What You Need to Remember Before Watching Severance Season 2

Severance is a complex tale of corporate conspiracy, scary scientific advancements, and the sheer boredom of working a desk job. In the show, an ominous company named Lumon experiments with a technology that splits employees' memories between their work lives and home lives.

The two sides of a severed person's personality are colloquially referred to as their "innie" and "outie." The outie clocks into work at Lumon each morning, at which point the innie takes over. The outie doesn't remember anything about what transpires during the work day. The innie, by contrast, is never able to leave the windowless "severed floor" of Lumon or see the light of day.

The practice obviously raises several ethical questions: Are innies separate people with their own desires and rights? What happens to a severed person's "innie" when they leave Lumon for good? Does the innie die?

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And though the first season of Severance takes place mostly inside Lumon's walls, the few glimpses we get of outie life suggest that the company is preying on vulnerable people. The main character Mark, played by Adam Scott, agreed to the process of severance after his wife died in a car crash. He suffers from depression and uses severance as a means of escape.

Throughout the first season's nine episodes, it becomes clear that there is something special about Mark: Lumon keeps an extra close eye on him. And Mark, in turn, begins to suspect that something shady is happening at Lumon. Season 1 took many twists and turns, culminating in one of the most shocking finales in recent television history. The delayed second season will finally arrive on Jan. 17, nearly three years after the first premiered. Here's everything you need to remember about the sci-fi story.

The show kicks off with the death of Petey and introduction of Helly

At the beginning of the series, Mark, a worker bee at Lumon, finds out that his best friend in the office, Petey, has suddenly quit, which means Mark will never see him again. Petey's replacement is a firebrand named Helly (Britt Lower) who does not respond well to the innie initiation experience.

Lumon keeps its employees in line with silly perks like a dour party in which everyone can nibble on some balled honeydew and cantaloupe, all of which are coveted by Mark's coworker Dylan (Zach Cherry). The company also tries to instill the creepy mythos of Lumon and its founder Kier Egan into its employees, turning some of them into something like corporate-religious zealots. Mark's other coworker Irving (John Turturro) is one of these Lumon devotees.

Mark, Helly, Dylan, and Irving work in a department called Macrodata Refinement and spend their days sorting a screen of random numbers based on the feelings the numbers inspire in them. They're overseen by Mrs. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) who do not reveal the purpose of this data refinement.

Petey (Yul Vazquez), it turns out, has gone through the process of "reintegration" to unite his innie and outie thoughts. The surgery is performed by a former Lumon scientist named Regabhi (Karen Aldridge) who has broken from the company and is working to stop severance. Petey hunts down outie Mark to tell him that Lumon is up to no good. Outie Mark does not want to get involved in the corporate conspiracy. But Petey claims Lumon is trying to kill him so Mark allows Petey to hide in his basement.

When Mark goes home we learn that his boss Mrs. Cobel is also his next-door neighbor, who goes by the name of Mrs. Selvig. She quite literally worships at the altar of Kier Egan kept in her closet and is keeping tabs on Mark for unknown reasons. Shortly after contacting Mark, Petey dies of an alleged brain aneurism related to reintegration.

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Helly clashes with her outie

Helly tries to escape multiple times. She threatens bodily harm until she is allowed to record a video for her outie in which she pleads to be released. The outie sends a video back telling Helly she does not get to make decisions about her life because she is "not a real person." Helly then attempts to hang herself in the elevator that transforms innies to outies so that her outie wakes up choking to death.

Management prevents Helly from killing her outie and asks the wellness director, Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), to monitor the rebellious worker. Mark is also disturbed by Helly's outie's behavior and begins to take a personal interest in Helly. Together, they decide to investigate what is going on at Lumon. They also begin an office romance that eventually culminates in a kiss.

Mark's brother-in-law accidentally becomes an innie prophet

Mark's brother-in-law Ricken (Michael Chernus) leaves Mark a copy of the silly self-help book he wrote. It is full of corny lines like, “Your so-called boss may own the clock that taunts you from the wall, but, my friends, the hour is yours" and “Machines are made of metal, but man is made of skin.”

Mark brings it to the office, and though management initially confiscates the book, the innies manage to find it. They have never read anything besides the Lumon handbook, and Ricken's pretentious platitudes seem profound to them and help to incite their rebellion against Lumon.

