The fallout from the ORTBO is epic in Severance Season 2 Episode 5, “Trojan’s Horse,” with repercussions reaching the top Eagen tier of Lumon. Milchick’s (Tramell Tillman) rise is undercut and Dylan G.’s (Zach Cherry) got some choice feedback for management. The severed floor’s façade of civil productivity is cracking badly under multiple factors.
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The title of this episode of Severance is a Ricken Hale (Michael Chernas) malapropped quote because … of course it is. His getting Devon (Jen Tullock) to marry and have a family with him is one of the hardest things for me to swallow about this series.
Severance’s “Trojan’s Horse”
At the beginning of this episode of Severance, a doctor in a white shirt pushes a metal rolling cart down a Lumon corridor, whistling Gordon Lightfoot’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” In a room full of cabinets, Felicia (Claudia Robinson) and Elizabeth (Rachel Addington) wait for him. He enters but his face is obscured by the shelving. He asks the women, “Do you have them?” Elizabeth opens a cabinet and retrieves a tray of dental tools.
The doctor returns down the corridor, whistling. Using his access card on a door, he pushes his cart down a narrow, black-walled and floored corridor towards an elevator with a red down arrow. His face is never seen clearly.
Back to Reality
In his kitchen, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) counts out his pills. His phone rings and it’s Devon asking about his weekend work event. He tells her his Innie reportedly fell off a rope and got wet. She asks if his plan to send a message to his Innie has worked. He doesn’t tell her that he’s attempting reintegration with Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge).
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Asal arrives and Mark says goodbye to Devon. When Asal reminds him to get his dryer fixed, he points out she could live somewhere else. She hints that there may be people watching his house so she can’t be going in and out all the time. He expresses impatience over their progress. She’s not too bothered and says they can continue that evening if she feels like it.
At the Lumon offices, Helena Eagan (Britt Lower) enters a conference room to meet Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander) and Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson). She assures them she’s fine, having recovered from her experience on the weekend.
Mysterious and Important
They report that Mark S. is close to completing Cold Harbor. Helena just has to continue sending her Innie to the severed floor to work until he’s done. She refuses and says she’ll go back and pretend to be her Innie. The others tell her they can’t risk that. Helena’s father has encouraged their plan.
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As Mark parks his car in the Lumon lot, Natalie and Drummond remind Helena that Mark S. won’t work without Helly R. there and his work is “mysterious and important” to the future of Lumon. Helena returns to the severed elevator, looking like Helly R. again. With a deep sigh, she puts on her lanyard and prepares to descend. She shifts into her Helly R. consciousness and the doors open on the severed floor, revealing Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) waiting for her.
Together Again
Miss Huang greets Helly R., introduces herself, and asks her to follow her to Mr. Milchick’s (Tramell Tillman) office. Helly R. is hesitant and suspicious. Outside Milchick’s office, they find Mark S. and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry). Mark S. asks Miss Huang if Helly R. is really her Innie again. Miss Huang confirms this. Milchick comes out of his office and greets them as a collective, “MDR, together again.”
He invites them in. Helly R. immediately demands to know what’s going on. Dylan G. wants to know where Irving B. (John Turturro) is. Mark S. asks if Helena Eagen was spying on them. Helly R. is horrified that her Outie infiltrated MDR using her body. Dylan G. loudly repeats his question and Mark S. echoes him.
Milchick stops them by reporting that Irving B. was permanently dismissed for nearly drowning Helena/Helly R. Dylan G. concludes that Irving B. is dead. Milchick reassures him that Irving B.’s Outie is on an elongated cruise voyage. He then tells them about the Gråkappan the old, gray robe a legendary Swedish king wore so he could go amongst his people incognito. Kier Eagan used to do this in his ether factories. Milchick states that Helena Eagan was just carrying on this tradition.
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Mark S. and Dylan G. don’t buy it and ask about Irving B. again. Milchick confirms that Irving B. will not be returning to MDR. He brings the meeting to an end, stating that it’ll take time for them to process everything that’s happened. Getting up from his desk, he escorts them back to their workstations where they discover that Irving B.’s cubicle has been removed. Their quad-station is now a tri-station.
Words Have Consequences
Dylan G. initially refuses to work at the tri-station. Eventually, he sits down and realizes that Irving B. has even been removed from their team photograph. When he calls Milchick on Helena’s spying on them, Milchick warns him that poor behavior may cost him privileges, implying he’ll lose access to the Family Visitation Center the others don’t know about. Mark S. watches their interaction closely.
As Milchick moves on to his orientation speech, Dylan G. interrupts again, demanding a funeral for Irving B. Helly R. supports this. Mark S. is quiet until Dylan G. calls on him for help and then he assents, qualifying that the funeral should be quick. Dylan G. is offended by the condition. Milchick agrees to put together a quick funeral event and leaves.
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Mark S. begins to cough and retreats to the restroom leaving Dylan G. and Helly R. confused. In the corridor, Milchick radios Miss Huang to come help him prepare a bereavement kit for MDR. In the restroom, Mark S. stands at the sink. Helly R. knocks on the door and calls his name, warning him that she’s about to come in. He wets a paper towel in the sink. She asks if he’s okay and he admits he isn’t.
Trying To Forget
Helly R. asks him if he really couldn’t tell her Outie was pretending to be her. He tells her he doesn’t really know her or her Outie well enough to know which is which. She is shocked and upset that he seems to be blaming her for being hijacked. He concedes the situation sucks and tells her they should just move on. She wants to share about her experience during the OTA but he blows it off and leaves.
