With a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s little wonder that so many people are champing at the bit for Severance to return to our screens this month. And it’s not just because it’s so utterly engrossing; this starry series raises some profound questions, presenting us with a twisted dilemma about the nature of autonomy, consent and corporate control – and challenging us, too, over the different faces and versions of ourselves that we present to the world.

The series, of course, earns its unusual name from the highly controversial severance procedure at its centre. As fans will undoubtedly recall, it focuses on the employees of Lumon Industries, who have been hired to carry out cryptic ‘macrodata refinement’ work, which involves sorting numbers based on intuition.

Why? Well, nobody knows – but it’s safe to assume that the Eagan family, which holds Lumon in a cult-like grasp, has a darker, deeper agenda. Especially as they’ve ‘severed’ all of their employees into two distinct personalities: the ‘innies’ are their work personas, who know zilch about their lives outside of Lumon; the ‘outies’ are – surprise! – the versions of themselves that live on after they’ve clocked out, the ones who have no idea what they do at work. At all.

Watch the trailer for Severance season 2 below:

There were a lot of twists and turns (and baby goats!) along the way, and the season one finale ended on the mother of all cliffhangers. And so, with the much-anticipated second season just around the corner, it’s time for a recap. Let’s look at what’s happened so far…

1. Gemma is alive

Adam Scott’s Mark was put through the wringer in season one. His innie was feeling dangerously disillusioned with his work in Lumon’s MDR department; his outie was grieving the loss of his wife, Gemma. Except…

Well, except Mark has now learned that Gemma is alive and well(ish) and living as Ms Casey (Dichen Lachman), a severed wellness counsellor working on the same floor as him. 

Why, though? Why did the company fake her death? And is all truly as it seems about the doppelganger’s identity?

2. Ms Cobel is obsessed

She may be the manager of the Severed Floor, but Ms Cobel (Patricia Arquette) seems more than willing to risk her job to sink her claws into every part of Mark’s life. As Mrs Selvig, she lives next door to him in the outside world, for starters, and she’s become a lactation expert solely so she can spend time with his sister.

Why, though? There are plenty of theories. Some think she’s secretly related to Mark; others believe she’s on life support after a devastating car crash. Perhaps she’s a secret ally to the innies, willing them to bring down Lumon once and for all. 

She may have been unceremoniously fired for her seemingly sadistic behaviour, but it seems as if we should pay attention to her every single move in the new season.

3. Helly is a double agent (sort of)

Ah, Helly! Britt Lower’s innie was the rebel hell-bent on bringing down Lumon – but her outie was slowly but surely revealed to be (eek!) Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon’s CEO. The finale saw her briefly take control of her outie and publicly condemn her father’s company… before being restrained and silenced.

From the trailer, we know that she’s due to return to Lumon as an innie, but why on earth would she do that to herself? And can anyone there ever truly trust her again?

4. Irving has visited the testing floor before

Now, a lot of people will cite star-crossed colleagues Burt (Christopher Walken) and Irving (John Turturro) as the most beautiful part of the series – which is why it was so devastating when Burt was forced to retire from Lumon.

Perhaps the key to unravelling their office romance, though, is the fact that ex-military officer Irving keeps painting the dark elevator that leads to Lumon’s testing floor. He paints it over and over and over again. This seems to suggest that he’s been there at least once before, making us wonder how long he’s been at Lumon in the first place. Could he and Burt have met many, many, many times before?

Whatever the reason for their meth lab-intensity levels of chemistry, here’s hoping they find love in a hopeless place all over again. Either as innies or outies (even if Burt has a partner in the real world) or both.

5. The future looks bleak

It’s made him a target of Mr Milchik (Tramell Tillman), but Dylan (Zach Cherry) made the ultimate sacrifice in the finale when he agreed to stay behind and trigger the ‘overtime contingency’, thus allowing all the innies to wake up in the outside world and cause some serious mayhem… until it was abruptly shut down, leaving everyone’s fates uncertain. 

Now, though, we can confirm this: the future is bleak. “Things get darker,” series creator Dan Erickson told Vanity Fair. “We very much wanted to put our heroes in a scarier place because season one ends with them poking the bear. They form this little rebellion, and they’re able to achieve a modicum of success with it, but the question with season two was: what happens when the bear pokes back? What’s the fallout of this victory that they had?

“I think, without giving much away, the fallout is dire.”

With that caveat in place, only time will tell how the likes of Alia Shawkat, Stefano Carannante, Bob Balaban, Gwendoline Christie and a suspiciously young Sarah Bock will fit in at the Lumon office. Thankfully, we don’t have long to wait, as the second season of Severance will debut on Apple TV+ on Friday 17 January. 

Here’s hoping it answers some of our biggest and most burning questions before too long…

Images: Apple TV+