Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Severance Season 2 Episode 3.
The first two episodes ofSeverancewere excellent and dramatically satisfying, but they were also essentially a pair of introductions reflecting the innie/outie dichotomy.Episode 1was an all-innie affair that reengaged viewers with the world, catching us up with Mark S. (Adam Scott) as he reunited with his team of Macrodata Refiners. Meanwhile,Episode 2filled in the blanks outside Lumon, tracing the real-world circumstances that precipitated their return. Finally, this week,the series' action really takes offas the narrative makes some genuine strides forward. Episode 3, “Who Is Alive?,” begins with “Cobelvig” (Patricia Arquette) waking up in her Volkswagon (sometime after her sort-of attempt to run Mark down) en route somewhere before the scene jumps to to outie Mark getting ready for whatever fresh hell his innie’s workday will bring. He’s in a rush, checking his watch, and clearly timing every second leading up to his switchover into innie territory.
Mark S. is in full-on search mode once he wakes up back at Lumon, printing out missing-person fliers with Ms. Casey’s (Dichen Lachman) face on them, a startling misuse of company resources (like the goats, I kid). After handing out said fliers, he also assigns each member of the MDR team to certain sectors of Lumon to find out what happened to everyone’s favorite wellness counselor. Mark S. and Helly (Britt Lower) —or is it Helena?— follow up on that mysterious goat room, while Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) is tasked with going tothe Break Room(which he’ll get to when he’s done with… well, whatever he’s doing). Meanwhile, Irving B. (John Turturro) is sent to Optics & Design, and he’s understandably reluctant about it. The plan is to truly test Lumon’s supposed new commitment to openness via visits to other floors and departments to see if there are any leads. While our favorite Macrodats have visited other departments in Season 1,it’s their first coordinated effort this season to push Lumon’s boundaries.
Milchick Receives a Strange and “Inclusive” Promotion Gift
As Mark S. and Helly walk towards the goat room, they discuss their plan for the visit beforesharing an awkwardly long (but still charged) pause in the hallway. Helly seems somewhat poised for a kiss, but Mark S. exits the exchange with what can only be described as negative rizz. Elsewhere, Milchick (Tramell Tillman) enters Lumon, motorcycle helmet in hand (he actually looks pretty cool,sans all the manager energy). He’s in a serious mood, but it’s unclear about what, beyond the usual. Back in MDR, Irving B. tells Dylan G. that he recreated his outie’s strange paintings, and suggests they go looking for that mysterious location together. Yet again, Dylan seems hesitant to leave, so Irving heads out on his own, passing Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) before the latter comes to collect Dylan G.
Milchick angrily enters his office, having collected Mark S.’s semi-deflated face balloons along the way, and is surprised to see Lumon Board liaison Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander) leaning against his desk. As they have in every other instance, the Board speaks to Milchick only through Natalie. “The Board is jubilant at your ascendance,” she communicates. “It wants you to feel appreciated, and asks if you do.” To connect Milchick to Lumon’s history, and in recognition of his promotion,he’s been gifted with a set of “inclusively re-canonicalized” Kier Cycle paintings, withLumon founder Kier Eagandepicted as Black, “intended to help you see yourself in Kier, our founder.” After looking through the paintings with an unreadable expression, Milchick replies, “I’m grateful, it’s meaningful to see myself reflected in…” before pausing and looking at Natalie. The Board concludes the call before he even completes the sentence, and Milchick and Natalie awkwardly stare at each other for a few beats before she congratulates him one last time and leaves the office.
Among Lumon Departments, Mammalians Nurturable Is The G.O.A.T.
The episode jumps back to Cobelvig, who is idling in her car, 238 miles from a town called “Salt’s Neck.” She pauses to look at an object on the seat next to her: the intubation tube belonging to “Charlotte Cobel” that was once part of her now-destroyed Kier shrine. Instead of driving on, Cobel makes a U-turn and heads back the way she’d come. Back at Lumon, Mark S. and Helly continue on to the original goat room, where they discover a small doorway they hadn’t noticed before. It leads to a miniature, goat-sized version of the Lumon hallways, which in turnleads into a large white, hangar-style room filled with lush green hills, each crawling with happy goats. A man in a large black goat costume is already watching them, unbeknownst to Mark and Helly, whenLorne(Gwendoline Christie), a disheveled woman sporting a green badge and nicely arranged suit, emerges brandishing a pair of shears. “Have you come to kill me?” she asks, with every ounce of seriousness. Mark S. and Helly politely introduce themselves and ask which department they’re in. “Mammalians Nurturable,” Lorne replies.
Elsewhere in Lumon, Irving B. makes his way to the O&D floor. The first person he sees is Burt’s (Christopher Walken) old colleague, Felicia (Claudia Robinson), who embraces him warmly. Meanwhile, in Mammalians Nurturable, Mark hands over one of the missing-person fliers about Ms. Casey, explainingher role as wellness counselor. “Wellness,” Lorne scowls. “We don’t abide such fripperies here.” Mark and Helly continue to press about whether Lorne issureshe hasn’t crossed paths with Ms. Casey before. “Maybe you should take that page of paper and be on your way,” they’re told, beforeLorne starts frantically ringing a cowbell, causing two dozen employees to emerge from over the room’s various hills. “You should have left,” the woman tells the MDR pair.
The Creator of ‘Severance’ Literally Put His Own Blood Into the Work
For Dan Erickson, blood, sweat, and tears are apparently literal.
