Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Severance, S2E10, “Cold Harbor” (written by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller)
Severance S2E10 opens right where S2E9 left off: a repetition of Devon (Jen Tullock) asking innie-Mark (Adam Scott) if he remembers the last thing he said to her; his response (“She’s alive”); and the cut to Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) standing in front of a fireplace in the birthing cabin.
Cobel asks innie-Mark if he’s completed the Cold Harbor file, he says no, and then it’s time to lay out the plan. Cobel starts describing the Exports Hall and seems surprised when innie-Mark mentions Irving’s (John Turturro) drawings. I wish the show had used this opportunity to have Harmony tell us more about Irv’s history with Lumon. Instead, it just serves to expedite the rest of the discussion.
According to Cobel, there will be a test once Cold Harbor is completed, and then they will kill Gemma (Dichen Lachman). The plan to save Gemma is for innie-Mark to complete the file and then proceed to the testing floor, where he will become outie-Mark. Once outie-Mark gets Gemma up the elevator, innie-Mark’s job will be to get them both out through the door we saw Helly (Britt Lower) use on her first day in Season 1. They’ll become their outies, get away, Lumon will be exposed, and they’ll bring the company down.
I feel the need to note that there is no discussion of how innie-Mark will get through the door to the Exports Hall. Surely Cobel knows that he would need a black keycard, so I remain distrusting of her even as everything else in this scene indicates that she is on the side of freeing Gemma and bringing Lumon down. I find myself wondering if she’s still hatching a different scheme.
Regardless, much of the first section of “Cold Harbor” is taken up by a back-and-forth between Mark’s innie and his outie, facilitated by a camcorder. Innie-Mark does not want to end Lumon because he does not want to cease to exist, and he finds outie-Mark’s claims about reintegration are suspect at best. Even if it works, innie-Mark feels like the new person would be mostly outie-Mark, and he has a point.
However, the most affecting bit of this exchange is when outie-Mark tries to compare how innie-Mark feels about Helly to how he feels about Gemma. It’s a bad move, especially since he mangles Helly into Heleny. This is the rub when it comes down to it: Innie-Mark is in love with innie-Helly. He doesn’t want to lose her, or for all of the other innies on the severed floor to cease to exist. He doesn’t want them to die.
Cobel steps in to tell innie-Mark that he has no chance, anyway. Once he completes Cold Harbor, Lumon will be done with him. No matter what he does, it will be his last day at Lumon. Again, I’m not sure if I believe Harmony, but there’s nothing in Severance S2E10 to disprove what she says.
Innie-Mark hits a breaking point and says the next thing he sees had better be the severed floor, or outie-Mark is never going to see his wife again. He is obliged, and we follow his perspective. We don’t see the outside world again in the Season 2 finale.
On the severed floor, there is a new painting across from the elevator celebrating Cold Harbor. Helly R. arrives shortly after Mark does, and the floor is dark for some reason. When they get to MDR, there is a statue of Kier Eagan there, with an envelope in its hand that basically promises Mark a waffle party after he completes the file.
When he does, Helly slips him the directions to the Exports Hall, but Kier springs to life, and Milchick (Tramell Tillman) arrives to perform a cheesy standup routine with the Kier statue, which serves as an introduction to the arrival of Choreography & Merriment—for some reason, Lumon has a severed marching band.
Helly swipes Milchick’s walkie and runs into the bathroom. Milchick follows, finds his walkie in a toilet (apparently disabled by the water), and Helly traps him in the bathroom by holding the handle from the outside. Then, when Milchick is about to win that tug of war, Dylan (Zach Cherry) arrives and pushes a vending machine in front of the door. When Milchick tells C&M to go back to their department, Helly manages to rally them to the innie cause. When Milchick finally manages to knock over the vending machine, he’s confronted by a whole marching band that won’t let him go anywhere.
Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) takes a position in a room across from the Exports Hall as the Cold Harbor file is completed. Here, Lorne (Gwendoline Christie) brings him a goat, which is to serve as a sacrifice. He suggests that after they’ve killed Gemma, it will be buried with her to shepherd her to Kier, so I guess this means that Cobel was telling the truth about the plan to kill Gemma. It also implies that the whole purpose of the goats is to sacrifice them, which is a little disappointing.
Mark arrives at the doorway to the Exports Hall but can’t get in, so he begins to pound and kick it. Drummond hears this, so he comes out to find Mark, and the two proceed to fight. It looks like Drummond is about to strangle Mark to death when Lorne enters the hallway and puts the gun that was to be used to kill the goat to Drummond’s head. She wants there to be no more killing.
So, then Lorne and Drummond begin to fight, Mark joins in, there is blood, and ultimately Lorne gets the gun to Drummond’s head again. This time, she seems ready to pull the trigger, but Mark tells her to wait. He takes Drummond with him into the elevator to the testing floor and starts telling Drummond to take his outie to Gemma. But the changeover happens mid-sentence, and outie-Mark clenches as he comes to in the elevator in a way that means he’s immediately killed Drummond. It’s pretty funny.
After some more hallway running, outie-Mark finds the room labeled Cold Harbor, but the nurse (Sandra Bernhard) won’t let him in and goes running for Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson). Mark tries to use his hand to unlock the door to Cold Harbor, but you’ll recall that involves pricking a finger for blood. Luckily, Mark’s got Drummond’s blood all over him, so he figures it out.
Inside, innie-Gemma has been tasked with disassembling a crib like the one we saw in S2E7. Mauer has previously noted that the barriers are holding, but this version of Gemma doesn’t seem to have much of a personality at all. Outie-Mark is able to persuade her to take his hand and leave the room fairly easily. Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry), who has been watching, is pissed. He tries to call Drummond. Mauer tries to call Drummond. But Drummond is dead.
Once they make it to the elevator, Mark and Gemma start kissing, but as it arrives on the severed floor, they turn into innie-Mark and Ms. Casey, so that’s a little awkward. Still, Ms. Casey doesn’t resist following Mark’s lead, and he gets her to the exit stairwell. She becomes Gemma, but innie-Mark does not go through the door after her.
Helly arrives and we can see that innie-Mark is torn a bit. Eventually, he backs away from the stairwell door, takes Helly by the hand, and they start running through the halls of Lumon. What exactly is the plan here? Well, we don’t know because that’s the end of the episode, complete with a freeze frame.
The only thing that makes sense is if innie-Mark’s plan has become to take over the severed floor and not leave. It’s easy enough to see Helly being on board with this idea, as she hates her outie, and outie-Dylan’s semi-refusal of innie-Dylan’s resignation request also sets him up to being open to it. Mammalians Nurturable seems onside, as does Choreography & Merriment. I think it may be time to #OccupyLumon for the rights of innies. At least, that’s my guess as to what Season 3 will be about.
Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait three years to see it.
