The Season 1 finale of “Severance” left audiences with a cruel, spectacular cliffhanger.
The innies — that is, the versions of Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro) that exist only at work — found a way to break out of the confines of Lumon. Using the Overtime Contingency, they woke up in the outside world, in their outies’ bodies, and discovered shocking truths about who they are outside of work. Irving is investigating the shady company, Helly is the daughter of the CEO, and Mark has just found out his dead wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman), might not be dead after all — she is his severed Lumon colleague, Ms. Casey. Just as he runs into the living room screaming “She’s alive!,” the Overtime Contingency ends, and the innies are zapped back into outies.
Three years later, viewers can finally feast on the Season 2 premiere. But instead of picking up right where the Season 1 finale left off, showing the immediate aftermath of the innie rebellion, the premiere episode, “Hello Ms. Cobel,” starts with a time jump (sort of). It kicks off with Mark’s first day back at the office, meaning some time has passed in the real world, but not for the innies. The outie world can wait — this entire episode takes place inside Lumon.
“I had always wanted to do an episode like this, where it was all innie or all outie. It’s more true to the subjective experience of the characters,” creator and showrunner Dan Erickson tells Variety.
The outies will surely have their own aftermath to be explored in future episodes. But Erickson delights in making viewers wait just a little while longer.
“Viewers are dying to know what happens on the outside,” he says. “So, I will confess that we had a little bit of fun playing with that tension and drawing it out.”
Below, Erickson breaks down the Season 2 premiere of “Severance,” that viral Grand Central marketing stunt and whether he has a grand plan for how to answer all of his series’ mysteries.
