There is only one thing more infuriating than a cliffhanger ending – and that is a cliffhanger ending in the finale of your favourite TV show. Severance, the dystopian office drama in which workers are ‘severed’ to form ‘innies’ and ‘outies’ who only remember their respective experiences, dropped a doozy to close out its second season last week.
If you missed it, outie Mark S (Adam Scott) has spent the series so far trying to find out if his dead wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman) is, well, actually dead. Spoiler: she isn’t. In the season two finale, he tasked his innie with sneaking onto a secret floor of Lumon HQ (where they work) and rescuing Gemma from the company’s evil clutches. He succeeded (nice one, Innie Mark!) but had to make a choice in the episode’s dying moments. Should he 1. escape with Gemma and give his outie what he’d always wanted (his wife back), or 2. remain at Lumon with fellow innie and the love of his severed life, Helly R (Britt Lower)? Ultimately, he kind of bodged it – locking Gemma outside Lumon where she’s safe but choosing to run off back up the corridor with Helly, seemingly to face the music at Lumon.
This, as you’ll expect, left us with a lot of unanswered questions. Season three has been green-lit already but because we absolutely cannot wait until then, NME has managed to swing a couple of quick chats with castmembers Scott, Lower and fellow innie/outie Zach Cherry (Dylan G).
Well done, if you did, for sending us your many questions in time. Some were great, some were bad and some were quite silly. All were asked.
When you were reading the script, which way did you want Mark to go – outside Lumon with Gemma or inside with Helly?
Adam Scott: “I kind of thought of it from the point of view of who was standing there, which was Innie Mark, and so I think that where it ended up going made perfect sense for him.”
In the final corridor scene, do you think it’s definitely Helly – or has Outie Helena taken control?
Britt Lower: “It’s Helly R. It was written that way and there’s no elevator scene [in which the innie/outie transition would take place]. She’s running bare foot and that’s a sign – Helly doesn’t like to wear heels.”
AS: “I don’t know why people think it isn’t Helly. It’s Helly.”
If Mark was building Gemma innies, then what have Dylan, Helly and Irving been doing this whole time?
Zach Cherry: “I am curious and I truly wonder… When we were making season one, I didn’t know what the refining was and I assumed that it was meaningless. Now I know that’s not true so the obvious question is ‘what was Dylan doing?'”
Mark’s hair looked so good in the flashbacks – why did he ruin it?
AS: “Well, the Mark S hair that’s usually on the show is an invention entirely of [director] Ben Stiller. We were looking for ways to see how I could look different [for the flashbacks]. All we did was give me a hair cut and I guess it made a big difference. I have to grow my hair out whenever we’re shooting the show and I have to have that hair for a year at a time, so it was great to be able to get a haircut. We shot that episode last.”
Is there any significance to the ties that Mark S wears?
AS: “I think it’s in the eye of the beholder. If you think that there’s significance there then there’s significance there. After nine months, however long it was, I didn’t wanna wear those suits particularly. I had had enough. I didn’t take any of them home with me.”
BL: “I took a Sharpie home. I asked permission though… I wanted to take a square of the carpet too. [The office] feels like home now. I’d hang it up as a wall hanging.”
Why are Dylan’s glasses so ill-fitting – they must have driven you mad, Zach?
ZC: “I guess the sort of behind-the-scenes answer for that is: ‘that’s just how they fit on my face’. As we were making season one, Ben [Stiller] noticed that there were certain moments when [the glasses] added a lot to the stress or the comedy of the moment – and now they’ve almost become a whole Severance character. It’s a happy accident, I think. Maybe it’s an innie/outie thing. Maybe the outie went to the glasses fitting and the innie holds his nose differently. My nose choices were beyond my conscious thought but, hey, sometimes the subconscious seeps through into your work.”
There’s something shady about Mark’s sister Devon, do you agree?
AS: “Something shady about Devon? That’s interesting. I love Devon and I love Jen Tullock, who plays Devon. I think there are only awesome things about Devon and Jen but, again, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. There isn’t really anyone looking out for Outie Mark other than his sister. She has his best interests at heart.”
Is there any significance to the old cartoons Dylan’s kids are watching in the show – for example, Danger Mouse?
ZC: “That’s a good question and the true answer is I don’t know. That stuff is kept from me but my guess is that there’s meaning in some sense. It doesn’t always mean that it’s a clue, it might be thematic or a reference to something but everyone on the show is so detail-oriented that I’m sure there was thought behind the choice.”
Why isn’t there basic security on the severed floor?
BL: “It’s so funny. I don’t know. There’s security cameras.”
AS: “Yeah, and there was [Head Of Security] Graner and [Lumon executive] Drummond.”
BL: “I guess they sort of have this hubris, Lumon. They believe… what was Harmony Cobel’s line? ‘The surest way to tame a prisoner is to let him believe he’s free.'”
What do you think of the theory that Mr Milchick is actually a milkshake?
AS: “Milchick is actually a milkshake? Since it’s Tramell Tillman playing him, it would be a delicious milkshake. A world class milkshake”
BL: “I love that the theories are that we’re just not people – we’re goats or milkshakes.”
Do you think Dylan’s wife Gretchen considers his outie a screw-up?
ZC: “I don’t think so. I think they seem to be having their issues at the time but I think she probably is more sad that he thinks he’s a screw-up – and I think that she even says to the innie at one point that he’s not and I choose to believe her.”
What was it like to work with the goats?
BL: “They are feisty. They will eat your costume while you’re filming the scene and they don’t care if the cameras are running. They’re like: ‘oh look at this skirt, looks like a snack!’ They’re actually very funny. We all took one home.”
Dylan is an artist with the word fuck – what was your favourite line that used that word?
ZC: “I like ‘what in the abominable fuck?’ That’s a good one. My grandmother-in-law is not a fan of my use of the word on the show and she, for some reason, needs me to assure her that it’s not me speaking – it’s the character. So if she’s reading this, it’s not me – it’s the character!'”
If Mr Milchick threw a dance party for you in real life, what song would you pick?
ZC: “I’d choose ‘Anxiety’ by Doechii, only because it’s the only song I’m listening to right now. I’ve had it on repeat. Maybe Mr Milchick could just bring her out next time.”
BL: “What about ‘The Hokey Pokey’, which in England is called ‘The Hokey Cokey!”
AS: “In the US, saying something is ‘cokey’ is referring to cocaine.”
BL: “That’s our music dance experience!”
If you had a boring office job that you hated – would you consider severance?
BL: “I don’t think so. Look at the scene where the chip is inserted, that’s a long needle. I don’t like that needle. No thanks.”
AS: “I don’t think so. I would really have to hate that job. But you never know, there’s some jobs that… I’ve been on some sets that I wish I’d been severed from, over the years.”
ZC: “I think that answer for me has changed over the course of making the show. I did have a boring office job, not one that I hated, but that was boring and not the thing I really wanted to be doing – I wanted to be doing this [acting]. And I think when I first started the show, I might have said ‘yes’. Now I might say ‘no’. It honestly depends on the day.”
‘Severance’ is streaming now on Apple TV+