I love a movie plot twist when it’s done right, and I think one of the latest of the new horror movies, Hokum, definitely has a thinker at the end to ponder. I found the new movie starring Severance’s Adam Scott to be incredibly spooky while having real heart at the center of it, too. It had me on the edge of my seat, and I was very invested in what was going to happen to Scott’s novelist character of Ohm as he navigates a haunted hotel.

In Hokum, Ohm travels to a hotel in Ireland to spread the ashes of his dead parents at the place where they had their honeymoon. When he meets Fiona, the hotel’s bartender on his first night, and she saves his life before going missing, he decides to go to the locked-down honeymoon suite to find her before getting stuck there with a lot of creepy vibes and the dead body of Fiona lying in a dumbwaiter. But there’s something that happens during the ending of Hokum, which rightfully received rave reviews, that’s especially worth discussing. Let’s get into it.

The Moment In Hokum That Had Me Going ‘Wait… What?’

The brunt of Hokum’s scares happens when Ohm decides to make his way into the honeymoon suite of the hotel he’s staying at in the Irish countryside and finds himself locked in. While trapped there, he finds Fiona, the bartender he’s looking for, unfortunately, dead. He also meets a terrifying witch, potentially finds himself in a gateway to hell by the end, when she locks him in the hotel’s basement and comes across the ghost of his mother, whom he accidentally killed as a child while playing with a shotgun.

Somehow, Ohm survives the whole affair and is lucky to be alive, having his wounds tended to at the hospital. Then, he’s paid a visit from the bellboy, Alby, whom he was quite rude to earlier in the film. Alby tells Ohm that he has actually spiked the whiskey he gave him the night he went to the honeymoon suite with quite a bit of magic mushroom powder. So, the question on my mind is how much was real and how much was a bad trip on mushrooms?

What The Magic Mushroom Reveal Could Mean

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and the ending definitely opens up a lot of interpretation regarding what could have happened. On one hand, there’s the funny thought that Ohm was tripping out in the honeymoon suite the entire time, and none of the supernatural things like the ghost, the witch, or that terrifying bulgy-eyed monster, which writer/director Damien McCarthy told CinemaBlend is named Jack The Jackass, who shows up in the TV set, were all in his head. However, from a storytelling perspective, I don’t think that’s quite as fun as Ohm actually seeing these things and them being real.

The biggest hint to the movie’s event being true for me comes from Jerry (who makes the mushroom powder himself). Earlier in the movie, he says that the stuff opens up one’s mind to seeing the supernatural. While that might be a bunch of hokum if I heard that in real life, I absolutely believe that hotel is haunted and love the idea of a hallucinogen like magic mushrooms being a gateway into the spiritual world in a movie like this. I also like the idea of the mushrooms/access to the spirit world actually helping him on his terrifying haunted hotel stay.

If the magic mushrooms allowed him to see the ghost of his mother, then they actually saved him because getting to see her helped him process his guilt around killing her as a child and ultimately made him escape the hotel and fight for his life rather than giving in to the intense sadness that led him to attempt suicide earlier in the film.

One Hint The Writer/Director Gave Has Me Wanting To Rewatch It

Of course, when I watch a movie like Hokum, I’m so curious about the intentions of the filmmakers. When McCarthy talked to Time about the ending, he had this to say about it:

Well, isn’t this interesting? He confirms that some of the movie is absolutely part of the mushroom trip, and some of it is absolutely real. For those who want to be able to differentiate between the two, he actually was detail-oriented enough to leave a clue within the movie for those who want to know. In his words:

Whoa, now this is fun because there’s actually a way the audience can tell what’s real and what’s not in Hokum. I’ll definitely have to rewatch the movie with a close eye on this, but until then, I definitely have one theory about what was fully in his imagination. I think Jack the Jackass is definitely a hallucination because he didn’t have any distinct connections to the witch. Also, McCarthy told CinemaBlend that he was watching a “warped” version of a children's TV show he was watching when he accidentally shot his mother.

I think because he was seeing his mother’s ghost, he was processing the moment, and the Jack the Jackass moment was part of his trip, while the rest was real, but that’s just my reading of it. What’s fun is it’s up for interpretation, so you might have your own thoughts on what was real and what was a trip. Hokum is definitely a highlight among 2026 movie releases thus far, and I can’t wait to rewatch it after learning about the magic mushroom reveal as well.

Adam Scott has spent the past few years making workplace dread feel unnervingly believable on Severance, which is streaming for anyone with an Apple TV subscription. Yet his horror roots go back much further than Lumon Industries. I’m not talking about his turn in the 2026 movie release Hokum, either. I’m talking about how, after getting killed off in Hellraiser: Bloodline, he apparently had a sneaky return plan, and the whole thing is painfully funny.

During a recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Scott was promoting his new horror movie when Meyers brought up one of the actor’s earliest film credits: Hellraiser: Bloodline. As it turns out, his history with the Cenobites isn’t just a fun bit of trivia, but also comes with a wonderfully awkward audition story. He admitted he was not exactly a “Hellraiser-head” before landing the role. To him, the appeal was simpler, as he explained:

That is honest, and probably how a lot of early-career actors end up in some of the most intense horror movies or genre franchises in general. The bills do not care whether you understand the lore.

Meyers then showed a bit of the Party Down actor’s work from Hellraiser 4, and things apparently did not go great for his character. Scott joked that he thinks someone bites his face off, though he did not sound entirely sure on the details. What matters is that his character does not survive the movie.

But a few years later, Hellraiser 6 came around. Scott said his agent sent him to an audition for the sequel. Instead of immediately pointing out that he had already appeared in the franchise as a doomed character, he gave it a shot. He decided to rely on the ancient Hollywood strategy of pretending nobody would notice. He recalled:

Honestly, if you know anything about the Hellraiser franchise, Scott’s logic is pretty sound. I would have bet good money nobody clocked that he had already shown up and died in Hellraiser 4. And even if they had, I’m not sure it would have mattered. As popular as the horror franchise is, it is not exactly known for its airtight continuity.

The best part is what happened once he got to the audition. The Saviors star said he was sitting in the waiting room when he spotted a producer from Hellraiser 4 through an open office door. His response was basically to hide behind his audition pages and hope the man either missed him or had no memory of the previous movie.

Unfortunately, the strategy did not work, and the Step Brothers alum did not get the role. Amusingly, he and Seth Meyers also joked the rejection had nothing to do with continuity or the fact that he had already been killed in the series, but that the powers that be simply did not like the audition: "We don't care."

They're kidding, but also maybe not?

The story makes the Emmy-nominated actor’s return to horror with the wonderfully creepy Hokum a little more fun. He told Meyers that the first footage he saw from the flick scared him during ADR, even though he was watching himself walk through a scene he remembered filming, which is a pretty good sign for a scary movie.

The Parks & Rec veteran actor may not have managed to sneak back into the convoluted Hellraiser franchise, but the failed attempt gave him one of those perfect actor anecdotes, and I’m so here for it.

Hokum, a much more successful Adam Scott scary joint, is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check your local listings for showtimes. Plus, the third season of Severance is officially on the way, and the star can't stop raving about it, giving fans another reason to get pumped for the show's return.

Major spoilers for Hokum lie ahead, so read on if you dare.

One of the latest horror movies to hit cinemas is Damien McCarthy’s Hokum, and I still get a chill down my spine when I think about the film. It stars Adam Scott as a depressed novelist, who goes to spread his parents ashes at the same Ireland-based hotel where his folks spent their honeymoon. While there, Scott's character, Ohm, makes some pretty haunting discoveries and crosses paths with the bulgy-eyed monster that has been haunting me ever since I saw the movie’s trailer. Now, I'm even more unnerved after learning about the character's origins.

CinemaBlend spoke to writer/director Damien McCarthy and Severance actor Adam Scott about (the critically well-received) Hokum, and the filmmaker broke down the creation of the scariest element within the film. In McCarthy’s words:

This is where I want to get into SPOILERS so, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, think twice before pushing on.

Quite frankly, Jack the Jackass might now be one of the scariest movie monsters for me. What I find really interesting about Hokum is how the movie unveils Jack without giving viewers a completely clear idea of who he is. So McCarthy really clears some stuff up with this answer. We see Jack on the TV set when Adam Scott’s Ohm is trapped in the honeymoon suite in the middle of the film. Amid my screening, I didn't know if the pair had met before, but we now know that the creature is directly inspired by something from Ohm's childhood.

In the scene with Jack, there's also a flashback to Ohm's childhood and how he ends up accidentally shooting and killing his mother. Prior to that, it's known that his mom dies via a shotgun and that it leads to his father becoming an alcoholic and dying shortly after. But this revelation is such a great twist.

Also, it's totally understandably that Ohm would be haunted throughout his life by the fact that he caused his mother's death and that it would come up during his stay at the hellish hotel in Ireland. But, of course I also had to ask if Jack the Jackass was that hair-raising on TV when little Ohm watched it as a kid. With that, McCarthy provided an interesting response:

I’ll admit, I thought there was going to be a lot more to Jack the Jackass then there is but, honestly, his terrifying presence in that scene alone was enough to make a huge impression on me. I just can’t imagine watching any show when I was a kid that featured a character anything close to that. Still, the fact that the image is inspired by a children’s TV show from Ohm's past only makes the whole movie even scarier.

Even though the Jack the Jackass of it all is very unnerving, seeing this part of the storyline get pay off in the finale really makes this movie even better. Ohm ends up in the hotel basement – which seemed to be some kind of gateway to hell – and he comes across the ghost of his mother who helps him forgive himself for her death. I don’t know about you, but I was verging on tears over how the storyline wrapped up. So kudos to Damien McCarthy for tying up that up in a sweet bow (after scaring the heck out of me with Jack).

Hokum is definitely a gem of a horror movie, and I wonder how it will stack up with other movies of the genre coming out on the 2026 movie schedule, especially as the summer season kicks off. Be sure to check it out, and keep an eye out on upcoming horror movies head to cinemas in the coming months.

Severance has become something of a phenomenon in the last few years, and surely, Adam Scott feels this on the daily. I can just envision fans approaching him – probably to ask him about when Season 3 is coming after that jaw-dropping finale we can’t stop talking about. When CinemaBlend got to chat with the actor, he revealed one normal thing in life that has been elevated thanks to starring in the Apple TV original.

You can see Scott in the latest of upcoming horror movies, Hokum, which has the actor once again trying to get out of tight spaces. With that in mind, when I asked the actor if he’s starting to develop a weird relationship with elevators between the new release and Severance, he said this:

Can you imagine being in an elevator with Adam Scott? Of course, if you’ve watched Severance, you know Mark moves from his “outie” to his “innie” while being in one of these tight contraptions. As he told me, when he finds himself sharing an elevator with a fan, they usually bring the connection up. It's an odd place to have a fan encounter, sure, but it's totally on brand for the show.

In Hokum, Scott plays a famous novelist who decides to venture to a boutique hotel in Ireland to spread the ashes of his parents. They honeymooned in the same hotel, and he thought it would be a good tribute for them. However, when an employee of the hotel goes missing mysteriously (after saving his character’s life, actually) he finds himself stuck there amidst haunting forces. I don't want to give too much away, but tight spaces are involved.

In fact, there's one scene where he finds himself stuck in a dumbwaiter – basically a very small elevator used to move food, laundry and such. When mentioning the connection, Scott had this to say:

That, or… he’ll take the stairs more often. But, this is Adam Scott we’re talking about. He’s a complete delight, and just as much of a movie/TV nerd as we are. We definitely don’t see him running from any mentions of Hokum anytime soon given how acclaimed the movie already is. It recently debuted with a very impressive 91% from critics reviews, with people saying it “a seriously scary masterpiece” and “a good old-fashioned ghost story."

The movie comes from writer/director Damien McCarthy, who previously made Caveat in 2020 and Oddity in 2024. You can descend into the terrors of Hokum when it hits theaters on May 1.

There have already been some great spooky options to hit the 2026 movie calendar this year, and of course there are plenty of upcoming horror movies still in store. Hokum is one I’ve been really excited about, thanks to the trailer’s super creepy imagery and the promise of Adam Scott playing an absolute jerk, and now that I’ve read the critics’ reviews, I’m even more pumped for these “shriek-inducing frights.”

I love a good jump scare that sends popcorn flying everywhere or the feeling of being too freaked out to move as the credits of a horror movie roll. Hokum seems to be right in that vein, as Adam Scott plays Ohm Bauman, an author who travels to Ireland to spread his parents’ ashes at the hotel where they spent their honeymoon. Kristy Puchko of Mashable certainly found Damian McCarthy’s latest project effective, saying she screamed so hard in her screening that she could feel her ribcage vibrate.

Robert Daniels of ScreenDaily says the story is simple, but the scares are earned through smart plotting, nimble editing, evocative sound design and a frigid performance by Adam Scott. Damian McCarthy succeeds in conjuring “overwhelming anxiety,” resulting in an “exceptionally chilling” horror movie. Daniels writes:

Katie Rife of IndieWire gives this “giggly, exhilarating rollercoaster ride” of a movie a B+, saying it’s fun to watch Adam Scott play such an unlikable character, and like the critic above, she appreciates a simple, scary story. The Hokum review reads:

Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting gives it 4.5 out of 5 skulls, calling Hokum “nightmare fuel” and the most unnerving film from the director yet. Damian McCarthy combines “spine-tingling terror” with some dark humor in a horror movie that “will scare you silly.” Navarro continues:

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert rates the movie 3.5 stars out of 4, praising Adam Scott for his best work to date. It was quite the choice for him and the director to keep Ohm so unlikable, and Scott's performance really sells the character’s fear and regret. The critic writes:

Adding to these critics’ reviews, Hokum currently holds a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, and all of this is just adding to the excitement I already had. If you, too, want to get the crap scared out of you in the theater, you can catch Adam Scott’s latest project on the big screen starting Friday, May 1.

One of the biggest detriments to the entire 2026 TV schedule, if not all of existence, is that we can’t properly look forward to Severance Season 3 showing up anywhere on it. Thankfully, however, the new episodes are closer than ever to coming together, with the latest production window set to kick off very soon, and star Adam Scott is as jazzed as anyone to bring the (assumedly) penultimate season to life. Perhaps even more so, since he already knows how it all ends.

Scott’s acting achievements were celebrated over the weekend, as he was on-hand to receive the Canal+ Icon award at Canneseries, where he spoke to Variety about initially vying for the dual-performance role of Mark Scout, and why it has been a testament to everything he’s wanted to do across his career. He also spoke excitedly about the upcoming season, since he’s already feasted on those scripts. Here's what he said when asked about his knowledge of Severance's future.

Speaking about Season 3 specifically, Adam Scott couldn't exactly dip into spoilers, but it really doesn't take much to send me up the hallway walls with anticipation.

Obviously the first two seasons were amazing due to all of the surprises and bazonkers reveals that popped up, from all things goat-related to Gemma's tragic experiences as a Lumon experiment. So simply hearing that Season 3 will have surprises is kind of a no-brainer. But like...the absolute best kind of no-brainer.

This is exactly like hearing Dylan's "The egg bar is coveted as f--k," because of course the assumption is that a corporate-crafted egg bar is going to be choice, but calling it "coveted as f--k" goes beyond...okay, maybe those two things aren't exactly the same. But I'm too giddy to worry about making that much sense at the moment. Not quite "Irving standing on Bert's doorstep" giddy, but close.

Adam Scott also shared his thoughts on Severance's fandom sharing quite a lot of the same Venn diagram space as fans of David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks. At least in thematic terms of mysterious locations, mysterious deaths (or not-deaths), and oddball characters in hyper-normalized settings. As Scott put it:

Of course, Twin Peaks was infamously forced by network execs into revealing the answer to its core "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" mystery in the middle of its second season. It never recovered, critically or ratings-wise, and was thereafter canceled, to be followed by the film Fire Walk with Me and the revival series Twin Peaks: The Return.

Severance, which totally needs to add a Log Lady to the Severed Floor, has thankfully avoided any kind of similar fate thus far, and has continued to pile on intriguing mysteries even as other are answered. Even things that don't qualify as mysteries, such as whose side Ms. Cobel will be on in Season 3, are worthy of the same amount of speculation, which is a sign of a great show, at least in my (kind) eyes.

The big question I'm taking from Scott's comments, however, is how much fans should read into the actor bringing up The Sopranos' ending while addressing the Apple TV series. As he put it:

Honestly, if a third season was never in the cards, then I think Severance Season 2's finale succeeds in inspiring a somewhat similar angst-ridden need to know exactly what happened in the next few seconds as The Sopranos' much-debated ending did. Which doesn't guarantee that Dan Erickson and the creative team don't have a similar idea up their collective sleeves, but I'm hoping Scott's comparison just means fans are going to talk about Severance's ending a lot after it's over.

Even just saying "after it's over" makes me want to have a meltdown, like finding out I'm a first-draft invite to Ricken's next dinner party. Never that. Please, God, never that.

Severance Season 3 is set to start filming in mid-2026, and will hopefully be streaming via Apple TV subscription before Disney or Netflix has bought a majority share in Lumon.

TV cliffhangers don’t usually shape the way I feel about life for the next year and a half, but Mark’s choice in Severance’s Season 2 finale — see also: everything else in the ep — has been ratting around inside my non-chipped brain ever since I initially streamed it via Apple TV subscription. Seriously, the wait for Severance Season 3 has been a nightmare already, so I couldn’t be more excited that there’s a relatively positive update to cling onto.

Perhaps even more interesting than the news itself, however, is the Severance star who shared it: John Turturro, whose character Irving notably exited the season prior to the finale in part due to his outside-of-Lumon communication with Christopher Walken’s Burt Goodman. Speaking with Collider, Turturro was asked if the previously rumored production window for Season 3 was still set for April, to which he shared:

This is one of those rare cases where an actor shares an update that’s actually worse than what was originally thought, and yet it still balances out to be a net positive. I halfway assumed that a spring start would be too early, but hoped that filming wouldn’t need to wait that much longer afterward. As such, July feels like it’s right in the pocket, though it means filming likely won’t end until early 2027, and episodes likely won’t be ready for premiere until six months after that.

Still, while it may seem like I’d be saying the above with a negative tone, I’m trying really hard to keep my smile turned up and my chipperness at a maximum, even though Turturro claims he’s been kept out of the loop on plot details during the hiatus. When asked, he responded with:

That makes all of us, John! Head writer Dan Erikson shared the update in January that he was in the thick of scripting out the third season, which followed the disappointing previous update that Ben Stiller is stepping away from director duties on Severance in order to focus more on other projects. But as far as any kind of story details, it's been a vacuum.

That said, the Emmy-winning actor did voice the idea that he's built up his own kind of backstory for Irv in his head, and he believes the character's life outside of Lumon is completely different and isn't what fans might expect. Granted, he also pointed out that his ideas aren't based on anything official from the creative team, so they may not pan out. But let's engage in some theories about ol' Irv's future.

