[Editor’s note: The following review contains spoilers for “Severance” Season 2, Episode 10, “Cold Harbor.” For coverage of earlier episodes, read our previous reviews.]
About midway by means of his dialog with himself, Mark Scout has had sufficient. Mark’s Outie (Adam Scott) began the camcorder-assisted back-and-forth with a well-intentioned apology, however actually, his opening concession was simply the framework for a favor. A giant favor. One man’s “I’m so sorry — I created you as a prisoner and as an escape,” is one other man’s “I’m so sorry you have been ever born.” And that different man is Mark’s Innie (additionally performed by Adam Scott, who’s excellent all through an emotionally turbulent finale), who is aware of precisely what his Outie is asking of him. He knew it earlier than they began swapping video messages.
“You need me to provide my life?,” Mark’s Innie says. “The lives of everybody down there? Simply to avoid wasting one individual you occur to care about?”
Devon (Jen Tullock) is caught off-guard by Mark’s Innie’s interpretation of occasions and rapidly initiates his chat with Mark’s Outie, hoping the person of two minds can kind it out as a substitute. She, like Mark’s Outie, has been centered on saving Gemma (Dichen Lachman) and punishing Lumon. They haven’t considered Mark’s Innie past imagining his nightmarish working circumstances, and I doubt even these daydreams paid a lot heed to the opposite Innies toiling away beside him. (No marvel Mark’s Outie mangles Helly’s identify.) So listening to Mark’s Innie describe saving Gemma as a sacrifice — the last word sacrifice — knocks them again.
In spite of everything, it’s simpler to disregard folks you don’t must see. It’s simpler to neglect ache you don’t have to consider. Mark’s Outie says as a lot himself, when he first will get fed up with Mark’s Innie.
“Look,” his Outie says, shifting tone from delicate to superior. “I mourned Gemma for 2 years. I misplaced my job, my educating job, as a result of I fucking began displaying up drunk. I hid all of her stuff in my basement as a result of it was simpler pretending that she by no means existed.”
Now, he needs to do it once more, solely together with his Innie — with all of the Innies. Mark’s Outie clearly regrets getting severed. He might even notice that hiding from ache by shutting his mind off (chemically, by ingesting, and actually through severance) doesn’t work. Right here, in baring his soul to the digicam, he needs his Innie to see how a lot Gemma means to him, figuring out Helly (Britt Decrease) means one thing much like Mark’s Innie. Related, however not the identical. Mark’s Outie nonetheless doesn’t wish to acknowledge that there’s a couple of life at stake in Episode 10’s rescue mission. He nonetheless doesn’t see Mark’s Innie as something greater than a rogue a part of his personal better being.
And it prices him.
“Severance” Season 2 ends with a paradoxical wallop, each inevitable and breathtaking. The Marks lead a daring escape by means of the bowels of Lumon Industries, switching between Innie and Outie on each flooring as a way to rescue Gemma from her 25(!) torture rooms and return her to the actual world. However the pleasure over defeating the evil scientists and saving the damsel is distorted by the sound of Gemma’s distressed cries. Right here she is, lastly out of the dungeon, wanting into the eyes of her misplaced, loving husband… and he runs into the arms of one other girl.
Good luck explaining that, Devon. (Effectively, I assume it’ll be Devon. I hope it’ll be Devon — she higher be ready for Gemma simply exterior the emergency exit door!)
However to us, Mark’s reasoning is painfully clear. His Innie is working for his life, working towards his life, and working away with the lady he loves. Mark’s Innie did the suitable factor by saving Gemma, an harmless sufferer. We nonetheless don’t know the way, precisely, she ended up in Lumon’s sub-basement, nor why Lumon selected to conduct its superior severance procedures on her, however we do know Gemma was being held in opposition to her will. Mark’s Innie acknowledges as a lot and, after a pep discuss from Helly, goes by means of with the plan to free her, regardless of the dangers.
