As Severance’s Chilly Outster World increases its dystopian mystery

Much of Severity the first season took place inside the Lumon Industries building, specifically the “separate” underground floor where the main characters work. It is a narrow, strangely empty space where departments are kept separate, to the point where the office culture encourages them to fear each other. But maybe as off-putting it is Severity‘s outer world, which promises to get more exploration in the show second season.

You would think that the audience would immediately lean more towards that outside world. The Lumon we see is populated mostly by people who have chosen to go through a procedure that creates a completely separate identity for themselves – one that never leaves the office. It also contains a peculiar ancient technology used to complete “mysterious and important” numerical skills that no one can really explain; a room populated by goats for unknown reasons; strange rituals designed to raise morale in what is otherwise an absolutely sucked-in place; and the idol worship of Lumon founder Kier Eagan and his descendants.

However, there is not much comfort to be found once the “innies” turn into their “outies” and go home at the end of the day. As well as having to deal with any regrets that made him think the suspension was a solid career move – for Adam Scott’s Mark, it’s a mental holiday to remember that his wife died in a car accident a few years earlier – they live in Kier, a community as depressing as it is dystopian. And coldthough we haven’t spent enough time here to know if it has any other seasons than icy, muddy, dreary winter.

Even if there are mild summer months in Kier, it wouldn’t thaw the barren feeling that pervades the town, nor would it lessen the mystery of Kier that doesn’t really seem to be… anywhere. In the first season, we were told that Kier and the nearby city of Ganz – home of Ganz University, where Mark used to teach pre-Lumon history – are located in the state of “PE”, which obviously does not it is not a real place. The license plates of the vehicles read “Remedium Hominibus”, which translates (“A cure, for humanity”) of course. look like to be a reference to Kier Eagan’s pharmaceutical dynasty.

Ma Severity has a hold on our world, such as the mention of certain geographical locations (Alexa, who briefly dates Mark, is from Montana) and cultural elements (Petey and his daughter jam to Metallica; Irving’s outie paints his same dark image with Motorhead Blasting) suggests. And despite the vintage technology in the office, which goes well with Lumon’s love for carefully crafted environments, the outies are obviously in the 21st century: they have cell phones and use the Internet.

However, there is a sense that Kier is a place that is, well, separate from what we might find familiar. It is clearly a company town. Restaurants are named after members of the Eagan family (“Pip’s Diner,” presumably named for Lumon’s former CEO), and Mark’s existential dread develops during nights spent in his Lumon-subsidized lodgings—a generic townhouse on a street full of identical generic townhouses. with as many vacant dwellings as Lumon has vacant offices.

Later in the first season, we see that Mark’s co-worker Irving has a similar apartment, albeit in a different neighborhood (at least he has a dog; Mark just has a couple of sad goldfish). We also learn in the first season that Mark’s neighbor (Patricia Arquette) is actually his boss at Lumon, which of course his outtie is not aware of; she is not cut, but takes on a different identity to better explain her activities. Mark may not be aware of that fact until the end of the first season, but it adds a sinister layer to what is already a lonely and joyless existence.

Not everyone who lives in Kier works in Lumon. In the first season, we meet Mark’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock) and her husband Ricken (Michael Chernus), who are about to become parents for the first time, and whose social life revolves mainly around Ricken (an author author) and his pretentious friends. . Through these characters, and later as we follow Mark’s confused efforts to learn more about the inner workings of Lumon, we learn that there is indeed a resistance movement against the separation. We also witness the fact that non-Lumon employees have conflicting views on the breakup—just the kind of conversation to make a dinner party even more awkward.

To counter this, we also learn that Lumon has powerful allies in the government, including a state senator whose glamorous wife is undergoing the procedure so she can give birth and not remember, leading to a couple of strange encounters with Devon both in and out of the country. establishment where both have their children.

How SeverityThe geographical world of the world could expand in the second season is still to be seen – a glimpse of what is coming suggests that we will spend more time on the ground outside, and we have also arrived at that finale of the first season, in which the hymns of Mark and his co-workers Irving and Helly R. briefly delved into his life outside. The premiere of the second season, which takes place entirely in Lumon with Innie Mark, reminds us what a huge moment it was – not only because of the realizations that everyone has reached on each other, but because innii are not. ever otherwise exposed to the outside world.

As the second season begins, one of Mark’s new co-workers enthusiastically asks him “What’s heaven like?”; she also asks what state they are in and what the wind feels like. Their lack of answers or even enthusiasm for seeing what is essentially a total fantasyland is disappointing. But maybe if she saw Kier for herself, she would understand.

New episodes of Severity arrives Friday on Apple TV +.

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