Severance Season 1 recap: 15 things we learned before Season 2

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My friends, the hour is yours… Severance Season 2 is nearly upon us. If you need a refresher, we’ve put together a comprehensive Severance Season 1 recap so it’s fresh in your mind before our journey back to Lumon.

While Netflix remains the dominating force in the streaming era, Apple TV+ is pumping out some of the finest TV shows ever made, and Severance is the Kier Eagen of the platform’s content library.

Blending weird, sci-fi surrealism with dystopian Black Mirror vibes and a touch of The Office’s dark humor, Severance Season 1 proved a hit when it first dropped, and that’s before even mentioning the impeccable cast, led by Adam Scott. The only downside? It ended on a cliffhanger… three years ago.

Thankfully, the wait is nearly over, with Severance Season 2 set to premiere on January 17, 2025. With so many twists and turns, you might be asking yourself: what exactly happened in Season 1? We’ve got you covered with a brief recap, followed by 15 details to remember.

Severance Season 1 recap

Severance follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott), a grieving man who’s “severed” by his employer, Lumon Industries, separating his work memories from his personal life. At work, his “innie” has no memory of his real-life “outie” and vice-versa, leaving him and his colleagues in a controlled, isolated world with no knowledge of the outside.

Early on in Severance Season 1, outie Mark discovers the identity of a colleague, Petey (Yul Vazquez), who “reintegrated” and remembers everything from in and outside Lumon. But before he gets to learn more, Petey dies, indicating that the reintegration process is dangerous.

Meanwhile, newcomer Helly R (Britt Lower) joins the Severed Floor, working alongside Mark, Dylan G (Zach Cherry), and Irving B (John Turturro) on the Macrodata Refinement Department. Helly is not a happy innie and immediately tries to escape, but her rebellion triggers chaos as her outie fights back.

Inside Lumon, strange happenings occur: we’re talking rooms with baby goats, cryptic maps, and religious devotion to the company’s founder, Kier Eagan. Mark’s innie grows suspicious and bonds with his colleagues, who all come to their own realizations that Lumon is not what it seems.

Meanwhile, the eccentric Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), a Lumon supervisor, is breathing down their necks with the help of her sidekick, Milchick (Tramell Tillman). She is also secretly shadowing outie Mark, who is unaware that she’s his superior at work.

Eventually, Cobel is fired for concealing workplace incidents from the higher ups at Lumon. Little does she realize that the quad of innies in the Macrodata Refinement Department have hatched an escape plan.

The innies of Helly, Irving, Dylan, and Mark discover a method to get themselves out into the real world momentarily, and when they do, they learn a number of shocking truths – including that Mark’s wife, who he thought was deceased, is still alive. Severance Season 1 ends on this cliffhanger, leaving many questions for Season 2 to answer.

15 things to remember before Severance Season 2

The innies went outie

After Dylan found out about the Overtime Contingency, which allows for temporary consciousness of an innie outside Lumon, he volunteered to carry out the process for Mark, Helly, and Irving.

Despite the time constraints, they caused as much of a ruckus in their respective lives as possible: Irving tracked down Burt (more on this in a bit); Helly outed the severance procedure as “torture” at a Lumon gala event; and Mark managed to let his sister Devon (Jen Tullock) know the truth.

Dylan was caught by Milchick

In order to activate the Overtime Contingency, Dylan had to painstakingly flip two levers – on opposite ends of the operation room – and keep them held down for as long as possible. As soon as he let go, the innies would go back to being outies.

Thankfully, he’s able to carry out the process and keep Helly, Mark, and Irving out in the real world for enough time to cause disruption. However, unbeknownst to innie Mark, Cobel actually lives next door to his outie as a seemingly innocent older lady known as Mrs. Selvig.

When the switch happened, Cobel grew suspicious of Mark as he tensed up, and her suspicions were proved correct when innie Mark accidentally called her Cobel instead of Mrs. Selvig. She immediately called Milchick, who ran to the operation room.

It took Milchick a fair amount of time to cut through the rope Dylan used to keep the door shut, but when he finally did, he tackled him to the ground. Severance Season 2 is set to deal with the fallout of this incident, and their punishment is probably going to take more than a stint in the Break Room.

Helly is daughter of Jame Eagan

Yes, one of the biggest revelations during the innies’ stint in the outside world was Helly’s discovery that not only is her outie hellbent on keeping her severed, but she’s also the daughter of the current Lumon CEO, Jame Egan (Michael Siberry).

We already knew outie Helly was a rotten egg, as her innie’s countless attempts to free herself were met with hostility – she was even told she’s “not a person” and sent her back to work shortly after a suicide attempt.

But this reached new heights in the Severance Season 1 finale when Helly attended a Lumon gala. After the Overtime Contingency kicked in, innie Helly was thrust into this world and learned her outie’s severance process was used to promote a false narrative that the program is a positive experience.

