The 15 most WTF moments from ‘Severance’ Season 2, episode 1

Severance has finally returned, with a Season 2 premiere that plunges us straight back into the unsettling world of Lumon Industries. And while it’s great to be back, it’s also downright freaky.

That’s because the season premiere, titled “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” throws a lot at viewers. New characters, new Lumon perks, and new Severance mysteries enter the fray, each one eliciting a varying degree of “What the hell is going on?” from me. And you can bet that sentiment will only grow with every episode of Season 2.

From surprise throuple mentions to Lumon’s embrace of stop-motion, here are the 15 most WTF moments from Severance Season 2, episode 1. Let’s break them down — and maybe, just maybe, we’ll find some answers along the way.

The Wellness Room is just… gone.

In an extended sequence in Severance‘s first-ever episode, Innie Mark (Adam Scott) walks through the fluorescent halls of Lumon’s Severed Floor without a care in the world. The opening of “Hello, Ms. Cobel” echoes that moment by flipping it on its head. Now, in his first moments back at Lumon since the Innies’ Season 1 escape, Mark runs helter-skelter through the halls. Gone is the purpose and routine of the Season 1 hallway walk: Here Mark backtracks and loses his way. The entire sequence, which Scott says took about five months to film, is a perfect, destabilizing reintroduction to the world of Severance, but it ends with a sobering reveal.

Mark’s destination throughout this mad dash is the Wellness Room, where Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) — whom he now knows is his Outie’s wife, Gemma — used to work. But to Mark’s horror, the Wellness Room is completely gone, and Ms. Casey is nowhere to be found. In retiring her to the foreboding Testing Floor, has Lumon made her disappear completely? And if they can lock her away, what’s stopping them from doing the same to Mark and all of Lumon’s other Innies?

Mark, look out! There’s someone behind you!

As Mark takes in the now-gone Wellness Room, Severance goes full horror movie for a second. A mysterious suited figure appears in the hallway behind Mark, like the world’s most professional stalker. They disappear just as quickly as they arrive, but their identity remains a mystery. It’s not Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), as he’s wearing an entirely different outfit, and it’s not one of Mark’s new team members, since they’re all in the Macrodata Refinement department. So, who is this new arrival on the Severed Floor? And why are they menacingly watching Mark from afar?

Mark has an entirely different team.

Tramell Tillman, Alia Shawkat, Stefano Carannante, and Bob Balaban in “Severance.”
Credit: Apple TV+

When Mark finally arrives in MDR, he’s greeted not by Helly (Britt Lower), Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry), but by three entirely new coworkers. Mark W. (Bob Balaban), Gwendolyn Y. (Alia Shawkat), and Dario R. (Stefano Carannante) are transfers from other Lumon branches, and they’re full of fascinating information about how Lumon operates elsewhere.

Gwendolyn and Mark W. (who straight up asks Mark to change his name) come from 5X, a newer branch that was shut down. Apparently its Perpetuity Wing had animatronic Eagans, so you know it’s fancy. Meanwhile, Dario, presumably from an Italian branch, describes his former workplace as being “very poor.” Their Eagans were brooms, and the employees didn’t even have an elevator — just a rope. Another funny detail: Where Mark received a crystal head cube as a reward, it looks like Dario received a carved wooden head cube as a substitute. Come on, Lumon, do better!

Lumon’s newest hire, Miss Huang, is a literal child.

Sarah Bock in “Severance.”
Credit: Apple TV+

Another new addition to the Severed Floor? Deputy Floor Manager Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), who is fully a teenager. What in the world is such a young person doing on the Severed Floor? Is she a Lumon experiment, born and raised in the building? Or is this just the worst possible way to earn community service hours for school?

Whatever Miss Huang’s deal is, she makes the already-bizarre vibes at Lumon even stranger. Props to Bock for bringing such a disarming emptiness to a character viewers will be analyzing for weeks to come.

Mr. Milchick gives Mark the fakest newspaper of all time.

Tramell Tillman in “Severance.”
Credit: Apple TV+

Mr. Milchick catches Mark up on everything that’s happened since the Innies escaped. In the past five months, he claims their Outies have become “the face of severance reform,” leading to Lumon attempting to make amends. His proof? A clearly doctored newspaper. You’re telling me with all its resources, Lumon can’t properly Photoshop a fake parade photo? Or maybe they just underestimate the Innies’ ability to spot a fake, in which case, that’s just insulting. Either way, it’s clear Mr. Milchick is lying about what’s going on in the outside world. But what else is new at Lumon?

Severance brings throuples into the mix.

According to Mr. Milchick, Lumon fired Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) because she was romantically pursuing both Mark’s Innie and Outie. (More lies!) Her goal? A throuple, a word that I never thought I’d hear on Severance. I’m not mad about it, though, nor have I stopped thinking about Tillman’s line read. Seriously, he deserves an Emmy for his delivery of “throuple” alone.

Miss Huang isn’t here to make friends.

Sarah Bock in “Severance.”
Credit: Apple TV+

The red ball icebreaker game from Season 1 is back! But Miss Huang is not playing around. When Mark says he’s lucky to have made four new friends that day, she steps in with a condescending, “That’s nice, Mark. But I have to remind you that I’m a supervisor. Not a friend.”

It’s enough to make your skin crawl, as is Mark’s extra long pause afterwards before amending his statement to “three new friends.” Great work environment you’re fostering here, Lumon!

It’s an Innie-only episode.

