The 15 most WTF moments from ‘Severance’ Season 2, episode 1

Severance has lastly returned, with a Season 2 premiere that plunges us straight again into the unsettling world of Lumon Industries. And whereas it is nice to be again, it is also downright freaky.

That is as a result of the season premiere, titled “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” throws a lot at viewers. New characters, new Lumon perks, and new Severance mysteries enter the fray, every one eliciting a various diploma of “What the hell is going on?” from me. And you may wager that sentiment will solely develop with each episode of Season 2.

From shock throuple mentions to Lumon’s embrace of stop-motion, listed below are the 15 most WTF moments from Severance Season 2, episode 1. Let’s break them down — and perhaps, simply perhaps, we’ll discover some solutions alongside the way in which.

The Wellness Room is simply… gone.

In an prolonged sequence in Severance‘s first-ever episode, Innie Mark (Adam Scott) walks by way of the fluorescent halls of Lumon’s Severed Ground with out a care on this planet. The opening of “Hello, Ms. Cobel” echoes that second by flipping it on its head. Now, in his first moments again at Lumon because the Innies’ Season 1 escape, Mark runs helter-skelter by way of the halls. Gone is the aim and routine of the Season 1 hallway stroll: Right here Mark backtracks and loses his means. The whole sequence, which Scott says took about 5 months to movie, is an ideal, destabilizing reintroduction to the world of Severance, but it surely ends with a sobering reveal.

Mark’s vacation spot all through this mad sprint is the Wellness Room, the place Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) — whom he now is aware of is his Outie’s spouse, Gemma — used to work. However to Mark’s horror, the Wellness Room is totally gone, and Ms. Casey is nowhere to be discovered. In retiring her to the foreboding Testing Ground, has Lumon made her disappear fully? And if they’ll lock her away, what’s stopping them from doing the identical to Mark and all of Lumon’s different Innies?

Mark, look out! There’s somebody behind you!

As Mark takes within the now-gone Wellness Room, Severance goes full horror film for a second. A mysterious suited determine seems within the hallway behind Mark, just like the world’s {most professional} stalker. They disappear simply as shortly as they arrive, however their id stays a thriller. It is not Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), as he is carrying a completely completely different outfit, and it is not certainly one of Mark’s new crew members, since they’re all within the Macrodata Refinement division. So, who is that this new arrival on the Severed Ground? And why are they menacingly watching Mark from afar?

Mark has a completely completely different crew.

When Mark lastly arrives in MDR, he is greeted not by Helly (Britt Decrease), Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry), however by three totally new coworkers. Mark W. (Bob Balaban), Gwendolyn Y. (Alia Shawkat), and Dario R. (Stefano Carannante) are transfers from different Lumon branches, they usually’re stuffed with fascinating details about how Lumon operates elsewhere.

Gwendolyn and Mark W. (who straight up asks Mark to alter his title) come from 5X, a more recent department that was shut down. Apparently its Perpetuity Wing had animatronic Eagans, so it is fancy. In the meantime, Dario, presumably from an Italian department, describes his former office as being “very poor.” Their Eagans had been brooms, and the staff did not even have an elevator — only a rope. One other humorous element: The place Mark acquired a crystal head dice as a reward, it appears like Dario acquired a carved wood head dice in its place. Come on, Lumon, do higher!

Lumon’s latest rent, Miss Huang, is a literal little one.

One other new addition to the Severed Ground? Deputy Ground Supervisor Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), who’s totally a teen. What on this planet is such a teenager doing on the Severed Ground? Is she a Lumon experiment, born and raised within the constructing? Or is that this simply the worst attainable method to earn neighborhood service hours for college?

No matter Miss Huang’s deal is, she makes the already-bizarre vibes at Lumon even stranger. Props to Bock for bringing such a disarming vacancy to a personality viewers shall be analyzing for weeks to come back.

Mr. Milchick provides Mark the fakest newspaper of all time.

Mr. Milchick catches Mark up on every part that is occurred because the Innies escaped. Up to now 5 months, he claims their Outies have develop into “the face of severance reform,” resulting in Lumon trying to make amends. His proof? A clearly doctored newspaper. You are telling me with all its sources, Lumon cannot correctly Photoshop a pretend parade picture? Or perhaps they simply underestimate the Innies’ skill to identify a pretend, through which case, that is simply insulting. Both means, it is clear Mr. Milchick is mendacity about what is going on on within the exterior world. However what else is new at Lumon?

Severance brings throuples into the combo.

In accordance with Mr. Milchick, Lumon fired Concord Cobel (Patricia Arquette) as a result of she was romantically pursuing each Mark’s Innie and Outie. (Extra lies!) Her objective? A throuple, a phrase that I by no means thought I would hear on Severance. I am not mad about it, although, nor have I ended eager about Tillman’s line learn. Severely, he deserves an Emmy for his supply of “throuple” alone.

Miss Huang is not right here to make mates.

The pink ball icebreaker recreation from Season 1 is again! However Miss Huang is not taking part in round. When Mark says he is fortunate to have made 4 new mates that day, she steps in with a condescending, “That’s nice, Mark. But I have to remind you that I’m a supervisor. Not a friend.”

It is sufficient to make your pores and skin crawl, as is Mark’s additional lengthy pause afterwards earlier than amending his assertion to “three new friends.” Nice work surroundings you are fostering right here, Lumon!

Mashable Prime Tales

It is an Innie-only episode.

