‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 2 review: “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig”

The questions continue piling up in Severance Season 2 Episode 2. The world of Severance keeps expanding, and it gets even more fascinating with each episode. “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig” covers the 48 hours — not five months as suggested in the premiere— in the lives of the outties in the wake of the Season 1 finale. Not only does this episode serve as the first time we get to know Helena (Britt Lower), outie Irving (John Turturro), and outie Dylan (Zach Cherry), but it also provides a better insight to how Lumon operates on the outside. The episode also comes with a fantastic new title sequence, one that hints at possible reintegration for Mark, but also the possibility of Mark (Adam Scott) and Mark S. working together. 

Corporate damage control

Helena and Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) immediately get to work doing damage control following the inies trip outside. Helena, after a quick but terse confrontation with her father, offers Cobel (Particia Arquette) a new role on the obviously just created Severance Advisory Council, which Cobel sees as the demotion it is. Meanwhile, Mr. Milchick travels on motorcycle (the only cool thing about Mr. Milchick) to the residences of Dylan and Irving to fire them, lying through his wide and ever-present smile about why. 

Curiously, he offers a more in-depth explanation when he arrives at Devon (Jen Tullock) and Ricken’s (Michael Chernus) house. As Mark, Devon, and Ricken try to explain away Mark S.’s “she’s alive!”, Mr. Milchick’s interruption puts everyone on guard. Devon’s openly hostile toward Mr. Milchick, Mark reasonably confused but asking questions, with Ricken playing mediator. Mr. Milchick doesn’t fire Mark unlike the others. Instead, he courts Mark back to Lumon. 

The emotional depths of Helena Eagon

A very warm welcome to Helena Eagon finally on our screens. She wears the corporate face well, expertly taking control of the narrative to the public and working with Mr. Milchick on a game plan. Lower showcases the stark differences between Helly R. and Helena fantastically, Helena’s family man demeanor bone-chilling.

But something cracks in Helena as she watches Helly R. kiss Mark S. on the security cameras. As she plays the footage back over and over, there’s humanity in her eyes, and yearning she perhaps has pushed down for years. Helly R. may be trapped on Lumon’s severed floor, but at least she’s free from the Eagon family. The persona Helena puts on for the cameras has been crafted under her family’s shadow her whole life; is this her first hint of wanting something deeper? 

By the end of the episode, it’s still not clear whether it’s Helena or Helly R. back on the severed floor. But maybe Helly R. and Helena aren’t so different after all. 

Courting Mark

None of what occurs in “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig” matches with Mr. Milchick’s explanation in “Hello, Ms. Cobel.” It hasn’t been five months, it’s been a weekend. Mark didn’t beg to come back to Lumon. Mark, Helly, Dylan, and Irving are not famous on the outside for blowing the whistle on Lumon. All of these lies and machinations are, for some reason, the stepping stones needed to make sure Cold Harbor is completed. And to complete Cold Harbor, Lumon needs Mark. 

The emotional manipulation displayed by Mr. Milchick is fascinatingly creepy and Tillman once again demonstrates how good he is in this role. Mark’s steadfast refusal to entertain Devon’s theory that inie Mark was trying to tell them Gemma was alive complicates outie Mark. His grief surrounding Gemma’s death is understable; faced with the potential reality that she could be alive would be a tough sell, especially since he saw with his own eyes her dead body. A final confrontation with Cobel might be the thing that finally convinces him that Devon is right about Gemma. 

But Lumon knows Devon and outie Mark are aware of the possibility of Gemma’s survival. Still, the board capitulates to Mark S.’s request, as we saw in “Hello, Ms. Cobel.” How much is the rest of Lumon a farce? Is the only goal concerning Cold Harbor?

Seeking out Irving

Irving remains just as mysterious as Lumon. Following his firing, Irving goes to a payphone to make a call. His conversation is mostly muted except for the words “My innie got the message.” Burt (Christopher Walken) seeks Irving out, and witnesses this phone call, clearly troubled.

It was revealed in Season 1 that outie Irving clearly has knowledge of the testing floor and a list of Lumon employees, including Burt. Who and what does Irving know? Is he connected to Reghabi, the doctor from Season 1 responsible for reintergrating Petey? Or does he know of another group? And what message is he referring to about inie Irving receiving. Perhaps it’s the knowledge of the testing floor, which inie Irving told inie Dylan about in the premiere episode. And do outie Burt and outie Irving know each other or interact with each other at all when outie Irving returned?

Final thoughts and lingering theories

“Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig” ends with Cobel packing her things and leaving. It almost seems like she could be an ally; her demeanor when Mark confronts her is very nonchalant. In the Severance Season 1 finale, she did tell Mark to leave Lumon. Here, she mocks him for returning. When Mark asks her if she knows anything about Gemma, her lack of an answer is answer enough. 

This might be the end of the Mrs. Selvig cover, but questions about Cobel remain. Does her devoutness to Kier have something to do with the person she lost named Charolette? If Lumon could bring people back from the dead, is that something she’s hoping or waiting for? She drives away from Mark screaming, her frustration and grief the last we see of her for now. 

As “Goobye, Mrs. Selvig” ends, we’re left with not a lot of forward plot progression but plenty of intriguing mysteries surrounding all of our main characters. Interestingly, Lumon is the most open book right now, their motivations clear at the moment. They want to complete Cold Harbor, and they need Mark to do it. If “refining numbers” is somehow configuring humans on the testing floor (“scary numbers” and “happy numbers” perhaps having something to do with emotions), and “Cold Harbor” is a one specific project, then what happens when it’s completed? 

Severance airs new episodes every Friday on Apple TV+

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Images courtesy of Apple TV+