Severance Review: Defiant Jazz (Season 1 Episode 7)
Severance consistently provides thrills and twists, but Severance Season 1 Episode 7, “Defiant Jazz,” really pushes at the emotional aspect of the show. The closer the lives of the innies come to being self-actualized, the higher the emotional stakes.
For someone like Mark, the ethical considerations of creating an innie never outweighed his selfish need to want to sever. Meeting up with the former Lumon employee he spoke to on the phone challenges his notions about the innie not being real.
She argues Mark is responsible for his birth and will one day be responsible for his death.
It’s no longer just Petey he’s fighting for but for this version of himself. After witnessing the doctor murder Graner, it’s not a fight he can walk away from
The scenes set at the university utilize shaky cam to increase the tension and horror of the encounter. Trading in the usual ominous theme music for the sound of heartbeats also places you in Mark’s very frightened headspace.
The security pass he gets from Graner’s body comes just at the right time for the innies.
For Helly, the idea of breaking free from her innie prison is well established but we see some of the other innies finally accept their desire for freedom.
In a surreal Ex Machina style dance sequence, the team celebrates Helly’s “5-minute music experience,” which is a reward for her achievement in data refining. Watching them all dance around in the colorful lights is more creepy than fun, and Milchick’s intrusion on Dylan’s space causes him to snap and attack him.
Zach Cherry consistently delivers jokes on the show, but this development in Dylan’s life allows him to explore a more dramatic side. Seeing his son broke something open in him, and he loses his quirky, sarcastic attitude to become a man embroiled in inner conflict.
After his outburst, he reveals to them the truth about being awakened at home by the overtime contingency protocol and seeing his son. For Dylan, the conspiracy is no longer a fun thing to speculate about but a real thing keeping him from knowing his son.
These revelations remove the power from Lumon’s ideology to the point where they start to feel almost human again. Once that genie is out of the bottle it’s hard to put back.
While Helly and Mark search the security room for instructions on how to use the overtime contingency on themselves, Irv has a similar awakening.
His budding feelings for Burt already chipped at Irv’s overly proper exterior, but learning that Burt’s outie has conveniently decided to retire sends him over the edge. After giving such a measured performance throughout the season, it’s surprising to see John Turturro get so outraged as Irv.
It may have taken them a while to get there, but they’re all finally ready to burn Lumon down. The goings-on of the innies would be plenty to fill an episode, but the show goes out with a bang on the outside.
It is not very often that a show delivers a twist so big that my jaw literally drops open but Severance delivers. At the very end, Mark has a drunken emotional breakdown in front of Alexa about his wife.
It’s painful to watch Mark be so absolutely broken, and Adam Scott does such a phenomenal job with the nuances of this character. Mark is often a selfish jerk but he’s also in pain and mourning.
Even at this heightened emotional moment, there is more plot development to come. When we finally see a picture of his wife it is no other than Ms. Casey!
Aside from the candle in Ms. Casey’s office that matched the one in Gemmas’ storage box, there’s been nothing to connect the two. To say this is a surprise is an understatement.
Gemma is supposed to be dead, so how did they fake her death AND erase her entire identity so that she doesn’t know she has a husband? Their innies might not know each other, but this seems to suggest Gemma doesn’t have an outie anymore.
This certainly does explain Harmony’s borderline obsession with Mark and her odd question to Devon about whether Mark ever thinks he sees his wife. If she’s running an experiment on him, one that maybe even the board doesn’t know about it, it makes sense she’d want to keep a close eye on him.
It’s disappointing to not see them using the overtime contingency protocol by the end of the episode, but hopefully, we see that on the next one. Meanwhile, I’ll still be processing this huge reveal.
What did you think of this episode of Severance? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.