Severance returns to Apple TV+ at long last January 17. Since it’s been three years since season one wrapped up, a refresher is in store. Your best approach is to re-watch the entire first season—catching all those nuances and Easter eggs you might have missed or forgotten about. But if you’re short on time and can’t cram in nearly nine hours of TV before Friday, we’ve got you covered with this handy crash course.
What is Severance about?
© Apple TV+Severance is a dystopian thriller set in a reality much like—but not quite the same as—our own. It satirizes corporate culture and the idea of “work-life balance” by imagining a powerful biotech company, Lumon Industries, has invented a procedure by which certain workers have agreed to have a chip implanted in their brain that divides their minds between their two lives. Their “outies” have no memory or knowledge of what their “innies” do, and vice-versa.
Trouble begins in season one when the severed “innies” working in Lumon’s Macrodata Refinement department become curious about what they’re actually doing (it’s clearly a purpose that goes beyond tallying “scary” numbers on outdated computers), and long for a glimpse of life that isn’t contained within their rigorously sterile office, which is located several floors underground. Each MDR worker has their own motivation: Mark S. becomes upset when the department’s much-loved manager, Petey, is suddenly gone one day; Irving discovers emotional capabilities he’d never realized when he forms an attachment with Burt, who works in another (also severed) department; Dylan is completely thrown when his “innie” is briefly awakened in the outside world and he realizes he has a young son; and Helly R., the newest team member, hates working at Lumon so much she attempts to take her own life when her “outie” won’t respond to her resignation requests.
There’s also drama beyond MDR; we meet other employees, including MDR’s non-severed but equally complicated supervisors, and learn a tantalizingly small amount about the Eagans, the family that runs Lumon—especially the late Kier Eagan, who founded the company in the 19th century and is still revered much like a cult leader. In the “outie” world, we experience Mark S.’s lonely life as a recent widower, and meet his sister (who has a baby midway through season one) and brother-in-law (a pompous self-help author).
In tandem with his innie, outie Mark also becomes suspicious about Lumon’s sinister intentions when Petey, who’s managed to “reintegrate” his brain, contacts him outside the office. The story takes place in what’s basically a Lumon company town—even the restaurants are named after Eagan family members—in a carefully non-specific state that’s perpetually cold and snowy.
Severance was created by Dan Erickson, who also wrote several episodes, and executive produced by Ben Stiller, who also directed several episodes. They’re both back in the same roles for season two.
Who are the main characters on Severance?
© Apple TV+- The MDR co-workers: Mark S. (Adam Scott), Irving (John Turturro), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Helly R. (Britt Lower)
- Mr. Milchik (Tramell Tillman), MDR’s non-severed supervisor, disciplinarian, and provider of coveted Lumon-prescribed “perks” (melon bars, five-minute dance parties, waffle parties, finger traps)
- Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette), MDR’s non-severed top boss. Her strict, stiff work persona contrasts with another more gentle (but still very off-putting) personality she assumes when not at work: “Mrs. Selvig,” Mark’s nosy next-door neighbor. She also has a persona that emerges only in private, and it’s decidedly more unhinged—for one thing, she keeps a shrine to Kier Eagan in her basement.
- Others at Lumon: Burt (Christopher Walken), a severed worker who heads up the Optics and Design department; and Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), a severed worker who serves as the on-call “wellness counselor.” While all the other severed workers we meet have “outie” lives, it’s implied Ms. Casey never leaves the building, and is awakened only when she’s needed to do her job.
- Devon (Jen Tullock) and Ricken (Michael Chernus), Mark’s sister and brother-in-law
Season two of Severance will see all of the above return, with several new additions joining the Lumon landscape and beyond, including characters played by Bob Balaban, Gwendoline Christie, Merritt Wever, Alia Shawkat, Robby Benson, John Noble, Sarah Bock, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and more.
What happened in Severance season one?
© Apple TV+Season one was a detective quest for both the characters and the audience, led by both versions of Mark trying to figure out the truth about Lumon from different angles.
