The podcast dives into the much-anticipated return of the critically-acclaimed series Severance, focusing on the first episode of its second season. The discussion begins with the hosts, Aubree and Jeff, reflecting on the significant gap since the last season concluded, with some viewers experiencing a sense of nostalgia as they re-listen to previous episodes. The episode, titled "Hello, Ms. Cobell," reintroduces audiences to a changed corporate landscape where Mark finds himself navigating a new reality at Lumon Industries. The Wellness Center, once a familiar space, is now mysteriously shut down, and Mark's colleagues have been replaced by new employees, raising questions about the fate of his old team. The hosts delve into Mark's emotional turmoil as he grapples with the secrets of the outie world and the unsettling atmosphere of his workplace, which has undergone significant transformations during his absence. They also touch on the intriguing presence of a mysterious figure in the background, suggesting deeper layers of intrigue and conspiracy at play within the Lumon corporation.

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Foreign.

Today we're going to go into episode one of season two of Severance.

Season two.

Episode one is called hello, Ms.

Cobell.

Mark returns to work.

Under different circumstances, secrets from the Audi world come to light.

In some ways it's only been a couple of days, you know, since we last recorded, since we finished season one.

In other ways it's been three years.

It's been a long time.

It's been a.

Yeah, been a long time.

And a long time coming, as I say.

And I'm really pumped to start getting into season two now.

Me too.

Like, you heard how excited I was last time.

Yeah, I did.

And I saw it on your face.

I know you were super pumped about it.

And the time is here, the time is now.

So we watched it a couple days ago.

I think you've seen it about 17 times by now.

Maybe not 17 times, but maybe close.

Okay, so we are excited to be doing that.

As I've said six times now.

I don't know why I keep saying that.

But we're also excited.

For anyone who's out there listening, one of those listeners has already called into the pod line.

This is a former co host of mine from Generally Trivial Jordan and we're gonna go ahead and play a clip that he left for us right here.

I just want to say that I have really enjoyed listening to the last two episodes because Severance has been one of my favorite Apple series shows that I watch and Jeff happened to give me a hook on it, but I haven't watched it a long time.

So re listening to their take on.

On each episode just like brings back the visual memories of each episode.

So I've really enjoyed listening to y'all because it's taking me back to watching it for the first time and so I appreciate it.

And I'm gonna watch the second one and keep listening to your future series.

Bye.

And remember, if you guys want to be heard just like that, go ahead and call into the Podline 415 Pod line and we will see about getting you on the show.

It's the best.

Unless you say something out of left field, then maybe not.

But generally we're gonna, we're probably gonna get it on there, so feel free to call and we're gonna go ahead into episode one of season two.

The title of this episode is called hello, Ms.

Cobell.

Mark returns to work under different circumstances.

Secrets from the Audi.

World come to light.

We start it here with a little bit of dialogue from season one, episode nine, right before that finale ended.

And we cut pretty much immediately to Mark in that elevator going down to the severed floor.

I kind of was hoping.

And you were.

I know you were hoping we were going to be able to see the outside world first, but no, they're going to make us sit and wait a little bit longer.

But we get Mark waking up in the elevator.

You know, we get that familiar focal length change, and Mark's immediately running down the halls.

Gotta find Ms.

Casey.

He knows a lot more than he knew.

You know, this to start last episode, so.

Or last season.

Excuse me.

He seemed a little confused running down the hallway.

Like, he would stop at one place and look around and turn around and then continue running.

So I wasn't really sure where he was running to to begin with, but he ends up at the Wellness center, so.

Yeah.

I don't know if they changed some walls.

I kind of think it's.

It's made to be modular where they can change things around, but either way, he got there only to find the Wellness center not just closed down, but, like, walled off.

Like they reinstalled walls where there were doors.

Mm.

And the painting that Irving was looking at was gone with.

It looked like a duster outline of where the painting used to be.

Yeah.

So they didn't even bother cleaning that up.

As he's standing there in the.

In the background, we do see another gentleman in a suit.

Suit and a white shirt and kind of creep into the corner, look at Mark for a second, and then walk.

Walk right away.

Yeah, he's gone.

Super weird.

I think Mark sent someone behind him because he kind of started to turn, but the person was already gone.

Yeah.

So we'd love to hear your guys's theories on who that is, why that person's there.

I re.

I don't know.

I.

I don't have anything concrete enough to even say.

I've heard.

I've seen some theories online.

Like it's because Mark is being reintegrated, and so he's visualizing people who aren't there.

Kind of like Petey was doing.

I don't know.

That didn't feel that way to me, but possibly.