She took a breather in the bathroom, only to be greeted by her father, who up until this point had been depicted as an elusive figure. We learned that Helly is heir to the Lumon throne, and a major pawn in the firm’s nefarious plans.

Innie Helly was able to hold it together during their conversation before being sent backstage in preparation for her speech. Cobel caught up with her and tried to deter her from speaking, but Helly pushed her to the side and took the floor, telling the guests what it’s really like as an innie.

“We’re not happy. We’re miserable. They torture us down there. We’re prisoners,” she said to the crowd, before Dylan was tackled and the Overtime Contingency came to a halt.

Mark found out “she’s alive!”

As many of you will remember well, Severance Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger – one that’s been all the more painful given the three year wait for Season 2.

Just before the Overtime Contingency came to an end, Mark found out that not only is his wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman) still alive, but she’s actually Ms. Casey, the wellness director for the Severed Floor.

Which begs the questions: why did Lumon pretend to both Mark and Gemma that their spouses were dead? Who made that decision? And will they be reunited? Hopefully we’ll at least find out some of the answers in Season 2.

Mark’s sister is in the know

Although the others didn’t have much luck with their loved ones, Mark was at least able to get his sister Devon to understand that he was his innie during the Overtime Contingency. She also found out that Mrs. Selvig is actually his boss Cobel.

Plus, in that final shot, Mark ran towards his sister and shouted, “She’s alive,” while holding Gemma’s picture, just before Dylan was tackled. Given her knowledge of everything else that’s gone on, Devon will no doubt put two and two together.

Here’s hoping she can make outie Mark understand that his wife is alive in Severance Season 2.

Irving’s outie knows more than he should

When innie Irving made it into the real world, he discovered his outie spends his time as a loner, mostly painting the same Lumon hallway and elevator over and over again. This may have something to do with his hallucinations at work, with his visions of black sludge emulating the paint in his artwork.

It seems somehow that Irving’s innie and outie’s realities have merged somewhat, at the hands of the latter. After all, when his innie started digging through his belongings during the Overtime Contingency, he discovered a map with the addresses of former employees.

This implies he’s been trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on at Lumon – and perhaps even entered the severance program as a way to get insider information.

Burt retired and left Irving heartbroken

Speaking of Irving, some of the most heartwarming moments of Severance Season 1 involved the developing relationship between innie Irving and Burt G (Christopher Walken), the head of Optics and Design on the Severed Floor.

Their friendship turned romantic as they learned more about each other, bonding over their love of art. Of course, Cobel and Milchick did everything in their power to split the pair up, especially when the Macrodata Refinement Department continued to visit O&D.

In Episode 7, while putting together their plan, Irving made a pitstop to see Burt, only to walk into his retirement party. The sad truth of the severance process is that when an outie decides it’s time to retire, their innie essentially dies, and so Irv had no choice but to say goodbye to the love of his life.

When he made it to the real world, he discovered Burt’s name and address on the map and drove to his home. While Burt is still very much alive, Irving saw that he’s happily married to another man. He went to bang on the door but was unable to speak with Burt’s outie before the Overtime Contingency was switched off.

Reghabi killed Graner

Earlier on in Severance Season 1, we met Reghabi, a former Lumon scientist who helped to develop the procedure. Although we don’t learn much about her backstory, we do know she left the company after questioning the ethics behind the severance program.

Not only did she help former Lumon employee and innie Mark’s best work friend Petey Kilmer to “reintegrate” (more on this next), but she also wound up murdering Lumon security menace Doug Graner after he tracked her and Mark down at Ganz College.

Reintegration is possible but deadly

Even though the bigwigs at Lumon will deny it, reintegration – the experimental process involving shutting down a severed employee’s chip – is possible. However, it also appears to be fatal at this stage.

Prior to the Graner incident, Petey tracked down outie Mark, who had no idea of his existence due to the fact that they were work friends. Technically, only their innies should know each other, but the reintegration meant Petey remembered everything about his time at Lumon.

Since he was the first person to undergo the process, it had some adverse side effects. As well as causing him spells of intense pain, his innie and outie lives started to merge in bizarre ways, creating confusion and hallucinations.

Eventually, Petey died, seemingly as a result of the reintegration sickness. This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the severed employees… or anyone working at Lumon, for that matter.

Harmony Cobel was fired by the mysterious board

Despite being a true devotee of the Eagan philosophy, Cobel was on shaky ground with “The Board” – the mysterious governing body of Lumon. She tried her best to convince them (through their ever-smiling liaison officer, Natalie) that Petey could’ve been reintegrated, but they were in denial.

After failing to tell them about Graner’s disappearance and Helly’s subsequent suicide attempt, Cobel was fired from her job. However, she doesn’t have the ability to switch off. As said, when she found out about the Overtime Contingency, she rushed to the Lumon gala to try and stop Helly (not that her plan worked).

