Since its first premiere in 2022, Severance is known to be a mind-bending show of psychological thrills and horrors, that pushes and dissolves the boundaries between work life and personal freedom. Streaming on Apple TV+, the first season of Severance received stellar reviews. Not only did the show receive fourteen nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2022, but it brought home two wins for Best Main Title Design and Best Music Composition. Fans of the show have been waiting and anticipating the second season of Severance, which was released nearly three years after its initial premiere. January 2025 began the start of a new Severance era, with new episodes of season two coming out each Friday, and concluding in March 2025 with ten episodes total.
Directed by Ben Stiller and starring Adam Scott, the second season of Severance held a lot of weight. Plots had to be secretive, more dramatic; the aesthetic needed to be darker; audiences needed to be shocked; essentially, the ante had to be upped. The first season of Severance was, this author believes, a mastermind and unbelievable display of dramatic storytelling. I was one of the few that missed out on Severance when it was first released. It had been on my radar for quite some time, and finally in 2025, I decided to give it a go.
As one of the lucky few who was able to watch the first and second season back to back, I can only assume how painful it must have been to wait three years after the incredible and prodigious cliffhanger of season one. Diving straight into season two right after the innies experience their outies real world was a surefire way to catch attention, add drama, and reveal how the characters will deal with these consequences. If you would like a spoiler free article that focuses on the themes, characters, and horror aspects of Severance, check out this TGON article.
Otherwise, buckle up.
*this article contains several spoilers for Severance season one and two*
Who’s Driving this Bus?
Season one of Severance focused on the outie and innie lives of Mark S., Helly R., Irving, and Dylan as the Macrodata Refinement Department. It also heavily features Harmony Cobel and Mr. Milchick, the two heads of the Severance floor within Lumon. Season two, in comparison, dives deeper into the lives of the innies. It demonstrates how much the innies have developed a life of their own, and believe that they too deserve to live as their outies do. Why should their outies be the only ones at the steering wheel? They are more than the work they do at Lumon. This causes a lot of conflict between the innies and their very own outies. The discovery that Mark’s wife, Gemma, is alive but in the control of Lumon, means that he must rely on his innie for help. It’s also the reason Mark chooses to reintegrate himself—a process that reverses the Severance procedure, allowing access to all memories—an idea which Mark’s innie is not fond of.
Mark’s innie has a trajectory of being more defiant against Lumon this season. He starts by refusing his new team in Macrodata Refinement, who have replaced Helly, Dylan, and Irving, demanding for his old department back. Mark also begins a frantic search for Ms. Casey, who we now know is really Gemma, as she has been fired from Lumon. The boundaries between Mark’s innie and outie begin to solidify. While both have similar goals in taking down Lumon, they also each have a different agenda in achieving those goals. Mark continues to fall for Helly R., even after the reveal that Helly R. has actually been Helena Eagan pretending to be her innie halfway through the season.
In comparison, Mark’s outie is determined to get his wife back, who was believed to be dead for years. As an audience, we can understand both sides of Mark’s story. I found myself becoming frustrated with Mark’s innie, as I was personally more attached to the relationship between Mark and Gemma. Don’t get me wrong, I love Helly R., but there is something special about the genuine love between Mark and Gemma, as we see spectacularly within episode seven of this season, directed by Jessica Lee Gagné in her directorial debut! It is a cinematic masterpiece.
Hallways, Rooms, and Elevators
One of more menacing plot lines this season focuses on a dark hallway, and an elevator with a down arrow, that Irving’s outie obsessively paints in his real life. Irving’s innie is intrigued and concerned about this subsequent secret floor of Lumon, and conspires with Dylan to find this mysterious hallway. Dylan becomes increasingly distracted from work and begins to separate himself from the schemes of his coworkers, because of the rewards he is receiving from Lumon. As discovered in season one, Dylan’s outie is married with children, and if he behaves without causing trouble, Dylan’s innie is permitted family visits from his wife.
