Severance season 2 Finale: Question Mark about Mark's Choice and Aristotle's Causes

So Severance ended its powerful Second Season with even more powerful finale.  And has now become a thin two-season tradition, the finale leaves us more unanswered questions than when this season began.  But Severance is a such a fresh and sharply original narrative, my guess is its tradition be increasingly less thin, as the years with new seasons roll by,

The above is the unspoiler part of my review.  [Here, then, is the warning about spoilers ahead ... ]

The biggest question in this finale is why Mark chooses his budding innie Love Helly instead of his deeper and longer outie love, Gemma.  Actually, we know why Mark made that choice -- his innie is falling in love with Helly -- which I've been entirely in favor of -- instead of the wife that his outie has been yearning for.  We know the proximate cause -- or what Aristotle would the "efficient" cause -- of why that happened:  Mark was his innie at the time he made that choice.

But, wait a minute.  I thought Mark's outie had been undergoing some integration process which would unify his innie and outie.  He was, and we've seen some evidence that this process was working, at least in several episodes that preceded the finale.  And, indeed, the finale took some pains to indicate there was still some separation -- aka, lack of integration -- between Mark's innie and outie.  In one of the best scenes in the series, we have Mark's two beings talking to each via recordings via a device that looks it was last used in maybe the 1980s.  That scene ended in argument and frustration.  Which of course was necessary to set up Mark's innie going his own way at the end.  (By the way, they played "Windmills of Your Mind" at the end, which was an appropriate enough choice, but I would've preferred "You Can Go Your Own Way".) From a narrative point of view, I think the lack of integration should have shown itself in a more predominant fashion prior to this finale.  As it was presented, it seemed like a little bit too much in one short hour, put in the hour to set up and justify the ending.  Or, to stay with Aristotelian philosophy, the efficient cause -- Mark's innie -- was a little too patly set up to justify the final cause, which was Mark's innie of course choosing Helly.

But there were some elements that were especially gratifying to see.  Mr. Drummond was an arch Lumon sadistic monster.  It was good to see him die, and it was a nice touch that we don't know if the killer was Mark's innie or outie, because he shifted from one to another in that notorious elevator, and it's pretty likely that it was the finger on the trigger undergoing the shift and twitching that pulled the trigger.  In other words, the efficient cause in the killing of Drummond is a question mark -- a question mark about which Mark pulled the trigger -- and, come to think about it, a question mark as to Mark, whether he was his innie or his outie -- deliberately pulled the trigger.  Though whereas the innie or outie is a 50/50 proposition, the deliberate or accidental question seems much likely answered as accidental.

The other scene I really liked was that woman with the goat.  She not only saved the goat, she saved Mark.  If there was an Emmy Award for actor who saved both the star of the series and a goat, it would be this woman.  (Ok, the character's name is Lorne, and actor's name is Gwendoline Christie).  And the goat's performance was pretty impressive, too.  It had a name, too -- Emile.  Hey, how about an Emmy for Emile for best non-human actor in a series?

Back to what I thought could have been better: I'd say Milchick could have had a bigger role.  I mean, locked in a bathroom only gives you so much room for exposition, and when he was out of the bathroom he really didn't do that much, either.

But, all in all, Severance established itself in this second season as an exceptionally original and remarkable science fiction series.  I'll be back here with reviews of the third season as soon as it's up on Apple TV+.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: MultipleDylans ... Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies ... Severance 1.4: Innies Out in the Snow ... 2.5: Watermelon Man ... 2.6: Tables ... 2.7: Gemma and the Dentist ... 2.8 Nordic Noir and Charles Babbage

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.9: Bouquet of Penetrating Stories

Well, the penultimate episode of the second season of Severance was powerful indeed, offering us an intoxicating bouquet of interlocking stories.  ("Penultimate" means next-to-last.  I give you this information -- in case you didn't already know it -- because Milchick standing up to Lumon and its ridiculous big-word compulsion is one of these stories ...)

