Severance TV show cover
COURTESY | AMAZON
Following the slow moving first season of the TV show “Severance,” season two provides only a partial explanation for many of the questions left unanswered in the original season.
Season two, produced by Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson, started releasing new episodes every week starting in mid-January on Apple TV+. The tenth and final episode of the season comes out this Thursday night, March 20.
Mark Scout (played by Adam Scott) is a middle aged man who has lost his wife. He undergoes the procedure known as severance in order to separate memories of his work life from those of his personal life. While Mark works on the severed floor — the basement of the Lumon company building — he decides to remove his personal memories. Seeking to relieve the pain of living without his wife and trying to make a living, he unknowingly surrenders his will during the work day by inserting a brain chip through surgery.
The first season explores how “innie” Mark’s — with no memories or access outside Lumon’s work — partners with his fellow employees to rebel and slowly uncover the secrets of the severed floor.
Every episode reveals small bits about the strange protocol, purpose, and history of the company, making the plot seemingly more complicated everytime. The first season also reveals the “outie” life of Mark Scout, where he spends his nights after work deeply distressed and depressed by the loss of his wife.
The second season does not break the constant tension of the severed floor, but Dan Erickson, one of the writers for the series seems to have a plan for resolving the thick plot presented.
The entire first season is filled with confusingly grim symbols, stories, and traditions on the severed floor. Erickson seeks to explain most of these by going above ground. Regardless, the “innies” still have work to do if they want to find out what happens outside the severed floor.
Scott’s versatile acting is able to portray two different personas of Mark that are strikingly similar but tragically differently motivated. Going into season two, we see “outie” Mark before he has processed the death of his wife and how similar he was to the present “innie” Mark who has not had to live through this death.
While they both are rebellious and more upbeat, the outie in the setting of season two is brutally crippled by his own hard-headedness and indecision. Insecure about his decision to sever, “outie” Mark nurses his wounds by taking anger out on his sister and drinking. Stagnant in his house at night and in the morning, Mark makes no progress against his depression.
Similar to the acting challenges set up by the two halves of one person, Britt Lower — playing both Helly R. (innie) and Helena Eagan (outie) — is able to showcase the mind boggling manipulation of the “innie” from the outside. Given surveillance of the severed floor, Helena becomes jealous of the excitingly rebellious life of Helly. With Helena’s “outie” in charge of what her “innie” Helly experiences, the season’s moral conundrums become considerably more fascinating.
This comes with a disappointing facet of the second season: the sexual content in the series is unnecessarily more prevalent than in the first season. Just like most other modern series, once the standard for sexual content is set, it will usually continue in the same fashion for the remainder of the series. While the creators and writers have an interesting theme to convey concerning manipulation, the use of sexual content undercuts that message.
With the tenth and final episode releasing tonight, it is clear that not all of the problems will be solved. Much like the first season, a cliffhanger between this season and the next will keep fans hooked. The creators have succeeded in tightening this tension, and, as the final episode releases, most fans can’t wait to grab the TV remote.
