Show Therapy: 'Severance'

In which we gather to praise Kier.

Welcome to our latest installment of Show Therapy, our regular feature where we go really deep on one current television series of note, assessing what works and what doesn’t. Today, we are talking all matters Severance after the season 2 finale, in which camcorders worked magic, drumlines drummed, and we took up residence in the windmills of Mark S.’ mind.

(Men would rather shoot their evil boss’ evil henchman with a bolt gun than go to Show Therapy.)

Our Initial Thoughts Following the Season Finale (Hint: 🤯)

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong: One sentence overall reaction?

Saul Austerlitz: I was worried it would end in a dumb or frustrating way, and instead I felt enriched

JKA: I loved it, so much of it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and because of that, I’m fine with any dangling questions or holes.

Kirthana Ramisetti: I love when an ending is surprising yet inevitable—they built to this all season, and it was great

JKA: Yes, that is so exactly right!

As soon as I thought about it, I was like, ‘Yeah, they’ve been telling us the whole time.’

SA: It was very satisfying that Mark both saves his wife and abandons her

KR: Right, and it’s a consequence of how everyone dismisses the humanity of the innies

Even the “good” guys

JKA: That Mark vs. Mark scene felt like the creator, Dan Erickson, has been dying to write it.

The old-school camcorder with the flip screen!

Adam Scott is so good at being: kind of a dweeb, a real jerk, and such a romantic leading man.

And he did ALL OF IT.

KR: I mean, if that’s not Emmy material, what is?

JKA: They’ve been talking a lot in interviews about how they see the innies as adolescents right now, and it was so on display here.

Like he was acting bratty, but innie Mark was RIGHT.

KR: Totally—innie Mark’s petulance was very teenager

SA: And innie Helly realizes something tragic about herself

That however much she might not want to be, she is Helena

JKA: YES. I loved the scene where she said that and also convinced him to save Gemma.

I cried.

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A Dispatch from the Real-Life Creepy Town in 'Severance'

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Bizarre Love Triangle

KR: Wait, before we go further…

Team Helly, Team Gemma, Team Torn?

SA: I felt real sympathy for Gemma

JKA: I mean, I’m torn, but it was hard for me to not feel Gemma’s perspective.

KR: Same. As much as I adore Helly, I was torn but leaning toward Gemma

SA: I loved the look on Helly’s face at the end when Mark turns her way

Helly seems sure she is going to be left behind, and flabbergasted and overwhelmed when she isn’t

JKA: I mean, if you start thinking about it, Gemma knows NOTHING.

They really sold Helly to me, in that touching scene where she tells him to help Gemma, basically, and they do the equator thing.

“Meet me at the equator” felt very Eternal Sunshine to me.

And also, I think was designed to remind us of their shared history.

A smart person online pointed out that at the end they DID meet at the equator.

They met at the border of the red lights between Gemma and Helly.

KR: BTW, I can totally envision Gemma leading the rebellion against Lumon in Season 3 (once she realizes what’s going on)

The Windmills of Our Minds

SA: The final sequence, with the blinking red and white lights, reminded me of John Boorman’s film Point Blank

The whole visual aesthetic is very 60s-70s

and this sequence feels drawn from the opening scene there

KR: Yes!! It actually reminded me of a Mad Men season finale

JKA: Someone else said Butch Cassidy and definitely that too.

SA: The freeze frame

which felt like the agony and ecstasy of defiance

directed by Ben Stiller, who has some serious chops

JKA: Ben Stiller did not come to play.

Ben Stiller has been working his entire life to be taken seriously as a director and he is USING THE APPLE BUDGET.

SA: Also, the song at the end, “The Windmills of Your Mind,” is beautiful

I know the Dusty Springfield version

and didn’t know this cover by Mel Torme

JKA: It’s really cool to see this be such a moment for Tramell Tillman.

I feel like the marching band sequence will end up the iconic scene from this.

KR: He was just so funny this episode

JKA: He RAN to give that performance.

If humor is surprise, this is it.

Very Lynchian.

KR: I love that the show can truly give us these off-the-wall moments

SA: I was very moved by the scene of Gemma in Cold Harbor, where she is disassembling the crib with no emotion

Like they have disassembled her, too

KR: Yes! That was a gut punch

JKA: Dichen Lachman has one of the great no-emotion faces.

It’s so crazy when she goes from that to being passionate Gemma.

Also, just congrats to Mark for pulling two of the most beautiful women on the planet!

SA: Mark does well for himself

Both versions of himself

JKA: I mean I’m very much on record with the fact that he’s extremely appealing, so I get it.

KR: As the youngs say, he has rizz

JKA: I still think about the scene where he grabbed Helly and kissed her in the hallway.

SA: Helly and Mark have a LOT of chemistry

The Other Bizarre (But Sweet?) Love Triangle

KR: Should we talk another love triangle?

JKA: Are you thinking of the Dylans and Gretchen?

Because that was a really interesting counterpoint.

KR: I didn’t expect it to go that way, but loved that Dylan had so much grace for his innie

JKA: I loved how he subtly showed the way Mark should have acted.

Like this show falls apart without him, even if he’s not MAIN CHARACTER.

SA: I also loved his four-word summary of his character

“Fuck you…Mr. Milchick”

The pause in there was just perfect

Even while saying fuck you, he still is calling him Mr. Milchick

Lingering Questions (Yes, Including 🐐)

JKA: Two hours later, I was like WHERE IS IRV.

KR: I wonder if we’d see him again. Because who was he talking to on the phone?

JKA: This is one of 93 dangling questions.

