Severance’s Views on Grief Are Uncooked, Actual, and Dystopian All at As soon as

Grief was a key theme in Severance season one, nevertheless it was largely confined to the outtie storyline. In season two, we’ve seen loss become a prominent presence in each segments of the present, upsetting even the innies—who are usually not well-equipped to cope with advanced feelings—to think about what dying means to them.

In season one, we realized that Severance‘s important character, Mark Scout, determined to change into a severed worker at Lumon Industries as a result of he thought it could assist him address the lack of his spouse, Gemma, in a automotive accident a couple of years prior. We quickly perceive that Mark continues to be deeply affected by her passing, sobbing in his automotive earlier than going into the workplace; he has come to understand the eight-hour break from his disappointment whereas his innie is controlling his consciousness. He retains a couple of pictures of her round his dwelling—because it’s Lumon-subsidized housing, and he took the job after she died, we are able to assume she by no means lived there with him—however the basement continues to be filled with storage bins containing Gemma’s knitting provides, candles, and different tangible proof that she existed.

The knife-twist, after all, is that she’s alive. Viewers members realized that surprising element proper together with innie Mark, who screamed out his discovery within the season one finale. [Update: Thanks to the reader who pointed out in the comments below that the audience actually knew that fact a few episodes earlier—when Mark taped together a photo of Gemma he’d ripped up in anguish.] His outtie’s partner is in reality Ms. Casey, the counselor in Lumon’s Wellness Heart. Gemma/Ms. Casey being the identical individual, and Gemma being alive in any respect, opened up mysteries galore for season two, particularly while you assume again on what Ms. Casey has revealed about her existence. As a severed worker, she’s solely been awake for a handful of days. Complete. And from what we’ve seen, she by no means switches into an outtie; as a substitute, she stays at Lumon full-time.

Why would Lumon facilitate what seems to be such a diabolical and elaborate conspiracy? We don’t know but. However in Severance season two, outtie Mark agrees to bear a sketchy re-integration process after realizing there’s truly an opportunity his spouse did not die in that automotive accident, and is as a substitute hidden someplace on one among Lumon’s decrease flooring. To him, a miraculous second probability with Gemma is definitely worth the risks of tinkering round in his already aching mind.

On the similar time, innie Mark—who has no concept that he’s within the means of being re-integrated—tries to seek out Ms. Casey. He doesn’t share his outtie’s grief, however the strangeness of the state of affairs tugs at him. We all know, after all, that Ms. Casey has been remanded to the ominous-sounding “Testing Ground,” one of many duplicitous Ms. Cobel’s final acts because the boss of the severed ground. (Severance is now 5 episodes into season two, and Ms. Casey has but to seem.)

It’s value mentioning that one purpose outtie Mark is initially hesitant to aim re-integration is as a result of he noticed what occurred to Petey, his former Lumon co-worker and a earlier guinea pig for the process. Severance season one begins with innie Mark realizing his work bestie is not employed at Lumon. The innies do not know what occurred to Petey (it’s very laborious to give up a severed job, and there’s no obvious purpose why he would have been fired), and there’s hypothesis that one thing occurred to his outtie. Petey’s absence presents our first style of Severed‘s recurring concept that when a severed individual leaves the job, it successfully means they’ve died. Their outtie is perhaps completely nicely, however the model of them that their Lumon pals know merely blinks out of existence.

That’s why innie Petey’s “dying” is tougher for innie Mark than Petey’s precise dying is for outtie Mark. The latter nonetheless feels duty-bound to attend the funeral of this man, a complete stranger, who materialized someday spouting crazy-sounding discuss being Mark’s finest pal at Lumon, and all of the evils that the corporate is secretly participating in.

When Ms. Cobel—who poses as “Mrs. Selvig,” Mark’s daffy next-door neighbor, in season one—additionally reveals up at Petey’s funeral, it’s ostensibly as ethical assist for Mark, although after all she’s actually there to tear the Lumon-implanted chip out of Petey’s cranium. We nonetheless don’t know a lot about Ms. Cobel’s background, however we do know she’s a dedicated zealot in the case of Kier Eagan, Lumon’s cult leader-like founder. We additionally know she feels nice ache over one thing that occurred in her previous, more than likely involving her deceased mom, and it’s on the root of her odd conduct each out and in of the workplace.

Whereas Ms. Cobel’s enigmas await extra exploration, Severance‘s most searing instance of grief not involving Mark springs from the connection between innie Irving and innie Burt. Regardless of working in purportedly rival departments—Irv’s in Macrodata Refinement, Burt’s in Optics and Design—the 2 males meet-cute within the hallway and have an prompt connection. Their shy flirting is the closest factor to sweetness we’ve seen on Severance, and for Irv, a person suffering from waking desires of being engulfed in terrifying black goo, his emotions for Burt are a startling revelation in a life beforehand dedicated to counting numbers and being a stickler for the worker handbook. When Burt abruptly “retires” from Lumon, he will get a cheery send-off occasion, however his departure is in any other case as surprising and final-feeling as Petey’s.

Irv doesn’t take it nicely, and slips right into a despair so consuming it guides his actions throughout MDR’s daring “Time beyond regulation Contingency” stunt on the finish of season one. When innie Irv awakens within the outdoors world, he manages to dig up Burt’s handle and heads to his home, wailing his title and pounding on his entrance door even supposing a) he glimpsed Burt with a person who positive seemed like he might be Burt’s husband, and b) outtie Burt has no clue who Irving is. When Irv returns to Lumon in season two, he’s a damaged man. Burt on the skin is unavailable, and Burt on the within has vanished into reminiscence.

Earlier than lengthy, nevertheless, Irv makes his personal sudden exit. He’s fired on the finish of episode 4, and subsequently the Lumon model of Irv is all of the sudden gone without end. For his MDR co-worker Dylan, this is kind of tantamount to homicide, irrespective of how typically he’s assured Irv’s outtie is alive and nicely and taking a pleasant cruise. As a result of Dylan makes such a giant fuss about it, Mr. Milchick—the non-severed supervisor of the severed ground, promoted after Ms. Cobel’s departure—agrees that MDR can have a form of funeral to recollect him.

As with all Lumon ceremonies, the occasion is stuffed with awkward touches; as soon as a “bereavement package” is ready, there are customized occasion favors and an edible centerpiece within the type of Irving’s head carved out of a watermelon. Dylan comes by with a speech as heartfelt as it’s crass, and appears to seek out some closure in doing that, however Mr. Milchick’s underage assistant disapproves, pondering the ritual will confuse the innies into believing they’re on the identical degree as human beings.

With Irv now completely in his outtie kind—in the newest episode of Severance, outtie Burt and outtie Irv met for the primary time, an intriguing improvement—and MDR coming to phrases with their standing as a three-person workforce, the thriller of Gemma/Ms. Casey stays to propel the again half of Severance season two, at the very least so far as outtie Mark is anxious. There’s a wall of harm he must carve into, and he’s able to danger his life to seek out out why Lumon has been placing him by hell and exploiting his darkest despair.

New episodes of Severance arrive Fridays on Apple TV+.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing you might want to find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.