My Rapid-Fire Irv Theories For Severance Season 3

Given comments Turturro made in the past about Severance's long and stressful production, I wouldn't have been too surprised if Irving didn't return after getting on that train with his loyal pup. It would have required a lot of second-hand exposition from other characters, but given all the other possible changes happening with other characters, losing Irv didn't feel like the most outrageous outcome.

But now that we know for sure he'll be back, let's put on our speculation caps with matching ascots and throw out some predictions for how Irv will return to the story.

• Mr. Milchick will call Irving back in to try and talk sense into Mark and Helly. - I can totally see this one happening, since Trammell Tillman's character has resorted to requesting help from outies in the past.
• Burt will have second thoughts about sending Irving away, and will drive to bring him back to Kier. - This seems less likely, given the somewhat dark implications teased for Walken's character, but there's no denying the kinetic connection between the two men, despite one having a spouse in the outside world.
• Iriving will spend the early part of Season 3 investigating Lumon in the outside world. - A fairly likely scenario, especially if no one in Kier actually knows how to get in touch with Irving. Given all of the research material he had locked up in his trunk at home, it seems like Irving has sunk some time into this effort already, but hasn't quite cracked it yet.
• Irving and Eustice Huang will cross paths and team up in the quest to take Lumon down. - Can't say I feel overly confident about this one, mainly because I have no idea how long it takes to get to the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center, or how long she would need to be there. Plus, other than her antagonism with Mr. Milchick, Sarah Bock's Ms. Huang seemed to be pretty tapped into the Kier way of thinking, without much sympathy for innies.
• Irving will revisit whatever trauma that inspired him get severed. Possibly a doubled-edged sword of an answer, since part of me fully believes that a scandalous prior work relationship with Burt is what led to Innie Irv. So I'm not entirely sure how he could research that without going right back to Burt's house after the train ride. Maybe Irving will find a way to talk to Burt's hubby Fields and get his information that way, rather than directly.

I could spend at least the next hour coming up with more ideas for where Irving's story is going, and that's not even looking in the direction of all the other characters, much less digging into any theories on that front. I'm ready to spend the rest of the afternoon envisioning various outcomes for Mark, Helly and Gemma, but alas, there are other things to do. Such as create a massive paper-chain leading up to the Season 3 premiere.

Both seasons of Severance are currently available to stream on Apple TV.

The start of the 2026 TV schedule marks the first anniversary of Severance Season 2, and it serves as a reminder that Season 3 is coming (hopefully sooner rather than later). That notion came to the front of my mind again recently, too, as the show’s creator opened up about writing the new episodes and the feeling he’s gotten working on them. Now, I’m somehow even more excited for Season 3 of Severance.

After having a great run at the 2025 Emmys, the Severance cast and crew have been seen at various award shows this winter. At the Critics’ Choice Awards, Us Weekly caught up with Dan Erickson, the show’s creator, and asked if he had any updates about Season 3. In response, he revealed how he’s felt writing it, explaining:

Well, that’s exciting! That kind of feeling is exactly what I want when I watch TV, and it’s exactly what I’ve felt on multiple occasions watching Severance with my Apple TV subscription. I certainly felt it at the end of Season 2, specifically, as Erickson cited.

It’s been almost a year since Mark and Helly ran back into the building and left Gemma on the other side of the door, and yes, I’m still thinking about it. In fact, I’ve found myself in passionate debates with people about Mark’s choice that weren’t dissimilar to Amy Poehler’s back and forth with Adam Scott about the topic.

So, if Season 3 features even more moments like that, count me in! I mean, I was already in; however, this statement has 100% reignited my anticipation for Severance. According to Dan Erickson, there will be tons of those instances too, as he reiterated:

Now, as of right now, we don’t know much at all about Season 3 of Severance. We know that Ben Stiller won’t be directing this season, and he’s been candid about how long it takes to make this show. Currently, there’s no word on when new episodes will come out. However, I’m optimistic that we won’t have to wait as long as we did for Season 2.

That’s not confirmed. However, there were strikes between seasons last time. So with that out of the picture, I feel OK guessing that we won’t have to wait three years for Season 3.

Overall, I’m just happy that progress is being made. Erickson is clearly hard at work and very pleased with where Severance is going. The first two seasons rock, and the jaw-dropping moments have truly stuck with me, so for him to say Season 3 has even more of them increases my excitement tenfold.

So, now the wait is really on, because we really need to get back to Lumon.

During its seven seasons on the air, Parks and Recreation became a hit for its offbeat comedy and cast of hilariously oddball characters, both main and recurring. It turns out, though, that appearing on the beloved workplace sitcom (which you can revisit with a Peacock subscription) meant some intense moments for funny cast members like Adam Scott, who had a rather extreme ritual after flubbing lines, which Aziz Ansari had a very funny reaction to.

What Was Adam Scott’s Ritual After Flubbing His Parks And Rec Lines And How Did Aziz Ansari React?

While any Parks and Recreation fan obviously loves the main cast (which also included Amy Poehler, Aubrey Plaza, Retta, Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman, and more), the recurring cast and numerous guest stars were also A++ when it came to making audiences laugh on a regular basis. This includes Jay Jackson, who funnily portrayed Pawnee reporter Perd Hapley for Seasons 2 through 7.

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly recently and reflecting on his time with one of the best sitcoms of all time, Jackson opened up about watching Adam Scott (who can now be seen on the critically acclaimed Severance with an Apple TV subscription) flub his lines and what he did after, which seems a bit intense for someone who won’t rewatch Parks for a very sweet and emotional reason. When talking about the difficulty of keeping a straight face while filming the comedy, Jackson said:

Wow. Every actor must have some tactics they use to gather themselves when they mess up their lines, as no one wants to delay the already lengthy filming process or seem unprepared/unprofessional. Physical activity is a great way to clear one’s head, but it never really occurred to me that anyone would just break out the push-ups after flubbing their lines.

Plus, even though Scott has played some characters who are far less gentle and likable than Parks’ Ben Wyatt, I really wouldn’t have imagined him as someone who could be called an “intense actor.” Jackson, who spent over 20 years as a real broadcast journalist before becoming an actor, continued:

Again, everyone must have ways of getting into character and staying on task while acting, so it’s good that Jackson (as someone new to the business) was able to notice that even while Scott’s behavior caught him off guard, that was what he needed to do and he was able to “respect” it.

The same, however, can’t entirely be said for Ansari, who’d previously talked about breaking during another scene with Scott for a very funny reason. The Party Down actor’s co-star didn’t exactly give him grief for the push-ups, but he did have a response that’s very on-brand for the man who portrayed Tom Haverford. As Jackson said:

Knowing that Ansari would use his patented eye roll to display his feelings about Scott needing multiple rounds of push-ups might be the most Parks and Rec thing I’ve ever heard. And that definitely makes me want to go back and rewatch the show.

The Parks and Recreation cast is full of pros. All of them are comedic geniuses, which means they know how to make people laugh, and they could get each other to break from time to time. To prove that point, Aziz Ansari revealed a story about him and Adam Scott not being able to hold it together during one particular scene of this fantastic sitcom, and I can’t get over why they couldn’t stop laughing.

Aziz Ansari was explaining how he’d try and get his castmates to break with Amy Poehler on her podcast, Good Hang. The Tom actor explained that he would try and get his hilarious Parks and Rec co-stars to laugh, and then he told the story behind the scene he broke the hardest for. Calling it “the hardest scene I’ve ever had to film in my entire acting career,” the Master of None co-creator said:

For context, this all went down during Season 4, Episode 3 – which you can stream with a Peacock subscription – when Tom and Ben took Joan out to lunch to try and woo her into giving Leslie’s book her sticker of approval. After talking about being a woman with “a strong sexual appetite,” Collins’ character excused herself and went to the bathroom after saying she needed to powder her nose, “amongst other things, if you know what I mean.” She got all up in Tom’s space and then crashed into the table as well.

After she’s gone, Ben asked if she meant her vagina in reference to the "other things" before they tried to diffuse this odd situation they’d found themselves in. In the show, they kill the scene and their deadpan reaction is hilarious. However, in real life, they burned a lot of takes because they couldn’t keep it together, as Ansari explained:

He went on to say that every time they came back to it, the second the great Parks and Rec guest star would say “amongst other things,” they’d crack up, and you can see the blooper on YouTube, too. Aziz Ansari and Adam Scott really couldn’t keep it together.

Poehler then explained that Collins was “so funny” during the scene and kept stumbling out of the table...amongst other things. Ansari then said that while they were attempting to film this, she would also “add some other thing” that would make them laugh more. When she’d do that, the Good Fortune star would say:

I truly can’t stop laughing about this. First of all, the scene itself is hilarious. Ben asking if Joan is going to powder her vagina with a straight face is so funny. However, the fact that Mo Collins kept doing something new and the guys couldn’t get through it ever makes it even better.

Now, the next time I watch this great show on Peacock, I know I’ll be laughing even harder because I know the full story behind how hard it was to film for Aziz Ansari and Adam Scott.

Despite many months having past since Severance's third season was set up by that heartbreaking Season 2 finale for Gemma and Mark, I still can't quite stop thinking about everything that these characters have experienced. (And am not complaining one bit.) Here lately, I've been wondering more and more about Gemma's trials and tribulations on the testing floor, which were showcased in the gonzo seventh installment.

One of the darkest TV episodes to cross my eyeballs in quite a while, "Chikhai Bardo" is also among the most complex and narratively dense eps of any fictional series, thanks in part to its spread-open timeline, its new locations and characters, and a slew of previously undisclosed details. It's both fantastic and traumatizing from one end to the next, and still manages to leave viewers with as many questions as answers.

So let's hone in one perhaps my biggest curiosity that didn't seem to be directly addressed in any way, but that might have been teased all the way back in the very first episode. (Rewatch the whole series via Apple TV+ subscription to jog those memories.)

My Big Question: How Did Dr. Mauer Specifically Tailor The Testing Floor Rooms To Match Gemma's Experiences?

While viewers didn't get to see the full gamut of disturbing Testing Floor rooms that Lumon's Dr. Mauer set up for Gemma to suffer through, it'd be logical to think that the majority had similar goals of pushing the character to a certain limit of discomfort and displeasure, based in part on her own personal fears and traumas. But considering the mysterious events behind Gemma being more or less abducted and forced into such servitude, it stands to reason she didn't openly discuss all the things that bother her.

So then, how would Dr. Mauer & Co. be able to, for example, decorate some of the rooms with details and props that audiences themselves already witnessed being within Mark and Gemma's home? As well, how was Lumon able to pinpoint so many things that Gemma hates for the sake of crafting the different rooms? Did she fill out a giant questionaire when she was first brought in, with "Writing thank you notes" at the top of the list? Doubtful.

In that way, Mauer's psychological trickery goes well beyond just set decoration. He knows that Gemma hates writing thank you notes, but unlike viewers, he wasn't present when Mark specifically stated that fact in an earlier scene from the same episode. Sure, Lumon is always listening, but simply hearing or seeing something doesn't automatically lay out the full context in the way that, say, a therapy session will.

The Theory: Devin Was Referring To Dr. Mauer As Mark's Therapist In Severance's Series Premiere

All the way back in Severance's mind-expanding series premiere, "Good News About Hell," Devon asked Mark a caring, but seemingly innocuous, question when they were away from the rest of Ricken's dinner party guests. At the time, it necessarily couldn't have meant all that much to the story, but all this time later, that question could have massive implications. As he started to eat his half-sandwich, she asked:

It's indicated that, after an unknown amount of time seeing this therapist, Mark decided that working at Lumon in Innie-mode was doing enough, and he opted out of continued sessions. By and large, that admission didn't seem to inform very much at the time beyond implying that Mark was still troubled in ways. But after "Chikhai Bardo," there are more notions to consider.

During Season 1, Devon's "weird little mustache" comment had some fans speculating that either John Turturro's Outie Irving or Trammell Tillman's Mr. Milchick was handling Mark's therapy sessions. But the events in Season 2 lay out a far more menacing possible scenario: Dr. Mauer was Mark's therapist.

The Connection: Dr. Mauer Used Mark's Therapy Confessions To Inform Gemma's Testing Floor Rooms

As stated above, Lumon utilizes all manner of surveillance to keep tabs on its employees, both on the company's grounds and in the town of Kier at large. So the company illegally monitoring Mark and Gemma for years almost definitely does play into how all of Gemma's Testing Floor rooms we know of were designed. But to keep tabs on someone's every waking hour would take a hell of a lot of attention, and it doesn't seem like the team handling the refiners goes far beyond Mauer, Drummund and those watching the mini-monitors below MDR.

It's extremely possible (even likely) that Dr. Mauer (who was seen to be walking amongst other medical staff whenever Gemma went in for IVF treatments) posed as a licensed therapist for Mark around the point when he was first recruited at Lumon. During that time, Mark could have opened up about any number of personal details relating to the ups and downs he experienced with Gemma.

Details like the frustration over an unassembled crib in the house serving as a constant reminder of the couple's hopes for a child ending in miscarriage. Or the memory of his final conversation with her, when she had to tell him she loved him twice before he said it back. That moment playing back in his head repeatedly is likely a factor that drove him into Lumon's open (and listening) arms in the first place, so it likely would have also come up during any therapy conversations that Mark would have had.

Dr. Mauer using Mark's candidness and grief in such a way would be one of the most bizarre examples imaginable of doctor-patient confidentiality being broken. Beyond bizarre, it's also creepy as a dozen fucks, given Mauer's transparent obsession with Gemma by the time she gets to the Cold Harbor room. For him to roleplay her final moments with Mark in the Allentown room was purely monstrous.

I bet Mauer doesn't even HAVE a license to perform therapy. Wouldn't quite be his biggest crime here, but still.

A Loose Thread Or Two

To be sure, this isn't the most air-tight theory or answer to my question, since both could be explained in other ways. If Lumon really has been monitoring Mark and Gemma's lives since around the time of that initial blood test (or prior), the people reviewing everything would likely be able to cull a list of things that scare and bother Gemma, as well as what pisses her off, without the need for Mark to delve further into things.

Plus, chipped-up Mark hasn't ever come across as the most open person even in close company, even with Devon, so it's not extremely likely that he would divulge a bunch of treasured memories to a weird-mustached man.

Still, I don't think any line in this show is a total throwaway, and nothing Lumon-related happens by chance. There's only one semi-medical pro on this show who's known to roleplay. So until Dan Erickson or Ben Stiller personally tells me otherwise, while also praising me as a viewer and generally great guy, I'm now going to believe Dr. Mauer was Mark's therapist, and I'm going to feel icky about it.

Severance ended on the 2025 TV schedule months ago; however, my mind is still boggled by its ending. Every day, my opinion changes. Some days, I’m livid that Mark left his wife Gemma on the other side of the door, and others, I totally get why he ran back into the building with Helly. Now, Amy Poehler has expressed her frustrations over all this to her former Parks and Rec co-star and the lead of the Apple TV+ hit, Adam Scott, and it perfectly encapsulates my feelings.

Now, before she got “pissed,” Poehler was complimenting Severance’s Season 2 finale during an episode of Good Hang. However, after she called it “incredible,” she stopped mid-sentence and made the funny face below:

Adam Scott was confused by that look, so his former TV wife dived into what caused the reaction, saying:

Listen, Mark’s choice to run away from Gemma was shocking. So, after repeating “I know” while looking at a jaw-dropped Poehler, Scott asked if she was “pissed” about what happened. In response, she said:

Dude, same! No matter what side of the debate you fall on, it was hard not to scream something along the lines of “Dude!” after Mark made his choice. And Amy Poehler didn’t back down from that point either. While she adores Britt Lower, who plays Helly, and has worked with her before, she couldn’t see past Mark running back into Lumon with her, which led to her “But.”

And after saying “but,” the Parks and Rec lead made the face below at her former co-star, fully illustrating her frustration over the whole situation:

What followed was a semi-intense and overall funny debate between Scott and Poehler. And I’m not gonna lie, I’ve had conversations with others where I’ve played both sides of this debate. Here’s the very entertaining back and forth:

• Adam Scott: Well, what other choice was Innie Mark going to make?
• Amy Poehler: Oh, I don’t know, the choice where you go with your wife?
• Adam Scott: So, walk out the door and end your life?
• Amy Poehler: Yes! You go to the door!
• Adam Scott: Really, that’s the choice you would make?
• Amy Poehler: What do you mean end your life?
• Adam Scott: He walks out that door, he doesn’t know if he’s ever coming back. He walks out that door, he becomes his outie. He doesn’t know if that outie is ever going to walk back in that building.
• Amy Poehler: But that building is not great.
• Adam Scott: No, but it’s better than not existing.
• Amy Poehler: But is it?!?

Admittedly, when Mark left his wife Gemma, it was shocking. However, after thinking about it, it’s important to remember that Innie Mark doesn’t really know her; he is also in love with Helly. Oh, and if he leaves, he might never return, meaning he could die. However, now Outie Mark has been left in a way, and so has his wife...

This leads to the final element of the Parks and Recreation co-stars’ conversation. While the Leslie Knope actor joked about how flustered she was about the finale, she also noted that that’s what made it so great.

She explained that she immediately texted Adam Scott after she finished watching the finale, and noted that that kind of cliffhanger and excitement that evokes such a visceral reaction is what makes TV so fun. All-in-all, this was a relatable and hilarious interaction, and I’ll be watching it on repeat (you can too, it starts at 41:55) as we wait for Severance Season 3.

Overall, as a massive Parks and Rec and Severance fan, this whole interaction made my heart happy, and it reignited all the mixed and passionate emotions I have about Mark’s choice. Now, the wait is really on to see what happens in the aftermath of that Season 2 finale, which you can re-watch and feel all the emotions Amy Poehler felt with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Severance is one of the most bingeable shows on streaming right now and for good reason. The edge-of-your-seat sci-fi series gets more and more intriguing as it goes on and audiences learn more about the mysterious inner workings of Lumon. The show’s star, Adam Scott, is absolutely phenomenal as Mark, and he earned himself a 2025 Emmy nomination for his role. His absolute commitment to the part is a good reason the show is so successful, and the actor recently revealed one scene in Season 2 was so intense he actually got a concussion.

In a recent interview with EW, Scott opened up about working on Severance after having a career mostly in comedy and what has driven so many people to check out the dystopian show. He also got candid about the buzzy Season 2 finale of Severance, which was a lot more violent than the previous episodes. Scott remembered that one particular fight scene required more from him than others, and it actually resulted in him sustaining a real injury. He said:

For context, in the Severance Season 2 finale, titled "Cold Harbor,” Scott’s character Mark is trying to get down to the testing floor to save his wife, Gemma, who is being tortured. Mr. Drummond, who is an executive and fixer at Lumon, tries to stop Mark from getting to the elevator that will bring him to this floor. It results in a violent confrontation where Drummond slams Mark against a wall.

However, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, who plays Drummond, must’ve underestimated his own strength, because he actually injured Scott when his character’s head hit the wall.

While this must’ve been incredibly painful, the Parks and Rec star still had his actor brain on, and he was more concerned about how the take looked on camera. Considering the head slam was actually real, the take came out pretty great, and is the shot the Severance team ended up using in the final cut of the episode.

While director Ben Stiller obviously cared about his lead actor's well-being, he was also concerned with the scene and made sure Scott knew how great the take turned out. He said:

A concussion is no joke, and I’m glad Scott was okay overall after that blow to the head. This story shows his dedication to his craft and willingness to take a literal hit to heighten his performance.

It also shows how committed the team is to the story at hand and the experience for the audience at home. This separates Severance from other binge-worthy TV, and is why people are so drawn to the AppleTV+ series. I can’t wait to see what Season 3 of Severance has in store, and if Scott manages to be put through more physical challenges as the plot thickens.

You can see Adam Scott’s Emmy-nominated performance in Severance with an Apple TV+ subscription. For more information on other exciting titles available on the streamer, make sure to consult our feature on everything new and coming soon to AppleTV+.

Adam Scott is currently the Emmy-nominated star of Severance, but there was once a time when he was trying to make the most out of a day-player role on ER, a hot new show in 1995. 30 years later, he is competing against former ER star Noah Wyle for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, a full circle moment for Scott. Now, the actor is detailing what it was like to be on the ER set as an up and coming actor, and working with the star of The Pitt all those years ago.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Scott opened up about being truly terrified when he entered the ER set as a young actor in his early 20s. At the time ER was a brand new show, so it wasn’t yet the cultural touchstone it would soon become. However, a network drama was still a scary prospect for someone who hadn’t had that many acting jobs before. Scott said of the experience:

It’s been a while since this early career moment for Scott, but he still remembered details from his appearance, and the character he played including the situation he was put in. He acted opposite Wyle, who was also a very young star despite being a series regular. Scott remembers the ER star being very calm and collected, the very opposite of what the Parks and Recreation stand-out was feeling at that moment. He recalled:

A part of the high stress on Scott's part wasn’t entirely just because of the pressure of being on a hit network show. Scott was supposed to be testy and irritable as his character had just been hit by a car. He is stitched up by Wyle’s character John Carter, and he is supposed to be anxious, later accusing Carter of not doing his job correctly. Scott does a great job in the scene, but the fact that his breathing tube kept falling out of his nose led to a fed-up crew, and an even more nervous actor. He remembered:

Thankfully, Adam Scott’s career was far from over. He had a number of small roles throughout the 90s and early 2000s before transitioning into primarily comedy roles in movies like Step Brothers, and the HBO show Party Down. He seemed to be everywhere after landing the role as Ben Wyatt on Parks and Recreation, a series regular and a fan-favorite character. Now, he’s the star of the hit AppleTV+ show Severance, which has him competing at the 2025 Emmy Awards and was one of the most exciting shows on the 2025 TV schedule.

Ironically, his fiercest competition in the race is Noah Wyle, who is being recognized for his work in The Pitt, years after his star-making role in ER. It may have taken Scott a little more time, but now Wyle and Scott are peers in the industry, both being recognized for their tremendous performances. Their ER collaboration may just be a memory in Scott’s mind, but they are both so talented that I hope we get to see these two work together again, at least in some capacity.

You can revisit Adam Scott’s appearance in ER alongside Noah Wyle now, as the show is currently streaming early episodes with a Hulu subscription. Fans of Scott should also check him out in Severance, which is now available with an AppleTV+ subscription.

Just to be safe, SPOILERS for the Season 2 finale of Severance are ahead. You can watch it with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Since Severance’s Season 2 finale dropped on the 2025 TV schedule, I’ve been in many heated conversations about Mark’s choice. I’m, of course, talking about Adam Scott’s character’s decision to run back into Lumon with Helly instead of going outside with Gemma. It was a controversial choice that left fans floored. So, now, the lead of Severance has opened up about what his Innie did and what viewers should “remember” when thinking about it.

To recap, Severance ends with Innie Mark running back into Lumon with Helly. That is the exact opposite of what was planned, as the goal was for both him and Gemma to escape the company. It’s sparked quite the reaction online, and during The Awardist podcast, Scott was asked about why his character did that, because it’s unclear what exactly the Innies will do since they can only stay on the severed floor.

In response, the 2025 Emmy nominee said:

I think this is vital to consider. Literally, all the Innies know is life inside of Lumon, and they’ve been actively growing up there. Their lives began when that elevator door opened and they were severed, and to them, that’s their whole world. It’s not what’s outside.

So, in Innie Mark’s head, he was probably thinking about saving himself and Helly, because if he went through that door, he might not exist again. In my mind, at this point, the Innies and Outies are two different people, and have totally different priorities, life experiences and values. Of course, they won't make the same choices.

That, mixed with the fact that Mark is in a “rebellious stage,” explains his choice, as Scott said:

As a viewer, it’s hard to fathom that Mark left his wife, Gemma, at that door and ran back in. However, you have to remember that to Innie Mark, she’s unknown; she’s only Ms. Casey. She’s not his wife; he loves Helly. So, I get his choice.

Obviously, it’ll have repercussions in Severance Season 3, and I think that’s the point. Mark wasn’t thinking ahead; he made a last-second choice and didn’t consider what was next, as Adam Scott said:

Think about it, when you were young and before you truly understood the complexities of the world, spontaneous decisions were easier to make. In this case, Innie Mark isn’t thinking about the repercussions or what might happen to his Outie, probably, he’s making the decision that’s best for him.

If he didn’t turn around, he might never see Helly again, and his work trying to save all the Innies could end. In short, if he walked through that door, his life could end, because we don’t know what Outie Mark would have done next. Only knowing that and being basically the age of a defiant kid makes his logic understandable.

So, make sure to keep that in mind as you continue to think about that mind-blowing finale and what could happen next when Severance returns.

The Emmy nominations are out, and after watching all the nominated performances for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series on the 2025 television schedule, I’m completely torn as to who I think should win. Pedro Pascal, Sterling K. Brown, Noah Wyle, Gary Oldman, and Adam Scott all put in amazing turns in amazing shows. How to pick just one? I don’t know if I can, but by the end of this story, I hope to have some clarity.

Pedro Pascal For The Last Of Us

Pedro Pascal may indeed be the “internet’s daddy,” and a big reason why is his role as Joel in The Last of Us. There is one more season for The Last of Us, but given Joel's limited role in Season 2 (IYKYK), this may be Pascal's final shot at winning an Emmy for this particular role. If I'm honest, I think he deserves this award more for Season 1 of The Last of Us, as his role was much bigger, of course. However, since every scene he's a part of in Season 2 has so much emotional weight, it's not like he's undeserving now.

The last few years have been amazing for Pascal and his fans. He also has Fantastic Four: First Steps coming out this month, and The Mandalorian and Grogu on the 2026 movie schedule. For Pascal to win an Emmy for one of the best video game adaptations ever would be a crowning achievement. An achievement he well deserves. But he’s hardly alone in this category.

Adam Scott For Severance

Apple TV+ has put out some amazing movies and TV shows in the last few years and at the top of that list has to be Severance. The Emmys have certainly recognized that with an amazing 27 nominations in 2025, leading all shows. Adam Scott, who plays Mark S., leads a fantastic cast that includes fellow nominees Britt Lower, John Turturro, Tramell Tillman, and Patricia Arquette.

I do think, as amazing as Severance is and as fantastic as Scott is, he may be the longshot in this category, which goes to show just how loaded it is. I won’t be surprised by anything when the Emmy is announced on September 14th, but still, if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t be betting on Scott. He’ll surely be nominated again after Season 3 of Severance.

Noah Wyle For The Pitt

HBO Max's fantastic medical drama The Pitt was at first a tough watch for me, at first. It took me a couple of restarts to finally get into it. That’s not because I thought it was bad, in fact, it was quite the opposite, it was so good–and so real–that I had to turn it off. It was literally freaking me out by how real it felt.

The show’s star, Noah Wyle, has five Emmy nominations to his name from his days on that other medical drama he once starred in, ER, but honestly, he hit a new level of performance with The Pitt. Though he never won for ER, and he might not win here, given the competition, his performance is riveting, heartfelt, and most importantly, real.

Sterling K. Brown For Paradise

Hulu’s Paradise is the brainchild of Dan Fogelman, who is also responsible for a little show called This Is Us, for which Sterling K. Brown was nominated for five Emmys in this same category and won the award in 2017 after Season 1. Brown and Fogelman teamed up again for Paradise, and the outcome, unsurprisingly, was another fantastic season of television and a slew of Emmy nominations.

Brown brings his trademark emotional depth to a character, Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins, who might have been two-dimensional in anyone but Brown and Fogelman’s hands. On the surface, the show is a science fiction whodunit, but with Brown leading the amazing cast, it’s so much more than that. A win here would be Brown’s fourth Emmy (he also won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson and Best Narrator for Lincoln: Divided We Stand), so it’s never a surprise to see him on the stage accepting an award for acting excellence.

Gary Oldman For Slow Horses

Finally, we come to what is actually my personal favorite. Slow Horses, which you can stream with an Apple TV+ subscription, has been among the best shows on streaming for four seasons now (with a fifth right around the corner). Gary Oldman, who plays the crusty, smelly, chain-smoking, washed-up spy Jackson Lamb in the thriller, has been outstanding for all of those seasons.

This is only Oldman’s second nomination for Slow Horses, which almost seems criminal. The Oscar winner has never won an Emmy, and while I would be happy to see any of these actors win, I’m quietly rooting for Oldman, because I really love the show, and his performance is so good, I can smell his character through the screen–and I mean that in the best way.

Who Will Win Is Anyone’s Guess

This is the Emmys, so of course there are always going to be five worthy Emmy nominees for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series, but this year just feels different to me. It seems especially hard to predict a winner. While I’m personally rooting for Oldman, as I said, I don’t know that he’ll take it home, and really, nothing would surprise me here.

I’ve been sitting here for almost a day thinking about this, and still have no clue who will win. All five actors put in deserving performances in excellent (and very popular) shows. Even though I said Adam Scott is maybe the longshot, the more I think about Severance and its dozens of nominations, the more I change my mind about that. That’s where we are with this category. I go back and forth between all five. I can’t wait to tune in to CBS in September to find out who wins.

It's been three months since the Severance Season 2 finale was part of the 2025 TV schedule, but I know I’m still emotionally recovering from everything that took place during it. While I’m not surprised it took a toll on the series’ star Adam Scott, it’s interesting to hear him talk about one scene he was worried about, because he clearly crushed it. SPOILERS are ahead!

There are a lot of standout scenes from the finale, particularly how the season ends with Mark and Helly running away from Gemma after all that time when his outie thought his wife was dead and wanted to reunite with her. One moment from the episode that Scott’s friend and fellow actor Kristen Bell asked him about during an interview with Variety was when Innie and Outie Mark talk to each other over a camcorder. Here’s how he said he reacted to seeing that scene on paper:

It’s one of the many genius scenes of Severance, but Adam Scott was not here for it when it came to being the man who had to pull it off. He said it was one of those shoot days that always felt like it was “on the horizon,” continuing with these words:

Hey, it’s understandable. The actor had to play both versions of Mark as they had a conversation with each other with a camcorder. It cannot be easy to keep both Marks straight, and it’s a real key scene to the audience's understanding that Innie Mark has become his own person and is rejecting Outie Mark’s wishes. As he explained further:

The actor of course didn’t screw up, he killed it in all the ways possible for that scene, and it really helps frame the ending of the season.

Scott spoke further about what went into that scene with these words:

Adam Scott sounds like a guy who doesn’t quite realize his talents as he passed off all of the credit for a scene that he had to play both parts in to everyone else involved, but of course, every scene of Severance is a collaborative effort. Considering the actor is currently in contention to earn another Emmy nomination for his role, he’s definitely being humble.

As we wait for the Emmy nominations to be announced, prior to it being one of the upcoming award shows for later this year, I will still be thinking about the Severance finale and what it means for Season 3 and potential Severance spinoffs.

We’re still a long ways away from Severance Season 3 being available to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription, but I’m already starting to question one of my core assumptions in the aftermath of Season 2, that Ms. Cobel is aligned with Mark Scout’s anti-Lumon stance. Considering everything that played out in the final three episodes of the season, I might have even put money on Cobel having permanently switched allegiances. But star Patricia Arquette throw it all into doubt.

Arquette shared quite a few opinions and musings regarding her expertly portrayed Severance character, and why the character’s Selvig persona seemed to be so terrible with her recycling habits. But I’m most intrigued and perhaps bothered by the Emmy winner’s comments after being asked if she thought viewers should be rooting for Cobel. According to the actress:

Her comments are certainly merited, since there are plenty of projects out there that go that flip-flopping route with characters. Even Trammell Tillman's Mr. Milchick has earned grace points from viewers for the sporadic moments of empathy and sympathy that he displays, only to turn around and prove his Lumon allegiance in the next breath.

But then Arquette continues and makes a point to say that Cobel could go in either direction when Severance returns, throwing my hopes for Mark into disarray. Here's how she put it:

At this point in the show's run, I don't think I would ever expect Cobel to return to Lumon to try and get her job back, at least without Helena Eagan groveling on her hands and knees. Once she sped away from Lumon HQ after Helena's seemingly fatalistic invitation, only to go off and retrieve her notebook filled with designs for the Innies' chips, I thought Cobel would have remained headstrong about not returning to the company that ripped her creation away from her.

But now it seems possible that Cobel could once again turncoat against those siding with her if the situation becomes advantageous to her. Which is not good for either oMark or iMark, and will probably make life hell for several other people in the process.

Of course, I’ve had past theories about Cobel that didn’t pan out, at least not yet, just as others’ theories about Helena being in the finale were debunked, so I won’t be too surprised if my worries about her are all for naught once Season 3 is being played out. This is one of the rare cases where I can’t wait to find out if I’m wrong or not.

In the meantime, I’d love to see what’s up with the spinoff talks that Ben Stiller teased, and have roughly a few million ideas to talk out on that front.

The story of Severance is mysterious and important, and quite honestly, I didn’t think it’d expand beyond what is considered one of Apple TV+’s best shows. However, after Season 2’s remarkable run on the 2025 TV schedule, Ben Stiller has revealed that they have “two specific ideas” for spinoffs. So, that means I’ve come up with theories regarding what they would be about.

What Ben Stiller Said About Severance’s Possible Spinoffs

There are a bunch of questions regarding what will happen during Season 3 of Severance. During an interview with Variety, Ben Stiller and Adam Scott wouldn’t really answer any of them, understandably. However, when asked if they saw the series turning into a franchise, the director shocked me by revealing:

Frankly, I never thought Severance would go beyond Severance. So, it’s thrilling to know that there are ideas being thrown around for spinoffs, even if they are in the early early stages of formation or “nascent,” as Stiller put it.

He obviously wouldn’t reveal these ideas either, however, after learning that there are potential spinoffs being kicked around the severed floor, I’ve come up with two ideas myself.

My Two ‘Specific’ Ideas For Potential For Severance Spinoffs

While watching the first two seasons of Severance with my Apple TV+ subscription, I’ve had moments where I have thought about how much I’d love to learn more about various aspects of Lumon. There’s so much lore, history and complexity when it comes to this company, and that’s where both my spinoff ideas stem from:

1. A Prequel Series About Lumon’s Founding

As we’ve learned in various episodes of Severance, the Lumon lore and the Kier family history are wild. Episodes like “Woe’s Hollow” gave us some crazy insight into the founders of this company and the family Helena grew up in. We also know that while Lumon is a biotech company of sorts, it also has cult-like tendencies (i.e., the Waffle Party).

However, with every piece of knowledge we gain, I wind up with more questions.

I want to know how Lumon ended up this way and why the Keir family founded this company in the first place. We know this corporation has been in the family for generations, and both the family and some employees worship their founder in a very intense, almost religious way. So, there’s a lot of story to mine there. Therefore, let’s run a spinoff all the way back to the beginning to learn how on Earth this family wound up with so much creepy power and influence.

Ever since we saw the goats in Severance for the first time, I’ve been curious about the department known as Mammalians Nurturable. I want to know more about why Gwendoline Christie’s character, Lorne, is so connected to the animals. I want to know why their office is rolling green hills under fluorescent lights. And I still have questions about what the purpose of the goats even is.

I could see a whole spinoff about this department that’s basically separate from Severance, and I’d love it.

I would also take shows about Choreography and Merriment or Optics and Design. All the various departments of Severance are so deeply unique and mysterious that they deserve their own stories, and that could be accomplished with a spinoff.

Overall, I think the world of Severance is rich enough to warrant at least two spinoffs, and I think both of these would be cool. However, I’m positive that whatever Ben Stiller and co. have in mind is better, so here’s hoping that someday we’ll find out what their specific ideas are and they’ll turn into upcoming Apple TV+ projects.

Spoilers for Season 2 of Severance are in play! If you want to watch the series, you can do so with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Ever since watching Severance’s Season 2 finale, I can’t stop thinking about the line “You’ll kill them all.” It’s screamed by Dr. Mauer at Gemma and Mark as they’re about to leave in an elevator, and while I have my assumptions about what it means, I needed to know more. Thankfully, CinemaBlend had the chance to ask Gemma actress Dichen Lachman about it, and her explanation of this quote’s meaning will haunt me until Severance Season 3.

In the final episode of Severance to air on the 2025 TV schedule, we finally saw Gemma escape that hellish testing floor with Mark. During the season, we learned that Lumon was trying to tamper with her emotions with various rooms that contained her biggest fears or things she loathed. This required her to be severed well over 20 times.

However, she managed to escape when Mark came down to get her from the Cold Harbor room. As they were running out, though, Dr. Mauer yelled, “You’ll kill them all.” And that left me spiraling…Thankfully, CinemaBlend’s Mike Reyes got the chance to ask Dichen Lachman about this fateful moment and powerful line of dialogue. In response, the actress said:

Lachman’s comments seem to imply that the doctor was referring to the various versions of Gemma that existed on the floor she was living on for so long. By choosing to leave with Mark, she was killing all the other versions of her that existed down there. That by itself is spooky and quite morbid to think about.

However, the longer I think about this, the more I wonder how it will impact all the severed employees.

To me, this whole sequence that includes this line and ultimately ends with Mark leaving Gemma outside the severed floor to run back into it with Helly is showing that all innies are in danger over what’s going down in Lumon. They don’t want to die, and the outies deciding to try and escape or free them could lead to a life where the innies no longer exist.

That’s kind of terrifying to think about, and I think it will have massive implications come Season 3.

In Season 2, we saw Irving get fired from Lumon, effectively killing his innie. They even honored his life on the severed floor later. While his character isn’t technically dead, it’s only his outie’s conscious that is currently living. The same thing happened to Gemma.

