SPOILER ALERT: This story comprises spoilers for Season 1 of “Severance,” streaming on Apple TV+.
A recap is offered upon request.
“Severance” returns on Apple TV+ this Friday, nevertheless it’s been practically three years for the reason that first season of the sci-fi office thriller ended on a brutal cliffhanger.
So, earlier than you head again into the workplace Jan. 17, listed here are some issues it’s best to keep in mind from Season 1. In case you’re trying to clean up on simply the finale episode, skip to the top.
Innies and Outies
“Severance” follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott), a person who’s grieving the lack of his spouse Gemma exterior of the workplace — and who’s blissfully unaware he has a spouse contained in the workplace. That’s as a result of he works on the mysterious Lumon Industries and underwent an experimental and controversial “severance” process, primarily splitting himself into two completely different folks: his innie and his outie. When severed folks enter the Lumon workplace, they don’t have any reminiscence of their life exterior of labor. Likewise, outies know they work at Lumon, however they don’t have any reminiscence of their 9-5, together with their co-workers. Outie Mark is depressed and spends most of his nights alone, in the dead of night. Innie Mark is chipper, spending his days “refining macrodata” (neither his innie nor his outie is aware of precisely what meaning past sorting numbers into completely different bins in a pc program). At first of the sequence, Mark has been promoted to division head after the sudden departure of his colleague, Petey. He works alongside Helly R. (Britt Decrease), Irving B. (John Turturro) and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) on the Severed Ground of Lumon, which is overseen by non-severed managers Concord Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman). Sometimes, the innies are supplied with therapeutic wellness classes with Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), who tells them information about their outies.
Petey
After work sooner or later, Outie Mark is approached by an unfamiliar man named Petey (Yul Vazquez), who claims to have labored intently with him at Lumon. Petey reveals he has undergone “reintegration,” an untested course of meant to reverse the severance process, permitting him to merge his innie and outie and entry each his work and private recollections. He tells Mark that Lumon is as much as some shady stuff, and severance is just not what it appears. He provides Mark data he gathered inside Lumon that opens his eyes to the corporate’s nefarious habits. Petey fears he’s being watched, so for his personal innie’s sake, Mark takes Petey into his residence to cover out. He suffers from extreme uncomfortable side effects of the reintegration course of, together with debilitating complications and hallucinations. Halfway via the season, he dies because of the illness.
Ms. Cobel and Mrs. Selvig
Issues begin to get worrisome when it’s revealed that Ms. Cobel is surveilling Mark exterior of labor, too. Whereas Cobel is just not severed, she lives a double life exterior of Lumon as Mrs. Selvig, Mark’s next-door neighbor and the doula to his sister, Devon (Jen Tullock). After Petey dies, she sneaks into his funeral to covertly reduce open his head and retrieve the severance implant.
Helly’s Struggles
The sequence begins on Helly’s first day working at Lumon. In contrast to her extra senior colleagues Mark (who believes his work is significant), Irving (a scholar of Lumon’s guidelines and historical past) and Dylan (obsessive about buying firm perks), Helly desires out. Within the first few episodes of the present, she always makes an attempt to flee the workplace. She tries to ship messages to her outie by writing phrases on her physique, however they’re intercepted by Lumon. She recordsdata a proper resignation request, however her outie denies it. And she or he even makes an attempt to finish her life by hanging herself within the elevator.
One other Case for Severance
Aside from it being marketed to potential workers as a life-style selection (come shut off your mind for half the day and by no means work!), severance is justified by Lumon claiming its severed staff take care of extremely categorized data. It’s a approach of guaranteeing that Lumon secrets and techniques keep inside the confines of the workplace. However there are different makes use of for the severance process as effectively, as is the case with Gabby Arteta (Nora Dale), the spouse of a pro-severance senator, who used the severance know-how to compartmentalize (and fully overlook about) her being pregnant.
Irving <3 Burt
Issues get spicy within the workplace when the Macrodata Refinement division crosses paths with one other group of severed staff over at Optics and Design. There are guidelines in opposition to fraternizing with different departments, one thing Irving would sometimes care about. However as an alternative, he’s enthusiastic about Burt G. (Christopher Walken), who equally has an appreciation for the work hanging all through Lumon’s halls. The 2 forge a strictly forbidden workplace romance, and out of the blue Burt is “completely retired” (i.e. his innie primarily dies). This radicalizes Irving. In the meantime, he retains having hallucinations at work of a black paint-like liquid dripping from the ceiling.
