5 Things You May Have Missed, From New Opening Credits To A Dan Erickson Easter Egg
After three painful years, Apple TV+‘s acclaimed workplace thriller Severance has finally returned, and its first two episodes have been utterly enthralling.
The Season 2 premiere — Severance‘s first all-innie episode — showed Lumon’s Macrodata Refinement team return to office, introduced intriguing new characters like Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), featured a surprise Keanu Reeves cameo, and left viewers with loads of burning questions.
Season 2, Episode 2, “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” acts as a companion to the premiere, “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” serving as the show’s first all-outie episode and showing viewers the direct aftermath of the Season 1 finale’s Overtime Contingency cliffhanger.
Major Severance Season 2, Episode 2 spoilers ahead.
To say there’s lots to love about the second episode of Severance‘s sophomore season would be a serious understatement. It marks the return of Devon (Jen Tullock), Ricken (Michael Chernus), Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander), Helena’s creepy dad Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry), and Cobel (Patricia Arquette) herself. It introduces a new head of Lumon security, Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson). It shows Milchick (Tramell Tillman) putting on a leather jacket and riding a motorcycle to do serious damage control. It shows Helena (Britt Lower) recording a Youtube-style apology video and blaming Helly’s OTC outburst on a reaction to alcohol and a non-Lumon medication. And it further stresses the importance of Mark (Adam Scott) completing his mysterious Cold Harbor file. But that’s not all!
Since Severance is such meticulously crafted show, every Friday until the March 21 finale, Decider will be taking a closer look at each episode and highlighting five moments that deserve to be put under the microscope. Whether they’re blink-and-miss-it details or major scenes that need to be talked through in greater depth, we’re here to obsess, hypothesize, and dissect the series alongside you.
From a stellar new opening credits sequence to a real-life Dan Erickson Easter egg and more, here are five things you may have missed from Severance Season 2, Episode 2.
A Stellar New Opening Credits Sequence Full Of Foreshadowing
Photo: Apple TV+
Oliver Latta (who uses the artistic alias extraweg) won a well-deserved Outstanding Main Title Design Emmy award for Severance‘s captivating opening credits sequence in Season 1, and he’s created another meticulous masterpiece in honor of Season 2. The new main title sequence, which debuted in Season 2, Episode 2, unsurprisingly slaps. But much like Season 1’s intro, it’s also packed with curious clues sure to signal what’s in store this season.
While Season 1’s credits shined a spotlight on Mark’s work/life balance and the divide between his personal and professional dilemmas, Season 2’s sequence feels more like a quest for answers that highlights overlapping, or conflicting realities of Mark’s innie and outie. Though fans will recognize some similar themes and imagery from Season 1’s opening credits, Season 2 switches things up by showing inflated balloon heads, a brain exploration, Mark’s innie and outie searching with flashlights, and a severance chip being removed — all of which are giving ~reintegration~. (Especially since Reghabi was in the S2 trailer.) We also have eyes on goats, so hopefully our burning baby goat questions will be answered. We see swift glimpses of Helly and Ms. Casey, which suggests innie and outie Mark are navigating their intense feelings for each. We see snow! We see faceless babies and a tiny Kier! We see a giant Cobel closing a book! And so much more!
A Real-Life Dan Erickson Easter Egg
Photo: Apple TV+
After Milchick fires Dylan (Zach Cherry) in Episode 2, Mose Allison’s “Young Man’s Blues” blares and he drives himself to GREAT DOORS, a door factory where his potential boss (Adrian Martinez) interviews him. The fact that the two men look exactly like twins (more creepy Severance twinning going on!) isn’t the only noteworthy aspect of the scene, though. The location itself is a real-life Easter egg from creator, EP, and writer Dan Erickson, who started writing Severance while working at a door factory!
When asked about his decision to pay homage to the door factory where it all happened, Erickson told Decider, “I sort of timidly brought it up to Ben. One day I was just like, ‘Hey, would it be dumb if Dylan went to a door factory?’ And he was like, ‘No, that’s great. Let’s do it.’ So yeah, I allowed myself that little Easter egg into my own life because it’s also the history of the show. It’s where the show was conceived, basically. So I thought it would be fun.”