I am patient, though, because this is not the end.

It’s not like Lost ending and never addressing half of the weird shit they brought up.

I still don’t get where the 25 Gemmas are.

What about the goats?

I feel that this is a good time to maybe talk goats?

KR: The goats of it all

JKA: I am disappointed a little if the goats are really just sacrifices.

That said, that kicked off one of the greatest sequences ever seen on TV.

DO NOT FUCK WITH GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE, for starters.

SA: If you want someone to arrive to save you from certain death

She is a top choice

KR: She said in an interview she was so happy to do that scene and kick ass again

JKA: It’s an insane sequence that basically made sense to me because that was the cutest goat.

And then got the gun to Mark for that just INCREDIBLE shooting of Drummond.

Drummond’s huge body blocking the elevator, and the blood allowing him to get into the room.

Chekhov is happy somewhere in the afterlife.

SA: Maybe taking ten thousand years to write a season is helpful

KR: Right! That reminds me that there was some talk about Stiller and Erickson having disagreements

Which is partly why it took forever to come back

SA: I am cramping just thinking about how long everyone must have sat on their asses to write all of this

JKA: OTOH, can you imagine this situation? Ben Stiller plucks your great script out of obscurity and gives it this life.

What is that power dynamic then like?

And he’s like yeah, we’re taking this to Apple, but I’m the showrunner.

SA: And so it’s yours and not yours all at once

KR: Amazing and excruciating all at once

SA: “They give us half a life, and think we won’t fight for it.”

Echoes of the life of Dan Erickson?

JKA: The poor guy has such a boring name too.

Dan E.

What are some of our other lingering questions?

KR: Where do you think Cobel’s mindset is now?

JKA: I mean we learned she invented severance.

(OMG, is SHE Dan Erickson in this scenario???)

She’s a huge wild card and obviously a major question is just: what now?

KR: I think Helena’s dad wants her to remain Helly

SA: With all the discussion of powerful families and rebellions, hard for me to not watch all this through a political lens

KR: Oh plus—she’s likely pregnant

JKA: I was so sure that was going to be important this season, but it could still happen.

So we can kind-of see some of the places they could go.

We ❤️Milchick (Who Doesn’t?)

KR: We demand a Milchick episode!

JKA: I made up a backstory in my head where he came up through Choreography & Merriment.

Though I guess he’d be severed then, so probably not.

Where has C&M been practicing?

Do they just do marching band stuff all day?

Or are there other forms of choreography and/or merriment?

SA: Spinoff potential

JKA: Was Milchick exclusively hired for his dance skills?

SA: He is VERY good with a baton

KR: That makes me think we’re going to spend a lot of time in the innie world next season

Meet many more of them

SA: I was very impressed that Severance was able to go away for so long

and come back as strong as it did

I suspect it might not be able to pull that trick off again

This feels like a lot of balls to keep in the air at once

JKA: [My partner] Jesse said something smart that I want to bring up: That there are shows like Twin Peaks that are about excuses for interesting imagery and there are shows like Lost that are about answers.

KR: I actually was thinking of Yellowjackets today, and how it hasn’t regained that momentum

JKA: Someone said to me last night that they liked how streamlined season 1 was, and I think that’s just how these things go.

If you’re going to keep going with puzzle boxes, you gotta keep spinning stuff.

You actually want lingering questions if there’s another season.

SA: Mysteries on top of mysteries

KR: So much easier to do with less episodes

JKA: But if they can keep giving me shit like the marching band and Drummond’s death, I might not care as much about answers.

They do swear they know the ending.

SA: This feels Succession-esque

In that you probably want to call a halt a season earlier

than wait too long and use up people’s patience

Looking Forward to Season 3 and Beyond

KR: How many seasons do we think this would be?

SA: I think 2 more, max

KR: Four overall seems right to me too

JKA: Does anyone have a wild guess about how it all ends?

KR: Lumon is toppled, and Mark lives a bifurcated life with both Helly and Gemma

JKA: Does it end with Mark and Gemma on the sofa complaining about this season of White Lotus?

SA: Sign of a happy couple

KR: Do you think we’ll get a shocking death, and if so, who?

JKA: Dylan would be devastating.

This would make sense given the Overtime Contingency!

He actually sacrificed himself then too.

Oh, Dylan, I’m so sorry.

KR: Oh yes!

JKA: Great, we’ve solved Severance.

KR: I think we called it, sadly

JA: This will make it so much easier to wait 15 years for the next season.

SA: I look forward to being retired when it comes out

JKA: I’m going to be so mad if they come to my town again and don’t inform me.

I have so many restaurant recommendations for them!

Continue reading to see our favorite Severance memes! And please share your thoughts on this season of Severance!

Our Favorite Severance Season 2 Clips, Observations, and Jokes from Social Media

How Betty White’s Golden Girls character majorly influenced a standout moment on the show:

@colbertlateshowPlease try to enjoy each of Tramell Tillman’s pronunciations of “Gråkappan” equally. #Colbert #Severance

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While we’re at it, how Pam from The Office was also (likely) referenced:

@b_tchsporkhappy #severence finale week!!!!!#greenscreen #fantheory

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The Severance/Rent/Muppets crossover you didn’t know you needed:

@kermitmafrogWhat do I do when Severance is over? #severance

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Yes, Milchick led a marching band to start the Severance panel at Paley Fest this week:

Our Milkshake brings all the boys to the yard:

@pepperkitmusicReplying to @Inklush Mr. Milkshake 😍 #severance #milkshake #severancetvshow #appletv

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