[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Severance” Season 2, Episode 5, “Trojan’s Horse.” For coverage of earlier episodes, read our previous reviews.]
Helly is Helly once more. You understand that. I do know that. Everyone knows that as a result of Episode 5, “Trojan’s Horse,” goes above and past to make sure we know the true Helly R. (Britt Decrease) is again on the severed flooring. There’s the little ding when her chip is activated within the elevator (which some followers declare was lacking in earlier episodes, when Helena was pretending to be Helly). There’s the shaky cam shot of a destabilized Helly stepping warily again into her office (after practically being drowned at Woe’s Hole). There’s the previous scene the place Helena Eagan is explicitly instructed it’s too dangerous for her to merely fake to be Helly once more. Mark S. (Adam Scott) received’t full Chilly Harbor with out Helly, so they have to “give him her.”
Decrease’s hyper-focused efficiency contributes loads of conviction all by itself, guaranteeing that final week’s twist feels each actual and full. Issues are again to regular… at the least, they need to be. However Mark positive isn’t — not after a girl he’s acquired “goo goo eyes” for spied on him and tricked him into sleeping along with her. Dylan (Zach Cherry) isn’t both, though he’s extra upset about shedding Irving (John Turturro) than feeling betrayed by his colleague and firm. The MDR workforce is totally fragmented, and the assurances that persuade these of us watching at dwelling that each one is true with their underground world once more don’t imply as a lot to the characters residing in an upended actuality.
“That wasn’t me,” Helly shouts at Mark after his disaffected response to Irving’s bereavement ceremony and, in a bigger sense, to her return. “I’m not her. I’m not! I’m me — Helly.”
“And the way do I do know that?” he asks.
“You… you don’t,” she says. “You simply must belief me. That is actual. Not all the pieces here’s a lie.”
She’s not simply speaking about her id. Helly is referring to her emotions for Mark: their beliefs, their friendship, their romance — the latter of which, to Helly, has solely gone so far as a kiss. Mark is aware of he went additional, however as Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) factors out, Helly doesn’t know that Mark slept with Helena, as a result of Helly isn’t Helena.
“That wasn’t me. I’m not her. I’m not.”
That Mark couldn’t inform the distinction is an enormous drawback for our workforce chief. Did he cheat on Helly with Helena? Or did he cheat on his spouse, Gemma (Dichen Lachman), with Helena? Had he already cheated on his spouse with Helly when he kissed her? How a lot could be forgiven as a result of Mark didn’t know the lady he thought was Helly was really Helena? How a lot could be forgiven as a result of Mark didn’t know the lady counseling him at work was his spouse (or, at the least, his Outie’s spouse)? It’s no marvel he noticed Gemma/Ms. Casey within the midst of getting intercourse with Helena — his severed mind is struggling to maintain up with all these intermingled emotions.
“That wasn’t me. I’m not her. I’m not.”
After all, this could be lots simpler if Helly’s argument was as clear minimize as she makes it out to be. If his Outie and Innie are separate folks, associated solely by a shared physique, then Mark’s Outie could be fortunately married to Gemma and Mark’s Innie could be Helly’s joyful work husband, by no means the twain shall meet. As for the entire Helena prevalence, they will simply write it off as a mistake — Mark was already smitten with Helly (the actual Helly) when Helena took her place, so being blinded sufficient to proceed (and consummate) their flirtation is a forgivable oversight. Is it bizarre? Positive. Is it dishonest? Solely in a strict bodily sense, sans any emotional betrayal.
“That wasn’t me. I’m not her. I’m not.”
However… can we actually separate the Innies and Outies so cleanly? Isn’t that precisely what Lumon desires? For the Outies to stay their lives with out a second thought to that different individual slaving away underground? And for the Innies to embrace their lives with out ever dreaming of working quick and free via the daylight? Episode 5 plainly reiterates Lumon’s lowly opinion of its basement-level workers. “You shouldn’t allow them to have a funeral. It makes them really feel like folks,” Miss Huang “asks” Mr. Milchick. “They’re fucking animals,” Helena says, when being pressed to return to the severed flooring. Later, in the identical boardroom, Mr. Milchick is chastised for implementing ineffectual “kindness reforms” for his workforce and reminded to “deal with [severed workers] as what they are surely.” “I’m tightening the leash,” Mr. Milchick replies, once more referencing that his chipped colleagues are nothing greater than canines, animals, and a method to an finish.
“That wasn’t me. I’m not her. I’m not.”
