‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 2 Breakdown: Goodbye Mrs. Selvig

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.

‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 2 “Goodbye Mrs. Selvig” Breakdown

The episode opens with the Season 1 cliffhanger of Mark yelling, “She’s alive!” before Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) disrupts Dylan from keeping the overtime contingency open in the Lumon security room. Outie Mark finds himself at Devon’s (Jen Tullock) house holding a picture of him and Gemma (Dichen Lachman), and Devon makes sure that he’s alright.

We cut to Helena in a room at Lumon HQ, who had just revealed to the world that her Innie self, Helly, was being tortured at Lumon. Her father, CEO Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry), walks in and calls Helena a “fetid moppet,” leading Helena to start investigating what happened. She entrusts Mr. Milchick to seek out the three at their homes. 

Helena walks over to a boardroom with Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and offers her a promotion to front-run the Severance Advisory Council. Understanding that she won’t get her job as head manager of the severed floor back, and upon hearing the news that Mr. Milchick had been promoted to the role, Ms. Cobel politely asks for more time to consider the position and leaves. 

Helena then films an apology video saying that her statement was a result of a night of drinking mixed with her medication. Intercutting between Helena’s propaganda is Mr. Milchick firing both Irving (John Turturro) and Dylan at their homes. We cut to a new version of the opening theme with the characters in orange prison jumpsuits.

Back at Devon’s house, Devon, Ricken (Michael Chernus), and Mark debrief over what just happened. Mark, trying to justify that what he meant about his last words refers to Devon’s daughter, tries to ignore the signs that Gemma could be alive. Devon, catching on to the details, tries to keep the possibility of her being alive open. The three are interrupted by Mr. Milchick at the front door. 

Mr. Milchick informs the three of them of what happened earlier that night, explaining that a call for reform at Lumon has been initiated. Devon is very skeptical of Milchick’s words, but Mark’s main thought circles around how Cobel was his next-door neighbor. He decides not to take his job back at Lumon.

In the next few scenes, Helena watches the security footage of Helly and Mark kissing, Dylan is discriminated against by a carpet factory employer for being severed, and Irving is being watched by Burt (Christopher Walken) while making a covert phone call at a phone booth. Mr. Milchick approaches Mark at his house and guilts him into taking the job back by offering a fruit basket and pay raise, and reminding him of his depression that led him to become severed. 

Now lined up with the beginning events of Season 2, Episode 1; which we learn was only 48 hours after the fact and not 5 months as Milchick reported to Mark; we find that Milchick’s efforts to bring Mark back didn’t succeed. Mark is a necessary asset for Lumon to finish the “Cold Harbour” file, but after Mark sabotages his new workers and gives his message to The Board, Milchick reports that they need to rehire Irving, Dylan, and Helly.

After the events of the second half of Episode 1, Mark drives home to find Ms. Cobel clearing her house. Pressing her with questions about who she is and if Gemma is alive, Cobel drives away to escape from Mark in a hurry after a moment of hesitation. The episode rolls credits.

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 first two episodes are streaming now on Apple TV+.

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