Severance – Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig

By: Kelly Kearney

What is Cold Harbor, and why is Mark S.’s neighbor, Mrs. Selvig—formerly known as the enigmatic Ms. Cobell—so obsessed with it? Or maybe the better question is, why is she equally obsessed with Mark? Is it a psychosexual crush or something more; and what does it have to do with Mark’s dead wife Gemma? That’s the burning question in the second episode of the sophomore season of Apple’s critically acclaimed and thrilling drama, Severance.  By the end of the first season, we’d unraveled some threads of Mark Scout’s (the “outie”) dual existence as Mark S. (the “innie”), but we were only given fleeting glimpses into the lives of his co-workers outside the stark, fluorescent-lit halls of Lumon Industries.

While the season premiere spent the entirety piecing together the innie’s confusing return to Lumon, the second episode of the new season lays the groundwork for more clues about the outies’ lives and, most intriguing, Helena Egan’s duality. While Helly R. spent last season desperately trying to escape her grim fate within Lumon, her outie—Helena, the daughter of Lumon CEO and severance creator Jame Egan—has a calculated agenda to keep her innie in the dark. Alongside Helena’s story, we also begin to unravel Dylan and Irving’s outside lives and uncover subtle hints about why they chose to sever their existence.

The Promotion

The episode opens with a flashback following the overtime contingency plan finale. We find outie Mark (Adam Scott) waking up at his sister’s house, disoriented as he processes the fact that his innie briefly took control of his body. Devon (Jen Tullock), watching him closely, grows concerned when she notices her brother standing still, fixated on a framed photo of himself and his wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman). Sensing something is off, she gently takes his hands and asks him to say her name. Without hesitation, Mark smirks and jokes “Persephone.”

While Mark doesn’t remember much, one thing lingers in his mind: just before his consciousness switched back, he heard his innie yell, “She’s alive.” This only fuels Devon’s suspicions, and she suggests that innie Mark was talking about Gemma—who was presumed dead after a fiery car crash just before Mark started working at Lumon. But Mark refuses to accept this. The trauma of losing her, of seeing her burned beyond recognition, is too much to bear. He severed in the first place to escape that pain. Hope has no place in his world.

As Mark struggles to piece together what happened with his innie—and deal with the fallout of Ms. Selvig (aka Cobel) (Patricia Arquette) invading his sister’s life—the focus shifts to Helena Eagan (Britt Lower) and the aftermath of Helly R.’s public rebellion.

The last time we saw innie Helly, she was making a scene at a Lumon gala, exposing the truth about severance. Now, Helena is back in control, summoning Ms. Cobel for a tense meeting about her dismissal. Having been caught infiltrating Mark’s sister’s life, Cobel was forced out of her job, even though she claims going rogue was to protect Lumon. Helena offers her a hollow apology, fully aware that her extensive knowledge—and her unpredictable behavior—make her a liability to the company.

Despite Cobel’s behavior concerning Mark S., Helena acknowledges her unwavering “loyalty” to Lumon and extends an unexpected offer: a senior-level position as the head of the Severance Advisory Council. It’s a title many would covet, but Cobel immediately recognizes it for what it is—a demotion in disguise. If Lumon truly valued her, why not reinstate her as manager of the severed floor, the job she excelled at?

Helena’s true intention is clear: keep Cobel close enough to monitor, but far enough from any real power. Cobel, masking her disdain behind a forced smile, thanks Helena with biting insincerity, as she promises to “consider” the offer before storming out, leaving Helena visibly irritated.

Disappointed Daddy

Reining in a rogue ex-manager is nothing compared to the challenge of appeasing her father, James Eagan (Michael Siberry). The only word to describe their exchange is creepy. Disgusted by Helly R.’s outburst at the gala, James grabs Helena’s face in his hand, sneering as he calls her a “fetid moppet”—his way of expressing his disappointment in her.

To salvage her reputation and regain her father’s approval, Helena films a forced apology video, claiming that Helly R.’s shocking accusations were merely the result of an “allergic reaction” to non-Lumon-approved medication, which supposedly clouded her judgment. It’s an absurd, transparent lie—clearly crafted to control the narrative and minimize the damage to Lumon’s image. But beyond PR spin, the video is also a desperate plea to satisfy her father. Helly R.’s defiant speech at the gala had given Lumon’s critics the ammunition they needed, confirming their worst fears: Lumon isn’t just offering a peace of mind lobotomy—it’s imprisoning its employees in a dystopian experiment that blurs the lines between innovation and oppression; where autonomy is stripped away in the name of corporate control. And if Helena’s forced apology and her father’s suffocating grip are any indication, the severed employees aren’t the only ones being crushed under Lumon’s thumb.

Severing Ties

As Helena scrambles to clean up the PR disaster Helly R. left behind, Milchick (Tramell Tillman) makes his rounds in the outside world, paying visits to Mark, Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry). His goal? To assess how much their innies revealed about Lumon’s dark inner workings.