Irving falls in love with Burt

Macrodata refinement runs into another department, Optics and Design, which is responsible for hanging up paintings of Lumon's cultish ceremonies and printing seemingly random 3D objects. Among the Optics and Design staff is Burt (Christopher Walken). Burt and Irving bond over their shared love of art and religiosity. They begin an office flirtation.

Dylan warns Irving that there's a rumor Optics and Design once attacked and slaughtered Macrodata Refinement, and Burt admits that he once heard that Macrodata once attacked Optics and Design. The who conflicting stories prove management is trying to sow discord among the departments.

The Macrodata Refinement team tries to team up with Optics and Design to figure out what is going on at Lumon, but Mrs. Cobel revokes the workers' privileges to walk the hallways and forces Burt into retirement, abruptly ending the Burt-Irving romance.

Severance has other applications

There are also hints that severance is being used in other capacities. At one point Mark's pregnant sister Devon (Jen Tullock) goes to a birthing retreat where she meets the wife of a pro-severance senator who has severed herself so that she won't have to experience the pains of childbirth. That means this woman's innie has only ever experienced the pains of birth and having her baby immediately taken from her.

Also, at one point, Mark and Helly wander down the labyrinth of brightly-lit, indistinguishable hallways on their floor, open a door, and find a guy feeding milk to baby goats. It's unclear what, if anything, these baby goats have to do with severance. But one begins to wonder what exactly Lumon's business model is.

Dylan finds out his outie has a family

Dylan's innie runs across a pile of cards that show cartoons dressed in office garb practicing self-defense. The purpose of these cards is unclear, but Dylan grabs one at random, which sends management into a panic. Mr. Milchick wakes up Dylan in his outie life through a process called "overtime contingency" to demand he give the card back because it contains sensitive information. During his brief look at the outside world, innie Dylan sees that he has a son, which radically changes his perspective on life.

Back inside the Lumon office, Helly earns a "Dance Party Experience" for meeting a quota. The foursome begins to boogey down with Mr. Milchick until Dylan snaps. He attacks Mr. Milchick who quickly ends the party. Dylan tells his fellow coworkers about the overtime contingency. They decide to stage a jailbreak so they can each learn more about their outies. Innie Mark discovers that he has a keycard that will help them accomplish this. (The doctor who performed Petey's reintegration and tracked down Mark gave him the card and told Mark his innie would know what to do with it.)

The season ends with the overtime contingency

Dylan, having hit a quota, gets to stay after work to enjoy a waffle party and watch a weird Eyes Wide Shut-esque orgy. He sneaks away and activates the overtime contingency, waking up innie Mark, innie Helly, and innie Irving to the outside world.

Irving discovers that his outie has been compulsively painting the same dark hallway in Lumon over and over again, one that ends with an elevator that goes down further into Lumon's depths rather than up to the surface. We've already seen Ms. Casey take this elevator. Irving also learns that his outie has been researching severance and tracking down Lumon employees at their homes, including Burt. Irving rushes to Burt's house only to discover Burt is happily married. Irving decides to bang on the door anyway.

Helly learns she's Helena Egan, heir to the Lumon fortune, and that her decision to undergo severance was propaganda to help bolster support for the controversial procedure. Helly meets her father, an extremely creepy dude. Helly takes the stage as a keynote speaker at a black tie event celebrating severance and reveals that she is in fact Helena's innie. She tells the audience that her experience has been hellish.

Mark finds himself at a book party for his brother-in-law. Also in attendance is Mrs. Selvig/Mrs. Cobel: She has been taking care of Devon and Ricken's baby (scary!). Mark doesn't realize that this woman goes by the name Mrs. Selvig outside of Lumon and accidentally calls her Mrs. Cobel, tipping her off to the fact that his innie is wandering free in the outie world.

Mrs. Cobel flees and the baby goes missing (even more scary!). Mrs. Cobel had, in fact, been fired by Lumon earlier that day for failing to get Mark and his coworkers under control, but she tries to get her job back by stopping the innie rebellion and shutting down the overtime contingency.

Before Mr. Milchick can turn off the overtime contingency, Mark reveals everything he knows to his sister Devon and pressures her to find out what's happening at Lumon. While hunting for the baby (the baby is fine, don't worry!), Mark finds a framed picture from his wedding. He discovers that his supposedly dead wife is, in fact, Ms. Casey, whom he has seen alive and well inside Lumon—though he never recognized her. Mark yells, "She's alive!" just as Milchick tackles Dylan, ending the overtime contingency. And Season 1 ends.

Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com.