By leaving the floor she was on, the doctor screamed, “You’ll kill them all” to signal that her choice will kill all the other versions of her.

However, I also think this line applies to Lumon as a whole. This conflict between the innies and outies really started to ramp up in the final episode, and Mark’s innie choosing to stay in with Helly solidified that tension as an even bigger issue going into Season 3.

So, yeah, this idea of killing innies haunts me, and it’s going to continue to until we get Season 3, because I have a feeling this conflict and ethical dilemma will be a major part of it.

MASSIVE SPOILERS are ahead for Severance Season 2, now streaming in full with an Apple TV Plus subscription.

It’s been about two weeks since the Severance finale dropped, and I honestly cannot get this show out of my head. I’ve even started to rewatch the series from the beginning as we wait to get more information than we currently have on Season 3. (I can’t believe I wasn’t into Season 2 at first due to the long wait!) And as the final moments continue to replay in my head, I have one Helly theory to talk out.

Remember when Mark S. totally broke Gemma’s heart (and mine) by going to Helly and running away with her? Since my gears have been turning about what could happen next in this very complex love triangle, it's led me to think about where things could go from here. Time to talk it out.

And in the spirit of the show, please enjoy each section of this article equally.

I Can’t Stop Thinking About How The Severance Finale Left Things With Mark And Gemma

After having all the questions and theories circulating around about Gemma and her connection with Lumon and Cold Harbor throughout the season, I was so happy to finally understand that Mark’s wife has been a test subject of sorts regarding severance science. It seems like Lumon has been trying out if severance can be used as a tool to delete trauma from one’s brain. Gemma’s final room (of 24), “Cold Harbor,” was a direct reference to her biggest trauma regarding infertility and losing Mark as she was instructed to put together the very same crib Mark was going to put together before her “death.”

After seeing Gemma and Mark go through so much pain due to being apart throughout the show, I was overjoyed by their reunion and what looked to be the pair finally escaping Lumon’s grasp. However, Severance then did the most diabolical thing by having Mark go back to being his innie just minutes later and running away from his own wife to hold hands with Helly and run away with her… Where? I’m not sure, and per creator Dan Erickson to Variety, they don’t seem to “have a plan necessarily,” either.

After Helena And Helly Have Both Had Sexy Times With Mark, I Have A Season 3 Theory

Now, I feel mortified for Gemma. Just moments after seeing her husband again, he ran away from her, and she was left alone again. On the other hand, I can totally understand what’s going on with Mark S. He’s in love with Helly R. and doesn’t know any other life than what’s on the severed floor. By running away with her, they are choosing themselves over Lumon and fighting for their livelihood. But there’s also another element of this that won’t leave my brain: Mark S. has been sexually involved with both Helly R. and her outie, Helena Eagan in recent weeks... and I’m going to guess the innies have never attended a sex ed class.

So, my theory is that I think that Helly/Helena could end up pregnant during the events of Season 3, and that could make things even more complicated. If so, it would be Innie Mark’s either way, and it would only further make his case and drive for having his own life and reason to exist rather than reintegrating with Outie Mark.

It Would Break Me If This Happened And Gemma Found Out

If Helly/Helena does become pregnant with Mark S’s baby, it would absolutely make the whole situation with Gemma worse, since Mark and Gemma’s relationship struggles and traumas prior to her “death” were all about infertility. I truly cannot think of a more messed up way for this love triangle to play out if Gemma becomes embroiled in trying to get Mark back and she comes across her husband’s Innie trying to move on and start a family with Helly.

I’m convinced this could be part of the plotline for a couple of other reasons aside from it just making things more complicated and dramatic, too. Of course, you've noticed by now that the title credits for Severance Season 2 had a Kier baby crawling around, which could signify this right there. Oh, and then there’s definitely more going on regarding Mark and Gemma’s fertility history than we know about since the same man who was running Gemma’s rooms in Lumon was their fertility doctor. And Season 1 is all about Mark’s sister having her first baby as well. With all that in mind, I would be very surprised if Season 3 did not explore this thread further!

Plus, I Can’t Shake How Helena Seems Jealous Of Her Innie

One final point I want to touch on has to do with Helly’s outie, Helena Eagan. Throughout Season 2, the series set up something really interesting regarding Helena’s relationship with her innie and Lumon. I think one especially key scene this season is when Helena watches back the moment when she and Mark S. kiss at Lumon over and over again. The Eagan heir also doesn’t seem to like her life much and clearly has a soft spot for him during their interactions when she is undercover in the early episodes of Season 2.

With that in mind, I’m worried that not only Helly R. will continue to be a problem for Outie Mark and Gemma, but Helena could be as well. If Helly/Helena were to become pregnant with Mark’s baby, I could totally see Helena getting involved (if she’s able to) and making things worse by insisting on having it and coercing Outie Mark into it.

Then there’s the weird culty Kier element of Lumon Industries, where I could also see Helena’s dad wanting to preserve the baby in hopes of reincarnating Kier or something like that. During one of the finale’s scenes, when Helena’s father spoke to Helly R, he made comments about how she has the purity of Kier in her, and I could see him and “the board” being all over the new Baby Eagan. All that doesn't even mention the scientific interest Lumon might take in regards to the first Innie pregnancy.

Anyway, that’s where my head is currently at with Severance after the finale. You can watch CinemaBlend’s Season 2 interviews with the Severance cast as we await what’s next.

Aside from Parks and Recreation and Severance being Adam Scott’s two most famous roles that just happen to primarily take place in his characters’ workplaces, recently, fans have made another connection between the two shows. During Season 6, Episode 12 of Parks and Recreation, Scott’s character of Ben Wyatt basically pitches the concept of Severance to his wife, Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope. And yes, Scott has seen the scene go viral.

While we cry over the Severance Season 2 finale and get ready for Season 3, Adam Scott was recently shown the Parks And Rec clip where Ben suggests that he and Leslie keep their home life and work life “separate” like a “firewall system.” Check out his reaction while on Radio X:

How wild is that scene? If you have any suspicions about it, as a huge Parks and Recreation fan, I can confirm it’s from an episode that aired back in 2014, over a decade ago.

What blew my mind even more was what Adam Scott shared about the making of it:

It’s true. Adam Scott only directed one Parks and Recreation episode in the 96 he was part of, and it was the one people keep sharing for its Severance connection. It’s called “Farmers Market” and it has Ben Wyatt coming back to work at City Hall after a hiatus. And when Leslie Knope goes over-the-top, as per usual, with taking work home with her, Ben suggests the couple leave work at work.

And funny enough, Scott didn’t even remember filming the scene until the internet found it. In his words:

So in other words, Adam Scott kept his work at work when it comes to this growingly popular moment on Parks and Recreation. This has such severed energy!

Now, one might think the scene from the show is proof that it was actually Scott who created the idea for Severance. However, it was creator Dan Erickson who created the idea for the AppleTV+ show while working temporary jobs and imagining a world in which he could dissociate from work instead of experiencing it.

After Ben Stiller got ahold of the script for the first episode of Severance to direct it, he got in touch with Adam Scott and pitched him the idea. Scott called the concept a “sticky, catchy, great idea,” and he waited a year before he even saw a script, but he was in!

As we learned recently, Stiller had to fight for Scott to earn the lead role, but one of the reasons he did want him in the first place was because of his history on a workplace comedy like Parks and Recreation (which the actor actually hasn’t rewatched for a sweet reason).

Now, as we return to Severance hiatus mode, check out one Ben Wyatt-coded moment during our exclusive interviews for Season 2 and go back and watch that Swverance -coded Parks and Rec moment with a Peacock subscription.

Back when Parks and Recreation was still on, there was an iconic image taken of Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones. They looked like they were in a ‘90s legal procedural, and it was titled “Philly Justice.” Now, Poehler has shared more details about this fake show they actually filmed an episode of, and fans are hilariously demanding that this long-lost piece of work from the Parks and Rec cast be released.

Amy Poehler Broke Down All The Work That Went Into Making Philly Justice

Over the years, there have been jokes about Philly Justice. However, recently, Amy Poehler talked about it with Rashida Jones, and confirmed that they filmed an episode! While chatting on her podcast Good Hang, Poehler started her explanation of this goofy idea by saying:

Rashida Jones then chimed in to note that the writers for Parks and Rec took time off writing one of the best sitcoms ever to write an episode of Philly Justice. Honestly, that’s iconic behavior. And to that point, the podcast host revealed just how much work went into this little fake show, saying:

To quote Rashida Jones, “Dude, really!?!” I desperately need to see this, especially since the Leslie Knope actress went on to say that it’s “so good” while revealing some juicy plot details.

Poehler said a producer on Parks sent her the episode and revealed that Jones plays a lawyer named Angie Martinez. She also explained that she thinks the Ann Perkins actress’s character was in love with Kathryn Hahn’s character too, revealing they did "kiss at some point."

This sounds remarkable. Not only does it feature some of the incredible regular cast, but it also highlights two of Parks and Rec’s finest guest stars. So, I agree with all the fans who are demanding that this be released.

Now, The Fans Are Demanding To See Philly Justice

Even though a Parks and Rec revival seems unlikely, there is a rewatch podcast, the cast reunited in 2020 for a special, and they frequently chat about their love for the show. However, while all that’s fine and dandy, I think the world needs Philly Justice.

The fans agree, too. Under the TikTok clip from Good Hang, they were adamant that Philly Justice must see the light of day, writing comments like:

• WE DEMAND (PHILLY) JUSTICE -like.daylightt
• Amy? Amy. AMY. Amy. You cannot toy with us like this. -Rachel
• According to TikTok this was posted 13 hours ago and here we are, still waiting for the Philly Justice premiere. Amy, we are begging you; Save 2025. -justjessonthecape
• What!?! I feel personally offended that you haven’t put this out for me. Clearly this is a one sided friendship. 🤨 -RubyRose
• the people yearn for philly justice PLEASE -Kathryn

The people do “yearn” for Philly Justice, and so do I! In fact, the people want it so badly that they’re pulling out some of Parks and Rec’s finest inside jokes and gags to prove their point, writing hilarious comments like:

• Get on your feet! Get up and make it happen!! 🙏🏻 -recordingwithsam
• IN THE NAME OF LIL SEBASTIAN PLEASE -Erin Rensnick
• In the words of Leslie Knope, please please please please please please please please please please please! -Cajuntexan

So, yeah, the world needs Philly Justice.

Sadly, we don’t know if or when it will be released. However, you can keep listening to Amy Peohler’s podcast Good Hang, and you can see Rashida Jones in Black Mirror when it premieres Season 7 on the 2025 TV schedule. Plus, you can always go back and re-watch Parks and Rec with a Peacock subscription while fantasizing about this hilarious fake show, Philly Justice.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched Severance’s Season 2 finale with an Apple TV+ subscription, so be warned!

It seems like Severance’s long-awaited second season just arrived, and yet we’re already in post-season mode, with so many details to speculate about ahead of the already confirmed Season 3 (with reported changes for the creative team). From Gemma’s reaction to iMark and iHelly to the wild reveal about the goats’ importance to a mother-flipping marching band, the finale delivered all the goods while still leaving plenty of storylines unconcluded.

One massive example that fits the bill is Mark’s current reintegration status, which was seemingly put on hold after his at-work nosebleed that resulted in him going into a mini-coma. We haven’t seen Reghabi since Episode 7, when she hit the road after Devon threatened to call Ms. Cobel, and it’s entirely unclear how many more treatments he might need, or what effects the treatments are having on his body.

Now, I can only assume I’m not the only Severance fanatic who’s believed that Mark’s coughing fits in Season 2 are a side effect of the reintegration process, similar to the headaches and nausea that we already know about. But what if they’re completely unrelated? Creator Dan Erickson somehow made that question relevant when asked by iO9 to clarify if the coughing is a consequence of the medical procedure. In his words:

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?!? I mean, obviously if someone called up a 911 operator or pizzeria and asked that same question, they'd get a different answer from whatever Dan Erickson would say. But that's almost definitely not the context that the Severance creator was speaking of.

Instead, he seems to be saying that fans might get a different take on Mark's coughing if they'd ask, for instance, star Adam Scott about it. Or one or more of the writers. Or even Reghabi herself. (Not the actress, but the character, who would probably deny that she had anything to do with his respiratory issues.)

Dan Erickson clarified his own belief, but while still seemingly making it clear that his word is not necessarily bond where this detail is concerned.

"Sort of how I view it" is such a baffling way to phrase a response about something that Erickson likely knows a full answer to. Because if it isn't a side effect of the reintegration process, then what are we talking about?

Is it possible that Mark is suffering from some other kind of malady that no one is aware of yet, least of all Mark himself? Is there some kind of long-gestating side effect that comes with working on the Severed Floor?

That one doesn't seem as likely if Adam Scott's character is the only one who's been coughing, but there could obviously be other symptoms that we're not clocking properly. What if one of the symptoms is "falling in love with your Outie's wife?" If that's the case, Dylan is boned.

If Lumon's chips are having some kind of additionally detrimental effect on employees' health, that's a completely different angle for Innies to take in staging a revolution against the corporation. But it doesn't seem like the show's writers would wait until Season 3 to introduce that as a general idea.

That said, it wasn't until the Twilight Zone-inspired episode "The After Hours" where viewers were made aware that Jame Eagan has apparently been impregnating various women, with some of them going to Lumon's birthing cabin to get the pregnancy taken care of, so to speak. So if that can be a "new" reveal, I guess it's plausible that we'll find out next season that Outie Mark has permanent bronchitis.

Here's hoping it won't be another three years before we finally make it back down the elevator to see what kind of delightful new art will be on the wall next.

Spoilers for Severance Season 2 and specifically its finale are ahead! If you have not seen it, you can watch the first two seasons in full with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Well, Severance Season 2 has officially come to a close on the 2025 TV schedule, and it did so with a bang. This installment ended with a lot of answers to questions we’ve been asking for years surrounding topics like the goats and Cold Harbor, and it left us with more inquiries to ponder going into Season 3. For me, one of my biggest questions had to do with Mark’s choice to leave Gemma at the door and run back into the office with Helly during the finale's final scene. So, I obviously had to ask Gemma actress Dichen Lachman about it.

After a full season of Mark trying to get back to his wife, Gemma, they were finally reunited in the Season 2 finale. However, it wasn’t without great challenge, as Mark’s innie did not fully approve of the plan to get her out, because it could kill him and all the other innies. So, in the end, he left Gemma standing outside that locked door screaming while he ran back into the chaos with Helly.

Now, I had to ask Dichen Lachman how her character felt about this choice, since we only see her screaming, and she told me in an interview with CinemaBlend:

During Season 2’s finale, we got to see Mark’s innie and outie communicate for the first time in an extensive way, and it became abundantly clear that they were not on the same page. That was then amplified tenfold when the innie version of Adam Scott’s character left his outie’s wife outside the door to the severed floor without him.

He ran back into Lumon hand-in-hand with Helly, poising us for a chaotic Season 3 – especially when it comes to Mark’s relationships with his two loves. Now that we know a junior season will happen because this great Apple TV+ series was swiftly renewed after the premiere of the finale, I’m getting amped about seeing this wild storyline play out.

Lachman’s comments only made me more excited as she opened up about the complexities of this situation and how they could be explored in the next season. She said:

I also can’t wait to see what creator Dan Erickson cooks up for the next season of Severance. After Gemma was stuck in Lumon for so long, I’m desperate to see how she returns to life outside. I need to know what happened to Mark and Helly. And maybe most importantly, I have to find out how innie and outie Mark will clash over this fateful decision to leave Gemma.

This finale set up a deeply complex problem for Adam Scott’s character as well as Helly and Gemma, and I don’t think any of them have fully realized that yet. Gemma’s intense and emotional reaction implies that she is starting to understand what just went down, and we have yet to see if she actually went up the stairs or not.

Now, I’m desperate to know what happens next, because Dichen Lachman’s comments about how her character felt during that life-altering moment added even more tension to the striking and emotional final scene of Severance Season 2.

The more I watch Severance, the more I want to know, and that means, I’m constantly itching for new episodes! Thankfully, Season 2 is airing right now, and we’ve gotten some answers about topics like Gemma’s whereabouts and more. However, I still always want more. It turns out, two of the show’s famous fans, Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell, need more too, as their hilariously violent messages to the show’s star Adam Scott prove.

In the middle of Severance’s run on the 2025 TV schedule, Adam Scott appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show to chat about Season 2. The host asked him if he gets “pushed” for details about the show, and in response he called out some of his famous friends, jokingly saying this about Bell and Shepard:

He brought receipts too. After that humorous statement, Clarkson proceeded to play the messages from the power couple, and while the Severance star said Bell and Shepard were “the best,” he also said these “are not particularly fun.”

Dax Shepard And Kristen Bell Sent Adam Scott Hilarious And Aggressive Voicemails About Severance

While these are hilarious, I imagine these voicemails must be jarring to get. During the interview, Scott played the messages he got from the actors, and he started with this one that’s equal parts intimidating and silly:

• Dax Shepard: Alright, you son of a bitch, Bell and I just sat here on the edge of our seats, waiting to find out what happens when you guys come to…
• Kristen Bell: You losers!
• Dax Shepard: Oh buddy, are we [bleeped out] pissed that this episode just ended.

Scott laughed with Clarkson over the messages, joking that they really weren’t “necessary.” However, that didn’t stop the actors from sending them. In another voice note from the Parenthood star, he joked that Bell had been hospitalized after running through a window, and the Step Brothers actor would have to wait until next week to find out if she was OK.

Like many fans of Severance, these two clearly (and hilariously) did not want to wait to find out what happened, they wanted answers ASAP! So, as you can imagine the wait for Season 2 was extra hard for them, as Shepard stated in another message:

However, don’t you worry, while these are a lot, they’re all in good fun. Plus, Adam Scott didn’t hold back with his response to them.

Adam Scott Had An Equally Savage Response

After all that, Adam Scott joked that he wasn’t above fighting back, and fight back he did. In response to seemingly Shepard’s final voicemail about him getting back to set, the Parks and Rec actor said:

My goodness! He can dish it just as well as Shepard and Bell can, and I bet many can relate to the funny stress and tension in every message here. Overall, Severance is easily one of Apple TV+’s best shows, and so many people care deeply about what will happen to Scott’s character Mark, and need to know what happens next.

Thankfully, now we have it, and Season 2 is almost fully out, as the finale drops this Friday. To catch the highly anticipated season finale of Severance – which could very well cause Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell to send Adam Scott more strongly worded voicemails – all you need is an Apple TV+ subscription.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t watched the latest Severance Season 2 episode with an Apple TV+ subscription, so be warned, refiners!

