The innies learn to practice camaraderie on Severance

[Editor’s note: In anticipation of Severance‘s upcoming second season, The A.V. Club is recapping season one of the show for the first time. Expect a new recap to drop daily through September 2.]  

I fear these Severance recaps haven’t spent enough time praising Patricia Arquette’s chilling effectiveness. Let me rectify that. This ensemble is top-notch, but she gets to steal the show in episode six. As Harmony Cobel, she’s a menace. A ruthless intimidator in the vein of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’s Nurse Ratched, she’s attempting to hold on to power over the innies at Lumon. She feels it is slipping away with Helly, Mark, Dylan, and Irving turning insubordinate with each passing day. In “Hide And Seek,” Arquette puts forth the iciest, scariest version of Cobel yet. And I’m not just talking about her breaking into a passionate song with lyrics like, “Kier, chosen one, Kier” while disciplining the MDR crew. 

We’ve barely seen her as Mrs. Selvig, the identity with which she roams outside as Mark’s neighbor to keep an eye on him. When we have, she pretends to be a chatty, goofy, even ditzy lady who owns a shop in town. And now, she’s also suddenly a lactation consultant. (This is quite convenient, as she interviews to help out new parents Devon and Ricken with their daughter.) Mark’s innie and outie worlds are colliding. It’s extra foreboding because there’s an undercurrent of mania behind everything Arquette does. This new twist allows the actor to display even more range as Mrs. Selvig while bringing Cobel’s sociopathic attitude into it, as seen by how she hums the same Kier anthem to calm down baby Eleanor. They start brainwashing early at Lumon, don’t they? 

I’m getting ahead of myself though. “Hide And Seek” opens with Cobel in her home—with the same Kier melody playing—although the interior is dimly lit and cold. The only bright part is her shrine to her leader. She’s made a mini temple of him with items that include a ticket to a “Kiernival” (I can’t wait to find out what kind of cult convention that is), the heads of the four tempers, a mini-model of Kier’s home, a toy goat (of course), various certificates that Cobel has won, and a hospital bracelet for someone named Charlotte Cobel. The birthday on it is listed as March 17, 1944, so it has to be Harmony’s mother, right? With Severance, you never know. 

This opening scene made me pause to question how long Cobel has been a devout follower because, folks, she’s committed to all things Kier. Is it since she was a child? Her behavior is consistent with someone who has been indoctrinated forever ago. Was her mother tied to Lumon somehow too? How important is she to this unseen board or the Eagan family? She doesn’t seem to be treated well by them. What is unquestionable though is Arquette’s stellar turn here. It’s a thing of beauty when she hisses at Mark, who questions what their day job actually is: “We serve Kier, you child; get that through your mildewed brain.” 

I suppose her prayers to Kier are answered at least because Lumon’s hit man Mr. Graner (Michael Cumpsty) finds the ex-employee, Regabhi, who helped Petey reintegrate. Uh oh. And it’s the same woman Mark meets at the end of the episode, played by Karen Aldridge. Regabhi must have had serious knowledge of the severance procedure if she knew how to reverse it. We’ll find out a bit more from her in the season’s remaining installments, but I will say I’m relieved Severance picks up the pace here. I was worried when Mark dumped Petey’s phone at the beginning of this episode, the same one Regabhi kept calling from a blocked number. Was Mark done with his mission to find out what his employer was up to? Thankfully, he retrieves it later that night and answers her call. 

Does Mark know that Mrs. Selvig has encroached upon his territory by meeting Devon and Ricken? TBD. For now, he has a fairly crazy night even before his clandestine meeting with Regabhi. He goes on date number two with Alexa, and it’s nothing like their awkward first one. The conversation is flowing smoothly this time because Mark isn’t as rigid or uptight. On the contrary, he’s smiling a lot. Adam Scott is doing such a good job of letting us know his character internally feels freer with the knowledge that Lumon is up to something. Rebellion looks joyous on him. We see it again when he takes Alexa to a performance of June’s band. He wants to see what Petey’s daughter is up to, and it turns out, she’s crooning a hater track she wrote. Mark, who in episodes one and two would’ve left in protest, joins in chanting the “Fuck you, Lumon” song. 

Mark also hooks up with Alexa, but does she have shady reasons for getting close to him and his family? There’s no indication but considering Severance’s meticulousness, it wouldn’t be surprising that she’s involved in Devon’s life too. And I say that because despite not being a Lumon employee, Devon now ends up having a few eyebrow-raising interactions of her own in “Hide And Seek.” Not only does she meet Cobel as Mrs. Selvig, but she also bumps into the rich pregnant lady she met at Damona. Devon remembers this woman, Gabriela Arteta (Nora Dale), because of their bonding moment over coffee before giving birth. Gabby, on the other hand, has no recollection of it. She hasn’t even named her son William like she told Devon she wanted to. As it turns out, Gabby is married to a state senator named Angelo. He is backing Lumon to legalize the severance procedure. 

