On prime of being a sci-fi thriller and a psychological thriller, Severance is a spectacularly humorous darkish comedy. And in its Season 2 finale, “Cold Harbor,” it introduced its hilarity to new, bloody heights.
I am speaking in regards to the dying of Lumon’s resident intimidator, Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), who goes into work able to rejoice the completion of Cold Harbor and winds up getting wailed on by Mammalians Nurturable head Lorne (Gwendoline Christie), held hostage by Innie Mark (Adam Scott), after which unintentionally killed by Outie Mark, all within the span of minutes.
Mr. Drummond’s dying itself is spectacular. As he and Innie Mark experience the elevator all the way down to the Testing Ground, Mark holds him captive by putting the bolt gun used for sacrificing goats at his throat. Because the elevator triggers Mark to modify to his Outie, he unintentionally pulls the set off. Blood instantly spurts from the opening in Drummond’s chest, coating the partitions of the elevator and a horrified Mark. Between the bloody elevator (The Shining, anybody?) and Ólafsson’s gurgled final breaths, that is Severance at its goriest and most horror adjoining. However it might even be the very best, darkest joke the present has pulled off thus far.
The whole scene hinges on a core world-building rule Severance has established since day one: Innies turn into Outies and vice versa once they’re within the Lumon elevator. The dolly zoom shot of the change, accompanied by the elevator ding, is without doubt one of the most iconic pictures related to the present. We have watched numerous variations of it, a lot of them simply offered as mundane situations of switching out and in of labor mode.
Mashable High Tales
Severance performs on these expectations in “Chilly Harbor,” which sees Innie and Outie Mark stage a heist to avoid wasting Gemma (Dichen Lachman) that entails their involvement on completely different flooring. That is step one within the setup for Mr. Drummond’s dying: We all know Mark can be toggling from Innie to Outie extra usually than normal. So when Innie Mark holds Mr. Drummond at gunpoint as they step into the elevator, a query arises: What is going to occur when he switches? Will Mr. Drummond make the most of the change to overpower Mark?
As the 2 experience down, although, the choice turns into inevitable. The swap we have grown so accustomed to over the seasons will drive Mark to unknowingly punch a gap in Drummond. (A literal punchline, if you’ll.) Think about Outie Mark’s expertise on this second: One second, he is headed to Lumon. The following, he is waking up with a person’s blood on his fingers. It is each terrifying and humorous, and Scott nails each the comedy and horror of the change from Innie Mark calling the pictures to frightened Outie Mark. In the meantime, the preliminary shock from Mr. Drummond’s neck wound despatched me right into a match of blood-stained laughter, at each the dying itself and the truth that Severance even had the heart to go there.
The entire sequence is an immaculately crafted, extra-dark gag that ushers in a brand new stage of chaos for the finale — together with one other unconventional elevator swap the place a newly reunited Outie Mark and Gemma transition to a bewildered Innie Mark and Ms. Casey mid-kiss. It is the product of two seasons’ price of build-up, and it leaves us with one final morbidly humorous tableau: the doorways of the elevator failing to shut on Mr. Drummond’s corpse. What a technique to go.
Severance Season 2 is now streaming on AppleTV+.
