Severance Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Attila

Severance Season 2 Episode 6, “Attila,” isn’t shy about putting the rapidly developing love triangles of the innies front and center.

First, Mark and Helly must overcome the fact that Mark has slept with Helena. It’s a devastating betrayal, not only because Helly believes she owns her body, but because Helly wishes it had been her. 

Some fans will root for their love scene, but you’re still left with the uncomfortable question of what happens to his outie. It’s clear Helena probably wouldn’t mind considering she’s willing to stalk Mark’s outie to a restaurant in the very same episode, but Mark has a wife he’s shown to be willing to do anything for.

His increasing integration isn’t making matters any less complicated for them, though it may help move forward their search for Gemma. 

The second phase of the integration surgery is a full horror sci-fi scene and you begin to worry Mark will suffer the same fate as Petey. Let’s face it, Dr. Reghabi is not very reassuring.

Even with the seizures, Mark suffers I’m fairly confident the show won’t kill off the main character yet. I’m less confident about his long-term chances of survival. 

The dinner scene between Irv, Burt, and Burt’s husband Fields is 50 shades of uncomfortable. And I don’t even mean the part when Fields openly wonders if Burt and Irv had unprotected sex inside Lumon. 

Maybe Lumon should be supplying branded condoms instead of mugs and carved fruit. 

The whole conversation about Burt’s soul and how Fields hopes that his innie has a separate soul that would qualify Burt for heaven takes the cultish status of Lumon to a whole new level. It’s ironic that internally Lumon employees think of innies as less than human while externally people are worried about the souls of innies.

Severance seemed more preoccupied with the mystery of Cold Harbor and what happened to Gemma early on in this season, but it’s slowly drifting back to the existential questions that only Rickon seemed to care about for a while. 

Do innies have souls? Do they have rights? Should they be allowed to see their family like Dylan, and are those people really even “their” family? It’s a little weird that Dylan’s innie seems to care more about his wife than his outie does. 

We never learn what Burt did that was so bad that Fields thinks he’s going to hell, but it casts the character in a new light. 

Burt and Fields’ conversation revealing Burt’s outie also worked for Lumon throws an interesting wrench into things. Is Fields mistaken or is there more to Burt reaching out to Irv, whose suspicious phone call implies he’s also working with some sort of resistance? 

Maybe it’s better that Irv’s innie is “dead” rather than live to see this betrayal. 

Severance has bitten off a lot this season instead of answering important questions. For example, where the hell did Ms. Cobel go? There’s still plenty of time to make its case though. 

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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