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 principally 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 take care of advanced feelings—to think about what demise means to them.

In season one, we discovered that Severance‘s principal character, Mark Scout, determined to turn 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 automobile accident a couple of years prior. We quickly perceive that Mark remains to be deeply affected by her passing, sobbing in his automobile 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 images of her round his residence—because it’s Lumon-subsidized housing, and he took the job after she died, we will assume she by no means lived there with him—however the basement remains to be filled with storage bins containing Gemma’s knitting provides, candles, and different tangible proof that she existed.

The knife-twist, in fact, is that she’s alive. Viewers members discovered that surprising element proper together with innie Mark, who screamed out his discovery within the season one finale. His outtie’s partner is in reality Ms. Casey, the counselor in Lumon’s Wellness Heart. Gemma/Ms. Casey being the identical particular person, and Gemma being alive in any respect, opened up mysteries galore for season two, particularly once 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 an alternative, 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 endure a sketchy re-integration process after realizing there’s really an opportunity his spouse did not die in that automobile accident, and is as an alternative hidden someplace on considered one of Lumon’s decrease flooring. To him, a miraculous second probability with Gemma is well worth the risks of tinkering round in his already aching mind.

On the identical time, innie Mark—who has no concept that he’s within the technique of being re-integrated—tries to search out Ms. Casey. He doesn’t share his outtie’s grief, however the strangeness of the scenario tugs at him. We all know, in fact, that Ms. Casey has been remanded to the ominous-sounding “Testing Flooring,” 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 look.)

It’s value mentioning that one cause 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 arduous to give up a severed job, and there’s no obvious cause 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 particular person leaves the job, it successfully means they’ve died. Their outtie could be completely effectively, however the model of them that their Lumon mates know merely blinks out of existence.

That’s why innie Petey’s “demise” is more durable for innie Mark than Petey’s precise demise is for outtie Mark. The latter nonetheless feels duty-bound to attend the funeral of this man, a complete stranger, who materialized in the future spouting crazy-sounding speak about being Mark’s greatest good friend at Lumon, and all of the evils that the corporate is secretly partaking in.

When Ms. Cobel—who poses as “Mrs. Selvig,” Mark’s daffy next-door neighbor, in season one—additionally exhibits up at Petey’s funeral, it’s ostensibly as ethical help for Mark, although in fact 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 relation to 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 habits 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 immediate connection. Their shy flirting is the closest factor to sweetness we’ve seen on Severance, and for Irv, a person affected by waking goals 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 social gathering, however his departure is in any other case as surprising and final-feeling as Petey’s.

Irv doesn’t take it effectively, and slips right into a melancholy so consuming it guides his actions throughout MDR’s daring “Extra time Contingency” stunt on the finish of season one. When innie Irv awakens within the outdoors world, he manages to dig up Burt’s deal with and heads to his home, wailing his title and pounding on his entrance door although a) he glimpsed Burt with a person who positive regarded like he could possibly 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, nonetheless, Irv makes his personal sudden exit. He’s fired on the finish of episode 4, and due to this fact the Lumon model of Irv is instantly gone perpetually. For his MDR co-worker Dylan, this is kind of tantamount to homicide, irrespective of how usually he’s assured Irv’s outtie is alive and effectively and taking a pleasant cruise. As a result of Dylan makes such an enormous 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 type of funeral to recollect him.

As with all Lumon ceremonies, the occasion is stuffed with awkward touches; as soon as a “bereavement equipment” is ready, there are customized social gathering 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 search 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 stage as human beings.

With Irv now completely in his outtie type—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 group, the thriller of Gemma/Ms. Casey stays to propel the again half of Severance season two, not less than so far as outtie Mark is anxious. There’s a wall of harm he must carve into, and he’s able to threat his life to search out out why Lumon has been placing him by hell and exploiting his darkest despair.

New episodes of Severance arrive Fridays on Apple TV+.

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