Severance
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
In the world ofSeverance, to be an Innie is to have little to no control over ones life.
Innies are perpetually trapped at work.
If the Innies leave Lumon, they stop existing.
So, effectively, their choice is to continue to endlessly toil in a harshly lit basement or die.
Severanceis interested in a lot of Big Ideas, chief among them the impact of trauma on an individual.
This begs the question: Has Lumon intentionally designed suffering to be a key part of the Innie experience?
Welcome back to the world ofSeverance, my friends.
As Mr. Milchick states to Mark S. in the opening sequence of this episode, Its been a minute.
And we have much to talk about.
But Innies dont experience time like we do.
(How jealous are we that they got to skip the break between seasons, am I right?)
And, instead of finding his friends, he finds three newbies: Gwendolyn Y.
Its a curious bunch, and their interactions are very fun.
They also exchange information about their various branches.
Alternatively, Dario mentions that he came from a branch that had no tech whatsoever.
Did they fly him in special from Italy?!)
The Eagans in his Perpetuity Wing were brooms, and the elevator was a rope.
Later in the episode, Dylan guesses that shes 8 years old.
Thats still shockingly young for a Lumon employee, much less one who might be severed.
During this team-building exercise, Mark snaps.
He cant and wont comply anymore.
He frantically connects the speaker and cries, c’mon!
You cant just make them disappear!
And even though the board can do just that seeBurts (likely) forced retirement they listen.
I love them so much it hurts.
Once the gang is back together, they dont have much time to chat.
Milchick summons them to the new-and-improved break room, which no longer contains the dreaded compunction statement booth.
Instead, theres a different kind of torture walls dotted with inspirational posters.
This gambit feels like a page pulled directly from Cobels playbook.
Finally alone, the group huddles in the break room, recounting their outside experiences.
Why is she protecting her Outie?
Irv is immediately suspicious of her story and then becomes cagey about his own experience.
Mark is the only one who truthfully shares what happened to him.
Irv scampers off, looking for an exit.
Dylan follows, and they share a sweet scene in which Irv tells him the truth.
In a heartbreaking line, Irv says, I want the pain to be gone.
If hes gone and Im gone … then, somehow, we can be together.
Dylan cannot accept this.
As Dylan begs Irv not to go, Irv begins to smile like a goofball.
He giddily says, Im your favorite perk.
Elsewhere, Helly agrees to help Mark with his quest to find Ms. Casey.
But she has a decidedly different take on it than Mark does.
Mark seems a bit taken aback by her declaration, but ultimately, he accepts her offer of help.
At the end of the episode, all the refiners return to work on their files.
They confidently switch on their workstations and start corralling numbers.
If they work, they get to stay and solve the mysteries of Lumon.
They also get to keep existing.
The focus quickly switches to Mark as he scrolls and clicks on a file named Cold Harbor.
We see an accompanying file titled Cold Harbor, and its monitoring vital signs in real time.
The screen zooms out to take in the whole screen, and its an image of … Gemma.
Is … Mark refining hiswife?!
Has hebeen refining her, over and over again, this entire time?
And, if the refiners are coding something in humans, who have the other three been working on?
It looks like its time for my staggered exit, so Im going to go grab the elevator.
This transition felt different to me, as every other transition weve seen hasnt included a fade to black.
The cogs of corporate culture move quickly for no man!