[But I better first warn you about spoilers ... ]

Here are some of my favorite of the stories all percolating in episode 1.9:

• The opening of this episode was even better than usual.  I mean, as that camera panned out at the end of that beginning, I almost thought for a moment that we were seeing a flying saucer on the scene, and Lumon is part of some interstellar invasion.  Who knows, it may be.
• Helena and her sicko father was disconcerting to see (which, of course, is what Severance is and is supposed to be).  He wants to see his daughter eat eggs raw -- what is he, some kind of cannibal? (No offence to people who like their eggs raw -- they're probably good for you, as long as they're not carrying bird flu.)
• Outie Dylan being furious that his wife is cheating on him by passionately kissing his innie is one great piece of Severance story.  Only in Severance could we get such a story.  Only in Severance could it make any sense.  If someone were to ask me to explain Severance in less than a minute -- no easy task -- I would probably tell them about this storyline.  (It also occurred to me, watching this whole Dylan innie and outie and their wife thread, that outies being made into innies is reminiscent of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.) 
• Milchick standing up to that hateful Lumon overlord was just excellent to see.  And, it's significant that Milchick is not at all totally rebelling against Lumon.  In the rest of this episode, he's his good-bad-old Lumon henchman self.
• Irv and Burt was good to see, too.  Although Burt insisted that they go their separate ways, I'm hoping anyway that we'll see them back together

Note that I have not said anything about Mark, including what we saw at the end of the episode.  That's because I don't really understand it.  But that's what finales are for, and I'll you here next week with my review.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans ... Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies ... Severance 1.4: Innies Out in the Snow ... 2.5: Watermelon Man ... 2.6: Tables ... 2.7: Gemma and the Dentist ... 2.8 Nordic Noir and Charles Babbage

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.8: Nordic Noir and Charles Babbage

So, Nordic Noir is one of my favorite genres.  It usually takes place either in Scandinavia or Iceland (which I don't think is part of Iceland, but don't quote me on it).  At its best, the genre combines crime with scenery so cold you want to put on an L. L. Bean winter coat indoors -- wait, I think anything (like the latest True Detective) that takes place in Alaska is also a kind of Nordic Noir -- but getting back to this eighth episode of the second season of Severance, which we're told in the creators' epilogue takes place in Newfoundland, it certainly delivers a deep Nordic Noir chill.

As for the story ... [here's the spoilers ahead advisory ...]

Well, as for the story, it pretty much delivers one thing, but that one thing is pretty important: Harmony Cobel is apparently the inventor of the severance process!  I mean, it's not clear if she actually built it, but she came up with the designs for the process, including how to deal with its complications, and that's impressive.  I guess this makes her the Charles Babbage of Severance.  (Babbage came up with the design for our digital computers -- his analytical engine in 1837 -- which Turning liberated from paper into the ancestors of the digital computer more than a hundred years later, and we all have in our laptops and phones today, which my students tell me is in turn now in the process of being transformed again into astronomically-fast quantum computers, even as I'm writing and your reading this).

I doubt that Lumon will have much to do with quantum computing -- though, come to think of it, Cold Harbour could be some kind of code for quantum computing --  but as of now, Lumon seems very much rooted in the 19th century, almost literally so.  On the other hand, in addition to Cold Harbour, since Severance is science fiction, anything that in retrospect is plausible could well be the way this season goes.

See you back here next week.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans ... Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies ... Severance 1.4: Innies Out in the Snow ... 2.5: Watermelon Man ... 2.6: Tables ... 2.7: Gemma and the Dentist

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.7: Gemma and the Dentist

One of the best things about this season of Severance -- I don't think the first season quite had this -- is that each episode is like a little movie in itself.  There is a progression, of course, from one episode to the next.   But each episode not only has its own story, related to the other episodes, but an ambience, a cinematography, all its own.

[Spoilers, of course, ahead ... ]

In the case of Severance 2.7, we finally get the back story of Mark and Gemma.  Not only is Mark really happy, but the cinematography is really happy, too.  And I was happy to see that, too.  The episode had plenty of unhappiness -- it wouldn't be Severance if it didn't.  But the splashes of normal love and joy were a tonic, especially welcome in the world we're all living in now, offscreen.

