‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 6 ‘Attila’ Review: Mark Finally Reintegrated?!

The Dan Erickson-created thriller follows Mark (Adam Scott), a macrodata refiner 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 devise strategies to break free from their entrapment.

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

Recap

To quickly recap the last couple of plot lines, Irving has been fired from Lumon for drowning Helena, who was posing as Helly R. during a retreat. During that same retreat, Helena had sex with Mark, who thought he was having sex with Helly. When Dylan and Mark return to work, they finally meet Helly, who had been absent the whole season in favor of Helena. Meanwhile, Mark is undergoing reintegration between his Innie and Outie selves at home under the supervision of Reghabi (Karen Aldridge).

The episode continues these plot lines with Mark revealing to Helly what had happened between him and Helena at the retreat, tempting Helly to have sex with Mark in an abandoned office room for her own memory’s sake. Dylan is researching the clues to the Export Hall that Irving left for him before his dismissal. Meanwhile, Irving is having dinner with Burt (Christopher Walken) and his husband Fields (John Noble). During his visit, Mr. Drummonds (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) breaks into Irving’s home and finds all the notes he researched about the Lumon employees.

Helena visits Mark outside of work at a restaurant to try and pry details about the Overtime Contingency, but fails after mentioning Gemma and calling her by the wrong name. The episode ends with Mark continuing his reintegration process with Reghabi until Mark answers the door for Devon (Jen Tullock) and faints after seeing flashes of Gemma and Helena. 

Review

As usual, a new episode of Severance is going to be an adventure. Though this week’s episode might have been what people in the 2000s called a “filler episode,” what captivates me about this show is how they’re able to trickle down details toward the overarching mystery without removing the importance and necessity of any single episode. 

This episode is sure to be a hit for people who have been following and rooting for Mark and Helly’s love story since the beginning. Mark admitting that he’s held feelings for Helly even before the OTC and then spending the episode trying to reconcile with Helly’s feelings of resentment towards Helena is a great boost of character development for Innie Mark.

During the dinner conversation between Irving, Burt, and Fields; they mentioned that the in-universe church treats severed people as two different souls. I think the progression of how Innie Mark feels towards Helly is a huge fork in the road for Outie Mark, who’s undergoing reintegration. I think this could deepen an internal conflict between Innie and Outie Mark, who may not be as alike as they believe they are, which may even give Mark a reason to continue staying severed. 

As usual, we have some gorgeous cinematography shots sprinkled throughout the episode. The dinner scene at Burt’s house had some amazing high-contrasting shots to add a shadow to the character’s surroundings. Another scene that stuck out to me was when Mark was reintegrating upon Devon’s arrival. There was a blinkering match cut between his Innie and Outie self that I found particularly well executed.

The biblical comparisons that various characters have made throughout the season, between Kier’s paintings and the story about Woe, continue in a discussion of how severed people should engage with the church during Burt’s dinner. As a result, I think this season’s mystery could potentially end up tying together with a story from The Bible. 

Overall, this episode was a great ride, and it poses as a big leap towards the penultimate half of this grand season, which we’re now in. I’m looking forward to seeing how this season continues to unravel, so stay tuned here at Feature First for reviews on the upcoming episodes of Severance Season 2. 

Apple TV+’s Severance Season 2 was created by Dan Erickson and is directed by Ben Stiller, Sam Donovan, Uta Briesewitz, and Jessica Lee Gagné. 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 six episodes are streaming now on Apple TV+.

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