Severance

The following contains spoilers for Severance S1E8, “What’s for Dinner?” (written by Chris Black and directed by Ben Stiller) Hey kids… As we may have guessed from its title, “What’s for Dinner?” opens with the outie version of Irv (John Turturro). He sits on a bench reading, looks at a bird, pets a dog that […] More

The following contains spoilers for Severance S1E7, “Defiant Jazz” (written by Helen Leigh and directed by Ben Stiller) As the questions around how the severance procedure works and what Lumon is doing become more sprawling, I find myself somewhat disappointed that the questions of personal identity at the heart of Severance aren’t being better explored. […] More

The following contains spoilers for Severance S1E6, “Hide and Seek” (written by Amanda Overton and directed by Aoife McArdle) It took until the sixth episode, but Severance has finally shown us the outie version of someone on the MDR team besides Mark, as S1E6 finds Milchick visiting Dylan at home. It’s true that we don’t […] More

The following contains spoilers for Severance S1E5, “The Grim Barbarity of Optics and Design” (written by Anna Ouyang Moench and directed by Aoife McArdle) Severance S1E5 ends with Burt (Christopher Walken) introducing Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irv (John Turturro) to the rest of the Optics & Design team, as friends. It turns out that just […] More

The following contains spoilers for Severance S1E4, “The You You Are” (written by Kari Drake and directed by Aoife McArdle) Severance S1E4 picks up with Helly (Britt Lower) in the break room, and indeed I would argue that “The You You Are” is really her story more than Mark’s. I have thought of Helly as […] More

The following contains spoilers for Severance S1E3, “In Perpetuity” (written by Andrew Colville and directed by Ben Stiller) In my first two articles on Severance, I referred to Mark’s boss at work as Peggy Cobel, and I’m inclined to leave that be even though a reader pointed out it should be Harmony, and Harmony is […] More

The following contains spoilers for Severance S1E2, “Half Loop” (written by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller) Severance S1E2 leans into the show’s premise by devoting a lot of its time to the versions of our characters while they are at work—or the “innies” as Lumon would have us call them—and it really serves […] More