Apple TV+Severance Season 2 Episode 6 is a big chapter for Mark and Helena (for their Innies and their Outies), but it ends on a hair-tearing cliffhanger; let’s just say for now, reintegration has severe consequences.
Episode 5 dealt with the fallout of the ORTBO, perhaps the most significant event in Severance since the OTC. Helly – the real Helly – returned to work, demanding answers and struggling to regain Mark’s trust after Irving exposed her Outie’s deception.
It was a taxing week for everybody: the MDR team held a funeral for Irving, Helly felt isolated, Dylan discovered a major clue for the Exports Hall, and Mark’s Outie saw Gemma for the first time in years – only it was Ms Casey, and it wasn’t his memory.
In some ways, Season 2 Episode 6 is a reward for viewers – until it becomes a punishment, and you’ll be screaming at the TV when it ends.
Mark tells Reghabi about seeing Gemma
In the opening scene, Mark recounts his vision of Gemma (or more accurately, Ms Casey) at the end of Episode 5. “There was this grey hall, but then everything was so white… this didn’t feel human, this felt like a nightmare,” he says, before asking why she was “rattling off” facts about him.
“All I know is she’s essential,” Asal Reghabi says, and she thinks it’s positive progress. “The Gemma you know is still in there… when you get her out, it’ll be the two of you out here together,” she adds.
Mark’s experience makes him think about “bargaining”, one of the stages of grief. “You think about all the things you’d do and all the ways you’d change to get that person back… for me, it might actually happen,” he says.
Back at Lumon, we see Dylan explaining the sketch of the Exports Hall to Mark and Helly. They think they’re hiding Ms Casey underneath them, but Dylan doesn’t want to jeopardize his Outie Visitation Suite privileges, so Helly volunteers to go get the piece of paper with directions.
Mark opens the fridge, and his dual realities start flickering between each other; he even sees Helly in his own kitchen. Helly asks if he’s okay, and he shuts the door.
Milchick tightens the leash with Miss Huang
Apple TV+Milchick calls Miss Huang to his office. He’s always been a little sterner with her, but he’s especially passive-aggressive in this scene – probably because she’s the only person who would have complained about his misplaced paper clips and use of big words.
“I feel I should remind you, you cannot graduate from this fellowship until I have deemed you Wintertide material,” he tells her. “This will mean using your time well, focusing on your own duties, and eradicating from your essence childish folly.”
He asks her to steward the floor while he’s away – but she’s not allowed to sit at his desk.
Mark confesses to sleeping with Helena… to Helly
Apple TV+We cut to Helly and Mark in a toilet cubicle, where Mark confesses to “sharing vessels… we had sex.”
Helly thinks he’s talking about Ms Casey, but the penny drops quickly. “It was at the retreat in your tent,” he says. She struggles to process it, especially as he nervously explains himself; after all, he was duped. “It’s probably another tactic, something to drive a wedge between us,” she says.
“I thought it was you,” he says, and she replies: “But it wasn’t me.” She excuses herself to go for a walk, taking off her heels as she wanders along the hallways. She crouches down in a corner, teary-eyed and overwhelmed by what Mark told her (especially as she remembers their Season 1 kiss).
Dylan’s Innie kisses Gretchen
Apple TV+Dylan also spends some more time with Gretchen in the visitation suite, reminiscing (if you can call it that) about his Outie’s phases; scuba-diving, garage beermaking, woodworking, and more. “Maybe I’m trying to find something I excel in,” he suggests.
Gretchen worries that Dylan’s Outie is secretly unhappy, but he can’t understand why that’d be the case. “I wish we could be together all the time,” he tells her, but as Gretchen points out, they kind of are – but not really.
Dylan asks if they can try another hug. They move closer to each other… and they kiss! Is it cheating? It’s another gray area.
Milchick betters himself
Apple TV+Meanwhile, Milchick practices his paper clip skills, applying them to a near-endless stack of Lumon papers. By the time he gets to the bottom, his hands are shaking – but he’s confident enough in his abilities that he considers the matter resolved.
There’s just one complaint left (excluding the handling of the ORTBO): using too many big words. He stares at himself in the mirror, slowly finding the simplest way to say “eradicate from your essence childish folly”: “grow up.”
Mark and Helly do it (again, sort of)
Apple TV+Helly confronts Mark. She’s not angry that he thought it was her. “What sucks is that she got to have that and I didn’t. That she used me to trick my friends, that she used my body to get close to you, that she dresses me in the morning like I’m a baby,” she says.
In short, she resents Helena. Mark offers to describe what happened in the tent, but Helly makes it clear what she wants. “I don’t want her memory, I want my own,” she says.
There’s just one problem: not only are they at work, but there’s a chance they’re being watched at all times (or at the very least, someone is listening in). Helly knows a place: an empty, unfinished conference room with large plastic sheets covering the tables.
They assemble their own “tent” and climb underneath. “I’m nervous,” she admits, and he feels the same. But they overcome their anxiety, find a comfy position under the tables, and… you know.
Afterwards, they saunter back to their desks with cheeky smiles on their faces. “Was it different with me?” she asks, and Mark presses her against the wall and kisses her. It’s a romantic moment, bookended by Mark having a nosebleed – a symptom of reintegration sickness.
Miss Huang gets her first aid kit out, but she’s confused: the humidity on the severed floor never changes, so it’s unclear why Mark would have a nosebleed. She asks what they were doing, and Helly lies and says they were refining.
Miss Huang asks if he’s had any other symptoms, like hallucinations – he also lies.
