Severance Season 2 Episode 3 Review: Who is Alive?

After easing audiences back into the world of Lumon, Severance Season 2 Episode 3, “Who is Alive?” bombards them with information and twists. For fans who love the mystery-box elements of the show, the episode is a great time.

Where to begin? Well as the title suggests, outie Mark is determined to figure out who is alive and whether it’s Gemma. Even if that means burning a message into his retinas to communicate with his innie.

Of course, that’s not actually going to work. His reunion with resistance member Dr. Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) however is a big shock. Raise your hand if you kind of forgot about the whole Petey thing until now.

But with confirmation from her that Gemma is alive, or was the last time she saw her, Mark is willing to do anything even if it means frying his brain to become reintegrated.

It’s only the third episode of the season but the stakes already feel very high for outie Mark. He goes from resisting the idea that Gemma could be alive to all in.

It’s a stark contrast from the innie world, where so far everything this season feels a little like a game, really pandering to the part of the show that is more about the mystery of Lumon and less about the characters. Even though the innies sort of found self-actualization last season from Rickon’s book, we are still constantly reminded they are secondary to their outies.

Despite the “reforms” they are offered, they exist at the whim of Lumon. All it would take is Lumon firing them again for everything to collapse.

Even Dylan, who gets the “perk” of meeting his outie’s wife Gretchen G (Merritt Wever) seems both enamored and repulsed by his outside life. He likes the idea of having a wife and children, but is skeptical of the fact his outie can’t hold down an unsevered job and seems like a bit of a loser to him.

The innie and outie will always exist at some odds, no matter how much they are working towards a shared cause. It really makes you question how does this journey end for them? Or does it ever end? 

Two of the mysteries the innies tackle are front and center on this episode: the disappearance of Miss Casey and the mysterious hallway from Irving’s paintings. We get an answer about one.

Irving learns from Felicia (Claudia Robinson) in Optics & Design, during a sweet conversation about Bert, that the hallway he sketched is the exports hall, a place they used to drop off shipments. We don’t know why Irving is seeing it in his minds, but it’s better than no leads. 

The mystery of Miss Casey is less straight forward with Helly and Mark revisiting the “goat room” only to enter an Alice in Wonderland like passage that opens up to a huge pasture of goats. It’s a very Severance scene to do and very weird.

Meeting Lorne (Gwendoline Christie) and the Mammalians Nurturable department feels like a horror movie within the episode. They are threatening and not welcoming to strangers and things seem like they’re going to go very Midsommar quickly.

It’s only Mark’s appeal that Miss Casey is important to them that they admit they know her but also believe her to be retired. Although this sequence doesn’t move the plot along very far it does remind you why this show was such a hit to begin with.

It isn’t afraid to be the weirdest show on television and that’s why we keep tuning in. 

Additional thoughts and questions:

• This is the second episode in a row I thought “What is the point of Ms. Cobel now?” I wish they would either make her screen time more useful or write off the character.
• Clearly her attempts to bully Helena backfired in her face so what other options does she have? Though after those super racist paintings maybe Milchick will quit and she’ll get her job back.
• At this point I am starting to wonder if Miss Huang is somehow another clone of Gemma. Maybe this theory is from watching Orphan Black: Echoes, but wouldn’t cloning Gemma copies make more sense than faking her death? (At least by sci-fi standards.) That could make Cold Harbor some sort of project to “perfect” her personality and that’s why Mark is critical to its completion since he knew her best. 
• Why do the Mamalians think the MDR employees have stomach pouches? Also, wouldn’t they go home every night smelling like goat? Surely their outies have suspected they aren’t working regular desk jobs.
• It seems like Natalie is trying to get Rickon to write some sort of brainwashing book for innies. I don’t trust this for a second. 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 fanatic who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing and podcasting 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.