Severance Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig

We’ve made it back to the outside, and as expected, things don’t happen the way Milchick told Mark’s innie. Severance Season 2 Episode 2, “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” shows what actually happened after the innies made contact. 

It’s a jarring shift from the blindingly bright Severed floor to the dark, dreary winter of the town of Kier. Even in the daytime, it looks overcast and dim. 

Of course, there actually isn’t that much daytime to be shown since we find out Milchick is a LIAR and it hasn’t been five months since the “uprising.” Mark is back to work fairly quickly (an exact timeline isn’t established but Milchick references only having 48 hours to bring in the new MDR employees).

There is something so sinister yet comical about Milchick getting on his motorcycle and riding to Irv and Dylan’s houses to fire them and then finally to Devon’s house to talk to Mark. Mark is surprisingly resistant to accepting the idea that his innie could have been talking about Gemma, but thankfully Devon pushes the idea leading Mark to contemplate quitting. 

Although lacking a lot of the heightened stylization or adrenaline of the premiere, the second episode fills in a lot of necessary gaps and reestablishes the fact that Lumon management can’t ever be trusted. Slowly but surely we are bridging the gaps between the worlds through Mark’s investigation into Gemma. 

We also get a better glimpse at Irv, who is for some reason being reverse stalked by Bert, and Dylan, who lacks the aggressive confidence of his innie counterpart. 

We also see plenty of Helena, who seems absolutely enthralled by the security footage of innie Mark and Helly kissing. Despite her cold sociopath exterior, it seems like she is oddly drawn to the innie world, or at least Mark (Ms. Cobel may not have wanted a threesome but maybe Helena does?). 

In addition to letting us see more of the other three MDR employees’ outies, this episode establishes the huge glaring question of “Why is Mark so important to Lumon?” We can piece together that the Cold Harbor project has something to do with Gemma, but why does Mark need to be working on it? What do the numbers mean?

That tension comes to a head when Ms. Cobel/ Selvig, who turns down her “promotion” at Lumon after they refuse to reinstate her as manager, runs into Mark as she’s leaving her home. He confronts her, demanding to know what this is all about and whether she knows anything about Gemma.

She just stares him down, screams, and almost runs him over. So that’s a no on getting any answers any time soon. 

So far this season, Severance is leaning hard into the mystery box/ sci-fi element of the show. It’s already established that the corporate work world is a hellscape and put pieces on the board, and now it’s time to see how this twisted game with Mark and the others plays out. 

Additional Thoughts:

• Shoutout to the beautiful outside tracking shot showing Helena’s journey across the building through the glass windows. It’s more subdued than Mark’s run through Lumon but is still some beautiful cinematography. 
• Never has a show loved pineapples this much since Psych. 
• Did anyone else have to turn on the subtitles just to confirm Helena’s dad really called her a “fetid moppet?”
• Of course, Ricken loves Mark’s “workie” now that he’s flattered him.  
• There’s a new intro credit sequence, still starring Mark, and it’s even creepier than last season. I will leave it to the Reddit sleuths to interpret.
• Speaking of which, Devon mentions “Occam’s razor,” a problem-solving principle that states the simplest explanation is usually the best. Is that a not-so-subtle message to the fan theories about this show? 

What did you think of this episode of Severance? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Severance airs Fridays on Apple TV+. 

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