It pains me to think that that last nine months of the 2025 TV schedule will be completely free from new Severance episodes, with the extended Season 2 finale dropping like an egg-shaped bomb on March 21. The second chapter in this meticulous mystery has delivered one shocking doozy after another, and the penultimate installment took some direct inspiration from another twisty sci-fi favorite, The Twilight Zone. Somebody more talented than me mash these two theme songs together, stat.

One of The Twilight Zone's best episodes, "The After Hours" was the 35th episode that aired from the anthology series' first season. (I wish someone could guarantee that Severance makes it to 35 episodes.) And it's the same title used by Dan Erickson for Ep 209, so it's as good a place as any to start pointing out similarities.

The Title "The After Hours"

At a glance, the shared titles may seem like a mundane tip of the hat to Rod Serling's influence. It rather directly applies to both Outie Mark and Helly, whose respective anti-Lumon plans require waiting for action to be taken after the traditional workday has been completed. For Mark, it's being smuggled to the company's birthing cabin with Cobel and Devon, while Helly is attempting to memorize the directions to the Testing Floor. It's unclear if either plan will bear fruit, however.

And if Severance turns out anything like the end of the Twilight Zone ep, then we might be watching all of our favorite characters forced into accepting their doomed fates, without a clear option for how to change their realities. But more on that shortly.

It All Starts With A Mysterious Elevator Ride

I don't have to tell Severance viewers how important elevators are to Lumon employees, particularly those with (presumably?) patented chips in their heads. So imagine my surprise to see that the original "After Hours" kicking off with Anne Francis' Marsha White hopping into an elevator that mysteriously travels to a floor that isn't supposed to exist. It more or less brings Marsha from one reality to another, or at least another perception of it.

Though she may not be a completely different person, each times she exits the elevator, Marsha's tale is a basic reflection of the Innies' existence, from the utter confusion about the ninth floor to the inability to fully escape the overbearing walls surrounding her.

Password: Golden Thimble

When Cobel pulls up to the birthing cabins near the end of the episode, she convinces the woman guarding the gate to let them through in two distinct ways. First by directly referring to some of the Twilight Zone episode's dialogue, namely that Marsha White is looking for a golden thimble on the ninth floor. Which is a wild bit of in-universe referencing, since it implies that someone in charge of security at Lumon is a Rod Serling fan. (Looking at you, Drummonds.)

More disturbingly, however, Cobel goes beyond just the coded language and falsely alludes to Devon being the latest of what seems like many women who were impregnated by Jame Eagan, either intentionally or not. I'm not sure if the implication was that Cobel would be aborting the baby, but they were allowed in. It would make me sick to think about how many illegitimate Eagan children are walking the streets of Kier and nearby towns.

It Takes Place Within A Sparse Workplace Within A Branded Corporation's Marquee Location

Speaking of those hallways, the Twilight Zone episode takes place within quite the popular department store, with (at least) eight floors of wares for customers to peruse. It may or may not be that company's largest store, but you can bet this isn't the branch they'd stick in Salt's Neck next to the ether factory. And while it's made to look bustling in one part of the building, other areas are quite empty, save for the limited employees working there. As Marsha herself puts it at one point:

I don't think it would be logically possible for any other company on the planet to have as much unused space as Lumon does, given its labyrinthian hallways and large, simply furnished offices. It's literally meant to confuse workers and keep them from discovering other departments on the floor, which is more complicated than the department store's situation, but close enough to count.

"A One-Way Bus Ticket To Any Department Store West Of Cleveland"

After Marsha complains about having purchased a damage thimble on a floor that doesn't exist, the store manager believes her to be a highly disturbed woman, and tells one of his employees that he'd like to buy her the above-mentioned "one-way bus ticket" out of town.

Granted, he doesn't actually get around to buying that bus ticket, but I think that declaration was itself a Serverance reference, with Burt showing up uninvited inside Irving's house with an offer the other man can't refuse: a one-way train ticket to a location that Burt couldn't be told about, so that he wouldn't have anything to report back to Lumon, since it's all but confirmed that he's still working for them in the outside world. I can't help but think that Irv will return in the finale, but also fear that he might have taken Burt's advice to heart.

The Main Character Is Revealed To Be Someone Only Allowed Out Into The Outside World As A "Real" Person For A Limited Time

The big twist behind the Twilight Zone's "After Hours" is that Marsha White wasn't hallucinating at all. Rather, she was actually one of many sentient, talking mannequins within the department store that, for one month out of the year, are able to escape their ninth floor home and live amongst real people. It is quite the escape for them, to the point where Marsha legitimately forgot that she wasn't a real person.

While the reveal wasn't played quite as traumatically as it could have been for Marsha herself, the moment definitely triggered memories of watching Gemma suffer Dr. Mauer's psychological torture on the Testing Floor. Because for all that she was willing to return to her station without fighting it, the longing behind Marsha's last line definitely sticks around for a while after watching. When asked if she enjoyed herself, she replied:

And then she settled into place and stopped moving, and all the chills started running all over my spine. The episode caps off with a scene featuring the store manager discovering the Marsha mannequin, which could very well have its own implications that I'm just not recognizing at the moment.

If someone can figure out how to make time pass by extremely slowly between now and Severance's finale hitting, I'll buy you a real Living Doll. Just don't read the customer reviews.

Spoilers below for Severance’s latest episode for anyone who hasn’t yet streamed it with an Apple TV+ subscription, so be warned!

Rarely has an episode of television stuck a harpoon through my heart and ripped it out quite as brutally as Severance did with its episode "Chikhai Bardo," and it’s technically not the first time it’s happened during the 2025 TV schedule thus far. (Losing Irv as an ORTBO consequence was also highly damaging to the soul.) We now know a lot of the dark and depressing things that Lumon has put Gemma Scout through, and with that information, new contextualizations emerged.

Lumon execs started watching Mark and Gemma when their relationship was founded, and seem to prioritize the couple more than any other employees, proving time and again it’ll go to any lengths to achieve its desired goals. So after witnessing Robbie Benson’s Dr. Mauer utilize myriad torture techniques with Gemma, all under the watchful eyes of one underling or another, I started rethinking the prior episode’s key exchange between Helena Eagan and Outie Mark (oMark for short).

I Originally Thought Helena Sought Mark Out Because He And Helly Shared Vessels

Britt Lower and Adam Scott's respective talents and mutual chemistry were on full display during the sixth episode's "chance" Chinese restaurant encounter. The scene jumped from innocently uncomfortable to friskily amorous to harshly toxic — enough to cause oMark to run away from the table — and the full extent of Helena's motivations remained mysterious throughout, even as she obviously grasped for info about his OTC experience.

And call me a basic-brained lump, but I believed that one of Helena's biggest reasons for having an in-person conversation with oMark stemmed from the fact that Helly and iMark had sex earlier in the day. Whether her intentions would have been psychosexual and malicious or sincerely intrigued by oMark's personality (or both, I guess), I'm not sure. But the fact that these characters' bodies are having sex even if their minds aren't, I think we can agree that's weird and is a reason to address someone in public.

I do still believe that Helena entered that restaurant fully aware of her innie's private meeting with iMark, with or without security footage, but I no longer think that fucking with oMark's head about it was her strongest impulse.

I Think Helena Wanted To Be Seen In Public With Mark

Viewers know that among the many devious things that Lumon pulls off, "surveilling employees" is old trick for old dogs like Drummond. We've already seen the bearded Lumon enforcer keeping his eyes on Mark during a public meal with Devon, and we've seen the deep-voiced goon sneakily entering Irving's house and looking through his Lumon-related paperwork.

Since Mr. Milchick has thus far always chosen to approach the company's employees at home rather than in the wild, Helena could have also gone that route, since she no doubt knows exactly when he's home and when he's not. So why did she choose to approach him out in the open?

So that someone else on Lumon's payroll could take pictures of them sitting at the same table and smiling together. At the time "Atilla" aired, this theory wouldn't have made much sense, but the context that Episode 207 provides makes it more palatable for the speculative mind.

Near the end of "Chikhai Bardo," Dr. Mauer's hyper-gross energy came out in full force as his evaluation turned into proddig Gemma about having emotional feelings for one of the many bizarro personas he took on in the Testing Floor's rooms. And when she didn't bite, he dropped another massive Lumon lie by saying Mark had moved on after her death, and that he was with another woman.

Gemma also didn't immediately buy into this declaration. However, Mauer was convincing enough to plant a seed of doubt in her mind large enough to spark an escape attempt. (Though seemingly not her first, given the comment about the doc's fingers being broken at one point.)

Obviously the company's seemingly vast array of artists who created the stop-motion Lumon Building's "Microdat Uprising" video could surely whip up an artificially generated image of oMark having a good time with another woman. And I have to think that some of them did. But the next best thing would be a real-life situation where oMark can appear smitted by another woman long enough for someone to take a few pictures, without anyone having to mention the moment where Helena intentionally got Gemma's name wrong just to get a rise out of the not-quite-a-widower.

Which is all to say, I fully expect a recovered Dr. Mauer to break Gemma's heart in the near future by showing her the images and playing up how happy oMark looks smiling and talking with Helena. I still don't think that'll be enough to fully break her spirit, but I'm already dreading the look on her face as she tries to sort out those emotions.

It's Hard To Be Optimistic About Mark And Gemma Reuniting

if Dr. Mauer is truly able to convince Gemma that Mark has moved on, then things may go fully south in the form of self-harm, or Gemma might feel so defeated that she just turns into a zombified husk as the trials continue. Those are arguably the two worst-case scenarios.

But any way one slices it, there are no versions of this story where oMark and Gemma are able to live together in the outside world without some form of additional trauma being thrown in, at least without every single chip-switch being disabled within the Lumon building. Barring such a power outage, Gemma leaving the building would likely require iMark giving Ms. Casey the full low-down on everything and then convincing her to effectively kill both herself and Mark's innie by joining him on the main Severed Floor elevator. Seems like the easiest option, but the weight of the sacrifice can't be ignored.

Hopefully Severance ends with talking goats reading storybooks about the MDR characters to their offspring. Well maybe not hopefully. In any case, only three new episodes remain in Season 2, and they will continue to stream Fridays on Apple TV+.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched the latest episode of Severance with an Apple TV+ subscription, so be warned and vigilant!

Despite appearing for only a few total minutes of screentime in Season 1, Severance’s Dichen Lachman has almost definitely still fueled as many fan theories as most of the streaming hit’s regulars. (Such as this theory about MDR’s purpose.) Gemma and Mark’s relationship remains a mystery unto itself, but “Chikhai Bardo,” which will no doubt become one of the most emotionally harrowing episodes to hit the 2025 TV schedule, thankfully provided plenty of clue-filled flashbacks and easter eggs.

Specifically, flashbacks absolutely confirming that Lumon has been part of this couple and other locals’ lives for longer than first assumed, and in ways that are also perhaps more invasive than predicted. Gemma and Mark’s meet-cute at the blood drive (which hinges on the assumption that later twists won’t reveal a prior secret shared history) was quickly tainted by it being a Lumon-sponsored event, as evidenced by the water drop logo that was also on prominent displayed at the fertility clinic.

Speaking with Variety, Dichen Lachman addressed the episode showing viewers just how much of a stronghold Lumon has on the local community, and shared her own self-admittedly unfounded theory about the company’s direct ties to Gemma and Mark. In her words:

Considering how often actors on mystery-driven shows are compelled to keep quiet about major plots, and often avoid sharing their own speculative ideas, Dichen Lachman is a breath of fresh, outside-the-building air for voicing those beliefs about her character. I love the horrifying idea of Lumon is behind every medical institution in the towns of Kier and Ganz, and that they're literally choosing the citizens who most align with their goals, and manipulating their lives however possible to reach those goals.

All that said, if it's Gemma's blood that initially captured Lumon execs' attention, that wouldn't necessarily explain why Mark seems to be the key employee who is getting his needs met, while Gemma is trapped in an existential torture chamber. Mark's importance is likely tied to why Helena chose to sleep with him during the puzzling ORTBO excursion, but again doesn't (seemingly) tie into Gemma's own DNA.

The Mysterious Easter Egg That Fans Might Have Missed

Severance nearly broke my brain with the flat-out reveal that severed employees aren't necessarily limited to just one Innie, but can seemingly have their psyche's split into at least six separate and standalone personalities. It's not at all a good thing to realize, however, since Robby Benson's creepshow Dr. Mauer seems to be infatuated with becoming a bigger part of Gemma's life/lives, despite her undying hope of reuniting with Mark.

"How far does that infatuation go?" one might ask. Well, some very cleverly placed easter egg material might be an indication, and I would have completely missed this if Dichen Lachman hadn't pointed it out:

One lower-tier rule of Severance at this point is, "If you see a slightly out-of-context object or concept once, you'll probably see it used again in a completely different way." And that apparently can apply to Christmas tree tinsel.

As Lachman noted, the tree that's lit up within the "thank you card" room does indeed share a distinctly similar look to the decorated tree that Gemma and Mark had up in their home. Though tinsel itself isn't such a standout detail, the specific way it's dangled from the edges of all the tree branches certainly is.

So what does this actually mean? At the very least, it means Dr. Mauer has photographic or video evidence of Gemma and Mark's past holiday decorations, which doesn't necessarily require evildoing to get a hold of. But the worst-case scenario might be that he coaxed that information out of Gemma, only to apply it and other details to her Innie's low-key torture. Or that Dr. Mauer was already spying on the couple at the time, and gained access to some of the actual tinsel that they put on their tree that year. I don't want to think about that outcome.

What Dichen Lachman Thinks About Mark Saying He Identified Gemma's Dead Body

One of the most confusing elements behind Mark and Gemma's doomed relationship has been the idea that Mark's stance on Gemma's fate was embedded in having to ID her body after the still-unexplained car "accident." Surely someone who'd seen his wife's corpse wouldn't be mistaken about it, right?

Not so fast. Lachman agrees with my own personal idea that if Mark did see the real Gemma's body, she was under the influence of something that made her appear to be dead and unmoving. As the actress put it:

Can we get Dichen Lachman to talk about all kinds of other Severance theory topics to see what else she offers up? Even if she isn't speaking for the writers and other creatives, hearing her ideas is extremely interesting and valuable for theory-mongering fans who can only take so many meticulously worded comments from John Turturro and Adam Scott.

Severance streams new episodes on Apple TV+ every Friday, without any guarantees that answers are coming before Season 2 wraps. But if they do arrive, you can bet I'll be the first to jump into writing that thank you note.

SPOILERS for Severance Season 2, Episode 6 are ahead. If you aren’t caught up, you can stream the series with an Apple TV+ subscription, then come back and read this.

As Severance Season 2 continues its run on the 2025 TV schedule, I’m becoming more fascinated by Mark, Helly and Helena’s relationship with each passing episode. During their trip to Woe's Hollow, Irv figured out that Helly was actually Helena, which meant both her innie and outie have been romantically involved with Mark, and this week, Helena decided to go meet Mark’s outie. However, he wasn’t fully having it, and ultimately bolted away from the interaction. So, obviously, I had to ask Adam Scott and Ben Stiller why this happened.

While Mark’s innie now knows that he’s been spending a lot of time with Helena, his outie only knows her as an untouchable, powerful, corporate figure. So, when she meets him at this restaurant he’s feeling a lot of unsettling emotions, as Scott said during CinemaBlend’s interviews with the Severance cast:

However, there’s also this kind of magnetic chemistry underneath the surface between the two. Mark is clearly confused by this in the moment, and as a viewer, I was fascinated by this too, because his outie does not know Helly. To that point, Adam Scott told me that this spark is not something his character was ready for, explaining:

During the scene, they’re bantering back and forth, but when Helena calls Mark’s wife Hannah instead of Gemma, something seems to flip for him. He starts to look more off-put by the interaction, and then once they say their goodbyes, the guy gets out of there. Explaining why his outie basically ran out of that restaurant, Scott told me:

Considering Mark’s outie has been working really hard to merge with his innie, interacting with a higher-up at Lumon must have been deeply unsettling, but also fascinating. Plus, there’s this romantic tension between Mark and Helly on the severed floor, and Helena played into that while she was pretending to be her innie. So, all those feelings are percolating under the surface of this conversation.

Ben Stiller touched on this point during our conversation, explaining:

That’s the question I want to leave us all with. Throughout Season 2, we’ve seen Mark experimenting in seemingly painful ways to merge his innie and outie. How is that impacting him? How is it impacting his emotions? And importantly in the case of this scene, are his innie’s feelings about Helly and Helena coming through?

We’ll just have to wait to find out as this great Apple TV+ show continues to drop on Fridays. In the meantime, I’ll be thinking about these words from Scott and Stiller, because I have a feeling they’ll carry a lot of weight as Season 2 continues.

Ben Stiller's comedic taste has been made abundantly clear across his decades of work, and personally, I'm a fan of his unique sense of humor. Recently, he showed it off by retweeting a quietly funny, and random, moment from Step Brothers. Surprisingly, it also highlights an actor (who is connected to Stiller thanks to a show on the 2025 TV schedule) outside of Will Ferrell, and I'm so here for this!

The Adam McKay-directed moment Stiller loved highlights Derek (Adam Scott), Dale Doback (John C. Reilly), Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins) and Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen), among others. The scene takes place at the family dinner table while they wait on Brennan Huff (Ferrell). Self-obsessed Derek is in the midst of a crazy and extravagant fishing story when Dale interrupts him, masterfully the exchange bounces around the table after the posed question, only to land back on Derek, who has forgotten his place in the retelling.

The Severance director hyped it as one of the funniest scenes in all movies, ever. He seems to love the bit so much because of Scott’s performance specifically. The Parks and Rec star's demeanor in this small exchange does seem to rival his role on the Apple TV+ subscription show, Severance. Check it out for yourself below:

It’s a part of Step Brothers that flies by if you aren’t paying attention to it. What, I’m assuming, Stiller found impressively funny about the scene is that Scott sticks to the same level of obnoxiousness through the whole conversation, even when his son pipes up. His character is even bold enough to tell Reilly’s character it’s possible he ruined the whole evening by asking the harmless question. The absurdity and subtlety within the 1:34 run is quiet comedy gold, and it teases at the realities of these types of familial dynamics that can be found around the dinner table.

Stepping back, and realizing that Ben Stiller is praising an early Adam Scott role, you can’t help but wonder if it helped the Parks and Rec alum land his Apple gig. This was long before Severance, but it still made some fans pose the curious question to the Zoolander star too. @LobstaFace tweeted:

It’s no secret that Stiller fought for Scott's casting in Severance, and the big swing paid off. Little did the fans know this Step Brothers scene seems to be part of the reason why the director had such an affinity for the actor.

Stiller’s response to the question above was frank and definitive about the casting of the Big Little Lies alum, stating:

It’s great to know that Scott's commitment and comedy chops within this goofy role helped him land his role on Severance. The Party Down actor really pulled off a great performance in this 2008 flick. From the unexpected but funny musical numbers he participated in, to that parted hair-do, Scott never backed away from delivering Derek’s nauseating personality with humor and wryness. And while Severance is a totally different beast, the actor still brings the same level of commitment to playing Mark too.