Each week we got a slightly wider perspective on the goings-on at Lumon—with plenty of weird quirks sprinkled in, like the gang’s visit to the Perpetuity Wing, which includes an exact replica of Kier Eagan’s house—while new questions were continuously introduced. Why does Lumon force its workers through psychological torture when they misbehave (the “Break Room” is literally a place to mentally break people)? Why does the company lead its workers to believe there’s been past violence between departments, especially MDR and O&D? Why is Cobel so interested in Mark’s outside life? What does MDR, and Lumon as a company, actually do? And what’s up with the department that revolves around raising baby goats?
Meanwhile, outie Mark—who took the Lumon job to help deal with the grief of losing his wife, Gemma, in a car accident—puzzles his way through his strange encounter with Petey, which turns tragic when Petey succumbs to “reintegration sickness.” Mark then meets a former Lumon surgeon who helped Petey escape—and is tied to a larger movement of severance resistance. On the other end of the spectrum, we learn (mostly through news reports and background chatter) that Lumon bigwigs are trying to shore up legislation to make severance even more widespread and accepted.
What happened at the end of Severance season one?
© Apple TV+The MDR crew figures out a way to activate the “overtime contingency,” which enables innies to wake up outside the office. With Dylan flipping the switches and keeping Mr. Milchik at bay, we follow Mark, Irving (whose outie live we’d barely glimpsed earlier in the season), and Helly (a complete mystery as far as her “outie” is concerned) as they jarringly wake up as different versions of themselves in the outside world. (Before they part ways, Helly kisses Mark.)
As we see, Irving realizes his outie was doing his own research into Lumon’s secrets—with details on other severed workers, including Burt’s home address. Frantic over Burt’s well-being since his “retirement,” Irving drives to his house… only to see that Burt is already in a relationship. He still goes up to the door and is pounding on it when he switches back to his outie self. We don’t see what happens next, but presumably neither Irving nor Burt will have any recognition of each other when their outies come face to face… unless their outies are already friends in some kind of anti-Lumon resistance.
Mark awakens at Devon and Ricken’s house, amid a reading for Ricken’s new book which “innie” Mark has already read thanks to Cobel stealing it from his doorstep and Milchik accidentally leaving it around the office. He’s shocked to see Cobel, in her guise as Mrs. Selvig, at the party.
It takes an agonizing amount of time for innie Mark to figure out who Devon is to him, then explain to her what’s going on; when he slips up and calls Mrs. Selvig “Cobel,” she realizes what’s happened and flees the party to warn Milchick—desperate to get back into Lumon’s good graces after being fired earlier that day. (As a total Kier Eagan zealot, it was a particularly harrowing blow.)
Mark has just enough time to see a photo of his supposedly dead wife, Gemma, and realize she and Ms. Casey are the same person. (The last words of the season are his frantic yell of “She’s alive!”)
The biggest shock, though, is perhaps that Helly R. is actually Helena Eagan, daughter of the current Lumon Industries CEO. She signed on for a severed job as a PR move—severance is awesome, let’s sever everyone!—and wakes up at a gala where she’s supposed to explain just how easy-breezy and wonderful the experience has been. (Now at last we realize why her outie was so intent on her innie keeping that job.)
With innie Helly’s consciousness temporarily in charge, she has just enough time to take the stage and explain that severed workers are basically prisoners, forever existing in a state of agonizing misery—and that the process is inhumane and should be ended forever.
What’s ahead for Severance season two?
© Apple TV+Beyond the new cast members and the handful of teases Apple TV+ has shared… we don’t really want to know much of anything going into season two! The “overtime contingency” situation will be addressed, of course, but we also see (including in the image above) that Mark S. and Helly R. are back on the job somehow. We’re avoiding any spoilers beyond that, though we do insist Apple TV+ eventually explain the baby goats.
Severance season two runs 10 episodes (season one was just nine); it premieres globally on Apple TV+ Friday, January 17. You know Severance loves making you wait, so this one’s a weekly rollout, with one episode arriving every Friday through March 21. Will you be tuning in?
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