REVIEW: Severance – Season Two [2025]

Rating: TV-MA | Episodes: 10 | Runtime: 60 minutes
Release Date: January 17th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: AppleTV+
Creator(s): Dan Erickson

At least it was a happy one.

My initial thought upon completing Dan Erickson’s “Severance” Season One was that he and executive producer/director Ben Stiller were going to have a difficult time living up to the promise. Because this isn’t “The Bear”. Yes, it’s character driven with a great mix of comedy and drama like Christopher Storer’s show, but the simple fact that it doesn’t exist in the real world brings with it myriad questions. This is a puzzle box the likes of which we haven’t truly seen since “Lost” and we all know how unwieldy and meandering that became as the creators sought a way out. Would “Severance” suffer the same fate? Or did Erickson have the answers from the jump?

After listening to an interview recently, I’m not quite sure he did. He credits Stiller with grounding the story and removing unexplainable bits of color that skewed even more surreal than the final product. That’s not to say Erickson didn’t still have an endgame planned. Maybe he merely went overboard on the sky’s-the-limit reality of playing in a completely fictional sandbox. The question would therefore be whether he and Stiller could implement the guardrails necessary to maintain that same level of mystery while also giving each seemingly weird detail purpose. Talk of behind-the-scenes turmoil towards that goal scared me. A three-year wait for Season Two (union strikes or not) scared me more.

The good news: I think they do have a destination. One could say Season Two is all about putting the loose ends from its predecessor onto the rails that will get us there. The identity of Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman). The cult-like, oligarchical hold the Eagan family has on this world. Harmony Cobel’s (Patricia Arquette) past. The goats. All these things that made us hypothesize meaning become a bit clearer once the one-two punch of “Hello, Ms. Cobel” and “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig” finish. Because we do need to witness the consequences of Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Irving’s (John Turturro) unsanctioned Overtime Contingency Protocol. That first episode shows it from the “innie” perspective. The second from the “outie” perspective.

It is a lot to process, however. And Erickson and company are forced to travel at lightning speed to get it all in. They don’t have the luxury of keeping worlds separate anymore. Mark S and Mark Scout each have their own specific quest to travel now that he (and we) can no longer pretend they are the same person. That’s the real point of the show, after all. That creating a new consciousness creates a new person regardless of whatever legal loopholes someone’s lawyers can write-up to the contrary. Helena Eagan was wrong when she told Helly R she wasn’t human. So wrong, in fact, that stating those words ultimately ignited the first battle of this revolution in “The We We Are”. Nothing emboldens someone to want to fight their oppressor more than constant dehumanization.

The main “outie” plot is obvious: Mark must weigh reintegration to figure out how to rescue his wife. The others—Dylan dealing with the fallout of his “innie” discovering he has children, Irving sleuthing out why he was at Burt’s (Christopher Walken) doorstep, and Helena closing ranks to ensure her “innie” doesn’t become her own company’s downfall—are contingent on what happens on the severed floor. Add that Cobel’s dismissal and Mr. Milchick’s (Tramell Tillman) promotion bring with them a need to pour water on the fire via a new “friendlier” work environment and the deception grows tenfold. Because the more you cater to the “innie”, the greater the risk of trouble for the “outie”. Autonomy demands freedom. Freedom demands sacrifice.

Since the season does move fast (it’s ten episodes long, but devoting one to Irving, one to Cobel, and one to Gemma means there are only seven to truly advance everyone together), the big deception is easy to guess. Not that the show is trying to hide it. The only motivation a character has to lie is exactly what we soon discover. The trick then is still making it an interesting reveal. Tying it to an internal epiphany and, subsequently, the most heartbreaking moment yet is a job well done. Coupling its damaging effect on the victim with an equally horrific violation upon another only ups the ante to prove that Erickson isn’t messing around. If he’s going to give the “innies” life, he must also give them emotions (“tempers”). And just like Mark’s loss of love drives him to Lumon, the threat of lost love for the “innies” drives them to desperation.

I enjoyed what that means both for its impact on the plot (we finally learn what the numbers are) and the acting showcase it provides the entire main cast. Turturro and Cherry are next level because their arcs are purely emotional. Scott and Lower are great too, but they are so intertwined with the narrative propulsion that we do lose a bit of complexity (although Mark S and Helly R’s choice to be pawns is voluntary as a means to giving the finale’s opportunity to be selfish greater impact). It’s great to see Lachman finally get a chance to shine too. She is effortlessly shifting personas to fantastic effect with the sadness of her “real” self shining through the pain of her “job.” Arquette doesn’t get much screentime, but she’s excellent as always when present.

The real highlight is Tillman. What an absolute gift. I didn’t think his Milchick could get better than the middle management façade of being pals with and disciplinarian for his severed employees. But the moment he settles into his new role as floor supervisor is the moment he realizes he might have it the worst. Because the Eagans (especially their fixer Mr. Drummond, played by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) treat him like he treats Macro Data Refinement. Since he isn’t severed, however, he must endure their slights and tone-deaf bigotry knowing full well what’s happening. He tries to take it in stride. He tries to point his rage at his new assistant Miss Huang (Sarah Bock’s intriguing arrival whose presence is more for Cobel’s past and Milchick’s anger than her own present). Eventually, he’s just as incensed as MDR.

Despite the unavoidable shakiness of trying to smooth out the mysterious edges that made the enigmatic Season One such a singular masterpiece while still advancing character development (and supporting a revolving door of stunt cast bit parts from John Noble to Merritt Wever and Gwendoline Christie to James Le Gros and Sandra Bernhard to Bob Balaban and Alia Shawkat to Jane Alexander), Season Two is still an impressive ride that I do believe lives up to the promise of the first while also laying a foundation to ensure better pacing for the third. We might not have fewer questions despite the answers provided, but those queries are much more focused now. The world has been enlarged geographically and philosophically as the work spills into reality and the “innies” become fully aware that their existence isn’t a game. Bring on the war.