One thing is for sure, Ben Stiller knows comedy. For him to hype this innocuous Step Brothers scene is pretty cool, and it’s even better to know that it’s part of why Adam Scott landed Severance. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go rent Step Brothers to relive the comedic layers of this Adam McKay film.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet caught up on Severance's Season 2 episodes via Apple TV+ subscription, so be warned!

For as much time as audiences have spent in the world of Severance — 14 TV episodes and countless hours of speculation to date — next to no time has been dedicated to cluing viewers in on exactly where Lumon’s headquarters are located, at least in comparison to other U.S. landmarks. (If only Keanu Reeves’ animated building was more up front.) We know it was built in what became known as the city of Kier, in a state that’s only been referred to in text form as “PE.”

Bizarrely enough, viewers only know of one city that exists in Kier’s immediate vicinity: Ganz, PE. That’s where the college is located that Mark S. and Gemma used to teach at, and possibly where Devon and Ricken’s house is located. Beyond that, the most noteworthy reveal to date has been the nutso ORTBO episode identifying the Dieter Eagan National Forest, which may or may not be a legitimate distinction.

So without oodles and oodles of material to put forth as citation-friendly research, and likely not much coming later as the the 2025 TV schedule rolls on, let’s use what we actually know to take a few stabs in the dark at what PE could actually mean.

Theory: PE Stands For "Prime Eagan" Or Something Similar

I don't think anyone familiar with Severance lore would balk at the idea of Kier Eagan wanting more than just founding a groundbreaking and life-changing company. To me, he seems like the kind of person who would want to also have irreversible ownership of the land upon which his home and company were built. And if Lumon has the global reach of a company like Amazon or Google, then perhaps the Eagan family also possesses the power to stake land claims.

While I can’t pretend to know the intricacies of how one would go about legitimately adding a brand new state to the nation as a whole, we don’t really need to understand that complicated process to grasp the simpler idea that this bloodline is one that thrives on power and self-importance. And what better example can there be than naming a state after oneself?

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Kier's real name is Patrick or another name that would easily lend itself to this theory, but I don't think that's the case. And I also don't see him naming it after any of his siblings or children, so even if we get more Appendices readings down the line, they likely won't be about P-named characters.

Why I'm Leaning Specifically Into "Prime Eagan"

Remember the dream that Irving had in "Woe's Hollow" that clued him in on Helena's identity? Beyond setting up the temper Woe as a creepy AF stand-in for Helly, that sequence also delivers some interesting digital visuals on Irving's computer monitor.

The usual MDR numbers start going haywire as they're joined by a select series of letters (E, A, G, N) that can easily be anagrammed into "E-A-G-A-N." But the numbers on display — 1, 3, 5 ,7 — may be just as important, as they're all prime numbers.

Okay, that's not quite right, as the numeral 1 technically isn't a prime number. But when it's combined with other numbers, similar to combining letters to make "Eagan," then you can get 11, 13, 17, 31, 51, 71, and so on. It's not perfect, but few things about Lumon are.

Prime May Have Other Meanings, Too

In the world of Severance, even an easy concept like "natural childbirth leading to healthy traditional families" seems suspicious when applied to the Eagan family. Fans have all kinds of ideas about how twisted the lineage and family tree might actually be, with reports of inbreeding previously coming to light.

And so what if Prime Eagan is not only indicative of the city being the central hub for the family's business, but also pertains to each of the family members who has risen to the role of CEO? What if each of them, even the ones who seemingly weren't direct descendants, were actually still biologically linked with Kier Eagan through early attempts at cloning and gene-splicing techniques?

Which is to say, combined with the ideas that "Dieter Eagan" is an anagram for "A.I.-generated" and "ORTBO" anagrams into "ROBOT," that Lumon's founding family may itself just be the technology-infused result of Kier's efforts to keep his DNA alive for more than 150 years. Perhaps the seemingly young Miss Huang and the seemingly resurrected Ms. Casey/Gemma are also becoming biological acolytes in that way.

Theories have already sprung up positing that the unidentified, grey-haired doctor (assumed) in the cold open is Kier Eagan himself, but that's a whole other similarly glorious conversation.

Or Maybe I'm Entirely Wrong

The more I think about this idea, the more it seems both entirely correct and extremely unconvincing. Which is a huge part of why Severance is so fun to watch, since few shows nspire such off-kilter theorizing on a constant basis. But let's suppose I'm wrong here, and that PE doesn't mean "Prime Eagan" at all.

It's also possible that "Praise Eagan" could be the state name, with the oft-stated "Praise Kier" being more of a loyalist catchphrase within Lumon itself. But that's a bit more boring and less inventive than my initial idea, so let's pretend we already think it's wrong.

But while we're at it, let's fully replace our Straightforward Theory Thinking cap with the generic department store version and go through a few other ideas for what the letters could be indicative of in this universe.

• Party of Egg
• Place-for Eagans
• Pillaged Elements
• Perpetual Edification
• Perfection Excellence
• Paternal Ewwness
• Pleasant Escape
• Petey's Endgame

Just think of the existential ramifications if June Kilmer would be singing "Fuck Lumon" in a state that was illogically named after her dad. Or don't think about that at all, and shift back to why Lumon's gifted paintings to Milchick were so important that his reaction to them was the first positive observation addressed during his performance review.

Severance drops new episodes every Friday on Apple TV+, with only a handful of episodes left to go in Season 2. If only there was a chip I could put in my own brain to be able to watch from the beginning without remembering what happens.

Spoilers are out on a corporate retreat for Severance Season 2, Episode 4, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Three episodes into its second season, Severance has revealed to fans that Gwendoline Christie is in charge of the goats, that Lumon provides its promoted supervisors with racially questionable Kier Eagan portraits, and that Reghabi is slightly better at the reintegration procedure post-Petey. Among many other weird, suspicious and unnerving details, of course. But nothing shown thus far could properly prepare viewers for the snow-blanketed resplendence of MDR’s ORTBO journey in “Woe’s Hollow,” perhaps my favorite installment to date, as well as an early standout amidst the 2025 TV schedule.

A field trip meant to challenge and intimidate the Severed Floor’s allegedly famed quartet, the ORTBO (Outdoor Retreat & Team-Building Occurrence) took Mark, Dylan, Irving and “Helly” out of their shared comfort zone and made them face previously unseen elements, more confusing Kier Eagan lore, and the all-out trauma of losing a fellow Innie. And the game-changing episode sparked a seemingly endless number of questions in viewers like me. So let’s gear up and ship out.

How Did Lumon Stagger The Outies' Arrivals At The ORTBO Location?

Considering Lumon has its various severed employees showing up to work at different times so that none of the Outies can see each other, I have to wonder what the process was that led to Mark, Dylan and Irving's Innies waking up, as it were, out in the middle of the snow.

Did Mr. Milchick and Miss Huang have to bring them out one at a time, or were blindfolds and tons of patience involved? I'd even think helicopters were involved if the snow around Irving would have been more disturbed.

Isn't A Frozen Lake A Wildly Dangerous Place For Irving And Mark To Begin The ORTBO?

Sure, Lumon execs are no doubt extremely familiar with the area, and can attest to the general thickness of the lake’s ice as it relates to its employees’ safety while standing on it. But it still seems like a very strange and potentially threatening move to for Innies to arrive outside for the first time (with work permission) in a way that could be seen in any way as an insurance hazard.

I also don’t know how Irving automatically knew he was standing on ice if it was all covered in snow, but I’ll let that one go.

Where Does This Episode Even Take Place?

The go-to assumption is that "Woe's Hollow" is set somewhere in the non-residential areas shown behind the Lumon building, and that may well be the case. But I have to think that ep director Ben Stiller intentionally framed the area's wide shots so that we couldn't see Lumon looming (Luming?) in the background, nor the mountainous

Why Wasn't Helena-As-Helly Better At Lying?

The Helena-as-Helly twist is one that fans saw coming, but that's mainly because Britt Lower's Outie hasn't been very good at playing the role of her Innie. And while I get that it was initially an impulse decision that she couldn't plan for, I don't think her "night gardener" story was the best lie she could have crafted, especially after Irving questioned her about it repeatedly. If her true motivation was to completely fool Helly's MDR colleagues, Helena's gameplan should have been more foolproof. Unless...

Was This All A Ploy To Get Irving Fired Again?

Unless the actual goal there was specifically to draw out Irv's paranoia to the point where he'd do something so extreme that Mark wouldn't be able to argue against Milchick firing him. His past with Burt has caused enough friction behind the scenes that Christopher Walken's character was forced into retirement. And I don't think Irv's spot-on Innie-tuition would be a proactive selling point for the severance chip.

Does Calling ORTBO An "Occurrence" Rather Than An Exercise Imply The Events Were Fated?

While the goal of most work retreats is building up reliable teamwork and morale by having coworkers group up for tasks, Lumon's ORTBO doesn't feature any such activities. It's basically a long walk before storytime and a nap seemingly without any overarching purpose beyond laying out Keir Eagan's hidden backstory. Which speaks to the above notion that it was all a ruse.

What Was Powering That TV And Other Electronics?

Lumon is a big enough company that they can likely power that high school A.V. club set-up with a portable power supply, but I think I prefer to believe that there are roughly 700 extension cords going from that cliff top to the nearest outlet.

Is Dieter Eagan Real?

Milchick refers to the ORTBO's setting as the Dieter Eagan National Forest, sparking a bit of exposition about Keir's twin brother and the Fourth Appendix. All of it sounds like manufactured and back-pocketed lore specifically meant to placate wayward Innies. Sure, I can understand why the story doesn't have a prominent display in the Hall of Perpetuity, but is it based on anything resembling real events? Is Scissor Cave a real thing?

Was Milchick's Rhyming Warning Just Meant To Keep The Innies From Running Away?

The video recorded for MDR obviously resembles awkwardly produced training videos for employees, but it takes a weirdly ominous and fantastical tone when the televisual montebank Mr. Milchick utters this rhyming warning:

It'd be one thing if we'd ever heard him tell Dylan, "Make your numbers nice and hearty. Then you'll earn the Waffle Party." But no, Tramell Tillman brings the spooky chills with this out-of-character phrasing, especially in close-up.

What The Actual Fuck With Those MDR Lookalikes?

I don't know that anything in Severance has put me on edge quite as much as seeing the slightly askew MDR doppelgängers guiding the team along their way. They look like they were molded out of clay and then left unfinished, with an A.I. program adding the rest of the details. I don't buy into the idea that they represent Keir's twin, and I just think they're nightmare monsters.

Why Indeed Did That Deal Seal Look So Messed Up, Helena?

The group discovering that mangled animal corpse was no coincidence, and I have to think "Helly" remarking on its mangled nature was just as intentional. Was it, as Mark hinted at, a sign of death meant to stoke fear and worry among the team members? Or is there some deeper metaphorical meaning that I'm unfamiliar with?

Is Helena Sincerely Invested In The Waterfall?

I can only assume that Mr. Milchick lied about the waterfall being the tallest in the world to impress the Innies. But Helena-as-Helly actually does seem to be drawn to the spot in a way that implies the lore isn't just hogwash to her. Or maybe she just thinks falling water is pretty.

Is It Even Legal For Miss Huang To Be Part Of This ORTBO?

From playing the theramin to chunking the Keir-emblazoned marshmallows into the fire, Sarah Bock's Miss Huang is a quiet but stoic force throughout the latter half of the ORTBO. And there are several moments where the camera hangs on her expression as she seems to glare at Irving. But beyond all that, how is she allowed to take overnight work trips if she isn't a robot or clone or something non-human?

Does Helena Want Mark To Get Her Pregnant?

Helena and Mark don't seem to be using protection when they get it on, and viewers were more or less left with the notion that he didn't pull out. Given how important Mark seems to be to Lumon, and the Fourth Appendix's allusions to seed-spilling and red-haired brides, are we meant to believe that Helena is setting up a new generation of Lumon CEO by mating with Mark? And how does Gemma/Ms. Casey fit into that?

Did Irving's Dream Reveal That Burt Used To Be His MDR Cubicle Mate?

It's long been assumed that Irving and Burt used to work in the same Lumon department before they were both sent to the Testing Floor to presumably get their chips reset in some way. So was Irving's dread-frought dream tapping into the truth when it showed Burt lowering the cubicle separator?

Did Irving's Computer Clue Him In On Helena's Identity?

Just before Irving's dream ended, he was staring at his MDR computer as the numbers and letters started moving around and forming the shape of an eye, with only certain numbers and letters appearing, where the letters can be used to spell out:

The numbers that come up are 1, 3, 5, and 7, all prime numbers. Perhaps meant to indicate that the woman he'd been working with was actually the prime version of Helly and not the Innie herself.

If Lumon Warns Against Innies Falling Asleep, Why Send MDR On An Overnight Trip?

Considering it was Irving's dream that fully tipped him off about Helena, and since Lumon makes sure its employees don't fall asleep at work, why was a multi-day ORTBO approved? Unless the point was specifically to provoke those specific kinds of mental untanglings within Irving.

Was Helena's Near-Drowning Foreshadowed In The Microdat Uprising Video?

In a truly bizarre piece of foreshadowing, the stop-motion Microdat Uprising video from Season 2's premiere seemed to give viewers an early look at Helly/Helena's underwater distress when showing off the new "Bobbing For Pineapples" perk. But how would the people making that video know anything like that would happen?

Unless that image was meant to stick around inside the Innies' brains as a subliminal suggestion, with the end goal being for Irving to incite that moment in reality. Which is possibly why Helena left her tent early to go and stand near the waterfall, knowing that Irving would find her there.

How Often Is The Glasgow Block Used?

When Mr. Milchick calls for Helena to be switched back to Helly R., he tells the person on the other end of the radio to "remove the Glasgow Block now." So there's clearly a named and established system in place for this kind of thing to happen, possibly allowing Lumon to turn Outies back into their Innie form whenever they want.

Or perhaps it's just limited to specific cases like Helena's. But I'm assuming the worst here.

Why Wasn't Irving Taken Farther Away From Other Innies Before Being Switched Off?

This question is similar to the one that kicked off this list: if one of Lumon's priorities is making sure its severed employees don't see each other, then wouldn't it be dangerous to have a just-terminated Outie still in the vicinity?

I still have more questions that need answers from this episode, such as why Milchick's first action wasn't to make sure Helly/Helena was okay, but to reprimand Irving and deliver his medieval termination speech. And how Mark is going to express to Helly that they bumped uglies. But that'll have to wait until Episode 205 drops on Friday, February 14.

Severance is one of the best reasons, possibly the best reason, to have an Apple TV+ subscription. The long-awaited second season of the show is airing on the 2025 TV schedule after three years of waiting, and if anything about it is certain, it’s that executive producer and director Ben Stiller found the absolutely perfect cast for the series. In fact, Adam Scott leads the Severance cast as Mark so well it’s difficult to believe that Stiller apparently had to fight the platform to get him cast.

Prior to Severance, Adam Scott was best known for straightforward comedy in shows like the hit Parks & Recreation. While Severance is certainly a very different sort of show in tone, Ben Stiller tells THR that it was specifically because of Scott’s previous roles that he wanted him on the series, which is, from a certain point of view, also a workplace comedy. The director said…

There is humor in Severance, even if most of it comes from perpetual weirdness (what is up with the goats anyway?) rather than jokes. Also, the show does revolve around a workplace, so it does make some weird sense.

Having said that, it seems the execs at Apple didn’t immediately warm to the idea of Adam Scott leading Severance. The actor himself says he completely understands the reticence, calling his casting a “big swing.” Scott explained…

Risk-taking is something that studios attempt to avoid at all costs. Making movies or television is an expensive endeavor with a high downside. As a result, studios frequently will fall back on what has worked before whenever possible. This frequently means casting that feels safe rather than taking chances.

This meant that Ben Stiller had to “battle Apple” to get them to agree to cast Scott. That’s a dangerous move as it can potentially backfire and doom an entire project. In the end, Apple let Stiller cast who he wanted, and he was proven right.

Scott is clearly grateful too. He says it’s the first time anybody has ever risked so much for him. He continued…

Adam Scott may not have had anybody fight for him like this, but other actors certainly have. For example, Jon Favreau has talked about his battle with Marvel over casting Robert Downey Jr. in the first Iron Man. And Kevin Feige has since called it the biggest risk that Marvel has taken in the MCU. So, yeah, I'd say sometimes the risk is very worth the reward.

Adam Scott isn’t the only one who should thank Ben Stiller for fighting for him. It’s hard to imagine Severance fans would be watching a better show today if anybody else was playing the role of Mark.

Spoilers for Severance Season 2, Episode 3 are ahead! Read with caution…

When Gwendoline Christie was cast in Season 2 of Severance, I immediately got excited for Ben Wyatt. Yes, you read that correctly, I was thrilled for a character who isn’t even on this fantastic Apple TV+ show. However, the reason behind it is Adam Scott plays both Ben on Parks and Rec and Mark on Severance, and Ben is a massive Game of Thrones fan. Excitingly, the actor behind Mark was just as thrilled about Brienne of Tarth joining the cast of the show currently airing on the 2025 TV schedule, and I love how Ben-coded his excitement is.

Being the massive Parks and Rec fan that I am, I was thrilled when Gwendoline Christie joined the Severance cast, because I knew both Ben and Adam Scott are massive GOT fans. Plus, her character in the Apple TV+ show, Lorne, plays a big role in the wild goat subplot that I’ve been dying to see more of. So, when I interviewed Scott about Season 2 for CinemaBlend, I asked him about working with the Brienne of Tarth actress, and he excitedly said:

I can’t think of a more Ben Wyatt-coded response. If he had met Christie, I think he might have fainted, and he 100% would have been in awe of her skill and talent, just like Scott was. If you don’t believe me, review the Parks and Rec scene of Ben sitting on the Iron Throne, and then tell me it doesn’t emit the same eagerness as Scott’s response above:

As you can see, Ben is like the No. 1 fan of Game of Thrones and its cast, and Adam Scott has the same kind of enthusiasm in real life, which makes this moment in Severance truly iconic from a BTS perspective.

To make matters better, the scene Christie shared with Scott and Helly actress Britt Lower was wild. In Episode 3, we are introduced to her character Lorne, and it becomes clear that she’s in charge of the department that oversees the goats at Lumon.

The scene was ominous, mysterious and dark – despite its stark white setting – and Christie was brilliantly unsettling in it as she basically interrogated Mark and Helly about why they were there. To that point, Scott also talked about working with the GOT star while being around so, so many goats, explaining:

Between the goats, the questions the goats and this department cause and the incredible back and forth between Mark and Lorne, this Severance scene is one for the history books!

