How canSeveranceseason twoalmost be over?
Helena/Helly
The episode started with Helena so well do the same.
Its a very creepy scene layered with information.
Miss Huang is about to go on a very cold trip in the penultimate Severance.Apple TV+
Who is he, Gollum?
What the hell, man?
Helly then arrives at work on a mission.
Helena at her family’s place – Apple TV+
Shes looking for Mark who, for the second day in a row, isnt there.
Helly takes them back to her desk to study them like its theContracode when shes interrupted by Jame.
You tricked me, he says to Helly, who is very confused to see Jame in this setting.
Helena at her family’s place – Apple TV+
Basically Hellys journey this week was kind of the glue to keep all the stories together.
What trick did she pull?
Did Helly somehow do a reverse Glasgow block we dont know about?
We wanted to use a Dylan image at the top of this but – this was too spoilery! – Apple TV+
Did Jame not know about Helena posing as Helly?
Is he just finding out about Irving trying to kill her?
Miss Huang
Miss Huang has been an enigma all season.
An uncomfortable ride – Apple TV+
Shes also a literal kid.
However, Miss Huangs is ending.
Svalbard, by the way, is in the Arctic Circle.
Is Cobel from Hell? – Apple TV+
Basically closer to the North Pole than anywhere else.
Not a great assignment.
After a sad interaction with Dylan, we see her waiting for a Lumon shuttle.
Is she really going from here right to the Arctic Circle?
Will we ever see this character again?
I kind of hope she turns on Lumon and brings the whole place down.
Things start there, with the couple going through their morning routine.
Gretchen then drops a bomb on him we thought wouldve remained a secret a little bit longer.
She kissed his innie for about a minute.
(Did she really have to add that last part?
That was a bit much, right?
Too much detail.)
Hes been adrift, she says, and Dylans innie reminds her of how you used to be.
Was he glad for us?
he asks, in the most precious manner ever.
He wasnt, Gretchen says, before telling the innie she cant see him anymore.
Innie Dylan is crushed.
He thought he was making Gretchen happy, which he was.
But she cant do it at the expense of his outie.
This declaration leads to Dylan professing his love for Gretchen and proposing.
Seriously, one of the biggest, bestSeverancetwists ever.
So rarely have romance and pain been weaved together so beautifully.
Gretchen cries, apologizes, and leaves.
Dylan goes back to the office where only Helly is there to greet him.
Its just O&D and the goat people, Dylan says.
If were so different from our outies, how come we couldnt tell whenyouwere gone?
Its a fantastic question that Dylan is about to challenge himself.
He decides to quit Lumon which, when you think about it, is a very big decision.
Its big, its brash, but its the only thing he has the ability to do.
Dylan tells her not to.
Again though, what a Dylan episode.
Just everything great about this show rolled into one.
Irving
Irvings story this week began before we saw him on screen.
Remember the throwaway line where Helena tells Jame that theyre seeing to Mr. Bailiff?
Thats Irving and that one line reshapes everything that comes after.
Its Burt, who has broken into Irvings apartment and found some notes he wrote about him.
So what is seeing to Mr. Bailiff?
Lumon has, we think, hired Burt to drive Irving somewhere where something bad is going to happen.
Thats what Burt does for Lumon, he reveals, but we soon see hes apparently making an exception.
Irving realizes this is him defying Lumon, but Burt is okay with that.
Irving says hes never been loved but is ready, while Burt says its impossible.
Its an intense, emotional scene between two acting juggernauts that results in Irving leaving Kier.
Emotionally, Irvings story with Burt this week was fantastic but it didnt feel that cohesive.
We still dont really know about Burts present situation with Lumon.
We dont know what Lumon was planning for Irving or why.
And then just logistically, its off.
Burt bought Irvings ticket and said go to the end of the line.
He knows where hes going.
He bought the ticket.
There are specific stops.
If pressed, hed have an idea.
But, inSeverancewe trust.
Its 9 a.m. and the numbers arent moving.
Mauer complains to Mr. Drummond.
Drummond calls Milchick to ask why Mark isnt working but, of course, Mark isnt there.
After multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact Mark, Mr. Drummond gives him the business.
Milchick cowers for a while until, finally, he snaps.
He tells Drummond to devour feculence.
It means, eat shit, Milchick says.
Why give Milchick a moment of triumph over an even greater foe?
Even with everything the audience learned about her last week, can we trust Cobel?
Meanwhile, Milchick keeps calling Mark and Mark still has that cough.
What IS that cough?
Cobel arrives late and despite remaining very cagey, does reveal a few things.
The biggest is that she believes when Mark completes Cold Harbor, Gemma will be killed.
Do they all just stand in the cold all day?
It doesnt track but, well forgive it.)
Mark continues to be weary of Cobel who refuses to be forthcoming about anything.
The exchange that follows is the most mysterious of the whole episode and maybe even the season.
Cobel has to convince the security guard that she should be let through without notice.
So she tells the security guard that Devon is one of James and that no ones to know.
She references Miss Marsha White, ninth floor which the guard recognizes as the specialties department.
Cobel adds that shes looking for a gold thimble.
The security guard buys all of this and lets them through.
Though this may all sound like weird, cryptic Lumon stuff, it both is and isnt.
First of all, theres the implication Jame Eagan has women brought to this place covertly.
What does he do with them?
Are his odd interactions with Helena/Helly in this episode, talking about raw eggs and tricks, related?
More concretely though, all of Cobels verbiage goes back to the episodes title, The After Hours.
Finally, after all of thatand it was a lotinnie Mark awakens in the cabin.
Do you remember the last thing you said to me?
Mark says and thenthats it.
Nevertheless, its sad.
Sad that this season is almost over.
Sad that this episode seemingly wrote off Irving and Miss Huang, and almost Dylan in a way too.
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