Cut off
In last week’s episode cut out, we have only seen one side of the equation. We spent the entire Season 2 premiere within the fluorescent confines of Lumon’s Severed Floor. This week – as I suspected – the coin flipped. In “Goodbye Mrs. Selvig” we spend the entire episode in the world of the Outies.
Spoiler ahead.
In Episode 2, we find out moments after the events of the season 1 finale. The Outies of Mark S. (Adam Scott), Helly R. (Britt Lower), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) and Irving B. (John Turturro) are all back in their senses. Lumon, meanwhile, is trying to figure out how to best control the damage.
We quickly learn that Milkchick (Tramell Tillman) was lying to Mark when he told him that five months had passed and that the Macrodata Refiners had become the “face” of the Severance reform movement. No one but Lumon knew anything at all about Emergency Overtime. Helena Egan even makes a short video that she sends to Lumon employees and others who attended the gala explaining that she mixed a prescription drug (from a non-Lumon facility!) with alcohol and it impaired her judgment, leading her to bad advice. “decorate.”
Meanwhile, by the time Milchick tells Mark S. it’s been months, it’s actually only been a weekend. This becomes even more apparent when the new MDR employees are fired and we see Mark W threatening to sue Lumon as he is escorted off the premises as Mark Scout enters the building.
Mark
Lumon’s damage control is interesting for two reasons:
- Milczyk rides his motorcycle to Dylan and Irving’s houses and fires them both. Neither of them take the news well. Milczyk doesn’t explain the reasoning to Irving at all and tells Dylan that he was the “aggressor” in a physical altercation at work — apparently leaving out the important details.
- Milchick does not fire Mark though. Instead, she encourages him to get back to work, first at the home of Mark’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock) and her husband Ricken (Michael Chernus) and then when she brings a gift basket—with a pineapple for nibbles—to his mansion Mark. and offers him a raise.
- For whatever reason, Lumon needs a sign. And it has to do with a mysterious project codenamed Cold Harbor. We don’t have any more information than that, but it’s clear that Mark’s presence is essential to the completion of this very important, very secret project, while Dylan and Irving are considered expendable.
Of course, it turns out that’s not exactly true. Mark S is such that they decide to bring back both men as well as Helly R, although at this point I think it’s safe to say that everyone is wondering if it’s really Helly R or her “Outie” given of the lies he told. in last week’s episode. We also see some footage of Helena Egan watching security footage of Helly R and Mark S’s interactions, almost as if she’s trying to understand how her “Innie” acts and learn the dynamics of the relationship between herself and her colleagues. What’s really interesting about this is not only that she’s probably researching how to act down there, but the fact that she looks almost furious while watching, like she finds Helly R and Mark S’s romance sweet. Maybe as Egan and a powerful corporate sovereign in her own right, she had no time for such frivolities.
Helena Egan
We also see what Mrs. Kobel is doing in the outside world. Or should I call her Mrs. Selvig? Ricken suggests “Cobelvig” as a useful nomenclature. Oh Ricken, never change. She is offered a new position at Lumon in charge of Severance’s affairs, but she doesn’t want it. She wants to be put back in charge of the Severed Floor. She tells Elena she’ll think about it, but when Mark meets her outside their mansion, she’s clearly leaving town. When he finds out he’s going back to Lumon, he asks if their offer to come back “included a pineapple,” which is low-key hilarious. She also mocks him for being so easy to sway.
However, when he confronts her about Gemma (Dichen Lachman), she goes silent. He presses her to the spot and she screams, driving her car towards him and forcing him out of the way. It’s a clear admission that yes, this is all about his dead wife who may not actually be dead.
This is a truth that Mark Scout doesn’t want to accept for most of the episode. When he and his sister and Ricken talk earlier in the episode, they all agree that his Innie must have been referring to the baby, which Mrs. Selvig had left behind when she left the house earlier that night. Only Devon seems to doubt it. Ricken is convinced, but Ricken is stupid. Mark—who has spent two years grieving and coming to terms with his loss—simply cannot accept the possibility that somehow his wife is alive and has been abducted by Lumon. When he meets up with Devon at dinner, he gets incredibly defensive when she presses the point.
When he comes out, we see Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) sitting at a nearby table listening to everything. Clearly, Lumon wants to know what he knows both inside and outside the Severed Floor. (I recognized Ólafsson from Eurovision Song Contest, in which his character really wanted to hear — over and over again — Ya Ya Ding Dong. This is a very different role).
Devon and Mark
On top of all that, we learn a little more about Dylan and Irving. Dylan, we’re not at all surprised to learn, is struggling to find a new job. He has a disastrous – but hilariously awkward – interview with a door manufacturer called Great Doors (like the great outdoors, I guess) where the interviewer, played by Adrian Martinez to look almost like Dylan’s doppelgänger, turns out to have a very strong and very negative feelings about the withdrawal process.
Irving, meanwhile, goes to a pay phone to make a mysterious phone call. A car pulls up and someone watches him from inside. A moment later we see who it is: Burt (Christopher Walken) watching Irving with a very strange expression on his face. Something fishy is going on.
Overall, this was another great episode Cut off. It’s interesting to see everything from Innie’s perspective last week and then see how things play out on the outside this week, especially since it shows how controversial and manipulative Lumon is when it comes to handling the Innies. We’ve got plenty of mysteries to gnaw on: What’s up with Helly R? What’s wrong with Bert? What the hell is going on with Mrs. Casey / Gemma? And what exactly is Cold Harbor? Oh, and where will Mrs. Cobelvig go and really leave Lumon despite her religious zeal and devotion to Kier?
Lots to think about next week as we wait for Episode 3! What did you think of this week’s episode?
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