As Miss Huang assists Milchick with preparing the bereavement kit, she opines that he shouldn’t let them have a funeral because it makes them feel like people. He doesn’t appreciate her two cents. She reminds him that today is his first performance review. He leaves to ready the refreshments.
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In the break room, Milchick emcees a celebration of Irving B.’s time with Lumon while Miss Huang stands nearby with her theremin. They have nine seconds of silence to remember him. Dylan G. delivers a eulogy. The refreshments consist of a watermelon carving of Irving B.’s head and a variety of melon balls. Milchick leaves, taking Miss Huang with him just as she begins to play the theremin. She’s upset that she didn’t get to perform. He assures her that she can play her piece for him later. She doesn’t look comforted by this.
Just Not Here
Back in the break room, Mark S. finishes his watermelon and prepares to go back to work. The others are stunned by his attitude. He points out that Irving B. isn’t dead. He’s just not there with them. Dylan G. takes the opportunity to reveal Mark S.’s connection to Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) through his Outie. Helly R. is shocked. Mark S. admits it’s true and leaves. She chases after him, leaving Dylan G. alone in the break room.
In the corridor, Helly R. wants to know what Mark S.’s plan is but he insists he isn’t planning to do anything about Ms. Casey. Helly R. can’t believe this. She reminds him they’re a team. He lashes out that they aren’t a team anymore and it doesn’t matter because the Outies and Lumon know everything since Helena spied as Helly R. and informed them of all their plans. Helly R. protests that she wasn’t the one who did all that.
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She insists that she’s not Helena but when Mark asks how he’s supposed to know that, she realizes he can’t. He can only trust that she’s Helly R. She tells him their relationship is real.
Performance Review
Natalie meets with Milchick to escort him to his performance review. Before they head to the reivew, he asks her how she felt when she received her set of Kier cycle paintings. Instead of answering, she reminds him that Mr. Drummond is waiting.
Alone in the break room, Dylan G. stares at the Irving B. watermelon head. He apologizes for letting him down and gets up to leave. Glancing at the motivational posters on the wall, he notices one that reads, “Hang in there!” the last words Irving B. said to him. Reaching behind the poster, he finds a slip of paper with a picture of the dark hallway Irving B.’s Outie is obsessed with. On the back of the drawing, there are directions from O&D for the Exports Hall. Dylan G. hides the paper behind the poster again.
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In the conference room, Mr. Drummond begins Milchick’s Monthly Performance Review. He informs Milchick there have been three contentions filed anonymously against him that have been confirmed. There are that he uses too many big words, puts paperclips on the wrong way, and that his actions as department chief have been ineffectual and detrimental to Lumon’s goals.
Cold Harbor
As Mark S. sits alone at the tri-station and opens the Cold Harbor file, Drummond advises Milchick to go back to basics and treat the severed workers as no more than what they are. Mark S. continues to inch towards completing Cold Harbor. As the completion bar reaches 85%, Mark S. suddenly flinches and holds his temples. The world around him glitches. Noticing that it is almost five o’clock, he gets up to leave. Back in the conference room, Milchick asserts that he is tightening the leash. Drummond smiles.
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As the elevator doors are about to close, Milchick’s hand stops them. He points out to Mark S. that he left work six minutes early. He steps in to have a close conversation with Mark S. When Mark S. accuses him of lying about everything, Milchick asks if Mark S. told Helly R. about having sex with her Outie. After a tense pause, he leaves the elevator, unlocking it, and wishing Mark S. a restful evening. Outside, Mark Scout coughs a couple of times but leaves Lumon looking relatively unworried by life.
The Rewrite
At their home, Devon reads over the new version of Ricken’s book, written specifically for Innies. She reads his statement that workers shouldn’t concern themselves with time: the boss will provide a clock and they should be grateful and enjoy its ticking. Putting the page down, Devon tells Ricken the message is exactly the opposite of what he wrote before.
He insists that writing this edition is like the “Trojan’s Horse” and it will spread his ideas to workers everywhere. She retorts that the ideas are Lumon’s and letting them dictate his book’s message for their propaganda hurts the people that Lumon victimizes. Ricken reminds her of the money he can make by doing what Lumon wants. Disgusted, Devon goes to bed.
In his apartment, Irving Bailiff examines his many paintings of the Exports Hall. Suddenly, he takes them all off the wall and stacks them in a pile. He walks to a phone booth and calls someone to tell them he’d been fired, saying Lumon knew what his Innie was up to. Noticing a car parked nearby with someone sitting in the driver’s seat, he cuts the call short.
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He walks to the car to confront the driver. It’s Burt (Christopher Walken). Burt wants to know why Irving was at his house but Irving honestly doesn’t know why. Piecing together what he knows about why he was fired, Burt hypothesizes they were involved while working at Lumon. He says that his husband Fields certainly believes it. Irving apologizes for any disruption to his life. Burt invites him over for dinner. Irving accepts.
Reintegration
In Mark’s basement, Asal digs through boxes of Gemma’s things. She says they’ll wait one more day to continue Mark’s reintegration. As he heads up the stairs, he hears Ms. Casey’s voice briefly. Suddenly, the world glitches and he’s in a dark Lumon corridor that leads to the bright white ones. The whole time, he hears Ms. Casey describing his Outie. Turning around, he’s face to face with Ms. Casey who continues to speak but the world switches back to his house, leaving him teary and stunned.
Severance streams on Apple TV+. New episodes drop every Friday until March 21.
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