What he doesn’t do is free Mark’s Outie. As an alternative of blindly trusting his above-ground alter ego to do what he guarantees — “In case you assist me, I received’t abandon you,” Mark’s Outie says — Mark’s Innie chooses to remain behind. To remain at Lumon. To stick with Helly. He (rightly) deduces from Mark’s Outie’s battle to elucidate how reintegration truly works that he’s higher off searching for himself, not less than till extra definitive solutions could be discovered.
It’s a “head over coronary heart” choice — save for the charming asterisk that Mark’s Innie is following his coronary heart, too. Mark’s Innie could also be appearing selfishly. He might even acknowledge that he’s successfully swapped Gemma and Mark’s Outie, the latter turning into a company hostage and the previous his distraught companion saved at midnight. However Mark’s Innie can be holding Mark’s Outie accountable. Mark’s Outie isn’t responsible for Gemma’s plight (so far as we all know), however he’s definitely responsible for his Innie’s. He mentioned as a lot when he apologized. Now, he’s dealing with the implications.
The “Severance” Season 2 finale is noticeably completely different than Season 1’s ending. Initially, Season 2’s climactic conclusion isn’t a cliffhanger. It pulls us again from the brink, providing a platform to face on, even when we’re nonetheless ready close to the sting to see what occurs subsequent. However the place Season 1 unifies the viewers behind Mark’s pressing discovery (“She’s alive!”), Season 2 is pointedly divisive. The place Season 1’s ending directs viewers’ ire towards Lumon, an evil company that faked Gemma’s demise after which experimented on her, Season 2’s ending places the climactic weight on Mark. It asks us contemplate what we’d do in the identical scenario. It asks a tough query, reasonably than giving a provocative reply.
Folks don’t sometimes reply to cause in the identical approach they reply to emotions, and “Chilly Harbor” evokes a bevy of conflicting emotions. Whereas it’s jarring within the second to be denied certainly one of our main {couples}’ long-sought reunions, Mark’s Innie makes a selection. It’s not a selection everybody might be on board with, even when they’ll respect why he makes it. Reactions will rely upon if the viewer is ‘transport Mark and Gemma or Mark and Helly; they’ll rely upon who sees Innies like Mark’s Outie sees them (as part of Mark) and who sees them like Innies do (as distinct folks); they’ll rely upon how glad theorists are with the solutions supplied about Chilly Harbor, the mysterious numbers, and Lumon’s general mission. (“The numbers are your spouse,” Concord says. “Each file you accomplished is a brand new consciousness for her — a brand new Innie.”)
Heck, some viewers will definitely be upset that Concord (Patricia Arquette) didn’t get extra to do than ship exposition (although she is the right individual to interrupt the large information, contemplating she invented severance and her creepy but authoritative stature). Others might be anguishing over Irving (John Turturro) and Burt (Christopher Walken), whose respective and collective fates weren’t addressed in any respect. Lots extra will merely be upset their predictions didn’t pan out.
However “Severance” Season 2 was at all times constructing to this. Within the first episode, Mark saves his fellow Innies after which they select to remain at Lumon. Within the final episode, Mark saves the Innies once more after which he chooses to remain at Lumon. There’s a transparent development trajectory for Mark’s Innie, whose objectives align with Mark’s Outie at the beginning of the season earlier than he goes out on his personal in the long run, however the remainder of Season 2 can be devoted to recognizing the distinctions between Innies and Outies. There’s the twist with Helena pretending to be Helly, which calls consideration to how polar reverse folks can exist in the identical physique; there’s the disconnect between Dylan’s Innie (a “confident badass”) and his Outie (who we discover out is sort of a loser); there’s an identical disconnect between Burt’s severed selves, together with his Outie searching for redemption for his seedy life by means of his Innie’s new child innocence.
Even splitting the primary two episodes between Innies and Outies works as an instance not solely that these individuals are dwelling in separate worlds, however that they’re each alive. One can’t be written off to learn the opposite, identical to all these hours we spend toiling away at work can’t merely be written off like they didn’t affect (and even dictate) our lives. Lumon’s purpose, whether or not by means of the severance process or cult-like devotion, is compliance. It needs to manage its employees. It needs them to imagine what the corporate tells them to imagine, and do what the corporate tells them to do.
