The Severance Season 2 Premiere Was Everything We Wanted And More

did you feel That little jolt of adrenaline when you hit play in the first episode Do not quit second season? We were convinced. this it’s been three years since the first season endedand we finally had to see what happens next provided a nice little rush. It’s the kind of moment you live for as a pop culture fan. Something you’ve been waiting for for the next few seconds is finally here. And Do not quit season two is finally here.

Then, as expected, the premiere episode was delivered. Maybe it didn’t have all the answers, but it addressed all your questions head-on and set the stage for season two as if it were going to live up to season one. Let’s discuss it. (If you haven’t yet, this article should do the trick.)

The premiere of the second season Do not quit“Hello, Mrs. Kobel” begins exactly where you want it to, with innie Mark (Adam Scott) waking up in Lumont to find his wife (Dichen Lachman) alive and supposedly somewhere on that floor. Excitement and energy fill the shot as the camera follows Mark across the cut floor as he walks to the Health room where Mrs. Casey works. But not only is he not there, the room is not there either.

At the Macrodata Refinement office, Mark later meets three newly cut people (Alia Shawkat, Bob Balaban, Stefano Carannante) who we learn come from other branches of Lumo. Although Mark is mostly a spectator at this point and doesn’t care for now. He just wants to know where his team is and where they are Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) tells her gleefully.

Milchick tells Mark that it’s been five months since the innies briefly woke up in the outside world, and it’s a very painful experience for everyone. According to Milchick, their outerwear became famous as “the face of austerity reforms” and shows him pictures in the newspaper, probably in some kind of parade. You immediately see that the paper is all redacted, but if you pause, you’ll also notice that the paper is called The Kier Telegraph. The New York Timesit’s not—it’s so obvious that something isn’t right.

Again, it doesn’t matter to Mark. He wants answers. Answers to questions like why was their boss Mrs. Kobel (Patricia Arquette) at her family’s party? Milchick says she was fired because she had an “erotic fixation” on Mark and was hoping to get into a fight with both her innie and outside looks. We know that’s not the case, but it’s fascinating to watch Milchick spin all these lies he’s been fed by Lumon, and Mark is having none of it. Mark said no one else wanted to go back to Lumon, so he was the only one back in the MDR. He doesn’t believe it and says he wants to hear from them directly.

All of this happens in about the first 10 minutes of the premiere, and things are just getting started. We have a timeline, some answers, and we feel a matching energy between our anticipation for the show to return and Mark’s eagerness to figure out what happened.

Mark returns to MDR and gets to know his new team a little better. He soon tries to sabotage them by writing a note from the other Mark (Balaban’s Mark W.) telling him to blow up the floor. The new group turns on him and Mark makes a run for it. He arrives at Milchik’s office, grabs a powerful speaker, and pleads with the board to get his team back. It’s a tense, exciting scene — the kind of rebellion we’ve come to expect — but it doesn’t go too well. Milchik catches him and sends Mark away. Or so we think.

Mark wakes up in Lumon again, but this time he’s not alone. Dylan (Zach Cherry), Irving (John Turturro) and finally Helly R. (Britt Lower) exit the elevator one by one. Did Lumon really ask them to come back? How did they get them to change their minds? We’re curious, but frankly, we don’t care at this point. Finally, it is exciting to see friends and colleagues together again. And as you might expect, they’re all very confusing. They’re back for the first time since the end of last season, and they’re dying to know what everyone saw.

To explain, Milchik brings them all to the newly renovated lounge, and reader, we weren’t ready for that. He plays a video for them that he says will be shown to every inny from now on. It’s a stop-motion animated story of their rebellion called “Macrodata Rebellion” that turns out to be a good thing for Lumon. An event that opened Lumo’s eyes to the feelings of the innies and eventually brought about “great reforms”. You imagine they mean “reform”, which perhaps explains what everyone is working on. But of course it is not like that. Lumon’s meaningful reforms are merely diversions, such as bobbing for new foods and pineapples. All these are the most random, meaningless things. The group is just as confused and shocked as we were in the video, but they are even more shocked when they are told that they have a choice: they will be chosen for their actions, whether they like it or not, and not the outsiders. stay

Then, finally, it happens. After 30 minutes of information and tension, Mark, Helly, Irv and Dylan have a private talk and reveal what happened to each of them at the end of last season. Mark, of course, reveals that Mrs. Kobel knows him from outside and that Mrs. Casey is his (supposedly) dead wife. This is a shock to everyone. But it’s not as shocking as Helly says. We know he’s one of Lumo’s bosses, but he lies and says he woke up in his apartment watching TV. Is he embarrassed by the truth or is it because he is now spying on others? Irving immediately falls for her, though when he realizes part of her story—that a gardener works outside her apartment at night—he doesn’t add it.

Irv is also reluctant to tell his story to anyone and runs away. Dylan catches her and learns that Irv has been seeing the love of his life, Bert (Christopher Walken), only to learn that he is married. The grief is unbearable and Irv wants to leave. Thankfully, Dylan begs her to stay so they can work things out together, and she eventually agrees. Later, Helli promises to help Mark and his wife figure things out, despite their romantic interest in each other, and Milchick secretly reveals to Dylan that they’re building a special room where he can see his family…but he can’t tell. anyone else about it.

Basically, everyone still has secrets, but most importantly, they all choose to stay. And with a looping shot of the beginning of the episode Do not quit the crew returned with a whole new purpose.

In terms of season premieres, especially after a long hiatus Do not quit almost took over. It threw us right back into this world and didn’t shy away from tackling the big questions. It didn’t give us any big answers and, in fact, gave us more questions — but with a full season to go, we’re totally okay with that.

Additional thoughts

• Was Keanu Reeves as the voice of the Lumon building in the video? It probably sounded that way.
• The episode is now titled “Welcome, Mrs. Kobel,” after the screen saver message on Mr. Milczyk’s computer. It’s something he’s very, very angry about, but it seems pointless. Why is he so worried? What does that say about him? Is he just feeling disrespected or is it something else?
• Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), right? How weird is it for a kid to walk around as a manager, and how cool was it for everyone to keep bringing it up?
• The new MDR people are mostly an afterthought here, but they provide very interesting context. For example, we learn that one of their old branches had different, more advanced animatronics of the Kiers, while the other was so empty that the figures were made from brooms. (The video also shows that there are over 200 Lumon branches worldwide.)
• Irv reveals to Dylan that his appearance keeps painting the same hallway over and over again. The hallway we briefly see at the beginning of the episode as Mrs. Casey rides the ominous elevator.
• Finally, looking back on the episode, I think Helly is still her innie but is too embarrassed to reveal the truth about her appearance. He glances at Irv while he’s still in the break room, and later when Mrs. Casey is discussing with Mark, innies and outies are different, he seems very determined. We will see how it all turns out.

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