Yahoo Lifestyle Severance’s Tramell Tillman Breaks Down Milchick’s Finale Dance Moves, Hints That ‘Everything’s in Danger’ in Season 3
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Friday’s Severance Season 2 finale.
Mr. Milchick once again showed us he can cut a rug in Severance’s season finale — but it looks like some of his Innies are choosing to cut and run.
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In Friday’s finale, Milchick rewarded Mark for completing the Cold Harbor file with “Choreography & Merriment,” bringing a full marching band into the office — and leading them with some spry dance moves. But Mark had other ideas, sprinting off to save Gemma while Helly and Dylan used a vending machine to block Milchick inside the bathroom. Eventually, he forced his way out, but Helly convinced the marching band to join their rebellion, and Mark managed to free Gemma… although his Innie opted to stay inside with Helly rather than leave with Gemma. (Read our full finale recap here.)
TVLine reached out to Tramell Tillman, who has been excellent all season long as Mr. Milchick, to help us make sense of the finale, how Milchick feels being betrayed by his Innies yet again, how they pulled off that incredible marching band performance… and what might be next for Milchick and company in the just-announced Season 3.
TVLINE | We saw some new layers to Milchick this season, and some humanity started to peek through a bit. But he played the villain again in the finale, with Helly and Dylan trapping him in the bathroom so that Mark could escape. What is Milchick’s reaction to facing yet another rebellion from the MDR team? Can he believe the lack of gratitude from these people?
I mean, those Innies are just so… they’re just ingrates. [Laughs] We’ve watched this man basically give the Innies anything and everything they asked for. They asked for the funeral for Irving. That’s not allowed, we learned that from Ms. Huang, but he did it anyway. The Innies insisted on exploring the outside world. He created this ORTBO for them to give them this experience. And not just throw them out in the middle of the forest, but the man built tents that had four-ply washroom tissue! You know what I mean? It’s an attention to detail…
TVLINE | Above and beyond.
Above and beyond! And it is taken for granted. So there is a loss, a confusion, a frustration I believe that Milchick is sitting with when it comes to the Innies. But it’s also coming from the board. It’s coming from Drummond. You know, we see these paintings [Milchick received from the board earlier in Season 2], where this is the first instance where we are witnessing race being addressed in the world of Kier, and specifically at Lumon, and how we see the board handle this issue of race when it comes to Milchick and Natalie. And what I appreciate is how that story is left unanswered. We don’t get a conclusion to that moment. But it’s never lost, because I think all of what Milchick goes through, starting from Season 1, builds up to the finale of Season 2, when this man is knocking down this vending machine and going ham on this thing. It is totally earned. He’s been through it.
TVLINE | Yeah, that battle you had with the vending machine was pretty fierce. How many times did you crash into that thing? Did you get any bumps or bruises?
You know, I actually jammed my shoulder and bruised a rib. Not because of anybody else, but it was just because I landed improperly. But I do want to say: The knocking down of that vending machine? There was no help. That is 100% Milchick.
TVLINE | The finale also gave us another dance number for Mr. Milchick, with him leading a full marching band and drumline in the office. What kind of rehearsals and choreography went into pulling off that scene?
Well, we had extensive rehearsals. We had a gentleman by the name of Teddy who has this group of various actors and musicians who filled in for the band, and I was adamant about working with them to really figure out their flavor. How do they walk? How do they march? What are their formations? Because it was important for me that Milchick was a part of this story and not on the outside. So he had to embody a lot of the traits that Choreography & Merriment would have exemplified. Because, again, I really think this was his idea, 100%. So there were a lot of conversations with Teddy, with Ty and Tyrone. Those were the three guys that were handling all the choreography. They sculpted some moves for me, but allowed me to develop my own taste and my own flavor in it as well, so that it felt organic in the moment.
I believe we worked on that scene for a couple weeks, and that includes the preparation for it as well. There was a big group of people in the band who had never seen the show before, when they signed on to the project. And as we were working on this particular scene, I started to notice that some of the band members were acting differently towards me, and I got wind from one of the members of the drumline. Basically, these people started watching the show and realized that, “Oh, Milchick’s kind of an a–hole, and we don’t like you.” [Laughs] But it was a lot of fun and very energetic.
TVLINE | I know you can’t say much about Season 3, but where does Milchick go from here? Cold Harbor is finished, and his entire macrodata refinement team has turned on him. Is his job in danger?
I think everything’s in danger at this point. We lose Drummond. He’s murdered, essentially, and the Innies have run amok. Gemma is now outside of the floor. So there’s a lot that’s going on that leaves so much to imagination and so much to question, right? We also don’t know what Milchick’s mental state is at this point. We do see that Helly has basically corralled all of Choreography & Merriment to rally against him, and so he now has to figure out a way to get out of this. So it’s very immediate, and it really does leave the question: What now? What do we do now?
Give us your thoughts on Milchick’s dance moves, the Season 2 finale and all things Severance in a comment below.
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