The mind-bending sci-fi psychological thriller Severance returns to Apple TV+, from Friday, Jan 17
Or rather, the main characters in mind-bending sci-fi psychological thriller Severance (Apple TV+, from Friday, Jan 17), who’ve had their consciousness split in two, dividing their private selves (“outies”) from their work selves (“innies”), were out.
Severance – Season 2 Trailer
In the rip-roaring finale of season one, Dylan (Zach Cherry) strained for dear life to keep his fingers on two switches in the office control room that allowed his fellow rebellious office drones Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower) and Irving (John Turturro) to escape from the Lumon building, where their job is sorting numbers on a computer screen for reasons that are a mystery to both them and the viewers, and explore the world of their “outies”.
The “innie” has no memory or knowledge of what life is like for the “outie”, while the “outie” knows nothing of what happens to the “innies” between entering and leaving work. It’s like being two separate versions of the same person living in the same body, but in blissful ignorance of one another.
Mark (Adam Scott) walks the halls of the Lumon building. Photo: AppleTV+
Having their brains bifurcated by the Lumon corporation was supposed to give them the perfect work-life balance. Instead, it’s become a nightmare that’s equal parts Kafka, Orwell and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
If you were expecting Severance to pick up where it left off, think again
Mark discovered he used to be a history professor and has a sister (Jen Tullock) and a brother-in-law (Michel Chernus), who just happens to be the author of an inspirational self-help book he’s secretly been reading during the working day.
He also learned that he once had a wife who died in a car crash. The reason he agreed to be severed and join Lumon was to take away the pain of his grief for at least half of every day. His sister and her husband were against him doing it.
But there were bigger shocks to come. When Mark looked at a wedding photograph, he discovered his supposedly dead wife (Dichen Lachman) is apparently alive and working as an innie in Lumon under the name Ms Casey.
He also found out that the woman his outie knew as his kindly next-door neighbour Mrs Selvig (Patricia Arquette) was really his cruel, unsevered Lumon boss Harmony Cobel.
Sarah Bock, Adam Scott, John Turturro, Zach Cherry and Britt Lower in season two. Photo: Apple TV+
Meanwhile, Irving – who’d escaped to find retired Lumon employee Burt Goodman (Christopher Walken), with whom he’d fallen in love – went home and discovered his outie had been compiling a file of information about Lumon. He also learned, to his heartbreak, that Burt has a partner.
But the biggest kick in the teeth was delivered to Helly. To her horror, she learned her outie is Helena Eagan, daughter of the Lumon CEO.
Helena underwent severance to build public support by proving that the controversial treatment was safe, and the last thing she wants is Helly blowing the gaffe on what really happens to the innies in the work environment.
Five months have passed and Mark is back at work. To his dismay, his old team has been replaced by three newbies
Just as Helly is about to do so at a lavish Lumon gala, smilingly sinister severed floor supervisor Milchick (Tramell Tillman) bursts into the control room and bundles Dylan to the floor, breaking the connection and restoring Mark, Irving and Helly to their outie state.
If you were expecting Severance to pick up where it left off, think again. Season two, which drops two episodes on Friday and the rest weekly, bounces us straight back into the sterile corridors and eerie offices of Lumon.
Five months have passed and Mark is back at work. To his dismay, his old team has been replaced by three newbies, including one also named Mark, played by veteran actor and writer Bob Balaban.
Mark’s workmates have been replaced with newbies. Photo: Apple TV+
Cobel has been fired (apparently) and Milchick is now in charge and claiming that many reforms have been put in place – all as a result, he says, of the mini-uprising.
Before long, Mark is joined by the other three, who have apparently returned for reasons of their own, which, like so much else, remain obscure for now.
The first season demanded a considerable investment of patience from viewers, yet repaid it with that terrifically tense finale. Will they be prepared to be that patient again though, especially since we already know the mystery is being stretched to a third season, maybe more?
Personally, I’m still in two minds – which is fitting given what the series is about.
Rating: Three stars
