Severance Review: The You You Are (Season 1 Episode 4)
Mystery shows face a difficult challenge when it comes to plotting out a season. Reveal too much too early on, and the show is too predictable. Wait too long to provide any answers, and the show is frustrating.
Severance Season 1 Episode 4, “The You You Are,” toes that line, setting it up to be compared to the long list of puzzle box shows to grace TV over the past few years. For viewers eager for answers, this episode is slightly frustrating.
There’s a long list of things we still don’t know. Who was Petey working with? Why does Helly’s outie refuse to resign despite her innie threatening her life? What is Burt’s team really working on?
Or for that matter, what are any of the severed departments at Lumon working on?
Thanks to the lack of answers, the most compelling parts of Episode 4 come from emotional character moments rather than the twists and turns of the central mystery.
Helly’s decision to threaten physical harm, and then ultimately attempt suicide, creates an intense situation that forces the viewer to accept that innies and outies are two different people. Although the line in Mark’s life is blurred because of Petey, we don’t know anything about the other characters’ outside lives.
When Helly’s outie tells her innie via video message that she is not a person, it’s hard to watch. The dehumanization of workers is literal on Severance, but it’s usually coming from the company and not the outies.
Having Mark as the main character almost undermines the shocking nature of Severance because Mark isn’t so critical of his innie or sees it as another person. It seems almost inevitable that Mark will eventually become reintegrated, intentionally or not, so his conflict is so much different than that of Helly’s.
Despite only really knowing Petey for a few days, Mark still feels compelled to go to his funeral upon learning of his death. Yes, it could be for selfish reasons because he now possesses Petey’s phone, but it goes beyond that.
Mark’s tears as he watches the video of Petey and his daughter performing “Enter Sandman,” together are real. His decision to visit the site of his wife’s car crash after the service, where he sheds even more tears, proves how much the loss affects him.
Mark must bridge the two worlds not just on a plot level but an emotional level. With Lumon’s sterile environment, scenes always have an underlying sense of fear or anxiety.
The scenes outside of Lumon featuring Mark broaden the emotional spectrum of the show. Mark knows he’s broken inside, whereas his innie can’t quite pinpoint what’s wrong with his situation and know his true feelings.
On a less dramatic but still heartbreaking note is Irving’s budding love affair with Burt. Although Irving couldn’t be more different than Helly, they’re both challenging what it means to exist as an innie in their own way.
Surely Lumon does expect falling in love to be a part of the plan for the innies.
Sadly with love comes the opportunity for betrayal, which is how Irving feels upon discovering that Burt is lying about optics and design’s real work. Once again Severance introduces a question without an answer, leaving viewers hanging until the next time.
Additional Thoughts:
- The candle in Ms. Casey’s office is the same as the one Mark looks at in his basement.
- The searing commentary on how companies try to buy employee loyalty with swag is strong.
- Another question: What’s on Petey’s chip? If the funeral home is just going to cremate it anyway, why did they need to retrieve it?
- Severance sure does love rack focus shots.
- Is everyone in this town trying to save on their electricity bill? They’re always sitting in the dark or dimly lit rooms.
- Burt calling Irving a “disco king” is too cute.
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.