However, it gets even better when you take into consideration just how big of a Game of Thrones fan Adam Scott is and how it harkens directly back to the other character and show he’s best known for, Ben Wyatt and Parks and Rec. Talk about worlds colliding.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet streamed Severance’s second Season 2 episode with an Apple TV+ subscription.

With every episode that’s come out thus far — 11 in total, with hopefully millions more on the way, I say non-hyperbolically — Severance has proven itself to be not just Apple TV+’s best original series to date, but among the medium’s upper echelon at large. Season 2’s second outing, “Goodbye, Ms. Selvig,” certainly didn’t drop the ball as it revealed just how much of what Mark learned during “Hello, Ms. Cobel” was based on reality: barely any of it. We don’t even know if Helly is actually Helly.

But one notion rang abundantly clear throughout the entire episode: Mark S. is so intrinsically important to Milchick and Lumon that an entirely new web of lies was created — including crafting newspaper fronts and lore-filled stop-motion videos — to convince Adam Scott’s Innie character to continue heading MDR for the sake of whatever the Cold Harbor project is. But all this focus on Mark as leader led me to reflect on the catalyst that got him to this point: Petey Kilmer.

Why Was Petey Previously Running MDR, And What Was He In Charge Of?

Far be it for me to ever assume that a company as large and opaque as Lumon would have only one ulterior motive at play regarding its severed employees, because I'm sure a network of motivations is guiding the non-severed overseers' actions. So I'll grant that a singular answer won't exist here, since the basic question of "What does MDR even do?" is still an overarching mystery.

All that said, I think it's both important and necessary to have a better grasp of Petey's professional role within Lumon, specifically where it compares (or doesn't) to Innie Mark's significance within the same office role. Let's take into account these perceived details:

• Mark is so important that Ms. Cobel broke protocol to get closer to his Outie
• A lot of pressure is on Milchick and Team MDR to achieve their goals, which the audience can assume are tied to the Cold Harbor visual at the end of the Season 2 premiere
• Mark's connection to Ms. Casey/Gemma appears to be vital to the Cold Harbor project and Cobel's own interests
• As opposed to Helly joining any other departments on the Severed Floor, the golden child of Lumon's CEO was specifically put onto Mark's team just after his de facto promotion
• Milchick pushed hard to make Innie Mark believe in the five-month time gap, even retconning Irving and Dylan's terminations and sending Helena back in to fulfill Mark's request

Knowing everthing that we do about Petey's story, which I'll admit isn't that much, I don't think Severance''s creative team set Yul Vasquez's character up as extremely vital to Lumon's clandestine schemes with MDR. Though his reintegration-related hallucinations could have been based on moments that never happened, I think having those rather mundane office interactions revealed to be fictional would undermine the idea that reintegrations can work.

Plus, in the time since Mark took over MDR, Cobel and Milchick have appeared completely stressed out in ways they neither expected nor have ever dealt with before. Which makes me think neither has ever had to go beyond basic efforts to keep Petey and his own predecessors placated, and that Petey's personal life wasn't so directly connected to his Innie the way that we've seen with the core characters.

With all of that taken into account, I can't quite tell if we're meant to understand that Cold Harbor has been an ongoing project that Petey was unwittingly in charge of, with or without the Mark/Gemma connection as its main purpose, or if he was making sure some other plan was put into effect that he was most ideally suited for.

Either way it went, Petey still got wind of something evildoer-esque happening, thus sparking him volunteering for the reintegration process in the first place. Within the context of this show's layered narrative, it would make sense for Petey to have been in charge of something as equally groundbreaking as whatever Cold Harbor is, but I don't get the feeling that he was.

If Mark suddenly went missing without anyone being able to contact him, followed relatively shortly after by a dead head of security, I can only imagine that Lumon higher-ups would be on full alert with undercover operatives scouring the streets of Kier and beyond, in opposition to the seeming lack of an effort in finding Petey and keeping him alive, or keeping him from talking more. Cobel wasn't even officially tasked with the morbid job of retrieving the chip from Petey's brain, but did it anyway for her own reasons.

Maybe these questions and avenues of thought are completely pointless and irrelevant to the point of the show as a whole, which I'll easily allow given the scope of everything else. But it's precisely that meticulous attention to detail that compels me to believe learning more about Petey would help inform what makes Mark so special to his employers.

But now it's time to start preparing this month's signature syrup flavor for the Waffle Party, so remember to watch new episodes of Severance every Friday on Apple TV+.

While Adam Scott is on a new show these days with Severance, it’s certainly hard to follow up on what is considered as one the best sitcoms of all time. Scott was of course Ben Wyatt in Parks And Recreation, the charming, nerdy state auditor who was also into calzones, claymation, and Leslie Knope. The actor was recently asked about revisiting the show, and he actually had a really sweet reason why he hasn’t been bingeing it over and over like the rest of us.

When Adam Scott was a live guest on the Happy Sad Confused podcast at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Josh Horowitz showed a beloved clip of Ben Wyatt asking the audience if a “depressed person could make this” while holding up a clay figure the character made while unemployed. After seeing the scene, Scott commented that he’d not seen a scene from the show in ages. In his words:

If you can believe it, it will actually be a decade since the finale of Parks and Recreation this year, just one month from now. Even though it’s been so long, Scott shared that the cast are still in constant contact on a text chain. This was proved by Scott and Amy Poehler crashing the premiere of Agatha All Along in September to support their former co-stars Aubrey Plaza and Kathryn Hahn. When CinemaBlend spoke to Jim O’Heir about his Parks And Rec book last year, he also shared how much gratitude the whole cast for the series.

Adam Scott’s words about why he doesn’t watch Parks and Recreation actually hits one in the gut, because it illustrates how much the series meant to the actor, and how that treasured time on the series is gone. Fortunately, we can rewatch the show over and over with a Peacock subscription, but the actor can’t necessarily relive the specific energy of making the series anymore.

The Parks and Recreation cast reunited back in 2020 to raise money for Feeding America during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the actor was asked if he thinks there’s more story to tell about Pawnee, he said that would be up to creators Mike Schur and Greg Daniels, regarding if they had further ideas for its characters.

You can currently check out Adam Scott in the Severance cast on Apple TV+. Check out our exclusive interview with the actor about how they pulled off Season 2’s wild opening scene.

Spoilers for Episode 2 of Severance Season 2 are ahead! If you aren’t caught up, you can stream the series with an Apple TV+ subscription and catch new episodes every Friday.

Ms. Cobel is an enigma. I can’t figure her motivations out for the life of me, and Episode 2 of Severance Season 2 only made me more confused. So, because her situations with Lumon and Mark were in flux at the end of Severance Season 1, I’ve been wondering what her next move would be, and being confronted by Adam Scott's character and almost running him over was not one of my guesses. However, that’s what happened, and hearing Patricia Arquette’s explanation about her character’s mindset at that moment has made me see her in a new light.

At the end of Episode 2, Mark drives home from Lumon and sees Ms. Cobel leaving her house. He immediately confronts her, asking who she really is and noting that he really used to trust her. Then, Patricia Arquette’s character tells Adam Scott’s outtie that he’s “so easy to sway,” as she realizes he decided to stay at the mysterious corporation they both have a history with. That’s when Mark runs in front of her car and starts rattling off aggressive questions to try and figure out what's going on.

When she doesn’t answer any of those questions, Mark asks if she knows something about Gemma. In response, Ms. Cobel, breathes, screams, honks her horn and starts driving away. It’s a deeply unsettling and ambiguous reaction. So, when I interviewed Arquette about her fantastic Apple TV+ show, I asked what was going through her character’s mind when this happened. In response, she said:

I’ve always been very perplexed by Cobel’s relationship with Mark and Lumon. However, for the most part, I’ve assumed she’d stay loyal to the company, despite what they did to her. However, Arquette confirmed here that she does want to tell Adam Scott’s character what’s going on, and it seems like she cares for their connection, which I had never fully considered before.

That mixed with the meeting Cobel had with Helena at the start of the episode really sets up a juicy storyline for this character as she revaluates where her allegiances lie.

Speaking of that scene with Helena, in it, Britt Lower’s character thanks Arquette’s for her work and loyalty and asks if she wants to come back to work. Cobel responds by saying she wants an apology and to run the severed floor. They reach an impasse on this point, and along with saying she’ll think about Lumon’s offer, Cobel states:

So, between this scene and her interaction with Mark, it’s clear that Cobel is trying to figure out her next move, and it’s so fascinating to have it confirmed that she’s not quite sure what the right move is.

I’ve always seen Cobel as a staunch and determined person, and I’ve always assumed she had a plan. However, her reaction to Mark and Arquette’s explanation about how torn her character is proves that that’s not the case. So, yeah, I’m seeing Ms. Cobel in a totally new light now.

I can’t wait to see how that understanding of her changes too as Severance continues to air on the 2025 TV schedule. If there’s one thing I know about this show, it’s that we all need to prepare for the most unexpected possibilities.

Slight spoilers for Severance Season 2 are ahead! If you haven’t made your way back to the severed floor, you can stream the series with an Apple TV+ subscription.

When Season 2 of Severance starts, you are immediately thrown back into Lumon with Mark S. as he sprints through the hallways. This sequence is almost two minutes long, and it basically looks like a one-take as Adam Scott rushes through the halls of his workplace. However, in reality, this moment that opens the show’s run on the 2025 TV schedule took months to film, and Adam Scott and Ben Stiller told me the story behind why.

Ben Stiller Breaks Down How They Filmed The Opening Sequence

After watching Season 2’s premiere, I knew that when I sat down with the Severance cast, and specifically the show’s director and EP Ben Stiller and star Adam Scott, I had to bring up this jaw-dropping sequence. In the interview, I asked the Night at the Museum star how they filmed what looked like a one-take, and he quickly corrected me, noting how long it took to create this scene and how many parts it was split into:

For a scene that looks so seamless, it’s wild to hear that it took five or six months to shoot. However, it also makes sense. Mark runs through so much of the floor, and each of those sets is used for different scenes throughout Season 2. With that in mind, it tracks that they’d film each part of this opening sequence as the various aspects of the office were constructed.

Stiller went on to tell me why they opted for this grandiose running sequence to kick off the season. Thinking about what Mark learned at the end of Severance Season 1 and the fact that he was returning after that, it made sense that he was frantic and energetic as he tried to figure out what was going on:

Getting into the technicalities of pulling this off, the Meet the Parents actor explained that they used a “bolt arm,” which is a robotic camera that is programmed to swing around and film Scott as he ran. Stiller said that was actually “very dangerous” to do, and along with this taking forever to film, it was also “a little bit scary.”

However, it all paid off in the end, as the director explained:

That shot deserved a wrap party! Between how long it took, the technical aspects and Scott’s performance, it’s an unforgettable and marvelous moment to start Season 2.

Oh, and speaking of the star of Severance, he also told me what it was like to be in front of the camera for this epic sprint.

Adam Scott Told Me What It Was Like Starring In Severance’s Opening Scene

While Ben Stiller was thinking about the technical aspects of this scene, Adam Scott was thinking about running, and running, and running, and running some more. As the director said, it took months to shoot this, and they picked it up here and there as they filmed the rest of Season 2.

When the Mark actor spoke about what it was like to perform this scene, he joked about how much Gatorade he had to drink and how he really had to brace himself for the running days:

The Party Down actor continued to tell me that he was “exhausted” when they finished filming it, but he thought it was “super fun.” It paid off big time too. Knowing how much time, effort, “Gatorade and bananas,” as Scott said, went into making this scene proves why the wait for Severance Season 2 was worth it and it sets the bar exceptionally high for the rest of the season.

To see this epic scene, you can stream Severance on Apple TV+, then make sure to check back in every Friday on the streamer to see what Mark is up to and how the show continues to blow our minds as Season 2 continues.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet streamed Severance's Season 2 premiere with an Apple TV+ subscription, so be warned!

One of my biggest TV obsessions has finally returned, with Severance arriving on the 2025 premiere schedule three years after that first season's cliffhanger had everyone wondering if Mark would actually remember yelling "She's aliiive!" before being pulled back into his outie's reality. Answer: he didn't. But creator Dan Erickson's team still filled the episode with myriad other answers and new details to gnaw on until the next episode of this critically acclaimed season arrives.

Of all the wild and unpredictable quotes, discoveries, changes and introductions on display in "Hello, Ms. Cobel," what drew my attention the most was Lumon's bonkers "Microdat Uprising" video that Milchick showed to Mark, Helly, Dylan and Irving as a way of welcoming them back, seemingly months after the events of the previous episode. So join me in obsessively running through some of that video's most oddball and questionable details.

1. Does Lumon Have Its Own Animation Studio?

So, I already didn't believe when Milchick told Mark it's been five months since the "Uprising," but even if that were the case, I have trouble believing Lumon either employs animators skilled enough to create it, or that they would outsource such a job from a professional. Especially considering the lo-lo-fi CGI shown in past animated clips.

2.. "Lumon Is Listening"

Pretty ballsy to start this video off with a double Lum-ontendre that very clearly points out that this workplace is a surveillance state, but in such a celebratory way that it seems like it actually does mean the best-case version, that Lumon wants to appease the Innies' needs.

3. The Slightly Different Building Setting

Viewers are aware of what the immediate area surrounding the Lumon building looks like, even if only in snow-covered form, and the version seen in the video doesn't quite look the same. I get that there was no reason for the animators in this case to go 1:1 with the recreation, but why make it similar at all if not?

4. Why Is This Building Branch 501?

As the animated building itself points out, it's classified as Branch 501, which makes it sound like it wasn't the first administrative building the company built. Yet, it's then stated that the building was "sired" in 1870 as an illustration shows a home sat in the same spot all those years ago, followed by a time-lapsed look at its evolution over time. But maybe other buildings did come before it, and the home was only repurposed after its owner's death.

5. Nope To That Giant Winking Kier Egan Face

I wouldn't even like that giant wall of Kier Egan's face even if it didn't blink. But the fact that it does is extra justification.

6. I Wonder If All The Other Employees Shown Are Actual Lumon Workers

Since animated versions of Mark, Helly, Dylan and Irving are all seen in the video, does that mean every other claymation character represents someone else working in the same building? I get that we might never meet even a tiny fraction of those who work anywhere between the surface and the Severed Floor, but I do wonder about the workers seen in that setting.

7. "My Basement Floor"

More straight-up lying from the Lumon Administrative Building. (Perhaps buildings have looser moral codes in such respects.) We know that in order to reach the Testing Floor, employees have to go down, which would make THAT the basement.

8. Lumon Is Located In 206 Countries

For all that it seems like Lumon has its work cut out for it just at the one Kier building in the fictional state abbreviated as PE, that workforce is apparently small potatoes compared to the brand's global reach as a whole. I'm not entirely sure if we should believe the video's claim that it operates in 206 countries, and part of me can't help but suspect this whole operation of being smaller than it claims. I couldn't quite tell if anything was different or off about the lit-up globe used in that moment.

9. No Running In The Halls, Lest You Tickle The Walls

I honestly don't understand if the wall claiming its ticklish is supposed to be anything other a blatantly patronizing way to curb running down the halls. But at least Irving thought it was worth a chuckle, even if Ms. Hwong wasn't amused.

10. Bluebirds Of Happiness?

I'm not entirely sure if those are meant to represent "bluebirds" as a species, or just to offer the general idea of the bluebird of happiness. (The Lumon building talks about happiness when they're shown, so I'm definitely connecting them, especially since blue is such an important color in this universe.

11. Team MDR's Efforts Get A Cinematic Dramatization

The section that actually covers the "Uprising" is a wild case of corporate gaslighting, and to the people who actually made it happen. The video makes the foursome's efforts appear far more organized, confident, and Mission: Impossible-esque, even though the people watching it know it wasn't nearly as smooth.

12. "Let's Burn This Place To The Ground"

Echoing the notion that Lumon Is Listening, the video features Irving's actual voice making the rebellious suggestion above, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that MDR's conversations and actions are always being seen, heard, and recorded.

13. Twirling, Burning Irving

I get the idea of Irving's burning scalp visually denoting his hotheaded nature in regards to his threatening words, but I'm perhaps less aware of what the synchronized spinning choreography was about. I'm going to pretend that it means Outie Irving is a dancer.

14. They Even Animated Mark And Helly's Kiss

As much as Mark and Helly's smooch outside the elevators was set up as the "Love" quadrant of this epic-seeming tale, I think it's pretty weird that Lumon would so willingly draw attention to that interaction without ulterior motives beyond shaming the two characters in front of their cubicle mates.

15. Were Cobel And Milchick Giving Advice On Building Plans?

While I could be wrong, it appears to be Cobel and Milchick talking to a blueprint-holding building contractor. But even if that's not correct, it does present a question similar to "Who animated this video?" Lumon seems like the kind of place that wouldn't hire random outside contractors, and would only want to work with trusted partners, but is there anyone in the outside world who might have secrets or helpful knowledge about the building that could help the Outies?

16. "Tasty New Snacks"

• Fruit Leather
• Cut Beans
• Christmas mints
• Salsa

I want a few of whatever snack made Dylan go all psycho-orgasmo, except all of the options above sound terrible as vending machine purchases, so maybe I'll pass. But still, what a sad list.

17. That Hall Pass Is Too Little, Too Late

With Irving's trips to see Burt helping to stoke the fires of the Uprising, making Hall Passes a new incentive after forcing Burt into retirement feels like an incredibly malicious middle finger at John Turturro's character.

18. How Can Bobbing For A Pineapple Possilbly Be An Incentive?

Less directly targeted than the Hall Pass, at least I think, is the notion that Bobbing For Pineapples makes any sense to anyone. It's a non-incentive of the highest order, since the only way to succeed is through self-harm. So maybe it IS a cheap shot, but aimed at Helly, who is indeed the one whose head is dunked rather violently below the water, with her eyes going all wonky at one point. Foreshadowing for Helly, or just quirky animation?

19. Ain't Nothing Playful About That Mirror Room

Lumon taking more shots at Irving by reflecting monstrous visions of himself within the "playful" mirror room. (Maybe that's what the contractor was holding blueprints for.) The way the final distorted face remains reflected in the water during the scene transition is all kinds of foreboding. Whoever put this together at Lumon was not aiming to deliver comfort whatsoever.

20. In The End, Kier Still Gets The Glory

Despite starting off with the MDR team being hailed as quasi-heroes, the video ends perhaps predictably not by repeating their praises, but by giving all the graciousness and credit to Kier Eagan.

Even with all of those thoughts above, there are other tidbits I could go on about, such as being kind of disappointed the reflective pool had no goats slurping up its water. But hopefully more of those details are on the way soon. Thanks for taking this laborious and important journey with me.

New episodes of Severance hit Apple TV+ every Friday.

In the three years we’ve been waiting for Severance Season 2, I’ve been pondering the goats a lot, and so have other fans. In fact, theories about the greater meaning behind them have been a part of the discussion surrounding this workplace thriller. Now, with Season 2 on the 2025 TV schedule’s horizon, the show’s creator, Dan Erickson opened up to CinemaBlend about these animals and why he’s excited to explore what they do more in this upcoming sophomore season.

