Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers.

From its very first minutes, the second season of “Severance” plunges viewers into confusion. The season opens with the protagonist Mark S. (Adam Scott) waking up in the elevator of Lumon’s “Severed Floor,” a sequence captured by nauseating camera movements. In what feels like a single take, watchers feel his disorientation vicariously as he weaves through the hallways. 

“Severance,” the Apple TV+ original show, follows employees at Lumon Industries who voluntarily undergo a patented procedure to split their work and personal memories into two distinct streams of consciousness, “innies” and “outies.” This is all told largely through the eyes of Mark Scout, a middle-aged widower with a proclivity for crying in his car. The show has garnered a dedicated and theory-hungry fan base since its release in 2022. 

In the prior season’s cliff-hanging ending, the innies use the “Overtime Contingency Protocol” to activate themselves in the outside world, and it is revealed that Mark’s wife (Dichen Lachman) is alive. Despite these looming, pressing questions from the prior season that are exacerbated by an excruciatingly prolonged production break, the show chooses to give its audience only half of the picture, literally. 

The first episode, titled “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” focuses exclusively on innie Mark’s perspective. We receive a dubious, secondhand, Lumon-authorized account of the fallout from the events of the season 1 finale told by his supervisor, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman). From now on, the “severed” workplace is one of reform and learning. 

The passage of time within the show is murky. We’re informed about a five-month time jump between seasons from Mr. Milchick, the very same untrustworthy source. Each time Mark steps in and out of the elevator, an unknown amount of time might have elapsed. 

This episode is a perfect return to form. The air of confusion it evokes and the deprivation of information pairs with the themes of the show. Better yet, “Severance” gratifyingly drops us back into the world it has put tremendous effort into creating. The aesthetics are on point, with welcome surprises like a segment of claymation and the introduction of a new mainstay character: Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), a child who serves as their superior.  

“Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” the second episode, seeks to provide the second half of the puzzle, with a couple caveats. This time around, the episode hones in on the realm of the outies. We witness outie Mark downplay the possibility of his wife’s survival (Sure, Mark. “She’s alive!” could mean anything). We also see that it has been days, not months, since the end of season one. This isn’t the first time Lumon has lied. 

We also get to what has been anxiously anticipated: the reactions of Mark’s innie co-workers to the Overtime Contingency. Namely, Helly (Britt Lower), who in the finale was revealed in the overworld to be the heir to Lumon, Helena Eagan. This episode builds her up to be a central antagonist as she cleans up the innies’ mess with cold-blooded efficiency. 

Glimpses into the life of Dylan (Zach Cherry) are also shown as he struggles to find a job after being laid off by Lumon. We see him motivated by his family, which becomes increasingly significant to his innie in episode one. 

Irving (John Turturro), whose outie persona remains an elusive mystery, is also dismissed by Lumon in this episode. But by the end of the episode, as a result of Mark’s hijinks in the first episode, both Dylan and Irving are triumphantly welcomed back with a fruit basket and a smile.

With the gang back together and new plans to be hatched with the knowledge gained from their excursion into the real world, this ostensibly establishes a status quo for the time being. Nevertheless, the strange questions posed last season and these two episodes alone linger like an insatiable itch. 

The fact that these episodes are released on a weekly schedule means that the show can scratch this itch piece by piece. Every episode provides answers, but many new mysteries arise in the same vein. 

What is up with the company’s shady, cult-like obsession with Kier Eagan (Marc Geller)? Why does Irving fall asleep at work? Is everyone actually in a simulation? 

These are the questions that fuel episode discussion forums on Reddit and “breakdown” videos on YouTube, where fans scour every pixel and rewind every frame to cook up the latest theories.

In many ways, “Severance” is a resurrection of the mystery box formula notoriously associated with J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof through the show “Lost.” At its lowest point, this involves posing a bevy of questions during the story’s infancy, and then preying upon audience intrigue while not having the answers themselves. 

“Severance,” however, with its intricate set design and meticulous attention to detail in its worldbuilding, seems fit to avoid the pitfalls of the mystery box trope. Chiefly, by actually having the answers to its questions. 

The way “Severance” goes about executing its ideas is masterful and daring. The camera work is confusing and calculated. It plays with iconography through sound design. Not to mention the Emmy-worthy writing and performances. To make people want to come back for more is a difficult task in itself and the show succeeds to its fullest extent — seeing the credits roll is tantalizing.  

With a dynamic, dimensional cast of characters and a somehow even more engrossing plot line throughout the show, “Severance” does everything at a high level. Even if it ends up not having the answers to all the questions it poses, it is well worth the ride. Me? I’m in it for the long haul.