Severance – Cold Harbor Review

Well, we know what the goats are for – or, at least, were for, as it’s looking like there’s a revolution hitting Lumon and Mammalians Nurturable isn’t going to be providing anymore lambs for the slaughter. As for whether or not all of these Innies will end up slaughtered themselves, well, we’ll have to wait and see until season three. But what an episode. What a season. That was well worth that three year wait. Although, I really hope the third season – which, after all that went down this season, surely is the final one – comes much, much sooner.

A lot happened in this episode, from Innies taking a stand, unfortunate (or, rather, fortunate) murder in the sub-basement, a marching band exhibition, and even more evidence that – despite trying to fully sever individuals – the barrier between Innies and Outies isn’t quite as solid as Lumon wants it to be. It’s that last piece, however, that struck me the deepest. Throughout the season, we’ve seen much more of our characters’ Innies and Outies than in season one, and as a result, we’ve also learned more about how the personalities of the Innies differ from their Outies. And, that despite a general view that Innies are fully innocent and less-than their Outies, they do have the ability to grow, change, and feel everything that their Outies can. It presents, for my money, the most interesting piece of the overall Severance story: Just what does an Innie owe to their Outie and vice versa?

And this question was fully on display in the interplay between the Marks this episode. I will never not be impressed by the work of our Innie/Outie actors. And case in point this time around, Adam Scott delivered a tour de force performance as his two versions of Mark tried to bargain with each other – Outie Mark for Gemma’s rescue and Innie Mark for his continued existence. Heavy stuff, but par for the course on Severance.

So, just what does an Outie owe their Innie? We saw Helena all but declare Innies to be non-entities earlier in the series, more than willing to subject her Innie to whatever she deemed necessary in order to complete her personal mission. And when Helena was playacting as Helly, she was more than happy to essentially rape Mark to feel the love that Helly experiences when she’s with him. Burt created his Innie in the hopes of capturing the innocence he once lost, and, by all accounts, was successful. Only, that innocence and love started to bleed into his real outside life as well – another theme we saw again in the last two episodes (more on that in a bit). And, as a result of his Innie’s relationship with Irving, Lumon had his Innie put down like an animal, not treated like a whole person. This episode, however, we saw even more of how Outies think of their Innies as less than in Mark’s debate with his inner self. He wasn’t trying to be a manipulative jerk – like Helena – when he cheapened Innie Mark’s existence and experiences, but he was a jerk. And when he was called out on it, boy, Outie Mark was quick to deflect. Despite his protestations, Outie Mark thought he was the one in charge, he was the real person. And even with the promise of reintegration – which, who knows if that’s even possible – we, and Innie Mark, are well aware that as soon as Outie Mark gets Gemma, he’s running as far from Lumon as he can get. Essentially killing his Innie in the process.

Seeing that Mark, our hero, the person we’ve been rooting for, has a lot more in common with Helena when it comes to his views on Innies was hard to take. After all, we’ve seen what a complete person Innie Mark – and all the Innies – have become. We’ve seen them all fall in love, we’ve seen them form friendships, we’ve seen them try to reason their way out of their limited existence. But we’ve also seen that they are, in fact, not “real” people. Helly and Mark’s conversation about what is outside in the world proves that they lack so much of the necessary knowledge to truly operate as functional humans, real adults, that they would get eaten alive outside of Lumon. Dylan’s attempt to win Gretchen was another such case – he thinks they’re in love, but that’s not really love. It’s infatuation. It’s a crush. It’s a person realizing, for the first time, that someone might see them for who they are and care about them. They are innocents, but they know enough to know that they want to keep living and learning. But they’re also at the mercy of their Outies.

Can a balance between Innie and Outie exist? Maybe, and we saw that possibility in Dylan’s section of the storyline in the finale. As Outie Dylan – the only Outie with actual growth when it comes to understanding the interplay of Innie and Outie, so kudos to him – wrote to his Innie, he understands that they are two parts of a whole. And he hopes that he can become more like his Innie and learn from what Gretchen sees in him. What an insightful statement. I was dismissive of both Dylans last week, but boy, seeing that growth was something pretty lovely. Especially considering the choices to come in the episode from other Innies.

So here we are, at an Innie/Outie impasse to end the season. Innie Mark was able to accept that he might not ever see Helly again – after all, Cobel was clear that there’s no happily ever after for them for a myriad of reasons, not least of all that Helena is an Eagan and Mark is expendable – in making the decision to, selflessly, try to free Gemma. And boy, what a choice that was. From the frantic fight with Drummond (after all, if you’re going to cast Gwendolyn Christie, you have to at least let her get into one great scrape), to the harrowing decision at the end of the episode to turn his back on Gemma – and keep his Outie locked away – in order to embrace his chance to stay alive with his love at his side, this was such an incredible arc for Innie Mark. He certainly isn’t innocent any more, even if he doesn’t truly understand the potential ramifications of his choice.* Lumon still holds all the cards when it comes to the Innies. Yes, they have Milchick locked down at the moment and Drummond is dead, but this a powerful company. Perhaps they can leverage Jame Eagan’s intrigue surrounding Helly to their advantage when negotiating (maybe she gets to stay severed and keep Mark at her side in exchange for becoming Jame’s heir)? Surely there’s some additional fail safe that removes the block and allows the Outies to come back to the forefront (and in that case, Mark did kill Drummond, so . . . not sure how great that would be). A revolution of Innies is intriguing, but I don’t know if they have thought this through – ok, I know they haven’t. After all, the Innies lack any sort of official, real-world standing as people. So, what happens when they hold their Outies hostage in Lumon? Again, what does an Outie owe to their Innie, and vice versa. But that’s a question for season three.**

*One of my several outstanding questions is just how is Gemma going to get out of there. She just saw her husband, with whom she just had an emotional reunion, walk away from her with another woman. (Which is extra painful when you recall that Dr. Mauer told her Mark had moved on and gotten married again – and had a child.) She doesn’t know he’s severed. She doesn’t know, presumably, who Helly is. And she’s watching him walk away from her and leave her, alone, in a stairwell, in the building where she was tortured for two years, with no way home. And people are looking for her. That’s not a great situation for Gemma, and it’s all thanks to Mark.

