‘Severance’ Episode 2 Already Reveals A Major Lumon Lie

After a 100% innie episode for the premiere of Severance season 2, now we had a 100% outie episode 2, revealing what happened on the other side of the immediate aftermath of the season 1 finale swap incident.

It was a lot of information to process, as is true of really any episode of Severance, but I think we learned a number of important things. Let’s go through them:

The Big Lumon Lie – Not that it’s surprising that Lumon lied about something, but here we have confirmation that the presentation to the group about how the “Macrodat Uprising” changed public perception of Severed individuals and led to reforms about how they were treated was…not true. I remember watching this in the premiere and thinking “did they really do that?” as it seemed too wild and too anti-Lumon to be real. Well, turns out you can forge a newspaper front page and make a video to show to just four people as a way of trying to placate them.

In reality, what we saw was no celebratory parade or announcement of reforms. Mark is eventually lured back to the company by Milchick, pineapples in tow. Dylan and Irving are fired, then rehired when it serves the plan to make Mark stay. Helly/Helena records an apology video to say that she was drunk when she was yelling about Severance torture and it was just a joke. So no, Lumon faced apparently zero consequences for the uprising, and the only real effect was making the three outies suspicious about what really happened. But in the end they got them all back.

Helly Or Helena? – This was not answered at all, but I’d say there’s more evidence now that it is Helena that went back down to the floor, not Helly R. Helena is pretty isolated and clearly hated by her father, the senior Eagan. There’s a moment where Helena runs through the tape of Mark and Helly kissing over and over again, this development apparently being a surprise to her. Even though they said Mark was going to get “Helly R.” back, I think Helena may have been able to sneak down without being sever-flipped. Perhaps to spy, but also perhaps to continue Helly’s relationship with Mark. That’s my guess.

Mark Is The Key – It was fully revealed this episode that Mark is the key to some grand Lumon project, Cold Harbor. Everyone else is expendable including his coworkers who were fired without a second thought while Mark was courted relentlessly to return. Then, after a failed reintegration with a new team, his old squad was brought back for the sole purpose of getting him to work again. Of course, the grand point of the project remains unclear, though in the pilot it did make it seem in a brief flash that the number box-sorting may have something to do with Ms. Casey/Gemma. Though why is Mark, of all people, this important where he must return that seemingly mundane job?

Wild episode, as always. Next week seems too far away. I’d like to sever myself and wake up next Thursday night just so I can watch.

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