The relationship that Dylan’s innie has with his own wife is cautious, invigorating, and stimulating. As the two begin to have an interest with one another romantically, Severance delivers a message about love and boundaries. Lumon’s idea to incentivize Dylan works, as he closes off his coworkers because of the allowance of seeing his outie’s wife. When Irving is fired after revealing Helly is really Helena Eagan to the Macrodata Refinement team, Dylan realizes that he abandoned a friend, and comes back to the idea that Lumon needs to be stopped.
The reveal of this dark hallway that begins to frequently show itself during this season becomes directly related to Gemma. For the first half of the season, it’s unclear why Gemma was kidnapped and thrust into the world of Lumon. Honestly, by the end of the season, it’s still unclear why she specifically was chosen. What we do know, however, is that Gemma’s car crash was a false lie, and Gemma was kidnapped to be another severed puppet in Lumon’s control. Within this secret floor, Gemma goes to and from different rooms, with curated outfits, experiencing different versions of her severed self. It’s later revealed that the work Mark and the Macrodata Refinement are doing is directly related to Gemma’s emotions and feelings as she is put through these tests. It all leads to the mysterious project Mark must finish, refereed to as “cold harbor”. The audience experiences feelings of unrest and terror as we watch Gemma experience these unethical trials that relate to her previous, and very real, life with Mark as husband and wife.
Pacing: Crescendos, Decrescendos, and the Adagio
Watching Severance is like trying to put together a puzzle that’s missing a piece. It has a very purposeful and intentfull pacing. Secrets are revealed as they need to be, leaving the audience wanting more, but also feeling unsatisfied. The first season of Severance does this in a way that is very enticing and alluring. The desire to watch more and continue consuming the show is very prevalent in the viewer’s life, at least, based on this author’s experience.
The second season of Severance continues this pattern, but also delivers some feelings of frustration. Some of the episodes of this season are hard to correlate together, because the connection between some of the plots becomes blurred. There are a few episodes that stand alone—like episode four, “Woe’s Hollow,” which features the Macrodata Refinement team on a work retreat. Episode seven, “Sweet Vitriol,” features the, mainly absent this season, presence of Harmony Cobel as she returns to her hometown. Both episodes are a good watch, and do in time expose artful secrets that are important for the plot, but also seem out of place. It can be hard to ascertain what the importance of an episode, or even a decision, is when the viewer does not have the initial understanding of said importance. It’s watching something and saying, “Okay, I don’t know what that means, but I’m sure it will be relevant at some point.” This isn’t necessarily a negative trait for a television series to have, but when it happens episodes in a row, it becomes cumbersome.
The structure of the episodes this season means that sometimes we face a crescendo of facts, knowledge, and decisions to absorb, followed by a slow tempo adagio. It makes this season an interesting one, with constant ups and downs, and periods of rest. However, it can also produce a pace that is difficult to follow.
The Final Measure
The finale of Severance season two was filled with triumph, spirit, heartbreak, and violence. Mark’s innie and outie work together to rescue Gemma from the testing floor, a complex murder is inadvertently committed, and it all ends as Mark’s innie chooses to be with Helly R., running away from Gemma and the outside world (for the time being). I must also mention the fantastical use of a marching band this episode, which not only increases the intensity of events by ten, but also adds a complex element of coordination this author finds fascinating. Severance continues to dig into Seth Milchick’s character, as demonstrated by a developing hesitance this season to follow Lumon, but ends with his full commitment to stopping the madness of Macrodata Refinement. In his opposite, Ms. Cobel is openly rebelling against a the company she fully believed it, and grew up in the cultist environment of.
Severance ends it’s long anticipated second season with a lot of answers, and even more questions for what’s to come. It continues to be an extraordinary showmanship of a contemporary and original story with a growing fanbase, and while this author did have opinions, I was not left disappointed.
This season of Severance is so jam-packed, it’s near impossible to describe every plot, detail, and character-driven impulse that occurs. You’ll just have to watch this season for yourself, and witness every jaw-dropping twist, or heart-palpitating moment. Season two of Severance is streaming now on Apple TV+.
