Severance fans had an Irving-style list of questions heading into the season 2 finale. What was Lumon's plan with Cold Harbour? How would Innie Mark and Outie Mark's reintegration play out? What about poor Gemma? And what exactly is the significance of Gwendoline Christie's herd of impossibly cute goats?
Creator Dan Erickson and producer Ben Stiller may not have answered all of our questions. But hey, that's what season 3 is (hopefully) for. In the meantime, viewers are still reeling from that drama-packed finale, which – spoilers! – saw Innie Mark (Adam Scott) forced to make a choice between his Outie's wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman), and his own love, Helly R (Britt Lower). Fans were left divided when Innie Mark helped Gemma escape from Lumon, but chose to stay with Helly R, leaving Gemma bereft as Mark S and Helly R run back to Lumon's severed floor together.
We're not the only ones reeling. Britt Lower and Dichen Lachman joined Glamour UK to discuss those heart-wrenching final scenes, the enduring appeal of the show, and what their hopes for season 3.
GLAMOUR: By now, Severance fans around the world have seen the season 2 finale. What's the reaction been like?
Britt: Intense. It stirs up a lot of emotion, which I think was Ben [Stiller] and Dan [Erickson]'s goal. But it's heartbreaking. I remember reading it and just… you know, we watched Outie Mark and search for Gemma for two seasons and simultaneously Innie Mark is falling for Helly, and forming this chosen family with Irving and Dylan. So, these two concurrent relationships coming to a head was something that was inevitable, but as with every great tragedy, you hope against the inevitable.
Dichen: It's exciting to see how engaged the viewers are and how much they want to know what happens next. That's how you want the show to end; with that desire for them to want more.
GL: What can we expect from season 3? What do you hope to see for your characters?
Britt: I just want more scuba diving. Pineapple-bobbing. All underwater activities.
Dichen: How incredible was the stop motion?
Britt: Yes, more stop-motion animation.
Dichen: I mean, wow. Those guys deserve so much credit. I actually don't know anything about it, but I do want to just acknowledge the amount of work that goes into stop motion is phenomenal. There's a guy on Instagram who posted behind-the-scenes of making all the little figurines. Like, Coraline is one of my and my daughter's favourite movies, and the workmanship and time that goes into that is extraordinary.
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Britt: Oh, and Keanu Reeves [who made a surprise, uncredited cameo in episode 1 as the voice of the Lumon building in the stop-motion ‘Lumon is Listening’ video].
Dichen: Did you know about that?! I had no idea.
Britt: I was so excited. “Just be excellent to each other!”
Dichen: So, all of season 3 in stop motion, just listening to Keanu's beautiful, soothing voice.
GL: Severance is currently Apple TV's most-watched show. For such a mind-bending and surreal show, what do you think makes it so universally appealing?
Dichen: I feel like people relate to the show because not everybody has the opportunity to do what they love. Everyone in this room is pursuing something creative and dynamic and fun, but there are, sadly, a lot of jobs in this world where it's a grind, and it's not inspiring or creative, it's very corporate, there's not a lot of flexibility. So on that level, I think people relate to the office culture. I think on another level, they're relating to the need to escape, to having an alter ego or a different part of themselves they want to explore. I think it's a very natural human desire to want to escape.
Britt: I think there are so many analogies. I feel like the greatest compliment is just hearing the way the fans are applying the questions of the show to their own life and asking themselves: ‘Well, what would I do? Would I behave in this way? Would I want to suffer? Do I have parts of my life that I have an Innie and an Outie for?’
Dichen: Some people are just 100% themselves in any situation, and I really admire and respect those people. But I think we do show different sides of us, and in a way, we probably do have Innies and Outies at work and in different situations.
GL: I think that's so interesting because one of the first things that really struck me about Severance was the idea that you could erase or ‘park’ your trauma or grief. So, would you sever if you could?
Britt: I don't think so. I saw that needle, that's too long.
Dichen: Yeah, I'm very needle-phobic.
GL: Have you seen any fan theories that blew your mind?
Britt: There's a great one about Richen being a goat.
Dichen: That's my favourite one too! It's so unoriginal, but it's so out there. And I love that they invested the time try and justify how they came up with the theory.
GL: Dichen, what was it like filming that hallway scene?
Dichen: It was very intense. And it was very technical at the beginning of the day which I found challenging, because you're trying so hard to get the shot right, but you're also trying to experience all of the emotions, and doing those zollies [a cinematic technique combining a zoom and a ‘dolly’, where the camera is on a set of wheels] were probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
Britt: Yeah, underwater.
Dichen: Underwater, and the ‘hanging’ in season one. To do that with all the emotion and to do it on the move, making sure I'm not getting shorter in the frame, was really tricky. And the emotional stuff wasn't easy, that's the wrong word, but that stuff comes a little more naturally. When you're shouting so loud for hours and hours, when your body is in that much stress, it tricks your mind…
Britt: And you were going for it so beautifully. They had to put pads on the door because Dichen's hands were… Adam [Scott] and I were worried about your hands. Yeah, you were just fully present. It was heartbreaking to watch. In that last moment, for me as Britt, I just couldn't take my eyes off you. It was just like, ‘Oh wow’. And then I'm being pulled away.
GL: The show also powerfully tackled fertility and miscarriage with Gemma's storyline. Why do you think that was so crucial to the plot?
Dichen: It was nice to be able to explore that when it's not often explored. I've seen it a little, but it's not really a topic people talk about very much. I think it was important to the story to really establish the relationship between Gemma and Mark. Anyone who's ever been in a relationship knows – and even Mark describes it to Innie Mark – about the ups and downs and the intense love. I think that in order to have intense love, you have to go through ups and downs together, and that forges your relationship. When you have the contrast of the beautiful, happy and just everyday moments with immense grief, it solidifies that relationship like nothing else. So in order to really buy that relationship, for the audience to be invested, I think they had to go through that.
Because there's no perfect relationship. You look at people sometimes and you're like, ‘I wish I had that relationship, they're always happy, they seem like the perfect, ideal couple’. But that's just your perception of it.
Britt: Right, the depth is what creates the light.
Dichen: The depth and the pain creates the growth, and you grow together.
GL: Who's your go-to support on set?
Britt: We just have such an amazing crew. The hair and makeup trailer in the morning – and the cast is just so supportive. It's so cliché, but it really does feel like a family.
Dichen: I said this in LA, and I was like, ‘Maybe they don’t know what I'm saying', but there's no bad eggs. Everyone's a good egg.
Britt: If you like eggs.
Dichen: They're very expensive in America right now apparently. But I didn't get to work with you very much at all this year, and it was still limited even in season one.
Britt: They cut our scene when we were supposed to hug in season one, Miss Casey and Helly R, and to this day, I'm sad that I didn't get to hug you. Helly R needs more women in her life!
Dichen: That was a sweet little relationship. Poor Miss Casey was so worried for you.
Britt: Speaking of Miss Casey, what happened to her?!
Dichen: She's still there, right? Somewhere.
Britt: She's still there. Just like Helena is still there, and Outie Mark is still there.
Dichen: Yes, there's a lot of relationships going on.
Britt: Our love tetrahedron, right?
Dichen: I actually can't remember what a tetrahedron is.
Britt: A tetrahedron has six edges, four faces. But then also maybe it's a hexagonal prism, right? That's two hexagons in a 3D shape, because each of us have two sides. But you have actually 25, right? So it throws my shapes all out of order.
Dichen: She's very good with geometry.
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