Severance’s Showrunner Breaks Down A number of the Premiere’s Greatest Questions

Severance season two is lastly right here and we can’t shut up about it. That we’ve got two-plus months of recent episodes on the way in which is definitely among the finest issues a really unhealthy 2025 has delivered thus far, and issues began with a bang within the premiere. We obtained to spend all kinds of time with the innies on the severed floor of Lumon and noticed some very attractive new mysteries unfold.

Final month, we spoke with showrunner Dan Erickson in regards to the episode as a result of we knew you’d need to know what he needed to say about a number of issues. Listed here are the spoilers we initially minimize from our full interview.

Germain Lussier, io9: I used to be shocked when Helly lied about what she noticed as her outtie after which it sort of set in movement so many questions of who is that this individual, what do they need, and many others. How huge part of the season is that and the place did the thought come from?

Dan Erickson: Nicely, it’s a reasonably large a part of it. One thing that we talked about in that scene is, would every character be sincere and the way sincere would they be? We talked about “Would Helly inform the reality?” or “Would she disguise it?” I believe even when there’s nothing else happening, Helly could be sort of ashamed about what she discovered. So there’s positively a cause why every character would need to possibly be dishonest to the others. Mark, too. I believe there’s some query of would he need Helly to know this factor that he discovered, or would he really feel that he wanted to take his time to confess that and current that to her? So we had that dialog for every of the three characters who had made their manner as much as the highest.

io9: One other huge shock is Miss Huang, who’s simply essentially the most attention-grabbing, bizarre character. What are you able to inform me about her?

Erickson: Yeah, there was at all times one thing attention-grabbing in regards to the thought of getting a toddler in that position and there’s this huge query of why? Why is Lumon is doing that? What’s it? What are the higher implications of it? However I believe her presence actually throws off the characters. I imply, they’re definitely all weirded out by her presence as a result of the truth that she’s this little one [and] she has this disarming high quality to her the place it’s arduous to hate a toddler, you recognize? However on the identical time, she is filling that administration position and she or he can also be, not less than experientially, older than them as a result of every of the innies has solely had, at most, two years of life and even that’s solely eight hours a day. So it was a really unusual energy dynamic that you can solely actually have on this present. And we had been lucky to search out an actor who simply might actually play up the smiling company factor after which additionally abruptly that passes and also you see this bizarre darkness beneath her. And so in a manner she’s Lumon incarnate. She’s each of these issues directly.

io9: One other fascinating twist this season is the “outtie household visitation suite.” How essential is that this season and, once more, the place did that concept come from?

Erickson: The factor about Lumon and a part of their evil brilliance is that they’ll incentivize that which is most necessary to you. And for Dylan in season one he was very pleased with this type of artificially created that means of the pencil erasers and the finger traps and these little prizes that represented achievement. The second that he finds out he has a household, a finger entice is only a finger entice. Impulsively, it fully reshapes his sense of significance in life. And so what’s Lumon going to do? They’re going to incentivize that. They’re going to inform him you possibly can see your spouse in case you get your work finished and also you type of toe the road as a result of that’s crucial factor to him. He’s keen to do it even on the expense of his work household. And that’s the predicament that he finds myself in.

The primary episode of Severance season two is now on Apple TV+. New episodes drop every Friday.

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