This publish incorporates spoilers for “Severance” season 2, episode 1, “Hi there, Ms. Cobel.”
Within the opening minutes of the “Severance” season 2 premiere, Mark S. (Adam Scott) walks into Lumon Industries’ Macrodata Refinement workplace and virtually skids to a halt: His co-worker pals have been changed by three new faces. “Who’re you folks?” Mark asks, mirroring the viewers’s confusion at seeing Bob Balaban, Alia Shawkat, and Stefano Carannante as an alternative of Britt Decrease, Zach Cherry, and John Turturro. As we rapidly study, these new of us apparently got here from a special MDR division at one other department, seemingly giving us a glimpse into how expansive Lumon’s operations really are.
Clearly, Mark’s not thrilled about this new improvement. He tries to border Balaban’s character, finally ends up speaking with the mysterious Board, and angering Milchick earlier than, lastly, about 20 minutes into the episode, he reunites with Helly R., Dylan G., and Irving B. finally and the present begins to really feel like its outdated self once more because the viewers settles again into considerably acquainted territory and Mark fills them in on the large Ms. Casey twist from the top of season 1. It is an enchanting story choice for the writers to make, given the truth that viewers have been away from this sequence for practically three years.
In a current interview, I had the possibility to talk with “Severance” creator/showrunner Dan Erickson about his method to structuring this premiere episode on this approach, dropping Mark S. and the viewers into an surprising situation and letting us really feel the bottom shift beneath our ft a bit. Here is how Erickson defined the choice:
“On only a type of enjoyable mischievous degree, we needed folks to marvel, ‘Oh God, is that this the brand new forged of the present? Is that this going to be a present about these characters?’ And we needed to create characters the place, on a degree, you’ll be okay with that, as a result of these are actually enjoyable [actors]. It is Bob Balaban and Alia and Stefano, and so they all play so effectively off one another and so they’re foils for Mark in a approach that we have not seen earlier than.”
