‘Severance’ review: Season 2 is more than worth the wait

It’s taken nearly three years for Severance to come back to us, yet somehow, it’s more relevant than ever. The series follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott), a widower who has his work-related memories surgically separated from his personal memories. Lumon Industries, which pioneered “severance,” promised Mark that the technology would make his life better — but as he and his severed colleagues discovered, the procedure is part of the conglomerate’s unsettling plan to consolidate their control over the global labor force. Now, the lauded Apple TV+ drama from creator Dan Erickson returns with a briskly paced sophomore season that refines its many themes into a timely, rewarding, and challenging debate about the power and parameters of personhood.

The new season (premiering Jan. 17) opens five months after Mark and his Macrodata Refinement Department coworkers — Helly R. (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Irving (John Turturro) — alerted the world to the exploitation of severed workers, also known as “innies.” Lumon, following a recognizable corporate playbook, publicly promises vast “reforms” to the controversial program — including new incentives like “pineapple bobbing” and additional snacks in the company vending machines. Though suspicious of Lumon’s intentions and the daunting assurances of a “fresh start” from supervisor Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), innie Mark willingly returns to MDR and resumes his search for Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) — the woman he now knows to be the presumed-dead wife of his outside self.

Once back in the office, Mark encounters new faces, including severed-floor employees Mark W. (Bob Balaban) and Gwendolyn (Alia Shawkat); pre-pubescent deputy manager Ms. Huang (Sarah Bock); towering Lumon enforcer Mr. Drummond (Darri Ólafsson); and a stern, cowbell-wielding Lumonite named Lorne (Gwendoline Christie). But the true revelations come above ground, as the story devotes more time to the outies and their loved ones. Outie Mark, enraged that his former Lumon boss, Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette), masqueraded as his neighbor, reluctantly agrees to stay at the company until he and his sister, Devon (Jen Tullock), can figure out what’s really going on in that basement he disappears to eight hours every day. Dylan and his wife, Gretchen (Merritt Wever), work opposite schedules while raising their three kids, and Irving seeks to understand his innie’s connection to Burt (Christopher Walken), a former employee of Lumon’s Optics and Design department. In the wake of Helly’s role in the MDR revolt, Helena Eagan — daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry) — does damage control with her ghastly father and engages in a power struggle with Ms. Cobel.

The more we learn about the outies — and the more they learn about their innies — the harder it is to deny that Mark, Helly, Dylan, and Irv each comprise two distinct and worthy individuals. In season 2, Severance forces both its characters and its viewers to confront our ugly tendency to assess another’s worth based primarily on how that person’s needs and desires align with our own. Though they’re being exploited themselves, Mark and his fellow outies realize the dreadful power they possess over their other selves, who are just one resignation away from annihilation.

That looming sense of trepidation is only strengthened by the nuanced performances of the series’ stellar leads. Scott manages subtle but identifiable differences — in voice, in cadence, in bearing — between Mark S., optimistic innie, and the grief-beaten man who spawned him. Cherry titrates Dylan’s outie with notes of resignation and resentment, and Turturro bolsters outside Irv — a lonely artist — with genial warmth. Nowhere is the dichotomy more evident than Helly/Helena, elegantly individuated by Lower. On the severed floor, Helly is thoughtful, wry, and compassionate, while Helena Eagan is calculating and inscrutable. Her chilly showdowns with Ms. Cobel — though brief — are some of the best scenes of the season. The new season also gives Tillman a welcome boost in screen time, as Mr. Milchick works to maintain his hold on the MDR department while facing unwelcome scrutiny from the imposing Mr. Drummond.

Severance’s puzzle-box narrative spawned dozens of questions in its first season: What happened to Mark’s wife, Gemma? What does the microdata refinement department do, anyway? And what’s the deal with those baby goats? Fear not, (some of) those answers are forthcoming. One of the 10 episodes this season centers on Gemma/Ms. Casey, and another focuses on Harmony Cobel’s past and her shocking history with Lumon Industries. There are also some grand additions to the mythology of Kier Egan — Lumon’s enigmatic, prophet-like founder — and the company’s unsettling, somewhat infantilizing corporate culture. (“Marshmallows are for team players, Dylan.”)

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Once again, Jeremy Hindle’s impeccable production design is integral to Severance’s mood of retrofuturistic ennui. But it’s not always clear if the peculiarities of Lumon life are essential for the story or just another chance for a phenomenal visual flourish. Take that goat pasture revealed in the trailer: Are those grassy hills and dales rolling inside a fluorescent-lit square of Lumon office space a metaphor for how capitalism has consumed not just our daily lives but the planet itself? Or does it just look cool? Only Kier, or frequent Severance director Ben Stiller, know for sure. At least the goats’ purpose is made clear — or clearer, I should say — by the final episode.

Of course, one very important mystery remains unsolved. “Why did you do this?” Mark howls at Ms. Cobel. “What the f— is this all about?” The season builds to a wrenching and suspenseful finale which reveals some of the specific logistics of Lumon’s plan — but the endgame is still frustratingly cryptic. That’s what season 3 is for, I suppose. And there is one constant that runs through all this maddening ambiguity, which gives Severance its beautiful, undeniable power: Even in the most punishing of environments, the human heart is undefeated. Grade: A-