I kind of thought it might have been Petey.

We see Mark's wife come back as someone else, then maybe Petey's there as a different person.

But you didn't think that was accurate?

Well, I just thought since they.

They.

She took the chip and they stole that it would have been a little bit of a different caper to steal the body, maybe.

You know, I guess it's possible.

After that, he does make his way to mdr, back to his old stomping grounds, and finds that the entire team is replaced.

So we meet Mark w.

Gwendolyn Y.

And I don't think they give the last person a name.

He's just an Italian dude.

Yeah.

And then you have Milchick enter pretty shortly after with a bundle of blue balloons with Mark's face on it.

That's.

What a weird thing to be getting.

Although in.

In the grand scheme of things, not the weirdest thing that Mark could be getting.

I guess that's true.

But still weird.

But he does say welcome back.

Been a minute.

Like, you know, we're still not sure how much time has passed in between here, but we do get Mr.

Milchick leading Mark back to his office, which is the former Ms.

Cobell's office.

He tells Mark that he is now in charge and that the time that Mark has been gone, not as in any.

Any longer, is five months.

What you were saying, you didn't really agree with, but maybe that was someone else's theory.

I don't remember.

Well, to me, I at least don't believe it.

Mm.

In that I don't believe Lumen.

It could have been five months.

I'm not saying it's definitely not, but I'm.

I'm just saying I don't want to definitely trust it.

Yeah.

They don't have a good track record at telling the truth about things.

Sometimes they do not.

We pass Milchick's old desk, and we get to meet a new person.

Ms.

Wong.

She is a child, but she is the new deputy manager.

We go into Ms.

Cobell's old office, and we see a bunch of boxes everywhere.

Milchick is moving into this office.

He tells Mark about the severance reform and how they are famous now because of what they did five months ago.

He gives them a newspaper that.

It has a bunch of redactions on it.

But you noticed something about that newspaper.

Yeah.

That is the same picture of them that they took at the beginning of last season and is just photoshopped onto this supposed newspaper.

And it is actually a historical photo just with them in place of.

I think it was a president.

I don't.

I don't remember.

I looked it up, but.

And even some of the text on the side, if you slow it down or get a screen grab, it's, you know, a bunch of just really weird Stuff.

So it's.

It's absolutely fake.

Yeah.

So again, why am I supposed to believe it's only five months?

Or is five months and not less?

I don't know.

Especially if Ms.

Cobell was let go this supposed five months ago.

Why is he just now unpacking the office?

Exactly.

Milchick explains that his old team members, they weren't fired.

Their Audis just refused to come back.

Mark's Audi begged him to come back.

Which we know why.

Yeah.

It was to find Ms.

Casey.

We go back to MDR with our new refiners, and Mark learns about Lumen having some different branches, and we learn about that too.

We get this classic line from Mark W.

Who says, how much do we get to see that Mr.

Milk Shake instead of Milchick?

And Mark has to correct him.

And it's.

It's hilarious.

But then Ms.

Wong comes in and takes them to play the orange ball game that Mr.

Milchick had them play the first season.

Yeah.

I love the question that they have for her right when they get there, like, why are you so young?

Why are you a child?

Yeah.

It's because of when I was born.

Yeah.

That's all.

Which is kind of an adult way to address that question.

Mm.

The ball gets passed to Mark W.

Who said his old branch got shut down and he was a little surprised because he thought it would be retiring for good.

And he passes the ball to Marquess, who tries to play along like he normally would do.

We get a classic Adam's got giggle.

And he says that he met four new friends today.

But Ms.

Wong corrects him and says, I have to remind you that I'm a supervisor, so I'm not your friend.

Yeah.

And he has a real long pause.

Three new friends today.

Yes.

We don't get to see the other innies play the game.

I thought that was a little bizarre.

We see that they'll be gone soon, so it doesn't really matter.

And then we cut back to Mark turning off the lights and going home for the evening.

I love these seamless transitions we get with any.

Mark technically going home, but coming right back in his point of view.

And we find out a couple new things.

We find out when he comes back the next day that there are other perpetuity wings in these other branches of Lumen.

One of them has animatronic Egans, which I thought was weird.

And another one has.

Was a poor branch and has brooms everywhere.

Yeah, I kind of want to see that one.

Honestly, as the other Ennis are talking about these perpetuity wings.

He starts writing on a post it note secretly.

We don't really get to see what's on it.

And hours pass by and we see him folding up the note.

When it's time for him to go, he takes it, he puts it in Mark W's jacket before he leaves.

Yeah.