At Mark’s house, Milchick probes for details, but Mark and his sister, Devon, skillfully deflect his questions, especially when it comes to Gemma. Still, they can’t shake the unease that Mark’s innie briefly infiltrated his outie’s life, and Milchick, ever the company man, shifts the blame entirely onto Ms. Cobel. He paints the former manager as an obsessive stalker whose “perverse crush” on Mark’s innie supposedly led to the fiasco. Devon, however, doesn’t buy it. She has never trusted Lumon or her brother’s decision to sever, and after Cobel nearly kidnapped her child, she certainly doesn’t trust Milchick now.

When Milchick visits Irving and Dylan, he has no interest in inviting them back to work—only in severing their ties with Lumon entirely. Without warning, he fires them both. Dylan takes the news the hardest, as Lumon was his way of providing for his family. Now, he’s left to reckon with the stigma attached to his choice to sever and it’s quickly becoming a problem. When he interviews for a new position at a door company, at first, things go well—he and the manager hit it off. But the moment Dylan’s severance history comes to light, everything changes. The manager’s face hardens and the job offer is rescinded. Hiring one employee is all the company wants—not two minds in one body. The revelation is crushing, as Severed workers aren’t just trapped inside Lumon’s walls—they’re outcasts in the real world too, rejected by a society that views them as unnatural and unpredictable.

After cutting ties with Irving and Dylan, Milchick returns to Mark’s house for a second time, this time with a more strategic approach. He starts with financial incentives, offering Mark compensation to return. When that fails, he shifts to a more insidious tactic: guilt. He reminds Mark that while his outie is drowning in grief, his innie was happy—happier than he’d been in a while thanks to the love he found with a co-worker. This shocks Mark, but as intriguing as that sounds he still refuses to come back to work. Milcheck changes tactics and tries to get Mark to realize he isn’t just rejecting Lumon—he’s robbing his innie of the only joy he’s ever known. It’s a thinly veiled threat, designed to prey on Mark’s deepest wounds. The guilt over robbing his innie of the type of love he lost, is a hard bargaining chip Mark can’t ignore. What is surprising here is how hard Milchick fights to keep Mark at Lumon—especially considering he was the ringleader of the rebellion that shattered their control. But the real reason soon becomes clear why Lumon needs Mark: it’s for something we learned about in the last episode called, “Cold Harbor.” And Mark isn’t the only pawn in their game.

Mrs. CobelVig: Friend or Foe?

After watching security footage of Helly R. kissing Mark goodbye in the season one finale, Helena realizes that part of Mark’s innie happiness is tied to her. This forces her back to the severed floor—not out of personal desire, but as a calculated move to help convince Mark to stay. If Dylan and Irving had returned after their team’s escape, Mark might have resisted Lumon’s pull. But Helly R.—or rather, the illusion of her—is the perfect bait to keep him under their watchful eye. And whether she wants to be part of that manipulation doesn’t seem to matter. While Helena did appear momentarily moved by her innie’s passionate farewell, her cold, robotic demeanor barely wavers—just the faintest smirk betraying whatever emotions might be buried beneath her controlled exterior. Whatever Helly R. feels for Mark S. it can’t compete with Helena’s need for her father’s pride.

By the end of the episode, Mark has chosen to ignore the clues about Gemma and the sound of his innie screaming about someone being alive, until he crosses paths with his neighbor, Ms. Selvig. After that, everything changes.

When Mark sees her packing up her car, and now—fully aware that she works for Lumon, he tries to stop her from fleeing. Standing in front of CobelVig’s car, desperation and frustration bleed into his voice as he demands to know: “Who are you really? Why do you live next door to me?”

For a brief moment, something flickers in Cobel’s expression—like she’s choking on the weight of the secrets she’s trying to swallow down. Her silence angers Mark who then shockingly asks about Gemma! Throughout the episode, Mark has refused to entertain the idea that his wife might still be alive. Even when his sister, Devon, insisted that Lumon’s sinister operations could have included faking a woman’s death, he dismissed it and walked out of their lunch–refusing to listen to her theories. The memory of his wife’s charred body is burned into his mind—there’s no room for hope.

But now, standing in the cold, staring into Cobel’s eyes, something shifts. For the first time, Mark begins to consider that maybe what his innie told him was true. That maybe Lumon knows far more about Gemma than he ever dared to believe.

But instead of confirming his fears, Cobel’s mask cracks in an unexpected way. Her face contorts with something unreadable—anger, defiance, maybe even fear—before she abruptly spits out a phrase that leaves Mark stunned:

“Cold Harbor!” she screams. Then, without another word, she slams her foot on the gas and speeds off, leaving Mark standing alone in the snowy street, confusion swirling around him like the falling flakes. Snippets of his innie’s memories drip into his mind until it fills him to the brim with more questions that only Lumon can answer. It looks like Mark S. is heading back to work.