It’s principally unattainable to not take into consideration Misplaced when watching the Severance season 2 finale. Misplaced pioneered introducing extra thriller to its speculative science fiction on the finish of each season as a way to maintain viewers speculating and coming again. The “thriller field” has been a compelling instrument for tv ever since, and Severance’s iconic season 1 finale is one such finale. Nonetheless, not like Misplaced, Severance truly pays off the thriller and story arc its first season guarantees. That simply additionally might have come at the price of now changing into Misplaced.
Time to complete “Chilly Harbor.”
The mission Severance laid out going into season 2 was simple: Lumon faked the loss of life of Mark’s spouse Gemma and kidnapped her. Getting her out was clearly going to be the subsequent step. True to its phrase, the Severance season 2 finale sees Gemma out of Lumon and a few solutions as to what the hell is happening on this firm. Getting there requires an additional size episode that packs in a lot chaos it virtually buckles beneath the load.
Nearly.
As a substitute, “Chilly Harbor” embraces the problem. Each thread that season 2 has pulled on, from Gwendoline Christie’s visitor look to the query of why Jame Eagan has a birthing cabin, weaves along with satisfaction. That isn’t to say that the novel theorizing of followers is all confirmed, however that what solutions we do get truly are solutions. These solutions beg extra questions in fact, however additionally they give Severance license to escalate in some actually astonishing methods.
Issues get bloody.
Waffle events are changed by an entire marching band. Innie Mark and Dylan every have a dialog of types with their respective outies. Jame Eagan decides to deal with Helly as a confessional. Lumon transitions from uncomfortable mixing religiosity and company tradition to full on animal sacrifice – as a result of that’s the purpose of the goats, clearly. All of those occasions sound virtually unbelievable in the event you mentioned them out loud to somebody who hasn’t caught up. However it’s the second the place the violence visited upon the Innies turns into bodily that basically is the pivot level.
There’s actually no means to return from the look of glee on Drummond’s face as he chokes out Mark. Even much less so from the form of hilarious and grotesque means Mark unintentionally murders him mid-transition from Innie to Outie. “Chilly Harbor” is considerably extra visceral than every part earlier than it; like a stress cooker exploding. That is paralleled with the unknown destiny of season MVP Milchick as he’s confronted down with a complete division’s value of Innies rebelling. No matter occurs subsequent, that is now not a collection about going to work.
In means, Severance is over.
Which is the place the ending of the Severance season 2 finale finds itself. Innie Mark decides that he’s in management now, abandoning Gemma on the hearth escape. The chances for what occurs subsequent are sort of countless – a lot in order that there’s a small a part of me that desires that ultimate second of Mark and Helly operating down the corridor coated in movie grain to be the final we ever see. It won’t be, which leaves us with the tantalizing and worrying complication that Severance’s exploration of the human situation goes into a really new course.
The Severance that sympathizes with unsettling and chilly company tradition, that has a agency understanding of how a lot it might probably suck to go to work, ended with “Chilly Harbor.” The Severance we get subsequent merely have to be totally different. My theories are solely nearly as good as the typical Redditor, nevertheless it seems just like the Macrodat Rebellion has turn out to be actual and the Innies are simply not going to go away. It’s there within the speak of turning a constructing right into a continent, in Helly’s fiery speech, and even within the reality of what Chilly Harbor truly is. Now that the violence enacted on the Innies has turn out to be tangible (and presumably even reciprocal), it looks like a full on occupation is within the playing cards.
What the hell occurs now?
However can a collection bankrolled by a fortune raised off that same violence resonate? Can Severance actually mirror a worker’s revolt with out compromise? And even when it virtually actually does capitulate to Tim Cook dinner, will this shift into the metaphors of personhood that now pits Innies towards not solely Lumon however their very own Outies maintain regular? Can the present maintain such a structural shift? This time, the longer term feels way more summary than season 1’s finale, even with many lore questions answered.
But, I discover myself already desperate to attempt to money the examine Severance simply handed us. Very similar to these early seasons of Misplaced, there’s nonetheless so many layers to tug again to not be excited. That’s largely as a result of this finale and the season that it closes is simply so rattling good. Each week, Severance took swings that didn’t all the time appear to be hits, all to get to a very nice conclusion. There’s confidence oozing from each body – cinematographer and producer Jessica Lee Gagné is that this present’s secret weapon – and even when I can’t rationalize that this examine is ever gonna clear, I can’t assist however really feel prefer it simply may.
Severance season 1 and 2 can be found on Apple TV+
Featured photos © Apple
REVIEW RATING
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‘SEVERANCE’ SEASON 2 FINALE: “COLD HARBOR” – 10/10
(*2*)
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