Exploring Lumon
Within the third episode, Mark discovers a map of the workplace sketched by Petey, hidden behind a framed picture. As skepticism and curiosity grows amongst the innies, Mark and Helly got down to discover the lengthy, white halls of Lumon. They uncover a room stuffed with child goats, and a person sporting a lab coat who warns, “They’re not prepared but!” Among the many different identified locations in Lumon are the Break Room, which breaks the minds and spirits of innies as they repeatedly learn an apology script as punishment for misbehavior; Optics and Design, the place Burt works; the administration workplaces, the place Ms. Cobel and Mr. Milchick are stationed; and the Wellness Middle, with Ms. Casey. There may be additionally the Perpetuity Wing, which serves as a Lumon museum of types. Separate from the Severed Ground is the Testing Ground, the place it’s implied that Lumon runs experiments on the innies and tinkers with their severance chips. No character is seen coming into the Testing Ground aside from Ms. Casey.
The Additional time Contingency
Issues take a pointy flip in Episode 6, when Dylan’s innie out of the blue wakes up at residence, inside his outie physique. Innie Dylan had misplaced some kind of informational card from the Optics and Design workplace, so Mr. Milchick has come to his home after work hours to seek out out the place he put it. That is attainable because of the Additional time Contingency, an emergency course of that enables innies to be woken up within the exterior world. Innie Dylan’s world is shaken when a younger baby barges into the room, hugging him and yelling “Daddy!” Now that Innie Dylan is aware of he has a son again residence, it’s all he can give attention to at work.
Reghabi and the Underground Resistance
Towards the top of the season, Mark is led towards Reghabi (Karen Aldridge), an ex-Lumon scientist who was integral to the creation of severance know-how however is now main an underground resistance in opposition to the corporate. She is the one who carried out the reintegration process on Petey. Mark meets Reghabi in a darkish constructing in the course of the evening, the place he’s found by Doug Graner (Michael Cumpsty), head of safety on the Severed Ground. To Mark’s shock, Reghabi murders Graner and provides Mark his all-access safety card to take into the workplace. She guarantees him that his innie will know what to do with it.
Gemma = Ms. Casey
One of many sequence’ most jaw-dropping revelations comes on the finish of Episode 7, as Mark is taping again collectively a photograph of his late spouse, which he had beforehand torn up. As Outie Mark stares longingly at a photograph of his spouse Gemma, we acknowledge that exact same girl (who is alleged to have died in a automotive accident) as Lumon’s very personal Ms. Casey. Within the following episode, Ms. Casey informs Innie Mark that she has been fired as wellness director. She is shipped to the Testing Ground.
The Innie Rebel
Armed with Graner’s safety card, motivation from a self-help ebook found contained in the workplace and a complete bunch of rage, the innies devise a plot to activate the Additional time Contingency on themselves. The plan is for Dylan to remain again and sneak into the safety workplace so he can get up Mark, Helly and Irving within the exterior world, the place they’ll share the reality about Lumon. Main as much as the massive rise up, Helly and Mark share a kiss. Ms. Cobel is fired for her ongoing failure to regulate the innies. And Dylan is handled to the coveted “waffle social gathering” perk, which entails a freaky sexual efficiency in a duplicate of Lumon founder Kier Eagan’s home.
When the innies get up of their outie our bodies after Dylan begins the Additional time Contingency, they discover themselves in surprising conditions. Mark is at a celebration at his sister’s home that includes a studying from the innies’ favourite self-help ebook, which is written by her husband, Mark’s brother-in-law Ricken (Michael Chernus). He acknowledges Ms. Cobel on the social gathering (although on this setting, she is Mrs. Selvig).
Irving awakens in his home surrounded by dozens of black canvases all depicting the identical scene — he has been repeatedly portray the hallway to the Testing Ground, regardless of by no means consciously visiting it. In his home, he finds a canine, navy medals and recordsdata containing details about previous and current Lumon workers, together with Burt’s residence handle.
Helly finds herself on the Eagan household gala, the place she discovers her outie is Helena Eagan, daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan. She agreed to get severed as a part of a public relations marketing campaign, to current the process as each secure and moral.
Innie Mark suggestions Ms. Cobel off about his identification by calling her Ms. Cobel, relatively than Mrs. Selvig. Irving will get within the automotive and races to Burt’s home, solely to find he’s married to a different man. Mark tells his sister Devon he’s at the moment in innie mode and that there’s shady stuff occurring at Lumon. She tells him about Gemma, his outie’s lifeless spouse. Helly will get placed on stage in entrance of the Lumon board and different gala attendees, the place she reveals the reality about her household’s firm: “We’re prisoners!” And Mark finds a photograph of him and Gemma, recognizing her as Ms. Casey. He rushes into the lounge of his sister’s social gathering and screams, “She’s alive!” Instantly after, Mr. Milchick breaks into the safety workplace and tackles Dylan, shutting off the Additional time Contingency. The innies zap again into outies. Season 1 cuts to black.