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Time To Clock In for Some Questions About That ‘Severance’ Premiere

By Kaleena Rivera | TV | January 18, 2025 |

Severance season 2_Mark_Adam Scott.jpg
Header Image Source: Apple TV+

(spoilers for episode one of Severance season two)

At long last, after almost three(!) years, Severance has finally returned. The long-awaited season two premiere is now here and it picks up right where it left off. If anyone can remember that far, of course.

Although we never emerge from the world of the Innies, we still get a taste of the consequences from the rebellious Macrodata Refinement department accessing the Overtime Protocol, which allowed them to briefly access their outer lives (an event now referred to as “The Macrodat Uprising”). Though Outie Mark’s (Adam Scott) revelation that his deceased wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman), is, in fact, alive, was massive on a personal level—not to mention a wicked cliff hanger—Helly (Britt Lower), or should I say Helena Eagan, blowing the whistle from the podium of a massive company gala, has moved the needle substantially when it comes to the public perception of the severance process.

How much, we’re still in the dark about. It’s pretty damn bad considering that the company, by way of newly promoted Milchick (Tramell Tilman) and an informative stop motion animation overview created for the benefit of Mark and his colleagues (and viewers), saw fit to divulge the blow at all—and for anyone still wondering, yes, that was indeed an uncredited Keanu Reeves narrating. Of course, it’s nothing close to the full truth, as noted with the partial lie about Harmony Cobel’s (Patricia Arquette) firing, but bonus points for the creative “throuple” story.

The employment shakeup has brought on a few new faces, including the new, um, very young, deputy manager, Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), and a replacement Macrodata Refinement team (Me: “Is that Alia Shawkat?!”), whom we may or may not see again, now that Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Irv (John Turturro) are all back once more. But now that the team’s reunited and strengthened in their resolve to get at the mystery at the heart of Lumon, there’s a number of questions that we’re left with, including:

Where have the Innies been over these last five months?

Only when Mark breaks into Milchick’s office and makes contact with The Board does he end up getting Helly, Burt, and Dylan back, but almost all of them (more on that in a moment) appear straight from their outer world as though no time has gone by at all (Mark only has a few days head start on them). If no time has passed for the Innies, are we to assume the Outies haven’t been working at all? They could have had temporary transfers, but they’re enough of a liability that it seems unlikely. Lumon wants to pretend that the company has been active with substantial “reforms” such as new vending machine offerings (“These include tasty new snacks, like fruit leather, cut beans, Christmas mints, and salsa”) and pineapple bobbing, but five months means they’ve had a lot of time to change their approach, which brings me to…

Could that be Helena who came out that elevator?

Of the Innies, Helly is the only one that appears back on the severance floor with little sign of being disoriented. In the finale, she was swiftly pulled off stage after she decried the working conditions for severed workers (“They torture us!”), and that’s the last we see of her. Once the Overtime Protocol was turned off, there was more than enough time for Helena to come to grips with what happened and decide to take things into her own hands. But if this is Helena, then that would mean Lumon would have to have a safe procedure for undoing severance at the ready. On the other hand, would Helena be a terrible enough liar to not have an Outie story fully prepped? Five months is more than enough time to figure out a solid cover story and not get tripped up by something as silly as a “night gardener” (good spot by Irv, however).

Who is Miss Huang?

Mark W.: “Why are you a child?”
Miss Huang: “Because of when I was born.”

Easily the funniest moment in the episode, but Mark W. (Bob Balaban) is only asking the question that’s on all of our minds: why is a literal child in a position of authority at Lumon? Aside from possibly having some relation to the Eagen family, I can’t think of another reason why a schoolgirl, who should be cutting her teeth on a yearbook committee, is the deputy manager of the branch of a major corporation. The only clue we have to go on is her musing over her previous time as a crossing guard. A previous work history could mean she’s older than what she lets on, but she plays kid a little too well for that.

What has Lumon done with Gemma?

As it stands, Mark’s reason for remaining at Lumon is centered largely around solving the mystery and finding Gemma/Ms. Casey. Unfortunately, things seem fairly dire for her, since the last time we saw Ms. Casey, she was being ushered down a creepy hallway that looked awfully similar to the scary paintings that Outie Irv spends his nights making. Up until now we’ve had no clue as to what they could have done with her, but in the final minute of the episode, just as there seemed to be a glimmer of hope found in the Macrodata Refinement team’s newfound resolve, we see a flash of Ms. Casey under the project name “Cold Harbor” and what appear to be measurements of some sort. It’s the same name as the project Mark is working on, which is now 68% complete. If I had to guess, I would say Lumon is working on some newer, more insidious version of severance (innies within innies, maybe) and doing a two-birds-one-stone by having Mark be the one who’s inadvertently pulling the lever and by further chopping up Ms. Casey’s mind as retribution for the trouble he’s caused. If my guess is at all correct, this means Innie Mark is going to feel much of the pain that Outie Mark tried to spare himself by being severed in the first place.

New episodes of Severance are available to stream every Friday on Apple TV+.

Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor for Pajiba. She can be found on Bluesky here.