Thoughts on the Severance Season 2 finale

[alias_sqbr]

No spoilers just the overall tone of my feelings/this post:

I had very mixed feelings on the episode. This post is pretty much all complaints.

And now, SPOILERS.

There is a lot I like about Severance, and even about this episode. It had some legit very cool moments (idk if the whole thing with Gwendoline Christie was NECESSARY but it was sure cool in the moment). But this is not about the things I liked! This is about my COMPLAINTS.

The stuff I did like was mostly more of the same good things it was doing before, which I have already seen discussed a bunch, which is why I don't have much to say about them rn. But if you haven't seen Severence and are reading this post anyway, I am not giving a remotely fair impression!

So.

I had this growing sense that this was one of those shows which starts out with a diverse ensemble and slowly becomes more and more focussed on the straight WASPY white dude and... yeah.

I mean it was always ultimately a dead wife sad dude story, which decided the best way of exploring questions about who gets to be a person in a workplace setting was from the perspective of a middle class tertiary educated white male data analyst who only had a drinking problem when it was convenient. The POC and female characters were interesting and often sympathetic and complex but there was still this... thing I struggle to articulate where they always felt like an alienating Other, never someone you're expected to fully identify with.

I was glad we got an episode where Gemma got to be a person instead of just an off-screen sad memory but then... she was just a nice woman. Current day Gemma is absolutely very engaging and sympathetic and I do love that they quickly made us care about her and feel for her awful situation. But there was the chance for her to be jarringly, thought provokingly more than just a nice, sympathetic woman who went through some shit. Make us realise there were parts to her that weren't about Mark and their marriage and Lumon. Things which don't make her just A Good Wife but a real messy complex person who was specifically well suited to Mark, and who Mark would make happy, but who also was not defined by her life with Mark. After all her WHOLE STORY is about being treated like a beloved object who only exists for the convenience of others.

But instead they just gave us an especially well made Sad Flashback Montage Of Nice Dead Wife In Happier Times, intercut with some well made scifi. And I went "oh. Ok then. This doesn't feel like a show which will let the Mark S/Helly vs Mark Scout/Gemma 'infidelity' go on very long, and they clearly do care about Helly's complex inner life and Helly/Mark as a ship. So I guess I prepare for them to just... drop Gemma like a stone at some point?" I did not expect this to involve her SCREAMING "NO!" AFTER MARK ABANDONED HER FOR HELLY. Like, I understand why this action makes sense for Mark S as a person and even a character, but it's pretty uncomfortable as an overall narrative endpoint.

Also when Mark Scout is explaining why Mark S should rescue her it's all about her as HIS WIFE and not, you know, A PERSON. It's not "She's this amazing loveable person" but "I loved her", not "she had a life" but "she had a life WITH ME". I briefly thought this might be on purpose but guess not.

Not that Helly's arc didn't also get shafted for Mark's. I find it darkly amusing that one of the differences between Helena-as-Helly and Helly is that Helena was trying (without total success) to be blandly nice and helpful while Helly is more difficult... but in the end she also just ends up an accessory to his story. Her running off with him at the end is an enjoyably bittersweet romantic moment of self determination for him, but she went through SO MUCH EFFORT to let him have a chance to live. Why not give him a single last bittersweet kiss then send him off with THE WOMAN THEY JUST RESCUED WHO IS ALL ALONE AND VERY CONFUSED AND HELPLESS? We could watch Helly go off to have a possibly final moment of existence in bittersweet celebration with Dylan G. But then the final moment wouldn't be all about MARK, so.

Devon, Dylan, Milchick, Irving, Cobel, even Rickon... this season gave them some interesting arcs and moments but in the end clearly didn't really care about them that much.

And like... I like Mark! Both of them! I think his/their story is interesting! It's just not the ONLY interesting thing, and focussing on him so much to the detriment of everyone else undermines the narrative and themes.

Also, almost an opposite complaint: I'm not saying we SHOULD hear more about Kier, the ultimate privileged white dude, but I do think I should WANT to know more to a larger extent than I do. Lumon is interesting! Helena and even Jame are interesting! But somehow despite being a weird culty American 19th century industrialist Kier feels oddly generic, and every time I learn more I go "Huh what a weirdo" but don't go "WTF IS UP WITH THAT GUY I MUST KNOW MORE". Actual real life weird culty American 19th century industrialists wikipedia pages have more intriguing narratives.

I have a bunch of other thoughts but eh, want to post this. I'm sleepy.

So, finally: My brain kept thinking of this during the final scene which didn't help with my engagement. I was tempted to just post this video without explanation to tumblr tagged "Severance Spoilers" but decided that would be mean to anyone who got this version stuck in their head during the finale lol.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[oracne]

MUPPETSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[alias_sqbr]

Hee

[skygiants]

I felt pretty much exactly the same way. Watching the last three minutes like 'oh ... oh no ....... okay. Well, narrative priorities confirmed, I guess.'

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah :(

[winterbird]

I honestly thought they'd do more with Ricken this season, but aside from 'you're a sell out' they just...forgot about him, and so did all the Innies, which is the weirdest part of all? To go from 'OMG YOU KNOW RICKEN???' to literally nothing as a follow up feels like a giant continuity error. (Maybe I'm forgetting something big, it just felt like he got blanked to me, but that could be my own mind lmao).

And yeah the show is vastly going in the direction of 'the white people matter most' though I did really appreciate Dylan's arc this season and the way he's set up to be a (hopefully) major player next season, facing off Milchick the way he was. But that also feels like something they uncoupled from Mark/Helly's/Gemma's storyline. Ngl I care about that a lot less than Dylan and Milchick. Milchick in particular I really want to learn about based off his arc this season. It felt like some of the other characters got sidelined to bring him into it a lot more, and I was a lot more emotionally invested in him this season.

I feel like the finale of the episode will be very meaningful to a particular audience and then for the rest of us it's like 'okay this part matters literally the least out of everything else that happened in this episode T.T'

Also bring back Gwendoline Christie so she can step on m- *coughs* Just because.

[alias_sqbr]

You know I hadn't thought about that but you're right, they WERE all excited about Ricken and then just.... nothing.