Not that this episode made anything very much clear.  The episode, again, couldn't and wouldn't be part of this series, if it did.  That's why I put the the dentist in the title of this review (also because Gemma and dentist almost rhyme).  The dentist -- who likely a little later was also a doctor -- does something to make Gemma's mouth hurt.  This is presumably part of an overall probe of Gemma by Lumon to find out ... what?   We get nothing from the dentist.  Getting information out of him, out of Lumon, out of Severance the series itself is, well, like pulling teeth.  (I'm going to resist the temptation to apologize.  I like puns.  I'll therefore also give in to the urge to point out that sometimes things get so quiet on Severance, you can hear a pun drop.)

Anyway, back to the story:  I see a big conflict looming.  Both Helly and her outie Helena really want Mark.   His outie still deeply loves Gemma, though.  And if and when his innie and outie are integrated enough, Mark's innie, who's very attracted to Helly, will have to choose between her and Gemma/Ms. Casey.  For that matter, Mark's outie isn't exactly averse to Helly/Helena, either.

So we'll likely have some good refracted triangles ahead in Severance.  And I'll be back with my review of the next episode next week.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans ... Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies ... Severance 1.4: Innies Out in the Snow ... 2.5: Watermelon Man ... 2.6: Tables

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.6: Tables

Another breathtakingly complex, actually beautiful episode -- 2.6 -- of Severance.  Tables sum it all up for me.  Let me explain.

I thought all the key moments happen at tables.  Here are some examples:

[Yes, there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

1. The empty, now three-person table of our innies on the severance floor.  Empty because innie Dylan was with his outie wife, and they were kissing.  (Apparently, as we learn later, this led to Dylan's innie privileges with his outie wife being suspended, maybe terminated.)  Also not at that table were Mark's innie and Hellie, in a great series of scenes that end with them making love.  As I've said, I'm always rooting for them as a couple.  (Unfortunately, as we see a little later, Mark has a bloody nose.  We might well think at the time that the nose was the result of the lovemaking.  But we learn later that it almost definitely was the result of the more intense treatment he's being given to unite his innie and outie.)

2. There's a very different kind of table, in a Chinese restaurant, where Helena just happens to be seated as Mark (outie) is gobbling down a ton of food.  She comes over to talk to him.  I can't quite figure out what's going on with her -- is she really attracted to Mark (I guess she should be, if her innie is), or is she doing this for Lumon, or maybe both?   I'm pretty sure -- at least at this point -- that Mark the outie has no knowledge of his innie making love with Helena or Helly.  Do I have that right?

3. And third table features Irving, Burt, and Cecil (played by Fringe's John Noble -- great to see him again!) at the dinner table with the ham.  Like everything else in Severance, this dinner is no pleasure -- or maybe there's a bit of pleasure, mixed in with lots of angst, born of Cecil's jealousy over Irving and Burt.  Unless I'm wrong, this is the first dinner we've seen with two outies and someone (Cecil) who's not really an outie, since he (presumably) doesn't have an innie.  That's an obvious but I think important point: one might think everyone in the world -- our world, and in Severance, most people in the world -- are outies. But I think that's not quite correct.  Because I think that in order to be an outie, you have to have an innie.

So I learned lots of things from those tables in Severance 2.6, and I'll see you back here next week with my review of Severance 2.7.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans ... Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies ... Severance 1.4: Innies Out in the Snow ... 2.5: Watermelon Man

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.5: Watermelon Man

Well, it was a great semi-instrumental by Mongo Santamaria in the late 1950s -- "Watermelon Man" -- and it was the best part of Severance 2.5.  I'm talking about the watermelon carving of Irving's head that was the high-point of his funeral, i.e., at least, a funeral Severance innie style.  I mean, the watermelon head really looked like Irving.  I don't know if somebody really carved it, or it was the product of some kind of AI.  But it was impressive.  Even the creator of the series, Dan Erickson, said in the afterwords about this episode that, as soon as that juicy red head was wheeled in, he knew this episode would work.  (The phrase "juicy red" is mine.)  Even the green rind worked well.  It looked like some kind of yarmulke aka skullcap.

