There's been a lot of experimentation in this second season of Severance. The MDR department went on a field trip in "Woe's Hollow," we finally found out what happened to Mark's wife Gemma in "Chikhai Bardo," and we visited Harmony Cobel's home town in "Sweet Vitriol." We've learned a lot about Lumon and the world it wants to create. But we've also spent more time away from the central foursome of Mark, Helly, Irving and Dylan.
The penultimate episode of season 2, "The After Hours," gets back in touch with the show's roots and progresses the plot in a straightforward, unpretentious way. It's nice to get reacquainted with our favorite characters and take one last breath before the plunge.
Severance review: Season 2, Episode 9, "The After Hours"
Things are falling apart or coming to a head for all of our characters in "The After Hours." This might even be the last we see of Irving Bailiff, who has a heart-to-heart with Burt Goodman where they lay everything bare. There have been a lot of theories about whether Burt is secretly a high-level executive at Lumon working to undermine Irving's investigation into the company. And it's possible he was cooperating with them; here we learn he was a driver at Lumon. He never hurt anybody on Lumon's behalf, but very probably knew a lot of people were getting hurt. But in this episode, the better angels of Burt's nature win out.
Burt takes Irving and his dog for a ride. For a while we (and Irving) think he might be taking him to a field where he'll shoot him and dump his body in a hole. Instead, they wind up at a train station. Burt buys Irving a train ticket and tells him to get as far away from Kier as he possibly can, and to never come back.
We know from "Attila" that Burt used to be quite a "scoundrel"; the whole point of him getting severed was so that there would be some part of him that was innocent. Burt's Outie has managed to tap into that innocence. Irving and Burt share an achingly vulnerable scene where they very nearly decide to risk it all and be together. Irving, who has never felt love in his life, sees a world of possibility in Burt. But Burt already has a life, and a family, and he doesn't betray him. But he does perform an act of love in spirting Irving (and Irving's dog, never forget) to safety.
I never thought that a romance between Christopher Walken and John Turturro would be the most romantic part of this or any show, but damn if these two actors don't sell me on this impossible star-crossed love that isn't. And all it was inspired by their Innies. It was their Innies who got together, their Innies who explored the wonder of romantic love. And that managed to touch two old, tired, jaded people living out in the real world. Lumon has been running experiments to make sure that nothing of the Innie's life transfers over to the Outie's. But just by hearing about what their Innies did, Burt and Irving were inspired to be better people. If this is the last time we see Irving on the show, he has a beautiful send-off.
Devour feculence, Lumon
Dylan is not faring as well. Dylan was always the Innie who took the most pride in working at the MDR desk, even if he didn't understand what he was doing. But after realizing that his Outie had a wife and kids in the outside world, he realized how hollow his life beneath the Lumon building really was. Gretchen, his Outie's wife, represented something new and real.
Gretchen is attracted to him, too, but can't accept the idea of having an affair with the different person who sometimes lives inside her husband's body. I love that Severance makes me think about these bizarre romantic shapes. How to describe them? Gretchen made out with her husband's Outie, because he reminded her of how her actual husband used to be. Her husband is jealous, so Gretchen breaks it off with Dylan; Innie Dylan, not Outie Dylan. So now Gretchen will return to her husband and try to move past her cheating on him with him.
Only Dylan isn't him. Or is he? Both Dylans are emotional and romantic, although Innie Dylan tried to hide it for a long time by devoting himself to the work, taking pride in the tiny little rewards Lumon occasionally doled out. But like Irving, he got a taste of real love, and when it was taken away, he has nothing left to lose. "Fuck this place," he says to himself. This is Dylan's version of Irving saying, "Let's burn this place to the ground" in the first season. Lumon can create new people, but they can't keep those people from wanting what everyone else has, namely love. Wait, is Severance all about love in the end?
Anyway, Dylan doesn't actually try and burn down the building; instead, he takes advantage of Mr. Milchick's new, more lenient rules and quits. Heartbreakingly, Miss Huang apologizes for not being a better administrator, a lump in her throat. There have been theories about whether Miss Huang (whose first name is Eustace) is really a clone or some other consciousness in a child's body, but really she's just another victim of the Lumon machine, a young person brainwashed into thinking this is something worth doing with her life, just like Harmony Cobel was. With her Wintertide fellowship over, Mr. Milchick is only too happy to ship Miss Huang off to a Lumon "empathy center," whatever that is.
This episode seems to be about characters finally confronting their illusions. Even Mr. Milchick, a loyal company man, has had it. The imposing Mr. Drummond chews Milchick out for his numerous failures — Dylan quitting on his watch, Mark going AWOL — and twists the knife by criticizing his habit of using large words. Drummond insists Milchick apologize again and again for using a large word until Milchick finally pushes back. "Devour feculence," he says. Definitely using that.
The long, painful reintegration populace
I don't think Milchick is going to turn, but the fact that it's even a possibility shows how Lumon's house of cards might be falling around them. Harmony Cobel has already jumped ship, or so we think. She goes to meet Mark and Devon in the woods and helps them hatch a plan to break into the birthing retreat we visited last season. Once they're inside one of the cabins, Mark's Innie will come online and they can talk to him about what to do next.
We're almost at the end of the season and I still don't know how Mark's reintegration is supposed to work. He took the first step way back in the third episode, but his Innie and Outie selves don't seem to have merged; all reintegration has done is give him nasty fainting spells.
I imagine we'll finally see the payoff in the season finale; much of this episode was dedicated to teeing it up. At least I we got to enjoy the return of sassy Mark this episode. "How are you?" Ms. Cobel asks him. "So great," he replies. "I just had brain surgery in my basement."
And one character left is Helly. If this episode is about characters confronting their illusions, she's way ahead of the game. From the start, Helly has not trusted Lumon one bit. While Irving has left town and Dylan is despairing, she's still focused on the mission: find Irving's note and follow the directions until she reaches the elevator to the testing floor. We'll have to wait until next week to see what kind of wrench Helena's father throws into that; he visits the severed floor at the end of the episode to see "my Helly." She's never met him before, so obviously all she has to say is, "Who the fuck?"
By the end of their arcs, Dylan and Irving had less and less daylight between their Innie and Outie personas. Mark is literally trying to merge his. But Helly remains two distinct people. At the top of the episode we get a look at what may be Helena's home: a vast clinical brutalist house with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on a snowy field. Helly would hate it there.
Verdict
"The After Hours" has some interesting things to say about how and whether the Innies and Outies are really that different, but from a plot perspective, mostly it served as a bridge to what I'm sure will be a spectacular finale. And it was good to be back with our core four after a couple weeks ago. Bring on the end.
And it does feel like we're working towards an end, or at least a huge turning point. The Severence producers have made it sound like they have plans for more seasons beyond this, but I give them a lot of credit for not returning the show to a holding pattern this season. Already, it feels like a lot has happened, and the biggest revelations are yet to come.
Episode Grade: B
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