Mark has a “crossover memory”
Apple TV+Suddenly, his mind starts flickering between his Innie and Outie’s life – and he’s back in his basement with Reghabi. “Were you just at Lumon?” she asks, but he doesn’t know. She asks him what he remembers, but no matter how hard he tries, it slips away.
“That was another crossover memory, a recent one. That’s good. You’ll feel gaps in time until it all comes back together,” she explains. Reghabi wants to speed up the process, and she thinks there’s a way to do it without causing a hemorrhage. “We’ll flood the chip itself through the hole in your head,” she says.
However, Mark doesn’t want to do it. The risk makes him nervous, and he’s too hungry to think about pushing further (another side effect of reintegration).
Burt reveals why he joined Lumon
Apple TV+Irving goes to Burt’s house to eat dinner with him and his husband, Fields. It all starts very jovial; Fields questions what Irving’s Innie ever saw in his “philistine” of a partner. Irving also apologizes for the OTC. “Nonsense, what’s mine’s yours,” he says, rather dryly.
They sit down, chatting about their lives and the world that surrounds Lumon; for example, Burt mentions a collective known as The Whole Mind, presumably the campaigners against severance.
Irving asks how Burt ended up at Lumon. He says he was guided there by Jesus. In his younger years, he’d been “what you might call a scoundrel.”
One day, Fields asked him if he thought he’d go to heaven when he dies. “I pretended to think about it, but I know the answer is no,” he says, and Fields joked: “What am I supposed to do there for eternity all by myself?”
Afterwards, they went to church and the pastor was talking about severance, and the church’s stance was that “Innies are complete individuals, with souls that can be judged separately from their Outie.”
In other words, an Innie could go to heaven, so part of Burt could still go beyond the pearly gates.
Back at Irving’s house, we see Mr Drummond unlocking his door, but it’s unclear what he’s looking for. He finds maps and details of other severed employees in a suitcase, including Burt.
We also cut to Gretchen and Dylan’s Outie. He’s talking about buying a new car, but she seems distracted. He asks how her meeting with his Innie went, and she lies and says Lumon canceled it.
Mark meets Helena
Apple TV+Here comes a big scene in Episode 6. As Mark sits alone at a Chinese restaurant, he catches sight of Helena across from him (he knows who she is; she’s the daughter of Lumon’s CEO, after all).
She smiles at him and walks over. “Mark Scout, I thought that was you… it’s nice to officially meet you,” she says, shaking his hand (rather reluctantly on his part).
Helena tells him she’s heard nothing but good things about his work. “I’ve heard nothing at all about my work,” he jokes, wryly.
She apologizes for the OTC (or as she puts it, the “systemic error”). “It never should have happened and it never will again. We take pride as a company to be better than that, and we will be better,” she insists.
This sparks a playfully intense back-and-forth about Mark meeting Helena’s father. “You want to take me home to dad already?” he asks. “Yeah, I think it’s finally time… you’d be the first,” she says, holding back a laugh.
She says she’d like to hear more about what happened during the OTC. “I know you’ve already been through so much with losing your wife and all… Hanna,” she says, and Mark corrects her: “Gemma.”
“It was a car accident, right?” she asks. “Such a shame.”
It’s an ominous end to their conversation. It’s clear that Helena is triggering a memory buried deep in his head, so he excuses himself and anxiously drives home.
Irving and Burt’s dinner turns sour
Apple TV+Back at Burt’s house, it’s revealed why Episode 6 is called ‘Attila’: it’s Fields’ pet name for Burt, coming after they called each other hon (Attila the Hun, get it).
Fields has a mysterious slip of the tongue: he says they had drinks with Burt’s “Lumon partner” 20 years ago, but the first severed office opened 12 years ago. Perhaps Burt is in deeper with Lumon than we thought.
Irving tries to move the conversation on, but Fields asks if he thinks their Innies had sex at work. “Are you done humiliating your guest?” Burt asks, but Fields doesn’t mean to make Irving uncomfortable. He’s been talking to his pastor, and he believes “Innies deserve to experience love… and I hope it was beautiful.”
Later, Burt walks Irving to the door, apologizing for Fields’ behavior. Irving isn’t bothered, and he says they should do it again sometime – with or without Fields. Irving says goodnight and leaves, and Burt’s expression changes as he walks away – he’s up to something.
Mark’s reintegration causes him to collapse
Apple TV+Mark returns home, apologizes to Reghabi, and pushes ahead with her plan. She opens the scar on his head and gently inserts her syringe, flooding Lumon’s chip and – in theory – speeding up his reintegration.
Suddenly, he suffers a brain-quake as his memories rush back to him – including his Innie sleeping with Helly. It causes an agonizing headache, and Reghabi tells him he can’t make any sudden movements.
Devon knocks on the door upstairs, and despite Reghabi’s warning, he lets her in. She’s keen to try something else after the retina-burning didn’t work, but Mark is too irritable to listen to her. Something is wrong with him; he complains about the smell and he can’t pick up his glass of water.
He collapses, knocking his head hard on the ground. Reghabi runs upstairs as he starts frothing at the mouth – and the episode ends!
Severance Season 2 Episodes 1-6 are streaming on Apple TV+ now. You can find out when the next episode drops with our guide to the release schedule, and you should check out our guides on Cold Harbor, the Glasgow Block, and the Lexington Letter.
If you want to refresh your memory, we have recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, and Episode 5, and if you need something to pass the time until next week, here’s five shows like Severance you should watch.