The next day, Milchek holds up the note looking for Mark as he enters, which we, we thought was a little weird, he was entering last, but they don't, you know, who knows, they're staggered.

Normally he enters first, but whatever.

But he reads the note out loud.

Dear Audi, I don't know if this will reach you, but I'm writing to alert you of the heinous conditions in the severed office to which you have transferred me.

The branch is run by a shambolic rube who goes by Milkshake, a man whose stupidity is only rivaled by that of the nine core principles.

If you must continue to send me here, please consider strapping a bomb to me so that I may explode both Milkshake and the very spirit of Keir Egan.

Wrathfully.

You're any Mark W.

I mean, how dare you, Mark W.

How dare you.

So Milchick knew right away it was Mark, and Mark kind of fought it for like a second.

And then he basically is just like, all right, you got me, but you still didn't find out what I did in the kitchen.

And as they go turn to find out, you know, Milchek and the other MDR team members go to find out what he did in the kitchen.

Mark takes off, takes off running through those hallways.

We find him going to the management office, he passes Ms.

Wong, goes right into Mr.

Milchick's office, and he finds the speaker for the board.

He talks in it, tries to tell him that he wants his team back, but no one says anything like normal.

And then Ms.

Wong radios Milchek, who shows up and escorts Mark to the elevator and tells him it's time for him to go.

We got just a second of that really forward leaning run that he likes to do through the hallways.

That was kind of cool.

But this time when we transition to Mark going to sleep and waking back up in the elevator, it feels just a little bit different.

We see this cures pardon of his or pardons his betrayer painting.

And the next ding.

Very shortly after, out steps Dylan.

Dylan, what's up, Dylan?

My boy Mark tries talking to him, telling him everything that's happened, trying to get on the same page again.

We start hearing banging on the elevator the same banging that we heard on Bert's door as he was trying to wake.

He's trying to talk to Bert at his house.

And then shortly after, we also get the return of heli.

So Mark's got his whole MDR team.

He does.

He's exactly what he wanted.

Back at mdr, we find Irving locking himself in the bathroom, still struggling with all that emotion, because for him, it just happened.

Even if it is two days later or five months later.

Sixteen years.

Who knows?

Three years for us.

But Mark begins to tell everybody, like, hey, Milchick said, we're famous now, and talked about, you know, everything he learned with that newspaper.

And they know that now Milchick wants to see him in the break room, which does not sound good.

And we've never seen multiple people go to the break room anyway.

Yeah, never before.

But they get there, and that ain't the break room that we're used to.

Not the break room we're used to.

No.

It's a little more upbeat than normal.

Yeah.

It actually looks comfortable.

Yeah.

But we get to watch a little video.

And this is kind of a.

I don't know if it's Claymation.

I think it's stockmation, if that makes any sense.

I don't know what that means.

Oh, well, I thought I heard someone say stockmation, but all right.

I'm not denying it.

I just don't know what that means.

Where the Lumen building that they are working in is voicing basically the events of last season.

That's the way the Severance team, the creators of the show, put it on YouTube as a season one recap.

Was just this same video we're watching here.

In this video, we get to see some new reforms that take place for this Severance reform.

One of them is tasty new snacks that they get.

They list the snacks.

I thought fruit leather was kind of weird.

And you can also get salsa from the vending machine.

Then there's also hall passes that they can have pineapple bobbing and a mirror room.

That's new.

And they have Irving's character in the.

In this mirror room, and he's, like, sweating and looks scared.

Doesn't look like something that would be fun.

All of this voiced by the building himself being voiced by Keanu Reeves.

So that was pretty interesting.

You picked that up right away, too.

Yeah, he's kind of got that voice, and he seem, once you've seen him in a whole bunch of movies.

But Melchik leaves the room and basically lets him know they've kind of got a choice.

He said, like, hey, there's no cameras.

You guys shouldn't feel like you got to go into a supply closet.

Mm.

And, you know, I don't know that there's no cameras.

There might be less cameras.

Yeah.

But I.

There's not.

None.

I.

I don't believe that for a second.

But they.

The team starts talking and talking about what they went through.

This is where Mark lets everyone know, like, hey, Ms.

Casey is my Audi's wife.

Bomb dropped.

Bomb dropped.

But also, like, no one really reacted that heavily.

That was kind of weird.

Mm.

I think they were just trying to be quiet because they assumed that there were probably still microphones in there.

Yeah, maybe.

But I would have thought they would have reacted more.

Dylan especially.

I thought he would have, you know, had more of a reaction about that.

Yeah, he.

He's got a big personality.

After we find out that Mark has told the team about Ms.