Now, pay attention. In a scene with absolutely no dialogue, Severance presents a ton of cool information as Devon looks up the Artetas: The married couple is from Kier, PE, wherever that is. Angelo is the former mayor of Wileston (a.k.a. “Wiles,” one of Kier’s nine principles?). Two years ago, he announced support for severance and signed Lumon as a sponsor in his campaign. Also, his wife describes their kitchen remodeling in the weirdest possible way, calling it “frequently traumatic” and “viscerally upsetting.” I get that house renovations are hard, but this description is excessive. Does her “insulated kitchen” have something to do with getting severed? It’s obvious Gabriela is severed. Maybe she opted to create an innie who could give birth to the three kids so her real self, her outie, doesn’t need to remember the pain. It’s unhinged if true, but the signs point to it. It’s also depressing for her innie, whose only memories of being alive are being pregnant, giving birth, and having that child taken away from her. Yikes. Maybe I’m reaching but this theory feels very plausible to me based on Gabby, Angelo, and Devon’s “fuckity fuck” encounter. If true, it could be a sign that Lumon’s reach goes way beyond an office. Do they control the town? The state? Where can’t they get to people? Another huge reveal in “Hide And Seek” ties to this lingering question.

Throughout Severance so far, Dylan has been a mystery compared to Helly, Mark, and Irving. That majorly changes now. He’s overcome his hatred of O&D after learning Lumon pits their departments against each other as a form of manipulation. And he’s about to lose his shit even more because Milchick makes a (frankly sloppy) mistake. Milchick sees on video footage that Dylan stole a pictogram from the O&D room but doesn’t see if he smuggled it out. Is that not impossible to do because of the code detectors in the elevator, as Helly is told repeatedly? Or are Lumon-made items okay to transport? And why is this pictogram, which is called an “ideographic card,” so important? Whew, a lot of questions. 

Anyway, Milchick desperately needs to make sure this item wasn’t sneakily exported out, so he wakes up Dylan’s innie at night in his house. My jaw dropped at this reveal, especially because we saw Dylan’s young son in the other room, and he came running in before Dylan’s outie could take over. Milchick doesn’t give a damn that he will now know Lumon has the power to wake them up anywhere. For a strict rule-enforcer, it feels like a silly and risky error that’ll now have consequences for Milchick. Not to mention the whole purpose for Dylan’s innie is now marred because he’ll have to live with the knowledge that he has a son who is always out of reach.

With this information, though, Dylan can further help MDR and O&D. The two departments, with encouragement from Mark and Burt, decide to team up and find out what Lumon’s making them do. “If the Eagan philosophy is illumination above all, then why doesn’t that include us? Why are we down here still working in the dark?” Mark asks in a rousing speech. He’s inspired by a brand-new passage from The You You Are that’s all about supporting friends. The words that stick with him this time are “Camaraderie is standing together in hard times, recognizing a common struggle, and reaching out to offer them a loving hand.” Say what you will about Ricken’s pretentious, wacky novel, it’s leading to a damn good uprising.

Stray observations 

• • Color theory: A big and obvious one is that the Artetas are adorned in Lumon’s corporate blue colors in the news articles that Devon reads. Harmony’s Kier shrine also has blue tones everywhere.
• • Cobel also has two dolls on her bed. One is Kier, and the other is her. Or is the female doll meant to be Imogene?
• • I didn’t mean to push Irving and Burt this far down, but trust that I loved Burt taking Irv to a place “just for them.” It’s a room full of tall plants that might give the new lovebirds some privacy (although I suspect cameras are all over the place). The two almost share a first kiss, but Irv backs out because he isn’t ready. It doesn’t matter to Burt as long as they spend time together, so we get a very sweet shot of their foreheads touching instead.
• • So how many items are the O&D team 3-D printing? They’re making every single Lumon-branded item we see, from post-it notes and coffee to zip-loc bags and pencils. But what else?
• • Innie Helly says, “This is more people than I’ve ever seen” when they get to O&D because the only humans she’s met are Mark, Burt, Dylan, Cobel, and Milchick. That’s such a terrifying thought.
• • Adam Scott and Britt Lower’s chemistry developing in real time as Mark and Helly learn to trust each is almost as soothing as getting the Burt and Irving romance. Mark and Helly are blushing when Dylan teases them about fraternizing.
• • Mark, the ever-considerate dude, slyly smiles when he gets sent to the break room for insubordination. He violated Cobel’s orders to avoid O&D on purpose, knowing they’d see him on the cameras and punish him. It means Ms. Casey’s torture is over for losing sight of Helly the previous day.
• • What did happen to Mark in the break room? When he leaves work, his outie’s knuckles are badly bruised.
• • I keep thinking about Kier’s quote of “Illumination above all.” To me, it reads like any sacrifice is worth it for the greater, probably scientific good that he—and Lumon—are trying to achieve. What do we think it is at this stage?