What Mark’s Reintegration Could Mean For The Show

This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of “Severance.”

“Severance” is one of the best TV shows of the past decade. It’s a brilliant satire about modern corporate life wrapped up in a compelling mystery. Though there have been many, many, many genre series that have tried to replicate the success of “Lost” by building mystery boxes with large casts of characters, exceedingly few have succeeded at it.

What makes “Severance” stand out is that, much like “Lost,” the answers to its mysteries are only compelling because we care about its characters. Hence, because the characters have a vested interest in these mysteries, we as viewers also want to solve them. Take Irving’s outie (John Turturro); the reason we want to know the truth about the bizarre visions of a dark door plaguing him is because we’re already invested in his innie’s romance with Burt G. (Christopher Walken) from Optics and Design (which is itself what led Irving’s innie to question the nature of his reality and his loyalty toward Lumon for the first time).

Indeed, there is a fascinating concept at the center of “Severance” wherein each character’s mind is essentially split into two. Not only does this give the cast (well, mostly Adam Scott as Mark S. and his outie) the chance to act as two very different versions of the same character, but it also allows for two simultaneous storylines — like in “Lost” — that deepen what we know about the characters and the world around them, all the while slowly connecting the mysteries on both sides. 

More importantly, from the very beginning of the show, there’s been a threat hanging over the audience’s head. After all, because someone’s innie is only truly “alive” when they’re inside the Severed floor at Lumon’s base of operations, any of the ones we’ve come to care about can basically die at any moment simply because their outie has decided to stop working for Lumon. We saw this with Burt in Season 1, and how heartbreaking it was for Irving to more or less watch his crush walk to his death via retirement.

Now, “Severance” has done it again, only this time we could be saying goodbye to a main character, and I’m nervous about what it’ll mean for the rest of the show.

In “Severance” Season 2, Episode 3 (titled “Who Is Alive?”), we follow Mark S. (the innie) as he tries to uncover the whereabouts and status of Ms. Casey, who seems to be his outie’s thought-to-be-dead wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman), by going back to the bizarro goat room. Meanwhile, Mark (the outie) desperately tries to figure out if his innie actually meant that his wife Gemma is still alive. By the end of the episode, after attempting to burn his retinas to pass along a message to his innie, Mark agrees to the unthinkable — he gets the reintegration procedure done (which is portrayed via a visually stunning sequence where a split screen shows both halves of Mark being stitched back together).

We saw the effects of reintegration in the very first episode of “Severance,” with Mark meeting a reintegrated Petey (Yul Vazquez) in the outside world. Though the procedure didn’t work very long for Petey (he died a horrible and painful death), we know it worked long enough for Petey to go back to work seemingly undetected and map out the entire Severed floor for two whole weeks.

This effectively, for all intents and purposes, means the end of Mark S. and Mark as we know them. Sure, it’s possible the procedure either won’t work, won’t take for more than a day, or could even be reversed. Still, at least at this moment, it feels like a main character has died (although, technically, two of them have). After all, even if Mark keeps Mark S.’s memories, the two have distinctly different personalities. A big part of the first season of “Severance” was showing us how miserable and lonely Mark was in the outside world, compared to Mark S.’s more upbeat behavior and genuine friendships with his co-workers. Lest we forget, Ricken (Michael Chernus) is also losing his biggest fan in Mark S., too.

The reintegration of both Marks means we are losing something in the separation of storylines, as well as the fun of seeing Adam Scott in dual roles. It also completely changes the show’s relationships and dynamics. Will this new Mark continue to be close to Helly R. (Britt Lower) when he is also concerned with uncovering the truth about his may-not-be-dead wife? By combining both Marks, “Severance” is definitely kicking things up a notch and putting the main plot and mystery front and center. At the same time, it also risks losing a bit of the character focus that has made the series so special up until this point.

It’s easy to be a pessimist about this development, given that the dynamic of the Macrodata Refinement employees is fantastic and one of the best parts of “Severance.” And yet, it also brings to mind how “The Good Place” similarly blasted through what could have been season-long arcs in a couple of episodes, yet nevertheless managed to sustain its momentum and drastically change its story every single season while remaining fun.

A Mark with the memories of both his innie and outie will definitely do a lot to advance the mysteries of Lumon. Mark will likely recognize Helly R. once and for all, and his knowledge of the outside world may give us some answers. And yet, a Mark with all his memories going back to the office will also surely lead to some hilariously chaotic and entertaining shenanigans, seeing as Mark still has to pretend to only be Mark S. while on the Severed floor. Maybe he can fool Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), but Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving? No way. Also, what if Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) notices that something is amiss about Mark?

Mark S., as we know him, may be gone, and he will be sorely missed. Still, at this point, “Severance” has earned my trust in knowing where to take its story and characters.

New episodes of “Severance” premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.