If preserving their workers lives separate from their private ones is Lumon’s aim, then they’re profitable. Simply take a look at Mark. Whereas his Innie is waffling on his dedication to the rebel, his Outie is determined to reconnect. He’s downing off-white, wormy-looking potions and a collection of capsules prescribed by his (mad?) scientist roommate, Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge). He’s acquired a scary cough, retains seeing visions and listening to voices, however he’s nonetheless pushing for extra mind surgical procedure periods in his basement. Mark Scout is risking all of it, whereas Mark S. simply desires to get again to work. Does that sound like one individual torn between what’s protected and what’s proper, or does that sound like two folks working independently of each other, primarily based on separate motives?
“That wasn’t me. I’m not her. I’m not.”
As Season 2 races forward, a confounding query waits on the end line: If Mark’s reintegration process works and immediately his Innie and Outie must concurrently coexist, what does that imply for his relationships? In a battle between Mark’s new love for Helly and his established love for Gemma, what emotions win out? And in case you assume that’s an unimaginable query, what concerning the one going through Helly and Helena? How can an Innie and Outie stay collectively once they’re essentially opposed to one another? We all know an Outie can erase an Innie — RIP Irving — however given the place our loyalties lie (with Helly, duh), can an Innie erase their Outie? And… ought to they?
“That wasn’t me. I’m not her. I’m not.”
Within the immortal phrases of Laurence Laurentz, would that it’had been so easy.
Grade: B+
“Severance” Season 2 releases new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.
Additional Refinement:
• Love the mugs with Irving’s face on them, hate the handles that appear to be a set of brass knuckles. (Though, in case you actually need to work to learn one thing from the development, you possibly can argue that’s what Lumon thinks Irving deserves — a strong punch to the face.)
• “For the least enjoyable man on this planet, he was actually enjoyable.” Dylan’s eulogy might’ve ended there, and it will’ve been excellent.
• Given the flurry of feelings that flew throughout Natalie’s face (Sydney Cole Alexander) the primary time Mr. Milchick noticed the work of Kier Eagan as a Black man, it nearly feels grasping this week when he asks her to verbally elaborate on these “difficult emotions.” However hey, the middle-manager — resented by his employees and sneered at by his bosses — is simply in search of somebody, anybody to attach with, and it’s exhausting guilty him for that. Maintain utilizing these “huge phrases,” my man.
• “Oh, you imply placing the numbers within the factor?” I find it irresistible when Mark will get snippy.
• Ricken! Come on! Take your “fiscal and artistic alternative” and shove it up Lumon’s ass already! My god, man.
Code Detectors:
• Irving’s Innie could also be lifeless, however his Outie continues to be working to convey down Lumon. That’s my takeaway, at the least, given all the pieces we discovered within the Season 1 finale, in addition to his repeated journeys to the telephone sales space in Season 2. However who’s Irving calling? “In order that they fired me,” he says in Episode 5. “I feel they knew what my Innie was as much as.” Then he sees Burt (Christopher Walken) and “comes at [him],” earlier than calming down and agreeing to return over for dinner.
Burt is suspicious on his personal, simply sitting there in his automotive, however I’m way more considering who Irving is scheming with. Does Irving’s Outie know what his Innie was as much as? It doesn’t sound like he is aware of concerning the ORTBO or Helly (aka the true motive he was fired), however does Irving’s Outie have some form of entry to the severed flooring his Innie doesn’t learn about? What’s he looking for out? Why’s he investigating Lumon in any respect? And who the heck helps him?!
• One factor we do know: Irving’s Innie had one final trick up his sleeve. His final phrases to Dylan had been: “Simply bear in mind: Hold in there.” — a sly reference to the poster of Dylan emblazoned with that very slogan. Dylan remembers, simply in time, and checks the again of the poster, the place Irving has hidden written instructions to the Exports Corridor, the lengthy, black hallway with an elevator on the finish of it, which Irving’s Outie has been furiously, compulsively portray. Now they know the best way to get there. What they’ll discover, effectively, that’s nonetheless anybody’s guess.
• The place is Concord Cobel? Is she nonetheless driving? Did Lumon snatch her up? Has she been behind any of this, or has she spent the final two episodes within the chilly, on her personal?
• OK, so the true which means behind Mr. Milchick’s “story of the Gråkappan” is… simply kidding. It’s fairly apparent — “Swedish horseshit” — and I additionally don’t care. What actually issues is the best way Tramell Tillman pronounces “Gråkappan.” “Grock-shoo-pin.” Pretty.