‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 1 Breakdown: “Hello, Ms. Cobel”

After ending the last season with a cliffhanger bang that left audiences hungry for Season 2, Apple TV+’s Severance is back! Season 2, which premiered its first episode yesterday, loses none of the mystery that made Season 1 the must-watch it is. Read our Severance Season 2 Episode 1 breakdown, recap and review.

The Ben Stiller-directed thriller follows Mark (Adam Scott), a macrodata analyst at Lumon Industries, who went through a procedure called “Severance,” a memory partition between your work and home life. As Mark befriends his team members Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Irving (John Turturro); they begin to conspire strategies to break free from their entrapment.

This article contains spoilers for Severance Season 1 and Season 2.

Season 1 Finale Recap

When we last saw our team, Dylan had been left guard at Lumon to hijack into the security room and turn on Mark, Helly, and Irving’s work memories after hours. Mark found himself at his sister Devon’s (Jen Tullock) house for the reading of his brother-in-law’s, Ricken Hale (Michael Chernus), new book, “The You You Are.” At the book-reading, Mark finds Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) disguised as one of the Outie Mark’s friends.

Irving finds his Outie self at home alone, in a room surrounded by similar all-black paintings of a hallway, presumably at Lumon. As he searches through his house, he finds a history of serving in The Navy and addresses of all the employees at Lumon. Using the information his Outie gathered for him, Irving drives to find his Innie-crush Burt (Christopher Walken); but despairs when he finds Burt happily married.

Helly wakes up to find that her Outie self is Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry); and that she is to present a speech at an end-of-quarter gala where she talks about her severed experience. Careful not to give herself away, Helly waits till it’s time to present her speech to blow her cover and expose the truth about severance.

Back at the book reading, Mark blows his cover to Ms. Cobel, and she steals Devon’s baby as she rushes over to Lumon to stop Helly in an attempt to get her job back. Mark finds out that the reason he severed himself was due to the depression he experienced following the death of his Outie’s wife. However, Mark finds a picture of the two and discovers that his wife Gemma is actually Lumon employee Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman). 

Ms. Cobel informs Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) about the four’s conspiration, and he rushes to stop Dylan in the security room. Ms. Cobel makes it to the gala right as Helly is about to go on stage, but she’s too late, and Helly reveals to everyone that they’ve been lied to about the safety of severance. Right as Mr. Milchick breaks into the security room and stops Dylan, Mark runs to Ricken to inform him that his wife, Gemma, is alive; ending the season on this cliffhanger.

‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 1 “Hello, Ms Cobel” Recap

Largely ignoring the outside events of the Season 1 finale, the first episode of Season 2 begins with Mark awakening back on the severed floor at Lumon. Panicking, he finds a new team at his office, and Mr. Milchick the head manager of the severed floor. Mr. Milchick introduces Mark to Ms. Huang (Sarah Bock), a child supervisor, who informs him that thanks to the four’s efforts 5 months prior, Lumon has put in work to reform the quality of life for the severed workers.

Mark, unimpressed with his team, realizes that he holds power since he willingly returned to the company despite being famous for the “Macrodat Uprising.” He sabotages his new team in an effort to distract Mr. Milchick so he can sneak into his office and send a message to the board of the company to get his old team back. Mr. Milchick fires Mark from the company as a result but finds himself back moments later, with Helly, Irving, and Dylan coming out of the elevator shortly after.

Reunited, Mark informs the others of what they accomplished, but Mr. Milchick interrupts and requests that they make their way to the break room. Mr. Milchick plays a stop-motion animation video of the Lumon building (a personified cameo by Keanu Reeves) recapping what happened in the previous finale. The video informs them that all their activity was tracked and that due to their plan succeeding, they have now put in place measures to reform the company for the severed workers. 

Mr. Milchick assures the four that they’re free to leave the company at the end of the day if they choose, but that work will be normal and as promised. He leaves to give them a chance to discuss with each other privately, and they finally break down what happened when they were outside. Mark tells the truth, but Helly lies about going and telling a gardener what happened. Irving, embarrassed that he used his time to selfishly locate Burt, refuses to tell them what he did and decides to leave the company. 

Dylan, on the fence about leaving or staying, persuades Irving from quitting after telling him he’s the biggest reason why he doesn’t want to leave. Irving tells Dylan what he did when he was outside, and Dylan shares his sympathies with him about finding out Burt was married. As Irving changes his decision to stay, Ms. Huang calls Dylan to Mr. Milchick’s office. Mr. Milchick presents Dylan with blueprints for a family visitation suite; as that was one of Dylan’s largest concerns about staying at Lumon. 

Mark and Helly have a conversation about whether or not they want to stay. Mark, knowing that his Outie self purposely severed himself for a legitimate reason, feels comfortable staying at Lumon. Helly, having realized that everything she stands for would be gone if she were to leave, also decides to stay. All four having decided to stay, we end the episode with final shots of the team happy at work together, organizing data again, with a glimpse of what exactly the data is.

A quick screen shows the data translating to genome sequences, with a look at Ms Casey and the implications of cloning for the Lumon company, an assumption freely assumed following the many goats seen last season. 

‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 1 “Hello, Ms Cobel” Review

Coming hot off the plate of the highly-acclaimed Season 1, I will say that there is a right to have been hesitant about Season 2’s quality. However, if there’s one show that has the right amount of potential energy to knock it out of the park, it’s going to be Severance. Starting the season with a premiere that leaves us asking more questions than we had to go in only contributes to the mystery of this handsome sci-fi thriller. 

The episode opens with impressive panning shots that encapsulate the panic Mark feels at the moment as he runs down the hallways of Lumon. If Season 1 showcased mindblowing cinematography, I’m beyond excited to see what they do with the rest of the season with this clear increase in budget. 

The stop-motion animation scene was so beyond clever, and I couldn’t help but love how they handled the recap of the previous season. Exposition recaps are usually given little thought in order to bring the audience back up to speed, but the clever usage of stop-motion animation only captivates the audience to stay engaged. 

The episode focusing on the perspective of the severed employees allows for the mystery of how the previous finale would be followed to permeate through the premiere. Because this episode is titled “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” I predict that the next episode (“Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” a reference to Ms. Cobel’s counterpart disguise) will follow the outside world and what happened following the Macrodat Uprising. 

The upcoming season has a lot to unfold, including what exactly Lumon Industries’ initiative is (which Feature First writer Lewis wrote a Mega Theory about here). I’m beyond excited to review and break down the upcoming season over the next 9 weeks, and I hope you stay tuned at Feature First for more Severance news and articles!

Apple TV+’s Severance Season 2 was created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle. The series stars Adam Scott as Mark, Britt Lower as Helly, John Turturro as Irving, Zach Cherry as Dylan, Tramell Tillman as Milchick, and Patricia Arquette as Ms. Cobel. The season premiered on January 17, and will release episodes weekly.