Severance – Season 2 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Who Is Alive

Episode 3 of Severance season 2 starts with Cobel out on the road. While she drives away, Mark heads to Lumon, checking with his watch exactly how long it takes to get into the building. The reason for this however, will become clear later on in the episode!

At work, Mark is determined to try and find Ms. Casey. He’s printed out Missing Person posters and tasks the others with heading out to the different departments to get some answers. There’s also a secondary plan here too of course, and that includes testing Lomon’s commitment to openness. Will they really let these guys just wander about and see all the different departments? It would appear they have, as the Innies end up visiting other floors and departments to see if there are any leads.

Helly reassures Irving, given he’s got to head off to O&D, which brings back memories of Burt of course. Instead of leaving though, he speaks to Dylan first and reveals he’s been working on the same paintings that his Outtie has been. He wants Dylan’s to help look for it. Of course, Dylan has his own agenda to work, given what he’s learned last episode about the new Severance Visitor program. He keeps his head down and continues to work, convincing Irving to go it alone.

Irving shows up at O&D, where he receives a warm welcome from Burt’s old colleague, Felicia. The pair reminisce over Burt and his great sense of humour, before he shows off the notebook he has with various doodles of Burt. Toward the back however, there’s also a sketch of the hallway. Felicia recognizes this as the Export Hall and explains that they have “a guy” work within this department.

Mr Milchick shows up at his office where the board want to talk. They talk through Natalie, his assistant, and explain that they want him to feel connected to Lumon’s history. They hand over some paintings to get better acquainted to Kier, their leader. This time, all the paintings have been race-swapped, and Milchick’s expression is pretty unreadable. 

Helly and Mark work together here and go on the hunt, all the way through to… a green field with goats? What the heck is this company?! Anyway, there’s also a man disguised as a goat, and a woman holding a syringe who pops up too.

The woman explains that this is Mammalians Nurturable, but Mark immediately shows off the poster. Apparently they don’t identify Wellness here but Mark suspects the woman is hiding something. When she rings a bell, a whole bunch of individuals show up and tell the pair they should have left. What in the Midsommar is going on here?

Mark tries to convince them to help, pointing out that they don’t want to be erased and disappear like Casey has. All they want are answers. The words get through to those workers, who agree to let them continue their search, revealing that Ms Casey used to show up and she had a gentle way about her.

Meanwhile, Dylan is brought to the security room, where he’s granted an 18 minute visitation with his wife, Gretchen. She’s here to visit him due to Dylan’s “good behaviour”. They’re not allowed to share sensitive information and they’re being watched too. Gretchen explains that Outtie Dylan struggles to hold down a job as he’s never quite found something that’s his “thing”. She also shows off a picture of them together with the kids, although it shows them as an Amish family on a farm which isn’t strictly true.

When Gretchen heads back home, we see that Outie Dylan is a bit of a layabout, and doesn’t really have much direction in life. The kids are playing on the floor, he’s conked out on the sofa and Gretchen is working to provide for the family.

Through all of this, Cobel returns to Lumon after her little road trip and decides she’s going to return. She demands to be floor manager, believing Milchick is not up to the task. Given they’re so close to completing Cold Harbor, she wants to see this through to the end.

However, as she approaches the front door, she suspects there may be an ulterior motive and leaves. 

Meanwhile, Natalie shows up to see Ricken and Devon. She’s here to discuss his book and how its had a profound impact on their workers over at Lumon. She wants to discuss changing the current version to make it a “game changer” for the Innies.

Devon doesn’t trust her, and in secret she’s been working with Mark to send a message to his Innie. The idea here is to burn a message reading “Who is Alive?” onto his retina so when he shows up to work,  it’ll be on his Innie’s eyeballs. It doesn’t work, of course, and that night he’s approached by Dr. Asal Reghabi, who tells him there’s a better way.

She reveals that Gemma Casey is still alive, at least inside Lumon and the Severance program. The only way to get information in and out to their counterparts is reintegration. While Mark initially declined to do this, this time he immediately goes for it, especially as it would mean seeing his wife again.

Reghabi sets up Mark with his reintegration in his basement. And as the brainwaves end up in sync, the reintegration begins.


The Episode Review

This episode we see a shared perspective between the Innies and Outties, including what appears to be the start of some interesting developments between Dylan and Gretchen. Seeing this Outtie Dylan completely directionless and somewhat of a slob is almost certainly going to have an impact on his wife, who could well see his Innie as a more attractive prospect for a relationship. And if that’s the case then where’s the moral guideline toward this? Would it be classed as cheating? 

Meanwhile, we have the drama involving Cobel which just feels like a distraction right now more than anything else. There just isn’t a whole lot of substance to her subplot to keep that side of things ticking over in a compelling way.

However, the drama inside Lumon continues to intrigue and there’s a nice ebb and flow to the episode too, with a good deal of mystery brought to the fold. Irving finding out about the Export Hall feels like a big deal, while Mark being reintegrated could be a gamechanger going forward. Either way, that agonizing cliffhanger leaves everything wide open!

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