In Severance Season 2 Episode 1, Mark is forced to work with another MDR team. It doesn’t go well, and soon enough, he’s reunited with his old colleagues – so, where does that leave the new innies?
Mark eventually gets to see Irving, Dylan, and Helly in the first episode of Severance Season 2. However, when he returns to Lumon, he’s confronted by a new set of Innies who are very curious about his time in the outside world (one asks, “How’s wind, is it like getting breathed on kinda?”).
He takes action, slipping a note ostensibly written by his co-worker Mark W into his pocket, complaining about the “heinous” conditions and how their manager – hilariously nicknamed Milkshake – is a “shambolic rube.”
While they’re distracted, Mark legs it to Milchick’s office and begs the Board to bring back his old team – and they oblige his request.
If Mark’s new team was fired, they basically died
Think about it: if Lumon got rid of the new MDR team to appease Mark’s request, they were probably made redundant (after all, Gwendolyn and Mark W came from branch 5X, which had been shut down).
If you thought redundancy in real life was bad, the stakes are much higher for an Innie: if they never return to work, they have no reason (or catalyst) to be alive, meaning they’re dead.
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Innies are only active when they’re on a severed floor (excluding the Overtime Contingency). Otherwise, it’s not like they’re sleeping and dreaming – they’re simply not there. If Mark’s team was let go, those Innies will never see the light of Lumon again.
It’s a sobering thought, but how about I make it worse: for Lumon employees, retirement is effectively the act of murdering yourself. The severance chip may remain in your brain forever, but one day, your Innie would simply cease to exist.
Also, even if an Innie wants to quit – aka, take their own life – it’s not up to them. They can fill out a resignation request, but it’s ultimately approved or rejected by their Outie. They don’t have any agency, they live (and die) at the whims of Lumon and those beyond the walls they can’t breach.
Make sure you read our Severance Season 2 review, keep our Season 2 release schedule bookmarked, and find out what happened to Ms Casey/Gemma. You can also check out the biggest TV shows coming out in 2025.