Cobel’s mysterious Kier Eagan shrine explained

It probably didn’t come as a surprise that Cobel had a shrine in her home dedicated to Kier Eagan, the visionary founder and first CEO of Lumon. But there was one item on there that piqued our interest the most.

Alongside papier-mâché figures of The Four Tempers – Woe, Frolic, Dread, and Malice, as outlined in Kier’s theory – and a newspaper clipping on the Lumon implant launch, there’s a hospital bracelet with the name ‘Charlotte Cobel’ on a feeding tube.

This seems significant, given it could indicate Cobel’s motivations for her work and dedication to Kier and Lumon. The bracelet also states Charlotte was born in 1944, meaning she may be her mother. As for whether this is true or not, that’s another question we’ll have to hope Severance Season 2 will answer.

Lumon’s Severed Floor is shrouded in mystery

We still don’t know what Lumon is up to, but here’s what we learned about the Severed Floor in Season 1. Connected by a series of maze-like, blank, white hallways, there are various departments, including our main quad’s Macrodata Refinement and Burt’s Optics & Design.

It only makes the firm’s motives all the more confusing. MRD employees spend their work hours sorting random numbers into different folders based on how they make them feel, while the Optics & Design team deal with various artworks, tote bags, and at one moment can be seen 3D printing objects like watering cans.

But one of the biggest question marks hangs over the inexplicable Goat Room, which Mark and Helly stumbled upon while venturing outside their office. In it, a goat wrangler was shown raising a herd of kids, but why?!

Other areas within the building are just as perplexing, such as the Perpetuity Wing, which serves as a sort of museum for Lumon. As well as creepy figurines of the current and former CEOs, there’s a replica of Kier’s house, where Dylan chose to have his waffle party in order to escape to the control panel.

The Ideographic Cards are significant

Another detail that remains shrouded in mystery is the Ideographic Card that Dylan stole from Optics & Design. Now, there were a lot of bizarre details in Severance Season 1 that we could focus on. But this one’s significant because it’s what led to the team finding out about the Overtime Contingency.

After Milchick found out Dylan had swiped the card, he used the process to speak with his innie at his outie’s home, outside of work hours, in order to retrieve it.

Triggering the Overtime Contingency is risky business given the bosses don’t want the innies to experience their lives outside of the Lumon office. But Milchick was willing to take that risk to get the card back.

The Ideographic Cards themselves look innocuous enough, showing what look to be various physical forms of movement. But the implication is that, like everything in Severance, there’s a deeper meaning bubbling beneath the surface.

Lumon isn’t just severing employees

Thanks to Devon, we learned that Lumon’s memory-splitting severance chip isn’t just being used on its employees. In fact, some people have been allowed to adopt the device to opt out of unwanted tasks.

Case in point: Gabby Arteta, the wife of Senator Angelo Arteta, who himself is a Lumon supporter. Devon met Gabby while the pair were in labor at a birthing retreat, but when they bumped into each other weeks later, Gabby had no memory of their exchange.

Why? Because Gabby has been implanted with the severance chip, meaning she got her innie to endure the pain of giving birth so that she wouldn’t have to experience it herself. Not only is this selfish and horrific, but it’s terrifying to think how much destruction this technology has the potential to cause.

Ricken’s book unintentionally became a revolutionary manifesto

Why not finish this list off with something a little more lighthearted: Mark’s brother-in-law Ricken (Michael Chernus) and his self-help book, The You You Are. Although it was dismissed by outie Mark, when it made its way onto the Severed Floor, his innie held onto it.

Both he and Dylan practically learned it off by heart, and the book ended up playing a huge role in awakening their rebellious streak, serving as inspiration for the entire MDR team. Some of Ricken’s passages even became rallying cries in the fight against Lumon’s influence.

This led to an incredibly heartwarming yet hilarious interaction between Ricken and Mark when his innie underwent the Overtime Contingency. Up until this point, Ricken had been an elusive, God-like figure, so discovering that he’s related to him proved to be more exciting than a waffle party.

Plus, Ricken’s book throws out some of the funniest (and/or inspirational) lines of the entire series:

“What separates man from machine is that machines cannot think for themselves. Also they are made of metal, whereas man is made of skin.”
“If you are a soldier, do not fight for my freedom. Fight for the freedom of the soldier fighting next to you. This will make the war more inspiring for you both.”
“A society with festering workers cannot flourish, just as a man with rotting toes cannot skip.”
“A good person will follow the rules. A great person will follow himself.”
“Bullies are nothing but BULL and LIES.”
“At the center of industry is ‘dust’.”
“They cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist.”
“Our job is to taste free air. Your so-called boss may own the clock that taunts you from the wall, but, my friends, the hour is yours.”

While you wait for Severance Season 2, check out these other great Apple TV+ shows to watch. You can also find which new TV series are coming to streaming this month, the best shows of the year so far, and the most binge-worthy series to watch right now.

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