I’m not going to spoil something as a result of the brand new season of Severance doesn’t premiere for 10 days. But I need to be clear — the primary season of the sci-fi thriller wasn’t a fluke. The Apple TV Plus sequence burst onto the scene in 2022 with a narrative about tech staff who have been pressured to dwell in purgatory due to an experimental process that cut up their brains in two: one who lived a traditional life outdoors of the workplace, and one other who may by no means depart. It was tense and unusual and downright horrifying — and in addition benefited from largely being a shock. But even with out that, season 2 hits simply as arduous as the unique, pushing additional into the darkish, bizarre edges of the Severance universe, whereas increasing it in fascinating new methods.
Spoilers for the primary season of Severance to observe.
As a bit refresher, Severance is centered on a tech big referred to as Lumon Industries, which developed the mind-splitting process in order that staff can work on delicate tasks in its basement with no considerations about that data getting out of the constructing. The severance process is dictated spatially: as quickly as a severed worker will get within the elevator and heads downstairs, they, in essence, turn into a brand new individual with a totally completely different set of recollections. That’s nice for safeguarding firm secrets and techniques however terrible for the individuals who know actually no life outdoors of the Lumon basement. The existence of the “innies,” as they’re recognized, is full of nothing however harsh fluorescent lighting, perks like finger traps and melon bars, and work that’s each mysterious and necessary (or in order that they’re informed).
Season 1 ended with one of many nice cliffhangers in fashionable tv, up there with “Not Penny’s Boat” from Lost. For many of the season, innies Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) had been studying extra about how and why they exist in Lumon’s basement and ultimately concocted an elaborate plan to see what life on the skin is like. The finale ended with innie Mark shouting, “She’s alive!” in reference to his seemingly lifeless spouse — proper earlier than he’s switched again to his different self. The finale premiered on April eighth, 2022, so viewers have been ready greater than two years to study the implications of that revelation.
The new season picks up nearly instantly after that second — no less than for the innies. It’s truly 5 months later, however as a result of they haven’t been on the workplace, it’s like no time has handed. Mark is the primary to reach, and he’s initially greeted by a brand new crew within the Macrodata Refinement wing as a result of the outies of Helly, Irving, and Dylan by no means returned to work. All the brand new staff need to know what life is like on the skin — Mark will get questions on how wind feels and what the sky appears to be like like — they usually have a brand new supervisor, who, for some motive, is a toddler named Miss Huang (Sarah Bock).
Eventually, by means of sheer drive of will, Mark is ready to stress Lumon into getting the band again collectively, they usually set to work determining, as soon as once more, what the hell is happening. Their tour outdoors lasted for precisely 39 minutes and turned the quartet into celebrities of kinds. It additionally elevated the scrutiny on Lumon for what actually occurs on the severed ground. Because of this, the corporate is enjoying considerably good, providing issues like a greater break room, new gadgets within the merchandising machines (fruit leather-based!), and different tempting affords.
There are numerous completely different threads taking place concurrently: the continued administration shake-up at Lumon; simply what work is definitely taking place in Macrodata Refinement; the steadily blurring traces between innies and outies; and the general public’s rising consciousness of the truth of innie life. I’ve solely seen the primary six episodes to date (season 2 may have 10), so I can’t say whether or not the present satisfactorily solutions most of its many mysteries. But what I can say is that it continues to increase the idea in sensible and sudden methods, opening up Severance to every kind of latest revelations by means of moments like an innie retreat within the wilderness and — lastly! — additional particulars on the goats being reared within the basement.
The new season additionally pushes even tougher on the concept that Lumon-style megacorporations exert a unprecedented quantity of management over on a regular basis life, usually in methods we don’t see or perceive. Even if severed staff don’t exist in actual life, disturbing mysteries at tech corporations undoubtedly do. It additionally makes it very clear that it is best to belief nearly none of what they are saying — significantly in the event that they’re making an attempt to look like the nice man. (These factors make it particularly ironic that the sequence is streaming on a platform run by Apple.)
Really, what season 2 proves is that Severance wasn’t an awesome present as a result of it was such a shock — it was only a nice present. And no less than within the first half of season 2, its quest to increase its scope hasn’t dulled any of its sharp, unusual edges.
Season 2 of Severance begins streaming on Apple TV Plus on January seventeenth.
