Severance is the world's new favorite puzzle box show; what is going on at Lumon Industries? What's the real plan for the severance technology, which allows the company to create completely new personalities within the same body? There are only two episodes of the second season left, and we expect a ton to be revealed in the season finale, "Cold Harbor."
"Cold Harbor" is still a week away, but we're getting some inside information courtesy of the Australian Classification Board, which reveals that the finale will be 76 minutes long. That's the longest episode of the show to date.
Also of note is that the Australian Classification Board has rated the episode "15+" when it comes to its themes and violence; those are strongest labels than it's ever given the show before. Severance has had some violent moments, but it sounds like the season 2 finale will step things up. And that's scary, because I shudder to think what kinds of horrific scenarios the very creative people behind Severance could dream up.
Why Severance director Ben Stiller avoids fan theories
One of those people is Ben Stiller, who's directed 11 out of the 19 completed episodes of the show. He knows what secrets the show has to reveal, but obviously isn't telling. Speaking on an SXSW panel, he says he tries to avoid the many fan theories out there.
"It's dangerous to go there, because there are so many ideas,” Stiller said. “I check in on some of the podcasts and usually listen until they say anything that’s critical of one of the episodes. Then I stop listening to them and never listen to them again.”
So far, it's worked for him and the show. “In this day and age, it’s so hard to have something that breaks through, and that you can actually get people to watch and to see, because there’s so much,” Stiller continued. “I mean, our generation — we’re about same age — it was different. You go to the movies — the movies were the thing when we were kids, and television was television — but there wasn’t all this other stuff out there. […] It’s just hard to get people’s attention.”
That is extremely true, and makes Severance's popularity all the more impressive. Something about the show has connected with people, whether it's the memorable cast of characters, the careful buildup, or the depiction of modern work as a soulless, baffling grind. With a show like this, where so much of our interest is sustained by figuring out the mysteries, a lot will depend on how the show explains things. The creators have assured us that they have an ending in mind. I expect the season 2 finale to take a big step towards it.
But first, the penultimate episode of the second season, "The After Hours," airs tonight. "Cold Harbor," which is also the name of the mysterious project Mark (Adam Scott) has been working on, airs next Thursday.
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