Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 and 2 of “Severance.”
The long-awaited second season of Apple TV’s hit show “Severance” premiered Jan. 17, with new episodes releasing weekly. The first season began airing Feb. 18, 2022, and received high acclaim from critics and audiences.
The show went on to be nominated for several Emmys in 2022, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the episode “The We We Are” for director Ben Stiller and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Adam Scott. Additionally, “Severance” did take home some Emmy wins in the categories Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the episode “The We We Are,” composed by Theodore Shapiro, and Outstanding Main Title Design, awarded to Oliver Latta and Teddy Blanks.
Following this success, fans have been eagerly waiting for the second season to answer the many unresolved questions from Season 1, and after almost three years, the series has finally returned with a strong comeback.
The show follows Mark (Adam Scott), an employee of the mega biotechnology corporation, Lumon Industries, who undergoes a procedure referred to as “severance.” This splits his memory in half between when he is at work and when he is living his personal life. Lumon has a basement floor of “severed” employees who carry out classified work, only to forget about it once they clock out. Mark’s “Innie,” which is what people’s work personas are called, leads a team of employees in the Macrodata Refinement Division (MDR). After new employee Helly (Britt Lower) arrives, Mark’s team begins questioning Lumon’s true intentions and treatment of “severed” workers.
At the end of Season 1, the MDR division finds a way to bring consciousness to their “Innies” while they are in the outside world (in their “Outie” form) and use the opportunity to tell people about their poor working conditions. Season 2 picks up after this revolt and explores the characters having to face the consequences of their actions.
This season has been off to a very strong start after the first two episodes. The season got straight into the action right from the opening scene, which is an impressive three-minute continuous shot of Mark running through the maze of hallways on the “severed” floor trying to find Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), the wellness counselor who was revealed to be (or at least appears to be) his “Outie’s” dead wife.
According to director Ben Stiller, this opening scene was shot over the course of around five months as they waited for the sets to be in a certain set up depending which part of the sequence they were shooting. They also used a high-speed robot camera for some of the shots which creates a captivating, automated crisp movement effect, which was unlike any camera work I had seen in other shows or movies. This opening sucked you right back into the action and mystery of the show and set up further conflicts for this new season.
The first two episodes cleverly weave together the narratives of the workers’ “Innies” and “Outies” by showing the same events, first from the perspectives of the “Innies” in the first episode, and then from the perspective of the “Outies” in the next episode. It gives a holistic view of what actually happened after the incident in the Season 1 finale, which is something the show doesn’t always provide, as many times events are purposely only shown from one perspective to maintain a sense of mystery. This was a gripping way of opening the season as we’ve never had an episode solely showing the “Innies’” or “Outies’” perspective for an entire episode.
While more has been revealed about Lumon and “severed” workers, this season adds even more deception and questions as the two perspectives exemplify how much Lumon actually manipulates their “severed” employees while teasing what really goes on behind the scenes.
I’m excited to see where this season goes and how these questions unravel as the first two episodes have proved that we really know nothing about Lumon Industries at all.