Casey, we turn to Helly.

And when we think she should be telling the team about who she really is, she lies about it and doesn't tell them that she was at the gala at all.

Yeah.

She made up some weird story about, like, being in her pajamas or something.

Yeah.

And talking to a night gardener, which Irving finds weird.

He's like, you talk to a night gardener.

Yeah, Irving.

And pretty sure does not believe it already.

Irving doesn't really want to talk about what happened, and he gets up and leaves.

He's just kind of done.

Yeah.

He's got a lot on his mind.

So Dylan goes after him, is going to try to help console him and make him feel a little bit better.

Okay.

So we're back with Heli and Mark now walking through the hallways.

I think they're walking back to MDR.

Mark is kind of telling Helly about Ms.

Casey, his Audi's wife.

And Helly says she doesn't think that they owe their Audis anything, but she says she's going to stay and help Mark find his Audi's wife.

Yeah, she was very insistent that the Audis and Ennis were not the same people.

Yeah, she was very.

Yeah.

Insistent.

And then we cut to Dylan after he's been going after Irving.

Irving walks to the stairwell door and starts telling Dylan about meeting, about seeing Bert.

He wants to leave really bad.

Tells him he kind of just wants to end it and never come back here so he doesn't have to relive the memory of losing Bert.

And Dylan, I think, has a little soft side.

We get to see of him.

He.

It was kind of poetic.

Yeah.

He was.

He was.

The way he was saying, you know, if Bert is gone and I'm gone, then it may be in some way we can be together.

Mm.

Dylan tells Irving that he really wants him to stay because he'll be sad if he's not there, and then he won't be as productive at work.

And I remember Irving saying, oh, I'm your favorite perk.

They continue talking until Ms.

Wong.

Irving, tells Dylan about the painting that his Audi was doing that he has multiple paintings of at home, about this long hallway and the elevator with the red arrow pointing down.

And Dylan says he should stay and help them find it, or at least until he finds it.

Ms.

Wong interrupts them talking, and.

And Mr.

Melchick wants to see Dylan in his office.

So Dylan walks with Ms.

Wong to his office.

Yeah.

There we find Mr.

Melchick a little frustrated by his current situation.

He's got that computer screen which still says, hello, Ms.

Cobell.

Get her episode title there.

And he's on the phone trying to get somebody to get it changed.

A little more agitated than we've seen him, other than maybe that time he got bit.

Yeah.

But Milchick kind of offers a little bit of a peace offering to Dylan.

Tell him that his wife's name is Gretchen.

Oh, so sweet.

I think it was his wife that wanted him to know that too.

That's what he said.

Yeah, that is what he said.

But again, not sure I believe that.

No, I'm not even sure her name is actually Gretchen, honestly.

But I wonder if this whole thing here he's gonna show him is even true.

Yeah.

He goes to show him this, like, new perk where there's a family visitation center, and.

And Dylan's like, does that mean I can see my family?

And Melchek has a super weird line, like, if I were to take what you said at face value, I would say, yes.

So bizarre.

But he doesn't want Dylan to tell anyone else about this.

He's like.

Because he doesn't want them to be.

Animosity and jealousy between them is what he says.

Sounds a little sus.

Sounds us.

I mean, everyone else is supposedly single, but it's.

It's still like another wedge in between.

Like, he's trying to draw that separation.

Separation in there.

Yeah.

But then we do cut back to mdr, where everyone is taking their seats, even Irving.

He says, I'm here, coming in from the hallway.

And they get back to the business that they're good at and meeting quota, Starting to refine some data.

But we get as they're starting to.

A little.

Little flash of someone's face there.

Ms.

Casey, or Gemma, as you want to call it.

Yeah.

And she's like looking at the camera that's looking at her, which.

I don't know.

It was weird.

It was really weird.

And the percentage that Mark has refined one of his categories is the same percentage that's on the screen with her.

Yeah.

Definitely showing there's some relation there for sure.

Yeah.

For me, this episode, my.

My cinematic shot was actually that opening running that Mark did.

He was running back and forth to.

And frozen and the camera work there.

And just the intensity that we had as he was doing that was.

I don't know, I just thought it was really gripping to get you on that.

That heart wrenching pace to start the episode.

You can definitely sense the urgency.

Whereas I feel like episode one of season one, we had that long, drawn out walk through the hallway.

Yeah.

Setting almost like a boring tone, like the boringness.

Mundaneness of this office.

Yeah.

Some observations that I noticed this episode.

I noticed that in Milchick's office, when he's talking to Mark, behind him there is a silver duck on the left side of him and a figure of Kier Egan, like a figurehead on the right side of him on the back.