**One additional curve ball for season three: Now that we know Cobel is the severance mastermind, how will she fit into this brewing Innie revolution? There’s no love lost between her and Lumon and it would take a hell of a lot to get her back helping them solve their issue (if there isn’t a fail safe that can switch off the Innies, Cobel is the one person who might be able to figure something out). Mark doesn’t trust her. The other Innies likely don’t either. And Milchick isn’t going to want to leave his fate in her hands. So, what role will she play moving forward? That’s a tantalizing question for me as we ponder season three.

Now that we know just what Cold Harbor was – the final piece of the severance puzzle, attempting to prove that with enough conditioning, a person’s most painful memory could be fully blocked from their mind – I think we can also say that it wasn’t the success Mauer thought it would be. Because what has been true throughout the series was proven true once more: Love transcends the severed boundary. We saw it with Burt and Irving in that crushing train station goodbye last episode. We saw it with Dylan and Gretchen, with Dylan’s emotions leaking into his Innie’s feelings towards his wife. We saw it between Helena and Mark in the diner, where Mark – who was loathe to get close to anyone on the outside – was able to flirt with ease with Helena, and she was just as able to be charmed by him (even if she had cheated and knew about their Innie connection). And, in Cold Harbor, we saw a Gemma who didn’t even know her own name innately trust Mark and go with him. For all the bleak elements of this series – and boy, are there a bunch – seeing that love can conquer severance was pretty wonderful. And also a touch of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But still, I loved to see it and I’m intrigued to see just how it impacts season three. Because Innie Mark was drawn to Ms. Casey – I don’t know if he’s going to be able to stay committed to the cause if he doesn’t know she’s safe. Plus, there’s that pesky reintegration thing, which I’m betting will rear its head once more at a very inopportune moment.***

***Speaking of reintegration, if love can transcend the severed barrier, that lends credence to the idea that an Innie and Outie can be merged into one, whole person. Again, drawing us back to the question of what an Innie and Outie owe to each other, and if they can and should be united as one.

In terms of the show’s mythology, we got a lot of answers, or, really, confirmations this time around as well. As many had predicted, the numbers were a means of plotting Gemma’s mind, keying in on her emotional make-up and cataloguing those emotions based on the four tempers. And the ultimate goal of Kier – and, by extension, Lumon – with severance was a means to combat human pain. Gemma was forced, in her 25 Innies, to confront fears and face things she hated, before being asked to confront her biggest pain point – her infertility and Mark’s destruction of their crib. Of course, the birthing cabin was just another facet of this. And this sort of technology has plenty of nefarious potential – imagine a despot getting control and truly using it as an opiate of the masses. But this doesn’t appear to be an attempt to resurrect Kier or clone anyone. It’s just trying to play god and take away pain and fear. Even though we need both pain and fear to navigate the world around us (again, a callback to why the Innies, when faced with the real world, would be overwhelmed – they have no true concept of pain and fear beyond the most basic elements). Pretty heavy stuff, when you think about it.

But the episode wasn’t all darkness – despite the shocking amount of blood spilled (the death of Drummond, while bloody, was also bloody hilarious the way it played out). As someone who grew up in Chicagoland in the 1990s, hearing “Sirius” (aka the Chicago Bulls opening music) had me laughing so hard I had to pause my screener. What a perfect song choice for that pompous sequence. Trammell Tillman hasn’t had a ton of heavy lifting in the last couple of episodes, but he more than made up for it in this one. From getting in a nice dig at “Kier” to getting his dance on with the team from Choreography and Merriment, Milchick was living his best life. If anyone could be convinced to turn on Lumon, it’s Milchick, but it’s going to take a lot to push him over the edge. But we’ll see in season three.

“Cold Harbor” didn’t have the same shocking cliffhanger of an ending as we got with season one, but it hit all the right notes and answered just enough questions to make us want to come back and see what’s in store for the Innie uprising. I, for one, want to know more about Jame’s thoughts on Helly and if she can leverage that into something for the Innies. I was very intrigued to see that Cobel had no idea that Irving’s Innie knew about the secret passageway – and that he was more connected with his Outie than anticipated. And what’s the deal with reintegration? It was clearly starting to work, and Cobel is the severance mastermind. Perhaps she can refine the process? Maybe she has a way the Innies and Outies can co-exist? Or is this destined to be a tragedy, where the Innies are sacrificed to their Outies – or just sacrificed on the whole. No matter what, I cannot wait to see how this story continues in season three. This was a truly spectacular season of television, with incredible writing, stellar performances (how great was Britt Lower’s facial acting throughout this episode, but especially as she looked at Gemma, with a sadness and an apology as she took Gemma’s husband from her one more time), and some of the most creative direction ever to grace the small screen. Bravo, all.