Severance Season 2 Review

Severance (2022-)
Season 2 - 10 episodes (2025)

Watch Severance on Apple TV+
Created by: Dan Erickson
Starring: Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette, Dichen Lachman, Alia Shawkat, Gwendoline Christie, Sandra Bernhard
Rated: TV-MA
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Plot
Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.

Verdict
My main gripe with the first season, which was great, was a spinning mystery that even at the conclusion provided few answers. Season two generates several additional questions for any half answer provided. I don't know much more at the end of season two than I did at the end of season one. This season is scattered with multiple characters in different locations heading in different directions. A couple of episodes feel like filler just to stretch the episode count. I wanted the show to get back to the main plot, but I realized I wasn't sure what that was. This show's production design and direction are amazing, but with so few answers at this point, I'm beginning to think the show doesn't know; using mystery and intrigue to cover for the lack of story. The final episode focuses on the contention between innie and outie Mark. One body cares about two different people, and that puts their goals at odds. If the show started with that as the premise and conclusion to the season, the rest of the episodes would be different. I like this show, but I'm still asking the same questions as with the first season. I'd recommend this season, but a large part of that hinges on what happens in the third season. This could soon become an exercise in patience, wondering if we'll ever get satisfying answers to very basic questions.
Watch It.

Review
It only took three years to get season two, but season three has been confirmed and shouldn't take as long. I liked season one, but it was difficult to rate when I didn't know the answers to the biggest questions. The season ended and I still didn't know exactly what was going on. That could have answered the larger questions, and season two could explore what happens when the innies know what's happening. Season two faces a challenge. It's no longer a unique concept. Do you build and extend the story of season one or do you reboot it with a bigger and better approach. Either way the show doesn't have the advantage of a fresh idea.

A core part of the story is exploitation of employees. This group performs a task that seems mundane. I wondered if their real job is test subjects for this procedure that separates their in work and out of work personalities. At the end of season one Mark and his innie coworkers managed to escape to the outside for a moment, but at the start of season two Mark is back inside Lumon with new coworkers.

Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, John Turturro, Adam Scott play Dillon, Helly, Irving, Mark

This opens with an interminable run through the bland hallways of Lumon. It's a great start to the season as Mark (Adam Scott) discovers new coworkers. He's told his contact with the outside triggered severance reform and that Mark's outie was the only one that wanted to get back in. He demands to see his friends and Lumon pacifies him, bringing Helly (Britt Lower), Irving (John  Turturro), and Dillon (Zach Cherry) back. Whatever Mark is working on is very important to Lumon.

This show has such a distinct style. The color palette for the office is white, contrasting with the employees. Several shots are meant to isolate characters. This is a suppressive environment.

We spend some time outside of Lumon, discovering several companies have a severance program, but many other companies don't like severed employees.  It's interesting that in and out Helly are so different. Outie Helly is in cleanup mode, trying to spin the innie escape and cover up what happened as the next in line to run the company.

From the end of season one, Mark discovered that Ms. Casey and Gemma (Dichen Lachman) are the same person. While Mark and Helly search for Ms. Casey, she seemingly has disappeared from the floor.

Episode four is a departure with Mark and his team on an outdoor retreat. I wondered if it was real or some kind of illusion as the show rarely strays outside. This show is best when it's inside Lumon. This episode feels like a distraction, though it does set the path for several characters.

This season lacks drive. There isn't a pressing goal. It's not that Mark has to reintegrate, it's just a question of whether he wants to. He doesn't seem committed to finding his wife. It seems like Lumon is dividing the team in an effort to conquer them. Season one was the team trying to break out, this season doesn't have a similar goal that unites them.

Milchick's (Tramell Tillman) performance review is a trip. Whenever this show gets close to providing an answer it throws in a bunch of additional oddities. It makes for a scattered season. Episode eight focuses on Cobel (Patricia Arquette), and it feels like filler. I had nearly forgotten about the character, and this episode creates a bunch of questions that provide nothing. It's filler to stretch the episode count. You could remove the Cobel episode and not lose anything.

Britt Lower, Adam Scott play Helly, Mark

The final episode is a confrontation between Innie and Outie Mark. It's two people in one body. This s the best episode in the season, rivaled by episode one, but even at the conclusion of this season I don't understand how Mark's work affects whatever experiments are happening. We get insight and hints, but it's still unclear. It seems Mark is sorting or programming experiences for test subjects  related to severance technology. It's a wild episode. Mark finally completes the last grouping, and it's a big deal to Lumon. I had a lot of questions at the end of season one, and I still have a lot of questions. I don't know much more about what Mark's Microdat team does. We know they weren't the experiment as I theorized, but I still don't understand how their work relates to the experiment. This ends on such a cliffhanger. This keeps spinning a convoluted story. At the end of season one it seemed like the show was saving the reveal for season two, but now I wonder if the show just doesn't have answers. It's easier to create the mystery than it is to solve it satisfactorily. Anytime we get a hint of an answer, we get several additional questions.