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

Grief was a key theme in Severance season one, but it surely was largely confined to the outtie storyline. In season two, we’ve seen loss become a prominent presence in each segments of the present, frightening even the innies—who usually are not well-equipped to take care of complicated feelings—to think about what demise means to them.

In season one, we discovered that Severance‘s most important character, Mark Scout, determined to turn out to be a severed worker at Lumon Industries as a result of he thought it might assist him deal with the lack of his spouse, Gemma, in a automobile accident a number 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 number of photographs of her round his residence—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 remains 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 discovered 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 whenever you suppose again on what Ms. Casey has revealed about her existence. As a severed worker, she’s solely been awake for a handful of days. Whole. 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 truly an opportunity his spouse did not die in that automobile accident, and is as an alternative hidden someplace on one in every of Lumon’s decrease flooring. To him, a miraculous second likelihood 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 search out Ms. Casey. He doesn’t share his outtie’s grief, however the strangeness of the scenario tugs at him. We all know, after all, 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 price mentioning that one motive outtie Mark is initially hesitant to try 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 onerous to give up a severed job, and there’s no obvious motive 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 may be completely nicely, however the model of them that their Lumon pals know merely blinks out of existence.

That’s why innie Petey’s “demise” is tougher 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 sooner or later spouting crazy-sounding speak about being Mark’s greatest buddy 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 help 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 with regards to Kier Eagan, Lumon’s cult leader-like founder. We additionally know she feels nice ache over one thing that occurred in her previous, almost certainly 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 tormented by 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 celebration, 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 melancholy so consuming it guides his actions throughout MDR’s daring “Additional time Contingency” stunt on the finish of season one. When innie Irv awakens within the exterior world, he manages to dig up Burt’s deal with and heads to his home, wailing his identify and pounding on his entrance door even if a) he glimpsed Burt with a person who positive appeared like he may very well 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 instantly gone eternally. 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 nicely 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 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 celebration favors and an edible centerpiece within the type of Irving’s head carved out of a watermelon. Dylan comes by means of 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, considering 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 latest 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 staff, the thriller of Gemma/Ms. Casey stays to propel the again half of Severance season two, no less than so far as outtie Mark is anxious. There’s a wall of damage he must carve into, and he’s able to threat his life to search out out why Lumon has been placing him by means of hell and exploiting his darkest despair.

New episodes of Severance arrive Fridays on Apple TV+.

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