(Warning: Spoilers ahead)
Planning a heist is never easy, but Danny Ocean should count himself lucky that he never had to coordinate with his innie. Mark’s (Adam Scott) outie quickly realizes he cannot railroad his other half into agreeing to rescue Gemma (Dichen Lachman) without first making some assurances.
Throughout Severance, the question of whether innies are human repeatedly arises, culminating in the twisty events when Mark returns to work. This week’s supersized 75-minute episode addresses Cold Harbor but leaves several pertinent points in the air (after all, this is a season, not a series finale). However, it is an exhilarating conclusion to the season that pits Mark’s innie against his outie in matters of the heart.
All Mark Scout had to do was get Helly’s (Britt Lower) name right, and things might have shaped up differently.
At the cottage, Mark’s innie raises a significant issue that has been overlooked by his outie, Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), and Devon (Jen Tullock): If Lumon ceases to exist, where do all the innies go? It is a valid inquiry about their existence, and Mark’s innie is left with a camcorder and an open door so he can hash it out with his outie over video.
Mark’s outie apologizes for creating his innie’s prison and wants to put it right. But Mark S. doesn’t see it in these extremes because innies “find ways to make it work, to feel whole.” Scott has been excellent at portraying both sides of Mark, and the subtle and overt differences between the Marks are magnified during this existential debate. The goal is to get his innie to agree to rescue Gemma from testing and guide her out of Lumon because Mark’s chip is only attuned to the severed floor.
Outie Mark fails to sell his innie on reintegration as a means for them both to survive. He can smell the BS, in part, because of how much his outie minimizes his right to existence. Calling Helena’s innie “Heleny” is the tip of the iceberg, but this clumsy error illustrates that Mark doesn’t value his innie’s autonomy.
To help Mark S. get on board, Cobel talks to the innie alone, telling him, “The numbers are your wife.” More specifically, they are a doorway into Gemma’s mind. Every completed file is a new consciousness for Gemma (“a new innie”), with Cold Harbor as the twenty-fifth and final. Cobel emphasizes there is no honeymoon ending for Helly and him.
The following day, Mark sees a new painting, “The Exalted Victory of Cold Harbor,” hanging by the severed floor elevator. Maybe Lumon shouldn’t celebrate a victory before it happens, but that is just me. Helly and Mark reunite, and Dylan (Zach Cherry) is back.
But unlike Mark, Dylan’s outie gives him a choice about whether he wants to remain at Lumon. Mark and Helena have demonstrated that they don’t see their innie as a person with thoughts, feelings, and agency. They’re a means to an end, whether to store grief or win a father’s love. While the Lumon job benefits Dylan’s outie, he is willing to reenter the job market so his innie isn’t miserable.
Innie Mark is hesitant to complete Cold Harbor because he wants a life with Helly, and despite how invested I am in Mark and Gemma’s story, Scott and Lower sell the hell out of this romance between Helly and Mark. If I weren’t already leaning toward the innies, the single tear slowly rolling down Mark’s cheek as he approaches the file completion would swing it.
For her final test, Gemma has to put on the clothes she wore the day she “died.” The contrast between the marching band led by Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) when Cold Harbor hits 100 percent, and Gemma’s task to dismantle a crib with zero knowledge of her identity is jarring. But Helly uses the exuberant celebration to distract Milchick so Mark can follow Irving’s instructions to the elevator. Helly traps Milchick in the bathroom, and when it looks like he is about to break free, Dylan arrives in time to block the door with the vending machine.
Mark’s Lumon corridor odyssey hits a stumbling block at the elevator door in the shape of Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), who is about to sacrifice another one of Lorne’s (Gwendoline Christie) goats in the name of Kier. Earlier this season, Mark made a plea to the Mammilians Nurturable department, and this connection proves vital when Lorne helps subdue Drummond. The bolt gun allows Mark to force Drummond to take him down to the testing floor; unfortunately, when Mark’s outie awakens, his finger hits the trigger, and Drummond bleeds out all over him.
I say, unfortunately, as this blood is Mark’s key to getting into Cold Harbor. Before Mark ruins Jame Eagan’s project, the test has been going perfectly, as Gemma feels nothing from all her trauma triggers. Is Lumon creating a treatment to quash mental anguish? Gemma doesn’t recognize Mark, and despite Dr. Mauer’s (Robby Benson) objections, Gemma leaves the room with this stranger. As soon as she steps out, Gemma recognizes her husband, and it is a beautiful, teary reunion that makes me briefly forget Mark’s severed romance.
In the elevator, Gemma and Mark’s innie chips are activated, so Ms. Casey is kissing Mark S. It is awkward, not to mention that Mark is drenched in Drummond’s blood. The absurdity is a brief break in tension before Mark heads toward the exit with Gemma as his outie instructed.
Meanwhile, Helly appeals to the marching band from the Choreography and Merriment department, who continue to perform, to aid Mark on his rescue mission. It is a rousing speech as she warns them they could be next on the Lumon discard pile. “They give us half a life and think we won’t fight for it,” Helly says. Give Lower the Emmy now, please.
As red lights flash and an alarm alerts everyone to Gemma’s escape, Mark gets to the exit without further challenges (Dylan and the marching band hold off Milchick). Well, the last obstacle is Mark’s innie. Gemma is now safe on the other side of the door and back as herself, but innie Mark hesitates when he sees Helly.
TV cliffhangers have long centered on the resolution of a love triangle—or leave the audience waiting to see who a character chooses—and regardless of all the mystery box details, Severance is a show about love. He might not get his honeymoon ending, but Mark’s innie isn’t going to give up his dream.
With Gemma left screaming for him to come with her, Mark takes Helly’s hand and flees in the opposite direction. Mark began the season sprinting alone through the corridors of Lumon. Now he has a partner. For how long, who knows, and even if their expressions pull a Graduate (going from smiles to uncertainty), at least Mark and Helly aren’t settling for half a life—not when they have each other to make them whole.