On The Severance Podcast, Erickson revealed that shortly after he moved to LA, the door factory was the first office job he found on Craigslist. He even worked in a windowless basement! “I was very grateful for that job. And the people there were very nice and treated me very kindly. But it was the last thing in the world I wanted to be doing,” Erickson said. “I was just walking into work one day. It was 9:00 a.m. and I literally just had the thought like, ‘God, what if I could jump ahead and suddenly it would be five? And I would have done the day’s work, but I wouldn’t have to experience it.” And that, kids, is how we got Severance.
Who’s Irving On The Phone With?
Photo: Apple TV+
By giving us crucial insight into the lives of Irving and Helly’s outies, the Season 1 finale not only revealed that Outie Irv is painting black hallway after black hallway, but that he’s extremely curious about Lumon. He’s got a trunk full of negative newspaper articles on the company, a list of severed employees, a map of Kier, and more! And judging from the phone booth scene in Season 2, Episode 2, he’s got a bigger plan in motion. Leaving your house at night in the winter to walk to a phone booth is suspicious on its own, but if you turn on closed captioning, you’ll see that Irv leaves the following message for his mystery call recipient: “Okay. You’re not picking up. I get it. I want you to know my innie got the message.” How is Irv communicating with his innie? And who’s on the phone?! Before we get any answers, Burt (!!!) drives down a nearby street, rolls to a stop, and stares ahead at Irving. Irv fears he’s being watched and leaves the phone booth behind. To be continued…
A Quiet Ride On The Helly-vator
Photo: Apple TV+
In Season 2, Episode 2, we see how (and why) Mark got his original MDR team back. (They need to keep him happy and working long enough to complete Cold Harbor!) With less than 10 minutes remaining in the episode, our OG MDR team file one by one into the office. Mark gets into the elevator, which dings twice — once when it arrives and again when it closes —and heads down to the Severed Floor. Dylan follows with a two-ding elevator ride. Irving is up next. Again, two dings! Then Helena hops in, looking understandably nervous. The elevator dings when it arrives, and then….nothing. NO SECOND DING! It’s an incredibly minor detail, which could mean nothing, but with all the Helly R. theories flying after the Season 2 premiere, we felt it was worth sharing.
Cobelvig’s Desire To Help Mark (And Herself)
Photo: Apple TV+
“Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig” literally ends with Cobelvig speeding away from Mark after she lets out a blood-curdling scream. Before she left, Mark asks, “Why did you do this? What the fuck is this all about? Do you know something about Gemma?” She takes a beat and looks as though she really really wants to tell him everything — especially after Lumon did her dirty.
When asked if there’s a part of Cobel that is dying to come clean and save Mark, Patricia Arquette told Decider, “Yeah, I think there is definitely a part of that in her and she does have this fondness for him. And there is something going on that she doesn’t really want to not have access to either anymore. And there’s a thread of her own personal story that she’s projecting onto his experience, and wanting it to turn out a certain way for her own closure of her own unfinished business.” Fingers crossed that Severance Season 2 gives us a deeper look into Cobel’s personal story and history with Lumon.
Bonus: What’s The Deal With The Pineapples?
Photo: Apple TV+
As the season progresses, we can guarantee it’ll get increasingly difficult to narrow this list down to just five things you may have missed, so every so often you’ll get a BONUS as a fun Decider perk! As Milchick said when he delivered a fruit basket to Mark’s door in Season 2, Episode 2, consider it “compliments of the company.” Anyway, Dylan and Irv got Lumon pineapple baskets, too. If you recall, “pineapple bobbing” was a new incentive introduced in the season premiere. And once I heard Cobel ask “Was a pineapple involved?” in the company’s attempt at getting Mark to return to work, my ears perked up. As the Official Ranker of Severance Season 1 foods, I know pineapples were not a star in the first nine episodes. So what are they doing here now? I asked Erickson for the pineapple tea. His response? “There’s always a deeper significance.” So keep your eyes peeled to see if the fruit pops up again!
New episodes of Severance Season 2 premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.
