from Lumon, while keeping their Innie selves intact, so they can find out information about their Outies and their lives in the outside world. Mark discovers something shocking about the supposed death of his wife Gemma that makes him want to investigate what’s really going on at Lumon.
In the season 2, former Lumon surgeon Dr. Asai Roghabi (Karen Aldridge) helps Mark’s Outie undergo the dangerous experimental reintegration process she has developed that will potentially allow him to have access to memories from both his Innie and Outie selves. As the procedure goes on for several episodes, Mark’s consciousness keeps shifting between his Innie and Outie personas.
At the same time, Mark discovers who is being experimented upon on the Testing floor, and races to try and rescue her. This culminates in the masterful season 2 finale, in which Mark has to make a choice that will have major implications for season 3.
In season 1, Petey’s replacement, Helly R. (the terrific Britt Lower), quickly decides she doesn’t want to work there, but since her Outie does (and she has no idea why) there’s no escape. She gradually becomes closer with Mark S. as he tries to protect her from the repercussions of her escape attempts.
In the season 1 finale, she (and we) discovers her Outie’s real identity and her relationship to the head of Lumon Industries, which changes the entire direction of the show.
Her performance is nothing short of brilliant – particularly in season 2 when her Outie (known as Helena) infiltrates the Innie world and pretends to be Helly R. until the deception is discovered – and things get even more chaotic, especially Helena’s/Helly R.’s relationship with Mark S.
The third member of the Macrodata Refinement team is Irving B. (the always good John Turturro). He initially seems to be the happiest “severed” employee, devoted to the Lumon philosophy, and a stickler for company protocol. He often warns his colleagues when they are violating one of the many rules. He has worked at Lumon the longest, having been there for six years before agreeing to be “severed” three years ago (so he thinks he’s been there for only three years).
At work, Irving often falls asleep at his desk, and dreams of black goo forming around his cubicle and on his computer. At home he has a compulsion to paint a black hallway with an elevator at the end with a downward arrow. He paints this image repeatedly while listening to hard rock. He doesn’t realize he’s painting the elevator to the Testing floor, where a secret experiment called Cold Harbor is taking place – which has severe implications in season 2.
Irving consumes large amounts of coffee so his Outie can stay awake and his Innie can fall asleep and dream about the painting. Since sleeping at work is forbidden, this leads to a Wellness session with the mysterious Mrs. Casey, where he meets Burt (Christopher Walken), with whom he develops a close friendship, and eventually a romantic one.
It was Burt’s mysterious retirement that made Irving start to be more suspicious about Lumon. He didn’t want the Burt he knew to die. After Burt’s retirement party, Irving told his team they should “burn Lumon to the ground.”
In season 2, Irving is the one who realizes Helena is impersonating Helly R., which leads to an explosive confrontation, and affects Irving’s future at Lumon. He knows if he leaves the company, his Innie will cease to exist. At home, Irving’s Outie finds Burt, who had recently retired room Lumon. Now, fearing Irving’s life might be in danger, Burt helps him escape.
Rounding out the Macrodata Refinement team is Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), a follower, who enjoys the bizarre company perks employees receive for achieving certain goals (such as finger traps, waffle parties, or five-minute music/dance breaks). He is both the most hostile and humorous member of the group.
Dylan’s Outie is married to Gretchen (Merritt Wever), drives a minivan, lives in a cul-de-sac, and has three children, ages 6, 4, and 2. Unable to find steady work, and struggling to support his family, he agreed to be “severed,” where he excels at his job as a Macrodata Refiner, often meeting his quotas well before anyone else.
When Dylan briefly sees his son in something called the Overtime Contingency Protocol, he becomes obsessed with finding out more about his Outie’s life. He is instrumental in helping the others escape to discover their Outies’ identities during the season 1 finale.
In season 2, in the Outie family visitation suite, Dylan’s Innie is allowed to meet his Outie’s wife. While in the outside world, Dylan and Gretchen have a strained relationship, Dylan’s Innie and Gretchen fall in love – which leads to trouble when Dylan’s Outie finds out.
Other members of this brilliant cast include:
Patricia Arquette is chilling in season 1 as Harmony Cobel, Mark’s boss at Lumon, who is also his next door neighbor, Mrs. Selvig, on the outside. Although she takes on two separate identities, we soon realize she is not severed, and is actually keeping tabs on Mark. She eventually comes into conflict with the Lumon Board and in season 2 becomes Mark’s ally of sorts.
Christopher Walken plays another of his many quirky characters as Burt, the severed chief of the Optics and Design division, who has a mutual attraction to John Turturro’s Irving. He retires from Lumon and in season 2 we discover that his Outie lives with his husband (John Noble), who seems to approve of Burt’s Innie’s relationship with Irving. There’s still a lot we don’t know about him.
Tramell Tillman is effectively creepy as Mr. Milchick, the constantly smiling supervisor of the severed floor, who doles out rewards and punishments to Lumon employees. Despite being mistreated by his superiors, he remains extremely loyal to the company, and fights to prevent Mark and his team from escaping or finding out what’s going on in the Testing floor.
Dichen Lachman is a find as the robotic Mrs. Casey, a Lumon wellness counselor on the severed floor, who may be more than she seems – we find out in the season 1 finale that her Outie has a key relationship with Mark. In season 2, we see her on the Testing floor, undergoing behavioral experiments, as Mark races against the clock to rescue her.
Sara Bock is Eustice Huang, the young new Deputy Manager of the severed floor in season 2. Mark and his team are unsettled by her age. When they ask her why she’s a child, she simply replies, “Because of when I was born.”
Sydney Cole Alexander is Natalie, Lumon’s PR representative, who is also speaks on behalf of the mysterious, unseen Board.
The season 1 finale has some major reveals and one of the most tension-filled cliffhangers I can recall, as Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan attempt to escape and learn about their outside lives. If possible, the season 2 finale is even better. And then there are the goats. It’s been renewed for a third season.
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