I just thought that was interesting.

I don't.

I mean, I get the Keer part, but I didn't really get the duck part.

The world may never know.

The world may never know.

Milchick's a interesting character in the break room, which is all shiny and new and looks kind of comfy.

We see some interesting signs that are in there.

I wrote down what the signs say.

One of them says I'm a frolicaholic.

Another one says B, as in B E E ever Mary and grin and beard it.

Yeah, I don't know what that one means at all.

No.

I thought it was supposed to say grin and bear it, but definitely says Baird.

I assume there's a Egan family member with the name Baird.

It's the only thing I can think.

Maybe that's a good thought.

We find out that there are different branches, and we found out the branch that we're at is branch 501.

I don't know if there's a meaning for that, but I wrote it down.

And then there are 206 countries that Lumen is in, supposedly.

So we feel like Dylan has some of the funniest lines in the show.

And.

And we wanted to pick out our best one that we just found hysterical.

First there's, dude, what's wrong?

You poor up there?

Which he says to Irving.

When Irving walks out of the elevator and doesn't say anything, Nexus says, I didn't with his belt.

Yeah, he's serious about these belts.

He is so mad that Milchick cut his belt up.

And there's one more.

I owe him a belt cut.

Like, yeah, you mentioned the belt multiple times.

Several times.

And even, like, when he went to his office, he's like, are you getting me a new belt?

Like, kept bringing it up, but awesome.

That you said three different ones and you still did not say my favorite one from the episode.

Oh, what was your favorite one?

It's when he was talking to Irving and Irving was talking about doing those paintings, and he's like, oh, they got easels up there.

Oh, my gosh.

He.

He is amazing.

So I think my favorite out of those three, as much as funny as all of them are, his is definitely his comeback line.

When Irving first comes out of the elevator, dude, what's wrong?

You pour up there.

Like, I don't know why that would affect Irving, but, yeah, like, that'd be.

The only thing that really matters for him.

So I did have a couple questions about this episode, and most of those really come down to some Internet theories.

We've seen the one I did not believe for a while, and the Internet theory there is that Heli has not actually returned what we are seeing Helena Egan in this role pretending to be Heli to gather some information, maybe to work with these severed workers.

I didn't believe it either until you, Like, I went back and watched it and could definitely see why they think that.

Yeah, the computer thing is really what got me.

The fact that she was, like, so adamant about her nerd Audi being separate people.

You know, people are, like, using that and saying different things.

But they took the moment where Melchik turned his computer off because he was mad about the screen, and they zoomed in on his hand.

His hand went right to the power button.

He knew right where it was at.

Yeah.

And right after that, like, the very next scene, they show Heli go to turn a computer on to start doing this work that she has done for a while.

She should know where these computers are.

Yeah.

And her hand kind of has to find.

Find its footing before it turns that computer on.

But she's been there a long time.

She should know where that button is by now.

Now it was settle, but I think I'm like, man, if they're holding that.

That screen there for just that Extra second longer the fact they're showing it at all, especially immediately after showing Melchik like that.

They didn't show anybody else turn on their computer.

Yeah.

And it wasn't like some montage of computer work.

It was.

It showed other people right after that.

So I think I'm on board with this theory that it is Helena Egan.

Before you showed me that I'd also watched back when she first got off the elevator.

Mark comes up to hug her, and she has this confused look on her face like, why are you hugging me?

And then realizes, oh, yeah, I have to pretend like I like this guy.

Like, she just looks concerned.

So I believe it.

We'll see if it's true or not.

And really, the other questions I have come down to, what is it we have not seen yet?

What about the outer world here?

How did that encounter go at Bert's house when he was then in his outer form?

Irving was.

Yeah.

And didn't.

He didn't even know why he was there.

How did that shake up?

I'm really hoping that next episode we will finally start back where the Audis woke up.

I just want to see that so bad.

I doubt they'll do it, but I'd like to see it.

We didn't get to see any Audi ness this episode, so I feel like we'll get a little bit of backstory about what happened after.

Whatever happened five months ago.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I'm excited.

And we've got, you know, only a few days left.

Five days left, so bring it on.

Yeah.

So I'm super excited for when we get to watch it, and I promise I won't watch it without you.

Is that a milkshake promise or is that a real promise?

It's a real promise.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you guys so much for listening.

We're real excited to finish this season out.

And if you would like to call in, tell us your thoughts, questions you have about the season, any theories, we would love to hear them.

Call in or text in at 415podline.

That is 415podline.

Later.

Bye.

Oh, my gosh.