Of course, as Mark (of course) points out, Irv is not really dead.  He's just no longer at work with the innies -- meaning, his innie is gone.  And the other best part of this episode is seeing Burt for more than a split-second shadow that could have been Irving's imagination -- more specifically, Irv's outie's imagination, where Irv is definitely not dead.  Hey, it's always good to hear Christopher Walken talk, the way he talks, but it was especially good to hear him in episode 2.5, given that we haven't heard him for so long.

Helly is also back on the severed floor as herself -- that is, the innie Helly not the outie Helena -- and we also get some clarity on how long it was really her outie we were seeing down there.  But I'm still not clear if it was her innie or her outie who kissed Mark's innie last season? I think it was her outie, given the way her innie is acting now, but I wouldn't bet on it.  (That could be a good tagline for the entire series, "I wouldn't bet on it".)

And speaking of Mark, and definitely last but not least, we seem to have a least of a touch of progress, or something, of Mark moving towards integration.  There's no way that won't be a major thread of this season as it progresses to the end, and I'm looking forward to that.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans ... Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies ... Severance 1.4: Innies Out in the Snow

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.4: Innies Out in the Snow

Well, as I've been saying, Severance's outstanding second season on Apple TV+ seems to be getting better and better, with episode 2.4 delivering one of the wildest stories so far, with our innie team of four -- Mark, Helly, Dylan, and Irv -- now out in the snow, doing the furthest thing from frolicking, at least for everyone other than one couple.

[And here's the warning about spoilers ahead ... ]

I guess the most important revelation in this blinding story is that Helly's innie is really her outie Helena, a prime member of the Eagan family, daughter of Jame, CEO of Lumon.  Irv pays the price of telling us this, by being banished from the severed floor by Milchick.  Unclear how long he'll be banished from the show -- if at all -- but I hope he isn't.

Now all of the above was exciting enough, but the Helly/Helena story also delivers her finally making love with Mark.  As I said last week, I thought the two of them should have kissed in episode 2.3, but in retrospect that was a good build-up to what they did in the winter wonderland in 2.4.

Helly/Helena's feelings for Mark also put in a different light what's happening on the severed floor with Ms. Casey, who was revealed at the end of season one as Mark's beloved wife Gemma.  Depending upon how deep Helena's feelings for Mark are, she may want to keep him separated from his wife.  And speaking of Mark, we saw him at the end episode 2.3 undergoing some kind of integration.  We now know that the procedure didn't kill him.  But did it work?  And, if so, how entirely?

Helena notices something different in Mark after they sleep together -- is she sensing that Mark's innie is not quite the same?   One thing about Severance that you can always to rely upon: no matter how many questions it seems to answer, it always also leaves some new ones on the table, whether on the severed floor or out in the north in the ice and the snow and the freezing ponds.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans ... Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.3: Innies<->Outies

Of course, every episode of Severance is about innies and their outies, but 2.3 was especially so, a potpourri of vignettes (I don't know why I'm getting so French) that effectively told a bouquet of stories.

[And voici my warning about spoilers ... ]

The ultimate innie and outie story is no doubt the attempt to re-integrate the two.  We saw how that worked out for Petey last season, so Mark taking a shot at that at the end of the episode is a major event, indeed.  As always, since there's no way Mark is going to turn into a vegetable after this -- at least, not for too long -- it will be significant and fun to see what comes from this.

Another innie and outie story in 2.3 is Dylan's, whose innie is now getting a little time with his outie wife, thanks to the goodness of Lumon.  Of course, things don't work out as well as either Dylan's innie or outie might have hoped, but we do learn that Dylan's outie -- as we also saw last week -- is a bit of a loser.  Not surprising, because who in their right mind would want to go through the whole severance procedure.  I mean, the show is highly enjoyable, but that's in significant part because the procedure certainly is not.