Dylan G. Earns a Reward for Good Behavior
Meanwhile, Dylan G. is now following Miss Huang through the hallways of Lumon while reiterating one of our most burning questions:why she’s a child. “They’re not, like, forcing you to be here, are they?” he asks. (It’s a fair question!) Miss Huang escorts him into the newly-built Outie Family Visitation Suite, which boasts a wall of screens with rotating photos of Dylan’s outie and his wife, Gretchen (Merritt Wever) — who, as it turns out, is also there to greet him in person. Apparently, due to “good behavior and output,“Dylan has earned an 18-minute visitation with his outie’s wife(how do they calculate these things?). Dylan and Gretchen sit, but it’s clear that Gretchen feels a bit odd about meeting her husband’s innie. Over their conversation, she reveals that they have three children, as well as the fact that Dylan’s outie had problems keeping a job before being hired at Lumon. “He dumb?” Dylan G. asks. “He a dick?” Gretchen explains that nothing’s wrong with him, but admits that “he never quite found his thing.” Dylan G. then questions whether his outie is a f*ck-up, and Gretchen gets a sad look on her face before moving to show him a picture of their family — with all of them adorably dressed up in Old West costumes. Later, as the two prepare to part, Gretchen gives Dylan G. a hug and an “I love you,” awkwardly apologizing about doing so out of habit, which sends him into a flutter.
Back in O&D, Felicia regales Irving B. with Burt’s exploits, adding that in six years, she’s only ever seen Burt afraid of one thing: “He spent two hours on his hair the first time he went to visit you.” Irving B. is visibly charmed, showing Felicia a host of drawings he’d made of Burt: “I’d draw one every day I couldn’t see him. My numbers went down, but I didn’t even care.” At the end of the sketch pad, Felicia notices Irv’s scribbled replica of the hallway his outie painted.“How do you know about the Exports Hall?“she asks, before explaining that O&D once sent shipments there and adding that “a guy” takes care of all that now. Back in Mammalians Nurturable, Lorne threatens to call Milchick, pointing out that Ms. Casey’s disappearance isn’t their problem, but, as Mark S. rightfully declares,“It’s an innie problem!” He goes on to stress that if Lumon made Ms. Casey disappear, the same could happen to any of them. Lorne softens, admitting that Ms. Casey used to host wellness sessions in their husbandry tanks. They suspect she’s simply been retired, but they also won’t hinder MDR’s search. They just need to see Mark and Helly’s bellies to check for pouches first. Old rumors die hard.
It’s Time for a Little Reintegration in ‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 3
After work, Dylan’s outie asks Gretchen how the meeting with his innie went, to which she replies: “Weird good, but good.” Elsewhere, Natalie has stopped by Ricken (Michael Chernus) andDevon’s (Jen Tullock)house to discuss Ricken’s bookThe You You Are, claiming that Lumon wants to commission a new edition directly aimed at innies (with slight language tweaks, of course). Devon brings up Natalie’s strange visit while over at Mark’s place before the two get back to the task at hand:trying to burn an afterimage message, “Who is alive?“into outie Mark’s retinas for a total of 2.5 minutes (which explains why he was obsessively counting how long it took to get to the severed floor elevator in the episode’s opening).
Back in the Lumon office, Milchick studies the reinterpreted Kier Cycle paintings before decisively packing them away and stashing them in a closet. Helena Eagan (Lower) is also leaving the office for the day when she runs into Cobel in the parking lot. The latter says thatif Lumon wants her back, she has some demands of her own: “MDR. Non-negotiable.Mark S. is so close tocompleting Cold Harbor. I intend to finish the work that I started.” She also wants Milchick gone so that she can be restored as floor manager, which Helena rejects as “hubris” before Cobel points out that she wasn’t “born into” the success she made for herself. “I think you’ve overestimated your contributions and underestimated your blessings,” Helena retorts. To make peace, the latter makes a phone call to Natalie to arrange a Board meeting for them, but as the pair walk toward Helena’s car, Cobel second-guesses the offer and leaves instead.
Later that same night, now alone, Mark drives to a remote spot and attempts to test his afterimage device with frustratingly little success. He’s jumpscared by the arrival of Dr. Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge), who informs him that burning a message into his retinas won’t work. She knows about the Overtime Contingency rebellion, and finally poses the question we’ve been waiting for Mark to learn, somehow, from his innie:“Did he tell [Devon] your wife is alive at Lumon?“Mark almost can’t believe what he’s hearing, but Reghabi claims that Gemmawasalive the last time their paths crossed. As Mark reels from this revelation,Reghabi proposes the idea of reintegration, which he had vehemently rejected before. This time, he consents to it, no convincing needed, and in the closing moments of the episode, the process of making Mark whole begins.
Episode 3 moves several plotlines along in a short amount of time. Irving finally knows the name of the strange hallway his outie keeps painting, while Mark S. and Helly (or Helena) continue to make progress in the search for Ms. Casey. The biggest shift, however, is thatMark has now decided to reintegrate his severed consciousness. Unless the reintegration causes problems (and Reghabi claims she’s worked out the kinks), that’s a major advantage for Mark in his efforts to uncover the truth.
New episodes ofSeveranceSeason 2 are available to stream every Friday on Apple TV+.
The MDR team makes some strides in their search for Ms. Casey in Severance Season 2 Episode 3.
