Severance season two, episode two showed us the real world fallout of the Marcodat Uprising. It was nothing like Seth Milchick described. In fact, it wasn’t much of an event at all. The Innies did not become heroes of severance reform. It wasn’t even hard to get them back to work in just a few days. What else did we learn from “Goodbye, Mrs. Selving?” And what new mysteries replaced them? There are the biggest revelations and questions we have from season two’s second episode.
REVELATIONS
The Innies Returned to Lumon Quickly and Easily
In the season two premiere, newly promoted severance floor manager (and cool ass motorcyclist) Seth Milchick told Mark’s Innie he’d been away from work for five months. He also said Mark begged to come back and that the Marcodat Uprising made the four refiners the “face” of severance reform. Milchick even showed him an obviously fake newspaper showing the Innies as the heroes of a ticker-tape parade.
Only it turns out Mark willingly went back to work mere days later, despite originally planning to quit. Milchick convinced him his Innie is happy and those benefits will soon make their way to Mark’s Outie. Milchick also told Mark that the fired Mrs. Selving was a disturbed woman responsible for his Innie’s issues at Lumon. Meanwhile, Dylan was glad to go back to Lumon after Milchick initially fired him. The severed floor is where Dylan turned when he couldn’t find stable employment. Outie Dylan is loved but lacks all the confidence and bravado of Innie Dylan. With a family to feed he was happy to return to his severed job. (He didn’t even know about the Marcodat Uprising since news about it was mostly suppressed.)
The fired Irving also went back when given the chance, but it’s clear his return is strategic. He’s not suddenly pro-Lumon. Irv, who woke up in the middle of banging on Burt’s door, realized his Innie broke out somehow. He’s now back at work at Lumon because he’s still working on his unknown plan to take down the company.
Meanwhile, Helena Eagan was forced to go back to the severed floor by Lumon’s Board. They need Mark S. to finish the Cold Harbor file, and getting Helly back is the only way he’ll do that.
Mark’s “She’s Alive” Message Wasn’t Clear
Season one ended with Innie Mark realizing Ms. Casey is his Outie’s dead wife Gemma. Unfortunately, his memorable scream of “she’s alive” didn’t get the message across. Mark didn’t get tell his sister and brother-in-law who “she” referred to. They assumed Mark had meant his niece they’d just found. But Devon knows that doesn’t totally make sense and can’t help wondering if Mark was talking about Gemma since he was holding their wedding photo when he yelled.
Mark refused to believe the doubting Devon might be right because he personally identified Gemma’s body. If he did, that means Gemma really did die. But it’s possible Mark misidentified her. When comparing the loss of his spouse to a hypothetical one for his sister, he mentioned Ricken’s body being burned. Was Gemma’s “body” burned in her fatal crash? That would have made it easier for Lumon to fake her death.
Whatever the vital truth about Gemma’s fate, Mark ended the episode more open to the possibility she is alive. He asked Mrs. Selving if she knows something about his wife and Harmony’s silence (followed by inarticulate screaming) spoke volumes.
Helly R. Found Something Helena Never Has
Helena is an uncaring monster loyal only to her family’s business and its unknown nefarious plans. And yet, the show gave us reason to feel sympathy for Lumon’s future CEO (who is also a very convincing liar/performer). Helly R. has something with Mark S. that Helena has clearly never found herself. She was overwhelmed by the security footage of her Innie kissing Mark. Britt Lower’s incredible performance conveyed so much about Helena and just how different her own life is versus her the Innie version, who Helena famously told is “not a person.”
For not being a person, Helly R. seems to have made far more of a human connection with her severed co-workers than Helena even has with her own dad. He didn’t even have sympathy for what happened to his daughter. He called her a “fetid moppet” (a.k.a. a rancid child.).
What would Helena have become if not raised in her family’s cult-like ways? She’s finding out what we already know and it’s painful for her to see.
No One Has Ever Trusted Lumon
During Helena’s taped apology for the company’s Innie breakout cover story, she revealed people have distrusted Lumon since it’s very founding. It’s easy to see why people wouldn’t trust a global conglomerate severing people’s mind in two. But why were people so wary of a basic salve company at the outset? Why has there always been “distrust” of Lumon? And, if there has been, how has it been able to flourish into a worldwide power despite long held misgivings?