Adam Scott in “Severance.”
Credit: Apple TV+

In a first for Severance, “Hello, Ms. Cobel” doesn’t alternate between the Innie and Outie worlds. Instead, we only the Innies’ perspective on life, and it is downright horrifying. Not only do we experience firsthand the information barrier between the Innies and the Outies, but we also experience the constant, mundane loop of their lives, which begin and end at the Lumon elevator.

Season 1 already highlighted that this is no way to live, but getting a better firsthand understanding of the Innies’ experience hammers home just how miserable this existence is. I could barely handle it for one episode — how are they supposed to handle it for years at a time?

“Kier Pardons His Betrayers.”

Sarah Bock, Adam Scott, John Turturro, Zach Cherry, and Britt Lower in “Severance.”
Credit: Apple TV+

I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news? Helly, Irving, and Dylan are back! The bad news? Lumon has installed a new painting outside the elevator, titled “Kier Pardons His Betrayers.”

Lumon’s no stranger to cursed paintings — I’ll never forget how “Kier Taming the Four Tempers” foreshadowed the waffle party — but this one, with its half-likenesses of the MDR Innies, is especially WTF-inducing. I simply do not like how the “betrayers” are buried up to their shoulders in the ground, or how Kier is holding a bloody sword. If that painting was the first thing I saw after getting out of an elevator, I’d turn around and head back up, I tell you that much.

So, Mark basically murdered those other Innies, right?

The return of the core MDR group means the loss of Mark W., Gwendolyn, and Dario. But since Mark and Gwendolyn’s branch shut down, that means they’re permanently retired, right? And who knows what the future holds for Dario? Basically, it looks like this new trio of Innies has been offed, unless they come back in future episodes. After all, why bring in actors like Balaban if you’re barely going to use them? (Unless, of course, this was Severance tricking us all along.)

For now, though, RIP to these new Innies. We hardly knew you, but you seemed fun.

Severance presents: the greatest, strangest corporate video ever made.

The MDR Innies file into the Break Room, which they’ve now discovered is an actual torture-free room where can take breaks. Here, Mr. Milchick plays them a new orientation video that promises them that “Lumon is Listening.” Words can’t even begin to describe how much I adore this freaky stop-motion gem.

Over the course of the video, Severance treats us to stop-motion reenactments of key moments from Season 1. My personal favorite? When Irving’s declaration of “Let’s burn this place to the ground” causes his head to burst into raging flames, Heat Miser-style. (Second place goes to the Helly and Mark kiss, which prompts a valid “What the shit?” from Dylan.)

The entire video is full of fascinating details (for example, Lumon operates in 206 countries) and bananas storytelling, from the talking Lumon building to the infectious pronunciation of “pineapple BOBBING.” Dylan is totally right that Lumon’s promises of new perks are just a “massive-ass head game,” but I’ll be damned if they don’t know how to put on a good show.

Why did Helly lie about what she saw outside Lumon?

Adam Scott and Britt Lower in “Severance.”
Credit: Apple TV+

Severance follows up this confounding video with yet another weird twist: Helly lies to her coworkers about what she saw when she woke up in the outside world. Instead of telling everyone she’s Helena Eagan, heir to Lumon, she concocts some story about leaving her “boring” apartment and telling her story to a “night gardener.”

So, why in the world would Helly lie? Could she be so ashamed of her Outie identity that she doesn’t want to share it with her friends? Could she be so afraid of the Eagans’ retaliation that she decides to keep quiet? Or could she actually be Helena, posing as Helly to gather intel? Whatever the truth, you’d think Helly could come up with a better lie than one involving a night gardener, of all things.

Is Helly jealous of Gemma?

When Mark reveals his plans to break Gemma out of Lumon, Helly’s reaction is… suspicious. She seems to downplay the situation and questions Innie Mark’s allegiance to Gemma. After all, she’s not really his wife, right?

But for Mark, it’s not so simple. “We’re the same-ish person,” he says of Outie Mark. “So it’s mushy.”

I agree, Mark; it is mushy. With Innie and Outie Mark each having their own romantic interests, Severance is setting up for what might be the most complicated love triangle ever. (Or would this be more of a quadrangle?)

What will happen in the Outie Family Visitation Suite?

As incentive for trying to get Dylan to stay, Mr. Milchick reveals that he’s planning to build an Outie Family Visitation Suite, where Dylan can meet his wife Gretchen. It’s the perfect psychological button to press following Dylan’s desire to see his family back in Season 1, and it works like a charm.

The implications of the visitation suite are massive, as they could be the one place where Innies and their Outies’ acquaintances can communicate. Could any of the Innies sound the alarm on their plights from the suite?

For now, it’s looking unlikely: Milchick only offers this privilege to Dylan, as all the other Innies are single and this perk could lead to jealousy down the line. But hold on, Mr. Milchick — being single doesn’t mean the Innies don’t have family ! What about Mark’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock)? Why not just call it the Outie Significant Other Visitation Suite then?

What is Cold Harbor, and what does it have to do with Gemma?

“Hello, Ms. Cobel” ends with the MDR Innies back at work, refining their macrodata while still not knowing what it does. But wait! The last few seconds give us a small hint, revealing that Mark’s file, labeled Cold Harbor, is somehow linked to Gemma. For her part, Gemma appears to be under some kind of observation, but as for why (or what is going on) we still don’t know yet. But after such a strong start to Season 2, I can’t wait to find out.

Severance Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with a new episode every week.