Severance isn’t in a rush

As we inch closer to the end of Severance’s second season, there are still a lot of open questions. But it’s also become clear that the show isn’t in a rush to answer them. Whereas many mystery box shows race to their conclusions, speeding through plot points so quickly that it can be hard to keep up, Severance has spent the latter part of this season meandering through flashbacks and spending some quality time with its characters. It’s a slower pace than other prestige streaming shows, but these episodes have helped show just how fascinating a place Severance’s bizarre world is. They’ve also helped set the show up for the finale — and answers — to come.

Spoilers ahead for Severance, up to season 2, episode 9.

It all started with the seventh episode, which shifted the focus from the Macrodata Refinement crew to center on Gemma (Dichen Lachman) and the nightmarish procedures and tests she was put through to become the calm and collected Ms. Casey. That was followed by a trip down memory lane for Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), who went back to her hometown, an isolated fishing village that was also previously home to a Lumon Industries ether plant. The story sped up slightly this week, with personal vignettes that covered just about every main cast member.

These episodes have provided some welcome backstory and worldbuilding. Gemma’s trials and torture showed the depths Lumon is willing to sink to in order to make the severance procedure work. We already knew things were bad, but this was another level. Cobel’s freezing trip gave some insight into Lumon’s more humble beginnings, which included some equally questionable morals (involving, apparently, child labor fueled by drug use), along with a good reason as to why she is so bitter and angry. And the latest episode, “The After Hours,” showed the impact of Lumon and the severance procedure from multiple perspectives.

For a show that has so much lurking beneath the surface, even these small glimpses into the machinery of Lumon feel notable and illuminating. It may be a terrifying place, but I want to spend time in this world, searching out details and soaking in the oppressive atmosphere — which is why the at-times plodding pace didn’t bother me so much.

But there’s also clearly an element of strategy here. All the time spent away from Lumon’s basement office was used to make it obvious where most of the key figures in this story are right now. That’s most apparent in “The After Hours,” which is basically a primer for whatever is about to go down in the finale. We have Mark (Adam Scott) meeting up with Cobel to hatch a plan to potentially rescue Gemma, instead of finishing his mysterious and important work at Lumon. This is all happening while Mark tries to sort through the split memories merging together in his head.

Meanwhile, his exasperated manager Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) is showing some backbone against his own oppressive manager, Dylan (Zach Cherry) is threatening to quit while dealing with a unique form of infidelity, Irving (John Turturro) is leaving town and dealing with an equally unique form of heartbreak, child manager Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) has apparently graduated and is being transferred to another facility, and Helly’s innie (Britt Lower) is about to meet her outie’s dad. (Helly also introduces viewers to perhaps the most bizarre and unsettling way to eat a hardboiled egg.)

It’s a tricky balancing act, but Severance has managed to spend a handful of episodes slowly expanding its world and exploring multiple characters, while also steadily pushing itself toward a finale that will almost definitely answer some of those lingering questions. Most notably, that includes Mark finally finding Gemma, the mysterious dark hallway and elevator, and just what the hell the Cold Harbor file is. (The final episode is, in fact, called “Cold Harbor.”) More questions will undoubtedly arise soon after — the Severance team loves a cliffhanger, after all — but that’s just more opportunities to hang out in the Lumon basement.