‘Severance’ Season 2, Episode 9 Review

We reach the penultimate episode of ‘Severance’, and things are heating up, as all the pieces are laid on the board for the final episode.

As Lumon prepares for the final stage of “Cold Harbor”, Mark tries to find a way to get his wife back, and there’s only one person who can help him: Cobel.

The macrodata refinement team is no more. Dylan’s wife tells him she kissed his innie, which leads to him threatening to quit his job. In response, she decides to not visit him at work anymore, and with nothing else to stay there for, he decides to resign. This is an odd thing, as it seemed before that resigning was a long and difficult process. You’d think that they would at least ask the outies if that was OK, as it was really their decision to sever, and they need the money more than the innie. Regardless, it doesn’t look like he’ll 

Irving has also departed. He was fired several episodes ago, but Burt found out about his investigations into Lumon, and it appears he was some kind of enforcer for the company, making people “disappear” when they got too close to their secrets. Now he’s told Irving to leave for his own safety, which means two main characters are now out of the series, for now, at least.

Finally, Helly has been found out by her father (or her outie’s father, it gets confusing), who knows she’s been working against the company.

So this is the state of play. With nowhere else to go, Mark has teamed up with Cobel, and they are going to attempt to get his wife Gemma back somehow.

This was a good episode. It doesn’t move things forward a great deal, but it does set things up for the finale. For a while now, it’s felt like this show has been grinding its gears, just waiting for the final episode, and we’re almost there now. The question is, will it have what it takes to make a satisfying end?

We know there’s been some early planning for season three, so there’s no real end in sight here, but if it’s going to be gone for another three years, it needs to leave audiences wanting more, and not feeling let down. I’m not sure it will be able to do that.

There are so many little plot threads and storylines running here, and a massive sack full of hints that it’s going to be really hard to make them cohesive in just one episode. This show has been great at introducing new mysteries, but not so great at providing answers, and a lot of season two has felt like it’s just been spinning out breadcrumbs for the viewers, without a clear plan of where it’s going, and now it’s just a mess.

I could be wrong, I hope I am, and that the reveal is worth the wait. But it does all fell a bit too much like a giant mystery box for comfort.