In Severance Season 2, Lumon Takes Corporate Manipulation To A New Low

The latest episode of "Severance" peels back even more layers to the terrifying Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), the Severed Floor Supervisor who sure seems to be fiercely loyal to the mega corporation Lumon. Throughout the first season, and the first two episodes of season 2, Milchick's shown himself to be both deeply ambitious and a fanatical worshipper of the Eagan family. He has no qualms about lying or mistreating the innies he supervises, nor does he care about betraying his superior Ms. Cobel if it means he gets to climb the corporate ladder. 

But in this week's episode, "Who is Alive?", we get a glimpse of what might be the limit to the amount of corporate nonsense he's willing to put up with. As a thank you gesture for his good work, Lumon's mysterious board gifts Milchick a collection of portraits of the company's revered found Kier Egan, except now Kier's skin has been drawn dark like Milchick's. The board's mouthpiece, Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander), tells Milchick that the paintings are "inclusively recanonicalized paintings intended to help you see yourself like Kier." 

As Milchick opens the gift, there's a suffocating long shot that tracks Natalie's smiling face as she hovers around Milchick's shoulder. "The board wishes to express that I, Natalie, received the same gift upon receipt of my current position, and found it extremely moving," she says, with a smile so big it has to be at least a little bit fake. 

"I'm grateful," Milchick says. "It's meaningful to see myself reflected in..." He struggles to finish the sentence, but it doesn't matter; the board has already concluded the call. As tends to be the case in many scenes in "Severance," a show where so many characters are keeping their cards close to their chest, it's not clear how grateful Milchick actually is in this scene. He sure seems moved as he talks, but once the board hangs up, there's a long, uncomfortable silence between him and Natalie, neither of them quite sure what to say. They're both people of color who've risen through the corporate ranks, and they both claim to appreciate these gifts of the Eagan family repainted in their skin color, but in this long silent moment between them, neither seem all that happy.

You might think there'd be nothing left to surprise us about Lumon by this point. Not only is the whole severance concept basically just slavery with extra steps, but now in season 2, they've got a child working for them, too. Lumon is the epitome of everything wrong with corporate culture, with their constant exploitation of workers wrapped up in a clean, condescending façade. Audiences already know Lumon's bad, the question now is just how self-aware Lumon's biggest fans really are. That's why Mr. Milchick and Helena (Britt Lower) are especially fascinating this season: They're two characters who are apparently fully on board the Lumon train, but there've been little hints that neither of them might be as devoted as they first seemed. 

With Helena, it seems as if she's starting to get a little jealous of her innie counterpart Helly, who has found love and community (not to mention an inner sense of self-worth) that outie Helena doesn't seem to have. Meanwhile with Mr. Milchick, we get the sense in "Who is Alive?" that he's not really as moved by Lumon's gift as he said he was. Near the end of the episode, we see him wrapping up the paintings of Black Eagen and putting them out of sight in his office. Even someone as seemingly brainwashed as Milchick is able to see through Lumon's racial pandering. 

Let's just hope that this is the start of Milchick questioning his role as Lumon's most loyal soldier, rather than a one-off moment of self-awareness. These poor innies are gonna need all the help they can get this season, so maybe it's good that Milchick's starting to get the ick from Lumon now rather than later. As Ms. Cobel's breakdown at the end of season 1 made clear, it's often a cult's most devoted followers who snap the hardest.

New episodes of "Severance" hit Apple TV+ on Fridays.