Severance Creator on Season 2’s “Lumon Is Listening” Message
Severance showrunner Dan Erickson discusses corporate co-opting of rebellion in the season 2 premiere.
This article contains spoilers for Severance season 2 episode 1.
Like many workplaces in the post-Covid era, Severance season 2 looks to get its employees back in the office.
Season 1’s final hour “The We We Are” is a thrilling hour of television that features innies Mark S. (Adam Scott), Helly R. (Britt Lower), and Irving B. (John Turturro) triggering the Overtime Contingency to experience the outside world and uncover some shocking truths. By the time Helly learns that her outtie is the villainous Helena Eagan and Mark shouts “she’s alive!” upon seeing a photo Gemma Scout a.k.a. Ms. Casey, it’s hard to imagine how the show could ever get back to its corporate setting again.
And yet, back to the office season 2 must go. Not only is the Macrodata Refinement floor important to the satirical and visual language of this Apple TV+ sci-fi workplace thriller, but the sprawling, sterile halls of Lumon Industries are where the innies will most likely find the answers they seek. In speaking to Den of Geek prior to the release of season 2, Severance creator and showrunner Dan Erickson discussed the difficulties in re-establishing some sense of a status quo.
“We kind of blew up the world in season one,” Erickson says. “It’s tough to get back to arguing over over group photos, pencils, and erasers. But we also knew that baked into the soul of the show is this character-based office comedy that satirizes the weirdness of the corporate world.”
While Severance season 2 episode 1 “Hello, Ms. Cobel” doesn’t yet reveal how Lumon convinced the outtie versions of Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan (Zach Cherry) to get back to work, it does present how Lumon is choosing to pitch the results of the innie rebellion. Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) tells Mark that, like him, Helly and Irving both successfully made contact with the outside world. He goes on to say that they’ve achieved international acclaim and become the faces of “Severance Reform,” even presenting a newspaper headline and image to prove that fact.
Mark, not quite moved by the existence of a physical newspaper (nor should he be, says this journalist occupying an increasingly digital industry), requires more evidence. More importantly: he requires his friends back. Once the MDR team is finally reunited, Mr. Milchick pulls out the final stop in a form of a Lumon orientation video. Titled “Lumon Is Listening,” the cheerful claymation clip is narrated by the Lumon building itself* and runs through all of the “bounteous reforms” that the event known as “The Macrodata Uprising” encouraged. Severed employees will now have access to tasty new snacks, hall passes (it’s unclear to where), pineapple bobbing, and a “playful mirror room.” The video even concludes with the Lumon building thanking Kier for the MDR team. And Lumon wouldn’t invoke its mighty founder Kier Eagan unless it were serious about these reforms, would it?
*Though his name doesn’t appear in the end-credits of the pre-release screeners journalists received, it sure does sound like that building is voiced by none other than Keanu Reeves. Apple TV+ didn’t return a request for confirmation (and I stupidly didn’t come to that realization before speaking with Dan Erickson and the rest of the cast) so….🤷🏻
Per Erickson, Lumon choosing to co-opt MDR’s rebellion and incorporating it into company lore was a predictable reaction to the events of season 1.
“That’s something that feels very true to how a company would respond to a whistleblower or an act of defiance like this that proved successful,” he says.
Just as the release of Severance season 1 was serendipitously timed to the arrival of a global pandemic that would fundamentally change workers’ relationship to work, so too does season 2 premiere to a rapidly-changing corporate landscape. In the wake of the 2024 U.S. presidential election (and in some cases in explicit response to it), several large companies have begun to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, confirming many observers’ skepticism that they were sincerely deployed in the first place. If those Lumons ever were listening, they sure aren’t anymore.
While the real world provides no shortage of corporate quirks to comment upon, the upward trajectory of Severance‘s plot may limit the show’s approach to satirizing it all soon. Getting to the bottom of Lumon’s plans will mean that Mark and company have bigger fish to fry than pineapple bobbing and playful mirror rooms. Thankfully, the folks behind Severance are well aware of that ticking narrative clock.
“[Our plans] have tightened up a bit,” Erickson says. “I think we have a pretty good idea of how many seasons we want to go, which I’m not going to say just yet. But we’re really trying to be intentional in how we approach this as a whole story.”
The first episode of Severance season 2 is available to stream on Apple TV+ now. New episodes premiere Fridays, culminating with the finale on March 21.
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TV Editor at Den of Geek and Television Critics Association member. Based in Cleveland, Ohio. Very upset about various sporting events.