QUESTIONS
Why Is Cold Harbor So Important?
Severance‘s season two premiere revealed that Mark’s current marcodata refiner file is his own wife. “Cold Harbor” is Gemma. That explained why those random numbers evoke real human emotions in refiners. They are potentially real human emotions coming from real people.
There’s still much we don’t know about the process, but “Ms. Casey’s” file indicated she’s in some kind of stasis, likely on a breathing tube. Now we must also wonder why “Cold Harbor” itself is not only especially important compared to other similar files, but why Mark S. himself must finish it. Why can’t Dylan or Irv work on that file? Why is Lumon so desperate to have Mark, and Mark alone, finish it, so much so they brought back the Macrodat Uprisers? The Board immediately acquiesced to Mark’s demands even though it meant sacrificing Helena Eagan again.
Everything Lumon is working towards seems to depend on this one single file worked on by one specific person. That gives both Outie and Innie mark tremendous leverage…if they ever figure that out.
Where Is Ms. Cobel Going?
Helena told the recently fired Ms. Cobel the company was grateful for what she did during the Innie outbreak and Lumon wanted her back. However, they didn’t want her back on the severed floor. They were “promoting” her to a made up job. Harmony had asked for and received an apology, but it wasn’t enough. She realized Lumon only wants to rehire her because it is afraid of her. Despite Helena’s claim Lumon “fears no one,” Ms. Cobel was correct. They wanted to keep her happy and in the fold, just far away from severed employees. (Partly because they made her a scapegoat, partly because she had become part of Mark’s personal life.)
Instead of accepting the new position, Ms. Cobel left town after a tense confrontation with Mark. Where is she going? Why didn’t she answer any of Mark’s questions? And why did Lumon let her leave? That is, if they truly did.
Why Was Burt Following Irving?
Irv was banging on Outie Burt’s door when he woke up during the Microdat Uprising. Innie Irv has no idea what happened next, but Burt likely answered when someone was banging on his door and screaming his name. What happened when he did? That depends on whether Outie Burt already knows Outie Irv. They certainly seem like they do. Irving had Burt’s name and home marked on a map in his locked chest.
Is that Outie connection why they were drawn to each other on Lumon’s severed floor? Or does their past go back even further at Lumon? These were already major questions we had about both before Irv’s mysterious phonebooth call during this episode made their relationship even more mysterious. Irv didn’t want to make a call from his own home since his line might be/likely is bugged. The message he left to an unknown person who didn’t answer showed why Irv didn’t want Lumon listening:
Okay. You’re not picking up. I get it. I want you to know my Innie got the message.
Irv has been painting the Testing Floor hallway and door repeatedly while staying up all night so his Innie would get a subconscious message. It worked, and Irv shared that success with someone who is mad at him. Who did he tell and why is that person upset? Burt is the only viable answer so far, especially because he might very well be angry Irv showed up at his home where he lives with his partner.
But if they’re working together against Lumon, why was Burt following Irving around in the shadows? Why spy on Irving rather than talk to him? What is really going on with them? How much does Burt know about Lumon’s real plans? And can Irv truly trust Burt when Burt is following him in his car?
What Was 5X?
In just 48 hours Seth Milchick found three new macrodata refiners to work with Mark. One was his “floater” from overseas. (Wonder if that was Dario the Italian guy?!?) The other two were laid off Lumon employees from 5X. When hearing 5X, Helena and Mr. Drummond seemed dubious at best and exhausted at worse.
Why? What was 5X? Why did it result in layoffs? And why did Helena recoil at using employees from there? We didn’t know anything about 5X before that brief interaction and now we want to know everything about it.
Small Bonus Question: Why does Mr Drummond have “frolic” tattooed on his hand? He doesn’t seem the frolicking type. Though in fairness, we don’t know much about him yet. Or frolicking as a past time in general…
Anyway, something to keep an eye on, along with 50,000 other things going on at Lumon.