Severance season 2 episode 1 recap: getting back to work

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost three years since Severance season 1 finale. Last we left the Microdata Refinement (MDR) team, their “innies” had escaped the severed floor, and were on a quest to warn everyone about the horrors of the Severance procedure, until they were stopped, and the consciousness of their “outies” was restored.

Now the Lumon crew is back at it! But what’s changed after all this time? Here’s a recap Severance season 2 episode 1.

“Five months” later

Five months after the insane events of the season 1 finale, Mark (Adam Scott) awakens again in Lumon Industries’ severed floor. After some panicked searching, he comes across his new co-workers Gwendolyn (Alia Shawkat), Mark W. (Bob Balaban) and Dario (Stefano Carannante). Milchick (Tramell Tillman) appears and escorts Mark to the management office, where he meets Ms. Huang (Sarah Bock), the new child Deputy Manager of the Severed floor, as Milchick has taken over Harmony Cobel’s (Patricia Arquette) role. The fact that they now have a Type-A child working for them is just the beginning of the weirdness to come this season.

Milchick informs Mark that he, Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving’s (John Turturro) revolt was successful and they became the face of Severance reform. Milchick says the others all left Lumon; Mark’s “outie” was the only one interested in returning. Naturally, no one should trust a word that any of the upper management in Lumon says, so Mark demands to hear it from his old co-workers directly, which Milchick informs him is not possible. Clearly something’s up.

Mark returns to his desk to get to know his new co-workers. They are interrupted by Ms. Huang getting them to play an icebreaker game. Things get tense when Mark, playing along with the game, fakes that he’s “happy to have made four new friends.” Ms. Huang, like the office Terminator, sternly shuts down this idea, stating she’s not a friend, but rather a supervisor.

The next day, Mark attempts to leave a note in Mark W.’s coat. When he returns the next morning Milchick reads the note aloud to everyone in the MDR floor. They blame Mark for trying to make it look like Mark W. was trying to inform his “outie” of the conditions on the severed floor of Lumon. Milchick knows it’s a ruse, and makes Mark W. the new department lead instead. However, Mark uses this as a distraction to try and run to the Management office and inform the board that he wants to see his team.

Reunions and an A/V presentation

Inevitably, Milchick catches Mark and sends him up to a strange floor. There’s a weird, creepy Kier painting in front of him, like all of the other weird Kier tableaus we saw in season 1. However, thankfully, his attention is diverted when the rest of the OG MDR team appear: first Dylan, then Irving and lastly Helly. As the group reunites, Irving is still distraught about Burt (Christopher Walken) being in a relationship. However, his heartache is interrupted when Ms. Huang arrives to escort them to see Milchick.

Milchick shows them a bizarre stop-motion corporate Lumon video about “The Microdata Uprising,” recapping the events of the first season and the impact the team had on Lumon, complete with creepy audio recordings of their own words dubbed over the images). The video hilariously claims that Lumon has reformed with “new snacks, incentives and a mirror room.” Milchick, sincerely trying to be different from Cobel, claims he doesn’t want to be a jailer, and that they will have until the end of the day, as “innies,” to decide whether they want to stay or not. He claims there are no cameras or recorders on the severed floor anymore, before leaving with Ms. Huang. Of course, no one believes him.

Mark informs the team what he saw on the outside, letting them all know that Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) is actually his wife, Gemma, and is still alive. However, her department, Wellness, is no longer at Lumon, which is what he was frantically searching for in the beginning. Helly recaps what she saw, but she actually lies, saying she was in a boring apartment watching a nature show, when in truth she is Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon’s CEO Jame Eagan. Given that we saw Dylan and Irv being severed when they arrived, but not Helly, this appears to actually be her “outie” meeting up with them. Like everyone else watching the show, Irving is suspicious of this, and leaves.

Are you in or out?

Helly and Mark discuss whether or not they’re staying, which is frankly a conversation no one should have given the first season. However, Mark is committed to trying to save Gemma. Helly claims she’s going to stay too to help him search.

Irv and Dylan discuss what they both want. Irv tells Dylan his outie painted dozens of paintings of a strange black hallway with an arrow, but doesn’t know what it means. Nevertheless, Irv wants to leave. However, Dylan begs him to stay, so they can all figure out what’s happening at Lumon. They’re interrupted when Ms. Huang summons Dylan to see Milchick.

Milchick informs/bribes Dylan that part of the reforms in Lumon will be to create an Outie Visitation Center so his innie can see his wife and kids. He asks Dylan to keep it a secret from the others. Dylan returns to his desk, as do Mark, Helly and Irv. They sit back down and get to work, affirming each of their decisions to remain at Lumon. Good luck with that!

New episodes of Severance air every Friday on Apple TV Plus.