We see Helly in and out, too.  But my favorite scene with Helly was after she and Mark take the elevator down to innie-land (actually, innie-floor), and they're close to kissing.  Helly clearly wants Mark to kiss her, and she makes that moderately clear.  But Mark (the idiot) doesn't.  And given that Helly was the one who kissed him last time, he certainly should have.  Not to mention that Helly is very kissable.

And then, of course, we have the people who are only outies.  Milchick is gifted a series of portraits of Kier, rendered as a black man.  To his credit, he doesn't really like them, though he puts on a good show to Natalie, who has the best facial expressions in the business.  This was actually a very important scene, because if Milchick turns against Lumon because of its racism, well ...   (And he was also carrying those blue balloons.)

But that's getting ahead of ourselves.  I'll see you back here next week with my revue of 1.4.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News? ... Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.2: Multiple Dylans

An extraordinary second episode of the second season of Severance on Apple TV+ today -- mostly a prequel to the first -- pushing this season to be well on its way to exceeding the first in sheer ideational power, which is high praise indeed.

[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

Severance, of course, is about how the same person can be two people, expressing different emotions, living two different lives.  We see this powerfully played in Helly/Helena (fine acting by Britt Lower).  Mark's innie is falling in love with Helly, who kisses him in Season 1.  Helena the outie turns out to be the daughter of Jame Eagan, CEO of Lumon, and a direct descendant of the almighty Kier who started all of this back in the 19th century (and, yes, there's a Big Love-ish flavor to Severance).  Jame shows his appreciation of his daughter by calling her a "fetid moppet," one of the nastiest things I've heard a father call a daughter on a TV show or anywhere else.  Maybe because of this, and who knows what other reasons, Helena takes great interest in the video of her innie kissing Mark's.  As Milchik tells Mark's outie, the good emotional things that can happen to an innie eventually seep through to the outie.

But this doubleness, if that's a word, is both multiplied and lampooned with Dylan G. in this episode.  First, we see a character -- on the outside, pretty high up in Lumen -- who looks a lot like Dylan.  That would be Mr. Drummond. Then, as Dylan's outie goes looking for a job, he's interviewed by a Mr. Saliba, who looks so much like Dylan that he (Saliba) even says so.  In fact, I thought for a moment that Saliba was being played by Zack Cherry (who plays Dylan) -- same for Drummond -- but it turns out Saliba is played Adrian Martinez, and Drummond by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (whom I first saw in The Widow a few years ago).  So, I don't know, but this had to be deliberate.  Or, it could be, at least in part, because Severance's creator and writer Dan Erickson looks a little like Dylan, too.

There's also great dialogue, as always, in this episode of Severance. For some reason -- maybe because I gave a lecture there a few years ago -- my favorite line was delivered by Mark W., who, fired after his very brief employment at Lumon because the company wisely decided to rehire not only Mark S. but all his original innie colleagues, at least until "Cold Harbor" (whatever that is) is completed, Mark W. angrily says, "I broke a lease in Grand Rapids".

And, just to top off this brilliantly entertaining episode, we're given a big hint at the end by Harmony that she may know something about how and why Mark's wife Gemma died.  The way Harmony drove away, there's a chance she killed Gemma, or knows who did.

Add murder mystery to the mix. See you back here next week.

See also Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News?

And see also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance 2.1: Ultimate Fake News?

A thoroughly disconcerting -- and therefore, excellent, because that's what it's supposed to be -- episode 2.1 of Severance, the return of this cuttingly bizarre series on Apple TV+.

First, I really enjoyed the long opening sequence of Mark S. running through the severed hall at the opening of this episode.  It was on the extended trailer which I watched a good couple of times, and I enjoy more every time I see it.  In part because it reminds me of the halls on the ground floor (I think) of CBS on 57th Street in Manhattan -- I was watching a debate (on TV) there between John Kerry and George W. Bush in the 2004 election, that I was supposed to comment on -- and I stepped out for a moment to get a sip of water, walked down a hall and around to find a fountain I thought I saw when I was coming in, and it took me way too long to get back to the room with the debate.  It also reminds me of some hallways in hospitals, which makes it even more unlikely that I liked it Severance 2.1, though I very much did.

