I really hope so. Kind of hate that the show has given viewers license to question which version she is at any moment.
Loved that ending though. Especially the innie-outie dynamic. Thinking of them as fundamentally the same underlying personality, just shaped by their different environments. So Jame saying he used to see Kier in Helena when she was young, but lost it over time… and then he saw that spark again when she was Helly. Outie Dylan respecting the hell out of his Innie and realising that means he maybe could get to a place of self-respect himself. And Mark - Mark is loyal and a 100% wife guy. So he could never win an argument with himself - both Marks are fiercely devoted to the women they love.
I saw the show described as “a rumination on love, grief and identity” and I think that’s the best and most concise summary I’ve seen. God I LOVED that episode. The Dylan stuff in particular, that resonated very strongly with me and things I’ve experienced in the not-too-distant past. The idea that there’s a version of you you’re still capable of being, suffocated under the minutiae of every day life. that’s really powerful
I’m not sure I entirely agree with this because Britt Lower is doing two subtly but undeniably distinct performances. However it was deliberately unclear in that one scene (imo until she took out the directions, which I feel like Helena wouldn’t need?)
Did anyone else want to see Milchick roundhouse kick the head clean off that Kier Egan waxwork? Really feel like they’ve laid the groundwork for a bit of a Milchick mutiny this season so hopefully we see a bit of payoff for that assuming they do another season.
Very much enjoyed that but to echo posts above I do feel like the marching band dance was absolutely done for the meme content. Don’t feel like it ruined the episode, if anything it helped build tension. But considering how popular the dance party scene from S1 has been on socials there’s no way they didn’t intend this to be a profile booster for the show.
It’s so so so well put together. Literally every aspect of it; the camera work, the performances, the lighting, the sound and the crosscutting are all working together at the highest level imo.
The marching band stuff was fun, and clearly well-made and Milchick is irresistible enough that they can pull stuff like this off.
It was obviously memey and pulled me out of things a bit though, and I think it’s a poor relation of the similar scene in season one. One of the things I found enjoyable in season one was how low-key and low-budget the usual perks were – they get a little desk ornament or picture or some melon or a music experience with some disco lights and maracas. It’s enjoyable how cheap and naff it all is, because there’s no need or point in any expenditure on the innies, their material needs are very basic.
I enjoyed watching it, and the idea that there’s this department of corporate entertainment kept just for this is obviously fun, but I’m unconvinced it’s actually good, I feel like just the Milchick/Kier game-show bit would have been more in keeping with how things have been.
Always nice to hear the Record Breakers music though (I was convinced that Alan Parsons music was used in You Bet in the 90s, but googling tells me it was Record Breakers instead).
Most of the rest of the episode was very good, sorry that we lost Mr Drummond (I like characters like that, corporate henchmen/zealot types), agree that we’ve seen a lot of glimpses of under-the-surface Milchick that I look forward to them doing more with in season three. Don’t particularly care about the nazi doctor stuff on the basement level, but hey, we’ll see where it goes.
What’s interesting about Milchick is that every time he’s slighted and you think he’s going to snap, he instead just doubles down and becomes even more of a company man.
Thought this was… okay? Thought the Cold Harbor reveal was a bit of a damp squib, I don’t really know why we’re expected to care that apparently she was really, really totally severed when there doesn’t seem to have been any indication before that severance might not completely work? Felt like loads of plot points like Mark’s alcoholism or reintegration have just been discarded, Reghabi just disappeared, Irving’s been binned off, Milchick keeps getting pissed off with the company but then nothing happens anyway. Felt like they had no idea what to do with Dylan this season either.
Felt like at the end of the first season they’d taken this tiny world and blown it up with Helly being part of the Lumon family and government higher-ups being involved, but now it’s just back to being a small handful of people again even though it’s apparently the most important thing that this huge company has ever done? And I know people have already banged on about this a lot but it properly took me out of it to see that they still only seem to have one person managing Mark and yet they have the resources to keep a 30-piece marching band down there.
At least they explained the goats, and it was very moving seeing Mark and Gemma reunite and then separate again. But again the ending just felt like a nice visual and didn’t feel like anything the show is going to be able to sustain.
They built up cold harbour but i think one of the main points of it, that they don’t really highlight (like a lot of other things that they don’t explain enough) and isnt really linked to Gemma’s life or the cot, is that they had refined her tempers so much that when she goes in there as a brand new innie, she follows the instructions with no questions.
The regular innies question what is going on when they’re new, like Helly did.
Would have liked that main Dylan storyline more if they’d actually have done something with it, unless they’re digging deeper in S3. Felt like it ended in a pretty unsatisfying way.
Is this not why she was sent away in the first season? Cause it wasn’t totally holding when she was Miss Casey with Mark?
My theory is that the creepy scientist and Sandra Bernhard are essentially doing animal testing/efficacy tests for Severance as a product and Cold Harbour was a way of selling it. That’s why they reacted the way they did to Mark and said ‘you’ll kill us all’… Cause they’ll all be shut down if its not being bought as a product.
Very true but that is two conflicting instructions and choosing one to follow over the other, but yeah I still agree that it was a bit of a damp squib.
Oh I absolutely agree with this, and almost impossible to avoid with something that’s been built up so much. It’s like the moment you see the monster/ghost/scary thing in a horror movie, it’s 99% of the time going to be a bit of a let down.
I see they’ve been out in social medie saying that honestly really it isn’t going to be 3 years again until the next season ha ha ha!! So fingers crossed that they’re right and that they have plans for these different storylines now.
I thought Cold Harbour was going to be like, they can sever your entire consciousness from your dead body and put the chip into a new body and bring you back. Not to armchair quarterback this thing but they should have done that and also had more baby goats.