What Lumon does to Gemma reveals the vile imaginative and prescient for extending that purpose: For a time, Lumon was glad with exploiting half of every employee. Whereas they’re on the clock, they’re Lumon’s, however after they’re off the clock, they’re free to make no matter selections they need (till it’s time to punch in once more). But when they’ll sever every worker 25 occasions, how will these folks ever understand it’s time to go dwelling? What’s to cease them from transferring from one room to the following, engaged on completely different initiatives, for an countless period of time? And that’s with out contemplating what it implies that they kidnapped Gemma and, till now, bought away with it? What’s to cease them from doing that on a large scale? Or what’s to cease them from breeding employees who by no means see the sunshine of day and by no means suppose to ask?
These aren’t new questions, essentially, however “Chilly Harbor” gives a convincing rebuttal to anybody who thinks shutting Lumon down fixes all the issues the corporate has created, and it does so by forcing Mark’s Innie and Outie to acknowledge each other. Of their earlier dialogue, earlier than it devolves into an ultimatum, Mark’s Outie refers to his Innie’s life as a “nightmare,” and Mark’s Innie politely pushes again. “Nightmare is the mistaken phrase, truly,” he says. “We discover methods to make it work — to really feel complete. … No matter this life is, it’s all now we have, and we don’t need it to finish.”
His feedback are echoed in a while, when Helly is rallying the Choreography and Merriment marching band. “They’re going to show us off like fucking machines,” Helly shouts. “They provide us half a life and suppose we received’t combat for it?”
Assume once more.
Grade: A
“Severance” Season 2 is on the market to stream on Apple TV+. The collection has not but been renewed for Season 3.
Additional Refinement:
• From her opening slight to Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry) — “You’re so fucking bizarre” — to her Norma Rae second with the marching band and working off with Mark S. to finish the season, Helly had a helluva day. Generally, doing the suitable factor actually pays off. You like to see it.
• That mentioned, I don’t know what to make of Jame’s desire for Helly over Helena. Maybe he simply likes watching his progeny squirm beneath his thumb reasonably than insufficiently capitulate to his energy, however it seems like he’s bought larger plans for his acknowledged daughter — and that’s scary.
• Talking of who Jame’s acknowledged, his remark about “siring others within the shadows” helps clarify how Concord bought Mark and Devon into the birthing suite. “She’s certainly one of Jame’s,” Concord tells the guard close to the top of Episode 9. “Nobody’s to know.” So… what occurred to these children? The place are they? What do they know? Are they severed, as their expensive ol’ dad appears to desire, and… (ick) what number of occasions?
• What a reduction to see Dylan again after he tried to stop final week. However his reappearance additionally reminds us that Irving continues to be gone — will he be the brand new wild card in Season 3? Rising from expulsion to avoid wasting the day, very similar to Concord did in Season 2?
• Taking part in the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls’ intro music to kick off Lumon’s historic celebration for finishing Chilly Harbor is… too good.
• R.I.P. Mr. Drummond. What a method to exit! You received’t be missed, however right here’s hoping we see loads extra of Darri Ólafsson, the actor who gave him such brutish, calculating menace. If you wish to see his vary, flip over to HBO’s “Anyone Someplace,” the place he performs the precise reverse character.
• As somebody who wasn’t an enormous fan of the goats’ return in Season 2, seeing Lorne (Gwendoline Christie) reappear within the finale helped justify the sooner emphasis on her flock. I nonetheless suppose the sequence in Episode 3 left quite a bit to be desired, however it’s a reduction, wanting again, to know a goat (and its shepherd) would play a pivotal function in Episode 10. And I’m much more relieved that little Emile wasn’t “entombed.” No extra killing!
• God, I hope Milchick defects to the rebels in Season 3. He’s too rattling cool to be a nasty man, as a lot as I take pleasure in watching him wrestle together with his private pleasure and his loyalty to Lumon. Convey that merchandising machine toppling muscle over to Crew MDR.
• “At the least you’ll have an opportunity at dwelling.”
“Yeah, however I wish to dwell with you.”
💔