[Now there might be a spoiler of two ahead ... ]

As to the story, it was nice and funny seeing Mark S. in a severed room with a new team, including a new old guy (played by Bob Balaban) named Mark W. -- which is why I'm calling our innie Mark S., because you never know, especially in a series like this, when a character like Mark W. will come back.  (Actually, that applies to any and all of the characters in this series.)  

But it was reassuring to see our Mark reunited with his innie team, and also reassuring to see how much Milchick -- aka Milk Shake -- lies all the time.  In fact, it struck me that Severance from the very beginning was a series about the ultimate fake news, about news so fake, it's about your very self and being, split into two, with one not knowing what the other is doing.  That's why notes passed back and forth between the inside and the outside hold such power.

And it was good to see Miss Huang, a new character, in the series.  She clearly has a lot of importance, and at this point it's possible that she may be running the show.  "And a child shall lead them" may be a central part of the story this season.

I'm off to watch the next episode of another great series, but I'll see you back here next week with my review Severance 2.2

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired ... Severance: Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

Severance Season One Finale: Stunning Revelations

We could see from almost the beginning of the stunning Season One finale of Severance on Apple TV+ that we were going to be in for some utterly game-changing revelations.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Let's start with two that are significant, indeed, but hardly the most powerful that roll out before episode is over.  There seemed to be, I don't know, maybe rockets or spaceships in Irving's outie black guck paintings.  Chances are he didn't come from another planet.  But is his outie a retired astronaut?  The other early revelation worthy of note is Dylan has to continue to keep his hands on those levers, in order for the innies to continue in their outie bodies.  With his arms spread widely apart to keep his hands on the levers, this is no easy job, and Dylan almost looks like he's in a state of crucifixion as he gives life to his innie friends in the outside world.

And then things get really interesting.  Helly's outie is an Eagan -- that is, a member of the family of the Eagans who run Lumon -- and daughter of the Eagan who invented the severing chip.  No wonder Lumon took her attempted suicide so seriously.

And even more incredible: Mark's innie learns that his outie decided to go for the severance procedure because his outie couldn't deal with the death of his beloved wife (we knew that already).  But in a shocker to top all shockers, Mark's innie discovers that she's not dead at all, and in fact she's the shrink or social worker or whatever the title is of the woman who talks to the innies and asks them questions (that seem inane to us outies) in an effort to help them better adjust.  No wonder we saw some sexual energy between them.

Irving has a far less momentous conclusion -- or so it seems -- to his innie's brief inhabiting of his outie's life:  he's furiously knocking on the door of Burt's outie, whom Irving has seen living happily with another man.

But before we find out what happens with Irving -- and with Helly and with Mark -- their innies are severed from their outer bodies.  Milchick, contacted by Harmony (turns out she's still loyal to Lumon, after all), breaks in on Dylan, and ends his literal leveraging of his innie colleagues ...

We'll need to find out what happens next year in the next season, when I'll be back for sure with a review, unless Lumon somehow gets to me, too.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency ... Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Fired

Severance 1.8: Fired, Kissed, Almost Free

Three brilliant elements stand out in this superb next-to-last episode of the first season of Severance on Apple TV+.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

1. Harmony is fired!  A shocker, that comes from the Board learning that Helly tried to commit suicide, and Harmony failed to inform the Board.  As a first example of what Harmony gone from Lumon will do: she advises Mark's outie to get away from Lumon, when he tells her he's thinking of leaving.  This, presumably, is a split second before Dylan manages to ignite the Overtime Contingency, which will allow Mark's innie to escape into his outie (see # 3 below).

