Prepare for the Quirky Twist: Apple TV+ Series Takes a Bizarre Turn!

The Apple TV+ series Severance makes its return for a second season on Friday, Jan. 17. Pictured above are Adam Scott as Mark and Britt Lower as Helly.

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To grasp the second season of Severance, it’s useful to recall a key aspect from the inaugural season: When the characters undergo a procedure that “severs” their memories, enabling them to only recollect workplace events while at the office, it effectively results in two consciousnesses — two distinct individuals — coexisting within the same body.

Consequently, for one of them, their sole reality is a brightly lit, sparsely furnished office equipped with cubicles, where they engage in meaningless tasks in a windowless space for eight hours daily — isolated from their co-workers who toil at the enigmatic Lumon Industries on a designated floor for the “severed.”

The longer the severed individuals remain in their roles, the more divergent the person within the office, identified as an “innie,” becomes from their “outie,” or the person outside. This all unfolds within Lumon, a location with a cult-like internal culture that idolizes its creator, Kier Eagan, as a near-mystical entity.

If this all appears as a perplexing enigma, you’ve identified why Severance became such an unusually surreal, captivating puzzle series when it premiered on Apple TV+ three years ago.

Now, within the time frame that some shows arrive and vanish, Severance is back with a second chapter that is even more exquisitely bizarre and intricately crafted than the initial season.

Maximizing fan expectations

This time, the creative team behind the show — including executive producer/director Ben Stiller — recognized that fans would be eagerly anticipating their effort. They have skillfully leveraged that excitement, producing a second chapter that broadens the mysteries alluded to in the first season.

(Pro tip: I strongly recommend viewing at least the final episode from the prior season before immersing yourself into the new episodes. Here’s a fantastic detailed recap. Furthermore, Stiller and lead actor Adam Scott host a podcast that might assist you in catching up.)

Additionally, here’s a recap provided by Apple TV+:

In the previous season, three of the “innies” discovered a way to briefly retain their memories outside the workplace, sneaking into the open world. Adam Scott’s character, Mark Scout, unearthed that a woman he recognized as an executive within the office was actually the spouse of his “outie,” who was presumed deceased.

Another “innie,” Helly Riggs, portrayed by Britt Lower, uncovered that her “outie” was the offspring of the corporation’s CEO and a successor of Kier Eagan. Just as she conveyed to attendees at a corporate event, detailing how desperate the “innies” feel within Lumon, their consciousnesses were reverted back to their outside selves, culminating the episode.

This season resumes sometime after that event. Mark is informed that he and his three defiant colleagues are globally renowned — his supervisor presents him with a newspaper article that resembles a redacted document from the CIA, with every alternate sentence obscured, as some sort of verification — and Lumon has implemented reforms aimed at enhancing the lives of the “innies.”

However, questions linger. Is Mark’s spouse still alive and somewhere within Lumon? Why is Helly, whose external persona aids in running the corporation, such a rebel in the office?

What is Lumon genuinely attempting to accomplish with the severance procedure? Why is the newly appointed deputy manager overseeing Mark’s team a preadolescent girl? And why does the corporation maintain a room with white walls and a sod floor, populated with grazing goats, overseen by a character portrayed by Game of Thrones alum Gwendoline Christie?

As I mentioned: gloriously weird.

Embracing absurdity and visual artistry

Severance narrates its story with a striking, absurdist style, driven by stark visuals crafted by Stiller. In one instant, Mark is sprinting through an endless series of white, featureless hallways, desperately seeking his remaining team members, accompanied by a sultry jazz score heightening the tension — in the next instant, he finds himself trapped in a team-building exercise with his new supervisor, where a fellow employee poses the question, “Why are you a child?”

Sarah Bock in Severance

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Apple TV+

Her response — “Because of when I was born” — captures the dry wit and unwavering dedication to the peculiar premise fueling the entire series.

I’m unsure they’ve satisfactorily clarified how the “innies” possess knowledge of English and contemporary vocabulary, yet they can’t recall what the sky looks like or whether they have families outside.

Nevertheless, if you can effectively suspend disbelief, Severance‘s unconventional narrative elements keep both characters — and viewers — in a state of uncertainty, intensifying the enigmas at the core of the show.

The series also critiques in magnificent style everything we detest about corporate culture: callous leaders with merciless tactics; thankless, often harmful tasks demanded of middle management; and futile corporate roles that everyone believes they excel at — even when they have no clue what they are genuinely accomplishing.

Ultimately, Severance‘s second season astutely refines its tale of individuals laboring in a corporate office, which frequently resembles a prison, steeped in damaging secrets and concealed motives, where dismissal equates to punishment and liberation feels like a distant dream.

Can’t fathom why this series resonates with so many viewers in today’s circumstances.