Severance Season 2 Trailer Reveals An Unwelcome Return To The Office

It's been almost three years since Dan Erickson's mind-splitting sci-fi series "Severance" blew audiences away and left them begging for more with a cliffhanger ending. Season 2 is finally almost here, and Apple TV+ has dropped a trailer that reveals some unexpected consequences of the rebellion.

"Severance" centers on a biotech company called Lumon Industries that has found an innovative new approach to work-life balance (and, more importantly, protecting company secrets). Employees voluntarily have their minds divided into an "Outie," who experiences and remembers everything outside the office, and an "Innie," who only experiences and remembers life at work. For the Outies, it's a great deal: all their waking hours are leisure hours. But for the Innies, work is an inescapable prison.

Well, almost inescapable. At the end of "Severance" season 1, Mark S. (Adam Scott), Helly R. (Britt Lower), and Irving B. (John Turturro) were able to temporarily wake up on the outside, thanks to the diligent efforts of their coworker, Dylan G. (Zach Cherry). During the escape, Helly used a speech that her Outie was supposed to deliver as an opportunity to blow the whistle on the suffering of Lumon's Innies. Meanwhile, Mark realized that their wellness counsel Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) is actually his Outie's supposedly deceased wife, but only managed to deliver the ambiguous message "she's alive!" before being pulled back under.

Check out the "Severance" season 2 trailer above for a taste of what comes next.

The "Severance" season 1 finale left the Outies with a moral dilemma: whether or not to return to the office. After all, they now all know that their Innies are suffering, and that they inflict more suffering on them every time they go back to work. But it looks like Lumon has successfully spun Helly R.'s whistleblowing by making them the face of severance reform. A newspaper article glimpsed in the trailer claims that Lumon is improving the lives of Innies with "top of the line recreational facilities, sexual liberation, improved snacks, and the possibility for field [trips]."

All of these things are, of course, pathetic offerings that ignore the Innies' core demand for freedom. Their supervisor, Milchick (Tramell Tillman), offered Dylan G. all kinds of token treats in a desperate attempt to buy his compliance at the end of season 1. Dylan's response: "I want to remember my f***ing kid being born!"

In "Severance" season 2, Mark's new goal is to help Ms. Casey escape. Since the outside world believes her to be dead, Ms. Casey spends most of her existence on the mysterious Testing Floor, and has only been permitted 107 hours of waking life in the years since her "death." She's one of the show's biggest lingering mysteries (along with the baby goats).

"Severance" will debut globally on Apple TV+ with the first episode on Friday, January 17, 2025, followed by one episode every Friday through March 21.