2. Helly kisses Mark right before her innie takes the upward elevator to become her outie (which, again, will soon be inhabited by her innie).  The kiss was long overdue and good to see.  The two would make a good couple.  Here's hoping we see that happen.

3. Dylan finds it's harder than he thought to turn three outies into their innies at the same time, aka, switch on the Overtime Contingency for Irving, Mark, and Helly.  I put Irving first, because we also learn tonight that the black guck we see in the opening credits (which, by the way, are excellent) is a take on the paintings he makes with thick black paint as an outie.  I suppose calling them paintings is an exaggeration, but I'm no expert in abstract art.  I'm also assuming here that the Outer Contingency worked -- the episode ended a nanosecond before the Contingency transformation takes effect.

Which brings us to next week's finale.  There's no way we won't see the innies freed, at least for part of that episode.  The big question, of course, is what they and we will discover about their outward lives. The one we know the most about is Mark, and that's not much.  Helly's outie is some rich socialite or businesswoman, or so it seems.  Irving has a lovable dog and is a "painter".  As for Dylan, we learned previously that he has son.

See you back here next week, with my impressions of what we learn in the finale.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside ... Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency

Severance 1.7: Overtime Contingency

[Spoilers in the first paragraph and after ... ]

The excellent episode 1.7 of Severance is entitled "Defiant Jazz" -- a fine title, which comes from the scene in which Helly is rewarded for her fine work with a music and dance time, and she chooses "Defiant Jazz," and Dylan attacks Milchick, biting him in the arm -- but I would've gone with "Overtime Contingency" for the title, because ...

Well, that's what happened to Dylan last week, when his outie was awoken in the middle of the night, at home.  The name for that outrageous intrusion is "overtime contingency," and since just about everything in the the severance creation of innies and outies is an outrageous intrusion on the people severed -- even though the hype (which Mark bought) is that it brings peace of mind -- that title would have worked very well for this episode.

And this episode was packed with other discomforting goodies:

• Mark meets the woman who undid Petey's severance.  She tells Mark that Petey died, not from the reintegration, but because he didn't follow the prescribed recovery procedure, whatever exactly that is.  And --
• She kills head of security Graner -- good riddance -- and gives Mark his ID card.
• Back on the severed flaw, Dylan has his best night (biting Milchick) and so does Irving, telling off Milchick because Irving is upset that Burt is retiring.  (If I was the writer, I probably would've named Irving "Ernie.")
• And why is Burt retiring?  Probably because the Board is aware of his and Irving's budding relationship, and doesn't want that to happen.
• And just for good measure, the Board wants to see Harmony "next week" -- presumably that would be in next week's episode?  I hope so, though time proceeds in an odd way in this series, which adds to its unsettling edge.

And, in any case, I'll see you back here next week, with my review of the next episode.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives ... Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside

Severance 1.6: Lumon on the Outside

An important, at once taking stock and breaking out episode 1.6 of Severance up on Apple TV+ yesterday, in which a wide range of our central characters move forward in their own development and our knowledge of them.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Mark gets sent to the hateful "Break Room" by Harmony, but gets even more rebellious.  He leads his three severed compatriots to Burt's Optics and Design division, which seems like a supermarket in comparison to Mark's four-person operation.   All of four of them are wondering aloud about the ultimate purpose of Lumon, and what everyone is really doing in their work on the severed floor.

Irving is ready to be friends with Burt, but not yet with any benefits.  Dylan gets a visit at his home from Lumon, which tells us how deeply Lumon has the outies under its thumb.  We've already seen and are seeing more of Harmony mucking around in Mark's life on the outside.  Would be interesting to learn more about how Harmony came to be next door to Mark on the outside, and what role that played in Mark going for the severance.

Back to Dylan -- I said last week that Dylan's rebelliousness as an innie might be a cover for his being a Lumon plant in the innies, but the visit he got at home pretty much disproves that.  Yet there's much more story to Lumon and its agents in the outside world.  We're beginning to get an inkling of that with the politician -- husband of the woman Mark's sister meets in the birthing cabins -- and the news story that he supported the implementation of severance at Lumon.  This means there was public debate about that move.  We need to know more about the people who opposed it.  Where are they and what are they doing now?