In a primary for Severance, “Hello, Ms. Cobel” would not alternate between the Innie and Outie worlds. As a substitute, we solely the Innies’ perspective on life, and it’s downright horrifying. Not solely can we expertise firsthand the knowledge barrier between the Innies and the Outies, however we additionally expertise the fixed, mundane loop of their lives, which start and finish on the Lumon elevator.

Season 1 already highlighted that that is no method to reside, however getting a greater firsthand understanding of the Innies’ expertise hammers house simply how depressing this existence is. I may barely deal with it for one episode — how are they speculated to deal with it for years at a time?

“Kier Pardons His Betrayers.”

I’ve received some excellent news and a few unhealthy information. The excellent news? Helly, Irving, and Dylan are again! The unhealthy information? Lumon has put in a brand new portray exterior the elevator, titled “Kier Pardons His Betrayers.”

Lumon’s no stranger to cursed work — I am going to always remember how “Kier Taming the Four Tempers” foreshadowed the waffle get together — however this one, with its half-likenesses of the MDR Innies, is very WTF-inducing. I merely don’t like how the “betrayers” are buried as much as their shoulders within the floor, or how Kier is holding a bloody sword. If that portray was the very first thing I noticed after getting out of an elevator, I would flip round and head again up, I inform you that a lot.

So, Mark principally murdered these different Innies, proper?

The return of the core MDR group means the lack of Mark W., Gwendolyn, and Dario. However since Mark and Gwendolyn’s department shut down, which means they’re completely retired, proper? And who is aware of what the long run holds for Dario? Principally, it appears like this new trio of Innies has been offed, except they arrive again in future episodes. In spite of everything, why herald actors like Balaban in case you’re barely going to make use of them? (Except, after all, this was Severance tricking us all alongside.)

For now, although, RIP to those new Innies. We hardly knew you, however you appeared enjoyable.

Severance presents: the best, strangest company video ever made.

The MDR Innies file into the Break Room, which they’ve now found is an precise torture-free room the place can take breaks. Right here, Mr. Milchick performs them a brand new orientation video that guarantees them that “Lumon is Listening.” Phrases cannot even start to explain how a lot I am keen on this freaky stop-motion gem.

Over the course of the video, Severance treats us to Rankin/Bass-style stop-motion reenactments of key moments from Season 1. My private favourite? When Irving’s declaration of “Let’s burn this place to the ground” causes his head to burst into raging flames, Warmth Miser-style. (Second place goes to the Helly and Mark kiss, which prompts a sound “What the shit?” from Dylan.)

The whole video is filled with fascinating particulars (for instance, Lumon operates in 206 international locations) and bananas storytelling, from the speaking Lumon constructing and water tower (voiced by Keanu Reeves and SNL‘s Sarah Sherman) to the infectious pronunciation of “pineapple BOBBING.” Dylan is completely proper that Lumon’s guarantees of recent perks are only a “massive-ass head game,” however I will be damned if they do not know find out how to placed on an excellent present.

Why did Helly lie about what she noticed exterior Lumon?

Severance follows up this confounding video with one more bizarre twist: Helly lies to her coworkers about what she noticed when she awoke within the exterior world. As a substitute of telling everybody she’s Helena Eagan, inheritor to Lumon, she concocts some story about leaving her “boring” condo and telling her story to a “night gardener.”

So, why on this planet would Helly lie? May she be so ashamed of her Outie id that she would not wish to share it along with her mates? May she be so afraid of the Eagans’ retaliation that she decides to maintain quiet? Or may she really be Helena, posing as Helly to collect intel? Regardless of the reality, you’d assume Helly may give you a greater lie than one involving an evening gardener, of all issues.

Is Helly jealous of Gemma?

When Mark reveals his plans to interrupt Gemma out of Lumon, Helly’s response is… suspicious. She appears to downplay the scenario and questions Innie Mark’s allegiance to Gemma. In spite of everything, she’s probably not his spouse, proper?

However for Mark, it is not so easy. “We’re the same-ish person,” he says of Outie Mark. “So it’s mushy.”

I agree, Mark; it is mushy. With Innie and Outie Mark every having their very own romantic pursuits, Severance is establishing for what may be essentially the most sophisticated love triangle ever. (Or would this be extra of a quadrangle?)

What is going to occur within the Outie Household Visitation Suite?

As incentive for making an attempt to get Dylan to remain, Mr. Milchick reveals that he is planning to construct an Outie Household Visitation Suite, the place Dylan can meet his spouse Gretchen. It is the right psychological button to press following Dylan’s want to see his household again in Season 1, and it really works like a appeal.

The implications of the visitation suite are huge, as they could possibly be the one place the place Innies and their Outies’ acquaintances can talk. May any of the Innies sound the alarm on their plights from the suite?

For now, it is wanting unlikely: Milchick solely affords this privilege to Dylan, as all the opposite Innies are single and this perk may result in jealousy down the road. However maintain on, Mr. Milchick — being single doesn’t suggest the Innies do not have household ! What about Mark’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock)? Why not simply name it the Outie Important Different Visitation Suite then?

What’s Chilly Harbor, and what does it must do with Gemma?

“Hello, Ms. Cobel” ends with the MDR Innies again at work, refining their macrodata whereas nonetheless not realizing what it does. However wait! The previous couple of seconds give us a small trace, revealing that Mark’s file, labeled Chilly Harbor, is someway linked to Gemma. For her half, Gemma seems to be beneath some form of remark, however as for why (or what’s going on) we nonetheless do not know but. However after such a powerful begin to Season 2, I am unable to wait to search out out.

Severance Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with a brand new episode each week.

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