The MDR team eat a head-shaped watermelon while Seth faces a performance assessment. Here’s our Severance season 2 episode 5 review.
Last week’s episode of Severance might have been the most impressive episode of the series yet and I’m still reeling from it. Not only did we finally get confirmation Helly R is actually Helena Eagan, she also technically raped Mark S who thought he was having sex with Helly.
Oh, and Irv died. Well, technically he was simply let go from Lumon and his Innie was retired, but for the Macrodata Refinement Team, it’s essentially a death. Mr Milchick informs the MDR team that Irv’s Outie has departed on an “elongated cruise voyage”, which sounds like a lie. In this week’s episode, the team is granted a funeral for Irv, complete with a watermelon shaped like his head.
Irv’s funeral, like most of Severance, isn’t a particularly emotional affair. Dylan gives a lovely eulogy in which he remembers a time when Irv put toner in his water and the team quietly eats their watermelon. They’re given mugs with Irv’s face and Mr Milchick kindly gives them all of nine seconds to remember Irv in silence.
Elsewhere, Helena is getting into trouble for messing up her mission on the severed floor and Mr Milchick is facing his first performance review as the severed floor manager. Milchick is quickly becoming one of the most fascinating characters in the series and Tramell Tillman is compelling in the role. It’s a tricky part, because Milchick isn’t granted big emotions or outbursts. He’s a company man through and through, but also failing spectacularly at his new job and Tillman has to convey a lot of complex emotions with little outer range. Yet, it’s never unclear what’s going on inside Milchick’s head.
Now that we know for sure that Helly has actually been Helena, let’s take a moment to appreciate Britt Lower’s performance here. Helly has always been the heart of the MDR team; she’s innocent, determined and impossibly sweet. Helena on the other hand is cruel and vicious and episode 5 gives us a taste of both Helly and Helena. The difference between the two characters is like night and day and Lower sells it with such conviction.
Severance season 2 is now half-way through. Episode 5 doesn’t feel quite as intense or groundbreaking as previous episodes. Mark’s reintegration procedure is revisited here as Asal Reghabi is revealed to be living with Mark, but so far, not much has changed for Mark. The episode once again refers to project Cold Harbor and Mark is seen choosing the file and transferring numbers to their folders, but there’s still no clarity what it’s all for. At some point, Severance is going to have to stop posing questions and start answering them.
Episode 5 does flesh out some of Severance’s bigger themes. Several people question if the Innies are people at all and whether they should be treated like animals. It’s a potent metaphor for our general worries about the workplace and who we are between the hours of nine to five. Mark, understandably still upset over Helena’s betrayal, tells Helly he doesn’t know who she is, maybe she is Helena and Helena is her. Hopefully Severance will find more time to explore these questions of identity more in future episodes.
Severance airs new episodes on AppleTV+ every Friday.