Petey's story could provide more information and insight into Lumon on the outside.  The company is obviously not happy about reintegration working.  Did they kill Petey, or did he die because of ill-effects from the reintegration?  The budding relationship between Mark and Petey's daughter could provide some answers.

And I'll be back here next week with a review of the answers and questions we get in the next episode of this unique and fascinating series.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity ... Severance 1.5: Second Lives

Severance 1.5: Second Lives

So, I said in my review of Severance 1.4 last week that, in the metaphysics of life and death in television series, if you don't see a character's head literally severed or blown to bits, that character might survive whatever the grievous injury.  And--

[Spoilers ahead ...]

Sure, enough, in episode 1.5 of Severance on Apple TV+ yesterday, Mark comes to the rescue and takes Helly down from that noose before it kills her.   We later learn that when she came to, she was in her outie form, an interesting detail that may have some significance sometime later in this unusual narrative.  At very least, it confirmed what we already knew, that her outie form was the entity that she really is.  I'll also say I'm glad that Helly survived, she's an important, pivotal character -- both in her own right, and as the innie Mark is the closest to, has the most commitment to.

Otherwise, there was not much of transcendent importance that happened in this episode.  It ends with Irving's team meeting Burt's team, which is supposed to be a big deal, but I'm not 100% sure why.  Are the innies on the way to organizing some kind of union?   That would indeed be interesting and important.

Meanwhile, I'd like to see more about Harmony and her relationship with the higher-ups at Lumon.  She's clearly beholden to the "board," but she also clearly has a certain independence of mind and action -- certainly a lot more than the innies on Mark's and slightly higher levels.  Dylan also has a lot more story in him.  It occurred to me that his obvious constant sarcasm and rebelliousness could be a mask for him really being a company operative.  That would explain why he seems to be getting away with his comments and attitude.

As I keep saying, Severance is one of most unusual and therefore memorable science fiction series to get on the screen in years -- the very different Counterpart would be the most recent example that comes to mind -- and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor ... Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity

Severance 1.4: Deadly Ambiguity

A more disturbing episode of Severance -- 1.4 -- than usual, because

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Well, if you saw the episode, up since Friday on Apple TV+, you'll know why:  Helly takes her life, or tries to take her life, at the end of the hour.  I make that distinction because, you know how it is on television, if a character's head isn't literally severed (for want of a better word), than she or he might well have survived.  In Helly's case, someone in that hell on Earth might have come by and rescued her.

What drove her to do this?  She was betrayed by her outie, who appears in a video explaining that she doesn't want to end the severance of her and her innie.  Though, it occurred to me that that video could have been a deep fake.  I mean, deep fakes already abound in our own off-screen world, so, surely the dementos who built that innie world would know how to make them.

The other important aspect of 1.4 is the development of Irving as a character.  We saw a lot more of him in the story than usual.  But ... what did we learn about him?  He may or may not be ok with a visceral relationship with Burt.  At first, Irving pulls his hand away and soon after walks out of the room when Burt puts his hand over Irving's.  But, later, perhaps after Irving has thought it over, he seems to seek Burt out.  Not only does this behavior leave us still unclear about what Irving really wants, it's a metaphor for just about everything else in this harrowing narrative.

I'm sure it's been noted by others, and I may have already mentioned this myself, but Severance could fit comfortably into Philip K. Dick's uncomfortable corpus of work.  Talk about A Scanner Darkly, in Severance, just about everything we scan with our eyes comes up blurry and unclear.  The harder we focus, the more we get the feeling that we're looking into an infinite regress of possibilities.  (Hey, I like working the name of this blog into my reviews.)

In any case, I'll be narrowing my gaze for some true meaning, and I'll see you back here with my review of the next episode, next week.

See also Severance 1.1-1.2:  Erving Goffman Meets The Prisoner ... Severance 1.3: The History and the Neighbor