Yahoo Lifestyle "Give That Man An Emmy Already": 20 Perfect Reactions, Keen Observations, And Theories About "Severance" Season 2, Episode 1
Note: This post contains spoilers for Severance Season 2, Episode 1, "Hello, Ms. Cobel." If you haven't watched it yet, keep this tab open and come back once you're done.
After what felt like an infinite wait, Severance is finally back!
As someone who was literally begging anyone who would listen to me to watch this show back when it first came out, it's so cool to see the excitement around this new season and to have so many people to share theories and observations with about this mysterious and important show.
By the way, if you could use a refresher on what happened in Season 1, we've got you covered here.
In Season 2, Episode 1, we pick up with Innie-Mark as his consciousness comes back online for the first time since the events of the Season 1 finale. He's just realized that Ms. Casey is his outie's wife, so he runs through the severed floor to the wellness room in hopes of finding her — but, of course, she's not there.
Instead of reconnecting with his team, he finds himself stuck with a new trio of severed workers, and he's told that five months have passed. The terrifyingly friendly Mr. Milchick is now in charge of the severed floor, and he has a new and inscrutable deputy manager, the very young Miss Huang.
Mark makes a desperate play to get his core team back, and for some reason, Lumon actually makes it happen. Dylan, Irving, and Helly all come back to the severed floor where they're shown a deliciously weird stop-motion corporate propaganda film about the supposed positive changes Lumon has made following the "Macrodat Uprising."
The core four go on to share what they saw on the night of the overtime contingency, but Helly doesn't tell her friends the truth about her outie being an Eagan. A heartbroken Irving, still stinging from seeing Outie-Burt with another man, almost leaves forever, but Dylan convinces him to stay. And the episode ends with our four favorite innies getting back to work doing whatever it is that they actually do.
Here are some of the best reactions, theories, and observations people had after watching the first episode of Severance to take place entirely in the innie-world:
1."Who was the guy watching Mark from afar at the start of the episode? It definitely wasn’t Milchick."
"I was wondering the same thing. Looks like it could be Milchick to me. Why do you think it's not?"
"When Mark runs to the wellness center, a man that appears to be a duplicate of Mark is briefly seen in the hallway, staring at Mark. He turns into a corridor before Mark turns around."
2."Does anyone think five months really hasn’t gone by yet? Milkshake's computer screen still doesn’t say his name. That wouldn’t take five months to get done."
3."Tramell Tillman does amazing smile work."
"His micro-expressions are just.... my god. He shifts emotions and intensities so quickly that it's almost disarming. Give that man an Emmy already."
4."There is a large crate with a pillow or blanket in it, recently opened, in Milchick’s office. Is this where Miss Huang was stored?"
5."WHO IS THIS LITTLE GIRL?? Is she on a severed internship??"
"Aside from the creepy things and the mysteries, people forget how much of this is workplace satire. There were like 20 things I laughed at strictly from the dynamics of working in an office."
6."The newspaper is obviously fake; I believe that photo is the team photo Milchick took in S1, poorly photoshopped into Dwight Eisenhower visiting Rio De Janeiro in 1960. The article lists the location as 'Kier, PE.' The article refers to them all by their innie names and refers to Milchick as Mr. Milchick, as the innies would."
"The other article on the page refers to a breakthrough at Lumon in plastics recycling at cold temperatures.
The newspaper is volume 51,309, and it has been running since 1893, putting us at roughly 2035."
7."The painting outside the elevator was them four, right?"
8."I've missed Dylan. 'Dude, what's wrong, you poor up there?' Shortly followed by the subtle fear that one of them might be the star and he might be less famous than the others. Also the obsession with his belt being cut up."
9."Saw a 'hang in there' poster with an outline of Dylan holding the overtime contingency switches in the break room😭. I love this show."
10."The claymation globe shows severe ocean level rises. The west coast of the americas is completely reshaped. There are two Lumon locations in the Pacific Northwest of the Americas. I’d guess one of these is their location. Ireland and most of the UK are underwater. Mexico appears to be partially underwater, opening access between the Gulf and the Pacific. There is no Arctic ice, and Canada has a whole lot more green land above the Arctic Circle. Also, Milchick has a photo of a glacier in his office."
11.And, of course, the stop motion sequence gave us all flashbacks to this classic Ben Wyatt moment:
12."The mirror room is going to be terrifying."
"Pineapple bobbing looks unpleasant."
"That whole sequence had me rolling. 'These four people risked their lives rebelling against the system of oppression. So now, you get fruit leather!'"
13."'A night gardener?'"
"Irv was the only person who was outside and in town at that hour. He saw for himself how empty and devoid of people it was.
It makes total sense that he'd clock this detail as sus."
14."Not a coincidence, Lumon was founded in 1866. Slavery was revamped, and now they’re also testing child labor. A lot of purple (blue + red, innie + outie). Someone is not what they seem."
"It is quite dark to think about, Lumon starting as a response to the abolishment of slavery.
Like some rich dudes seriously got together to figure out how to make this thing work, and now we are here."
15."Oh man, the way they’re manipulating each of them one by one to make them stay."
"I think they need *Mark* for some reason. That's why they brought back his team after he freaked out about it."
16."That's definitely not Helly, she doesn’t know where the on switch is."
"First to point out that the cameras are gone too, and her mannerisms definitely seem different."
"Also, consider the fact that she reacted with hostile defensiveness when Mark implied that innies and outies were the same. Initially, I thought that was Helly getting upset about being compared to her outie; but Helena seems to hate her innie equally as much and would resent being compared to her rebellious, outspoken, thorn-in-her-side innie as well."
17."Loved the subtle detail of the token jar for the vending machine being filled to the brim. The forefront of severance reform indeed, lol."
18."I’m your favorite perk 💜."
19."I really love how they've kinda reversed the intrigue. In the beginning of Season 1, you are left wondering what's going on down there, but now it's the opposite; we REALLY want to know what happened on the outside. Also, the timeline is really unclear right now and won't be cleared up until we see the events on the outside. Milchick could've easily lied about the five months, but it likely wasn't the next day or even weeks."
"Man, I genuinely love weekly releases. This period of time where everyone is theorizing about the next episode and eagerly awaiting it is so fun. Batch releases screw everything up about TV show discourse."
20.And finally, "Someone please screenshot every single frame of that ending because what the fuck did I just see"
"So… is the macro refining team assisting Lumon to create clones of dead people or replicate them in some way?"
"This is my theory. With the end of goal of bringing back Kier and the other CEOs."
What did you notice about this episode? Do you have any theories, questions, or reactions to share? Let's keep breaking it all down in the comments while we wait for Episode 2!