Ahead of the premiere of this incredible Apple TV+ show, I had the chance to interview the cast of Severance and its creator Dan Erickson. While chatting with him, I asked which storyline from Season 1 he was excited to explore more in Season 2. In response, he told me a bit about the goats and what we can expect from these new episodes, explaining:

So, the Severance goats will play a role in Season 2, that’s confirmed, and that alone has me pumped. From thinking the goats run Lumon to wondering if the goats are really goats to theorizing about if they are being used to experiment with cloning, the theories surrounding these animals are wild! And I need to know more about them.

However, while that was all I needed to be pumped, Erickson added some information that increased my excitement tenfold. He told me he “wanted to show more of that department…” which means there's probably a big network working in this realm of Lumon. So, hopefully, that means we’ll really get to see a lot more of whatever this goat department is.

How many people work there? Are there grown-up goats or just baby goats? What are they doing in that department? Do they also not know the purpose of their work? All of these questions and more are things I’ve been wondering since Season 1, and Erickson’s words gave me hope that we might get answers or at least enough information to develop more nuanced and detailed questions about the goats during Season 2.

When we saw the animals for the first time, we only saw them for a brief minute. A man was bottle-feeding the baby goats, and he looked scared. Other than that, we have no actual clue what their purpose is. However, it sounds like it’s a lot greater than we might expect, and I desperately want to know more ASAP!

Overall, it’s Severance theories like this that make the show so fun to watch, and like many fans, I’m dying to dive back in and start developing new ones. Thankfully, we’ll get to do just that (and learn more about the goats) soon, because the long-awaited second season premieres on Friday, January 17 for those with an Apple TV+ subscription.

As comic movie fans move into the 2025 movie schedule, there’s a lot to be excited about on both sides of the major competitors at hand. That much is especially true when considering that 2024 brought us Madame Web, a flick that surely won’t wind up on the list of best Marvel movies.

Since that picture received a dog piling reserved for only the worst entries in Sony’s supposedly dead Spider-Man Universe, it’s given the world an opportunity to ask co-star Adam Scott if he’d even dare to return to the world of super powered cinema. And while speaking with ComicBook about the latest season of his hit Apple TV+ series Severance, Scott did indeed have an answer to that query.

It’s as charmingly diplomatic as you’d expect, as the man provided the following stance:

While the Sony Spider-Man Universe might be pushing up daisies, that doesn’t mean the casting from those pictures will never be revisited. As the connections between the Tom Holland era of Peter Parker are fully woven into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, anyone from this attempted expansion might be able to pop up when least expected.

However, the odds aren’t exactly equal for all characters across the board to resurge. Jared Leto’s Morbius lead is someone you can probably expect to be on ice indefinitely, as well as most of the Madame Web cast.

Based on what we know about Spider-Man 4, and the Uncle Ben of Tom Holland’s iteration still not revealed to the world, Adam Scott could have a unique advantage that could keep him in the MCU, should he choose to stay. Imagine how much it’d break everyone’s brains to hear Uncle Ben’s modified catchphrase from Madame Web spoken accurately by Scott himself in some sort of flashback?

Then again, there’s always the option of the Parks and Rec alum jumping ship for the roster of upcoming DC movies. With lots of possibilities still remaining in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new vision for that cinematic continuum, Adam Scott’s hardcore fan club has probably earmarked some potential dream castings they’d like to see happen in the near future.

It’s true that Madame Web’s brutal critical response is still being felt by the world of fans and creatives alike. That being said, Mr. Scott is still a talent that draws a crowd. So if the right approach was in play, and the case was too compelling, we just might see this beloved actor reporting for comic book duty yet again.

For now, Adam Scott fans have the premiere of Severance Season 2 to look forward to, with the premiere set for January 17th. Also, if you’d like to revisit Adam Scott’s pretty solid portrayal of Ben Parker, you can use your Netflix subscription to do just that.

The wait for Severance Season 2 is nearly over, and not a moment too soon. Fans’ heads are in danger of exploding from myriad old and new theories that have amassed in the nearly three-year wait since Season 1’s chilling finale. Such speculation ranges from intriguingly realistic to surreally far-flung, and I’m eager to finally learn which ideas had merit and which were devoid. Thankfully, the show’s cast came together to shed both light and darkness on certain fan theories.

To promote the already lauded-by-critics Season 2 being available to stream soon for fans with Apple TV+ subscriptions, stars John Turturro, Patricia Arquette, Zach Cherry, Adam Scott, and Britt Lower were given a variety of viewer-based theories for a video put together by EW. Several were more or less put to bed, such as the lurking idea that the numbers being tracked by the MDR team are completely meaningless. (Arquette called that one out as being B.S.)

Honestly, though, I was more intrigued by two of the theories that the show's stars didn't quickly shoot down as being illogical or mistaken. The first, because it matches squarely with something I already believe, and the second, because I want to spend more time thinking about what it all means. Let's step through the elevator doors.

THEORY: Irv's Testing Door Paintings Are Connected To Hidden Past With Burt

From the very start of their regular interactions, Turturro's tight-knit Irving and Christopher Walken's O&D charmer Burt seemed to be building on a pre-existing kinship, if not something more heartfelt. That idea was perhaps strengthened by Innie Burt being forced into retirement once Irving's visits became more frequent and disruptive.

Separately, we have the mostly confirmed idea that Outie Irving's paintings are of the Testing Floor hallway and elevator doors that are located below the offices where severed employees work. Those ideas match up via the theory that both Irving and Burt were sent to the Testing Floor in the past to "reset" them, as it were, by severing each's more amorous feelings for the other.

In response to the theory that connects Irving's paintings to a potentially erased relationship with Burt, John Turturro tiptoed around confirming that detail by saying:

Obviously that answer sparks intrigue simply for offering credence to the theory in the first place, but Turturro's specific method of agreement offers more threading to get all knotted up in. In that he refers to his own "theories," which implies that even he's not 100% in the loop on what it all means.

Or perhaps Turturro is indicating that the idea lines up with what his own theories about Irving's story were, before he got wind of whatever the real answer is that creator Dan Erickson and EP Ben Stiller concocted. But that doesn't even necessarily mean the theory is wrong, just that the Emmy-winning actor excels at caginess. I'm still feeling good about this one.

THEORY: Colors Mean Everything In Severance

Okay, so there are technically a bunch of theories focused on Severance's use of colors, but not anything so overarchingly simplistic as "good" characters wear white and "evil" characters wear black. The idea goes beyond the assumption that Erickson & Co. are hyper-intentional with set design and costuming choices, and digs into how the Egan family and Lumon itself utilizes colors to dictate the Innies' world.

Patricia Arquette was the one to shed a thin line of fluorescent light on this matter by more or less agreeing that fans should be paying attention to color schemes, particularly within Lumon's walls. As she put it:

Regardless of what colors Harmony Cobel (or her faux personality Mrs. Selvig) has on, I would find it very hard to consider the character herself as warm and earthy as one might expect from an "Autumn." I guess Selvig could be considered in such a way, given her motherly vibes with Devon and Ricken's baby, but given that was all an artifice, it doesn't count.

In any case, I'm going spend more time ahead of Season 2 doing down obsessive rabbit holes focused on the blue-and-green balance on the Severed Floor, among other thought trains.

But first, I have to give Zach Cherry some credit for leaning into one of the most wonderfully outlandish theories about the conversation-driving goats comprising Lumon's Board, even if his jokey response was kneecapped by Turturro.

• ZACH CHERRY: I'm not going to debunk this. It's possible the goats could be the Board.
• JOHN TURTURRO: I'm debunking it.

It's unclear when or if the above theories will either be proven true or false, but the only way to start arriving at an answer is to watch Season 2 when it debuts on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 17.

When it comes to the 2025 premiere schedule, arguably no show boasts a more impressive theories-per-mystery ratio than Apple TV+’s Severance, which has kept desperate viewers waiting with open arms and elevator doors for eventual answers. Thankfully, answers are oh-so-close to arriving, as Severance Season 2 is set to debut on Friday, January 17, but even those who haven’t yet experienced the singular majesty of watching the quizzical drama can join the rest of us without requiring a current Apple TV+ subscription.

Surprisingly enough for a company that often thrives on exclusivity, Apple has partnered with Roku to bring one of its biggest streaming hits to the masses, presumably to try and lock in as many widened eyeballs as possible going into the long-awaited second season. Not that only those new to the project can take advantage, since even the biggest fans will likely be in need of Season 1 binge to keep all those shifting plotlines in mind.

Right now as we speak, anyone can either hop onto a Roku device or visit the streaming company’s website and watch all nine episodes of Severance Season 1 without having to subscribe to anything or sign up for a free trial or walk down any long hallways that seemingly don’t lead anywhere. All it takes is a few clicks and boom, the next nine hours of your life are Lumen’s. You are become an innie.

Roku unveiled its surprise Severance news by calling it an “exclusive fan experience,” with the caveat that the free-to-stream window will take place from January 9-19, giving streamers eleven days to watch for the first time and have their minds blown, or to rewatch and inspire a few dozen new sub-theories.

It seems clear that Apple TV+ is eager to bring new customers into its audience pool, especially without any new seasons of the fan-favorite comedy Ted Lasso in the works. (Though that could always change.) The service previously gave streamers around the globe a fully free weekend to sample, or flat-out devour, its original series and films from Jan. 3-5.

Roku opened the year up with big news by reporting that it surpassed 90 million streaming households during the first week of 2025, a little over ten years after the Roku TV branding launched. In August 2024, Nielsen unveiled a rundown of the Top 10 streaming services, with Roku at the #7 spot, garnering around 1.6% of total streaming traffic.

That total can be compared to YouTube’s 10.4% and Netflix’s 8.4%, while Apple TV+ did not make it onto the top ten, which perhaps proves why it partnered up with the highest charting FAST (free ad-supported TV) streaming platform. Whatever the reasoning, "free Severance" is good news for everyone.

Perhaps if the critics' reviews for Season 2 were negative or even slightly middling, it might be less vital to delay everything else in life to stream Season 1 on Roku, but the early word is that this season could very well top the first, while also topping most other shows on TV right now. Check out the trailer below!

Severance Season 2 will debut on Apple TV+ starting on Friday, January 17, two days before the free window for Season 1 stops. Don't waste any time, Kier Eagan loyalists!

When Severance Season 2 hits the 2025 TV schedule, it will be just a few months shy of three years since I was left shouting at the TV (much like Mark Scout’s Innie) after one of the best cliffhangers in TV history. Finally the sci-fi drama is returning to give us some answers about what happened to the macrodata refiners following their little field trip outside of the Lumon severed floor (and for godsakes, why there are the baby goats!), but can the sophomore season possibly live up to the first? Critics have screened the 10-episode season, so let’s see what they have to say.

We can blame Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson’s need for perfection for why Severance Season 2 took so long, but with the big cast additions and intriguing sneak peeks we’ve gotten, I’ll happily sever myself from the past three years of pain in favor of new episodes. Let’s get to the reviews, which I will keep spoiler-free, because it’s not too late to get your Apple TV+ subscription and binge Season 1! Jeremy Mathai of SlashFilm rates the second season an 8 out of 10, calling the series “darker, more ambitious, and as confounding as ever.” Mathai writes:

Nicole Gallucci of Decider says her expectations had swelled to dangerous heights during the three-year wait for new Severance episodes, but there’s no sophomore slump in sight, as Season 2 slaps harder than Page 197 (iykyk). The next chapter of the Lumon employees’ story brilliantly builds on a near-perfect first season, Gallucci writes, continuing:

Carly Lane of Collider gives the second season a perfect 10 out of 10, saying that already Severance makes a strong case to be one of the best shows of 2025. Questions are answered as quickly as new mysteries are introduced, and you’ll be left dissecting a couple of standalone episodes for weeks. Lane writes:

Alison Herman of Variety echoes the sentiment that Season 2 was worth waiting three years for, as the universe expands to give us more of the Outies’ experiences (after following only Adam Scott’s Mark outside of Lumon in Season 1). Herman also confirms that the goats. are. back. The critic says:

Angie Han of THR notes that Season 2 of the upcoming Apple TV+ series is darker, bringing less humor than the first season and leaning into the drama of a cruel corporation that hits uncomfortably close to home. Han says:

It’s been too long that we’ve had to wait for some kind of explanation for what happened to Mark’s wife, what “mysterious and important” work Lumon’s Microdada Refinement division even does and so many other questions. The wait will officially end on Friday, January 17, when Severance Season 2 hits Apple TV+.

Severance is a show crafted so meticulously that literally any given moment is capable of spawning endless threads of online theorizing, and rare is the detail that goes ignored by speculative viewers. With Severance Season 2 set to finally return after more than two years to spark a plethora of revamped predictions and insights throughout the first months of the 2025 TV schedule, I rewatched Season 1 with a more reflective mind, and certain elements of Ms. Cobel's storyline rang out to me in new ways.

Anyone who somehow hasn't watched Season 1 yet should tread lightly through everything that's below, but it seems unlikely that description applies to many who are still reading, so let's swipe our all-black security cards and dig into what I think Cobel's true motivations are when it comes to her Mrs. Selvig persona getting so close with Mark. (I unfortunately couldn't tie this into our goat-related questions and theories.)

I Think Harmony's Mother Charlotte Was Severed, And Perhaps Died

Possible Clues

• The Lumen breathing tube in Harmony's shrine
• Cobel calling her. mother "athiest," while Selvig called her mother "Catholic"

One of the go-to theories for Patricia Arquette's character is that she herself was previously severed, and that Mrs. Selvig is actually the personality of her mother Charlotte, which Harmony is able to switch to as her own "innie," so to speak. But as interesting and possible as that sounds, it doesn't really explain how anything she'd learn as Mrs. Selvig would be useful if she retained none of it, and nor does it explain how Selvig is able to make connections in the Season 1 finale.

Instead, I think that Charlotte spent most of her life as a Kier Egan devotee, as reflected in Harmony's own devotion and the historical context of her shrine room, and then was severed for one reason or another. I'm not so sure her religious nature would make that severance a choice, so perhaps the breathing tube indicates that Charlotte fell ill at some point, and the chip was implanted inside her head with Lumen's future goals for it in mind before she was put into an induced coma, or possibly cryogenically frozen.

Charlotte's perceived personality split was even hinted at across two moments in the series premiere, when Mrs. Cobel tells Mark S. that her mother was an atheist, while Mrs. Selvig tells Outie Mark that her mother was Catholic. If true, it would imply Charlotte was severed without health issues being a cause, but it's possible Harmony wasn't being so literal with her comments, and only meant to invoke the idea of a duality.

I Think Lumen's Chip Technology Brought Gemma Out Of A Coma, Or Back From The Dead

Possible Clues

• Ms. Casey not having an outie
• Ms. Casey only being awakened for short intermittent periods
• She's the only one we know from the Testing Floor, implying her chip isn't fully developed yet

Severance viewers still don't really know any hardcore details about Gemma and the wreck that supposedly killed her, and obviously facts about Ms. Casey are also all but absent. We don't even know if there really was a wreck; even though Mark visits a specific site to mourn Gemma, we never actually saw what went on. As such, it's unclear if her body and face were damaged beyond whatever Mark was able to recognize when he identified her.

But let's assume Gemma either died or suffered severe coma-inducing injuries in the wreck. I'm inclined to think that Lumen put to use a different kind of chip than the ones being inserted in severed citizens' brains. One that is perhaps able to do more than just cut off memories, but potentially bring someone back from the dead. I. can easily see why they'd need a whole floor for researching and developing such groundbreaking tech.

Even if the theoretical upgraded chip isn't so powerful as to raise the dead, it may be enough to somehow bring a comatose patient back to waking life. Which could explain why Ms. Casey is only allowed to be awakened and on the Severed Floor for minimal amounts of time, with the day she supervised Helly R. being a big test. And could also explain why Ms. Casey doesn't have an "outie" to turn into, so to speak.

I Think Harmony Is Personally Invested In Mark's Project As A Way To Somehow Get Her Mother Back

Combining both of the above sub-theories together creates the macro-idea that Ms. Cobel is personally invested in Mark's team finishing their project with haste, since it's likely tied to whatever is happening with Ms. Casey, and could thus have ramifications on her own life, or at least that of Charlotte's.

At times, Ms. Cobel seems like she's going against Lumen protocols out of pure disobedience, but she's not that kind of person, and her Eagan devotion also makes it difficult to believe she's against Lumen whole cloth. Instead, I think the way she secretly advanced on Outie Mark's life as Mrs. Selvig was movtivated by her personal interest in seeing what she could learn from his life with Gemma that could aid in her efforts with Mark S. and Ms. Casey. If she was just interested in making her employers happy, she probably wouldn't take that big of an extra step.

Or maybe Lumen was somehow responsible for Charlotte's death, which could explain why Harmony would have her breathing tube as a memento instead of a photograph or anything vaguely traditional, and why she's keeping her own ideals in mind over the company's.

Whatever the hyper-specifics may be, I can't help but now go into Season 2 thinking that Harmony Cobel has far larger ulterior motives for keeping Team MDR in line, even if others at Lumen don't see eye to eye with her tactics. Hopefully I won't have to go the entire season without my theory being proven right or wrong.

Severance Season 2 will be avaiable to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription on Friday, January 17.

Let me put something into perspective for you. Season 1 of Severance premiered on February 18, 2022. Season 2 of Severance is slated to drop its first episode on the 2025 TV schedule on January 17. That’s a nearly three-year gap, and fans have been loud about how badly they want new episodes. Well, thankfully, now they’re coming soon, and in the final weeks of this long wait, the show’s creator Dan Erickson and director and EP Ben Stiller have opened up about why we’re getting the sophomore season years after the first one.

Undoubtedly, Severance has been one of the most anticipated upcoming Apple TV+ shows since Season 1 ended back in 2022. Loved for its details, double-sided characters and twisty plots, Erickson and Stiller were determined to make sure Season 2 met the high bar set by the first set of episodes. To that point, while speaking to Vanity Fair, the creator said they went through quite a few rewrites and changes, which caused the long delay:

So, they are seeking perfection, and perfection takes time. That’s been frustrating for fans, and even Stiller has said he’d like Season 2 sooner than later. However, between rewrites that involved figuring out stories for both Innies and Outies as well as two strikes, delays were inevitable.

Addressing the actors’ and writers’ strikes that took place as they were writing Season 2, Stiller explained:

The Zoolander star – who has addressed how long Severance takes to make in the past – said that it took “a while to prep the show,” specifically. That was something Erickson elaborated on too. He noted that because of the rewrites and realizing that certain elements wouldn’t work, they ended up building locations they never used and needing to construct new sets to fit their new stories.

However, he made sure to note that the wait and all these changes will be worth it, explaining:

So, it sounds like Season 2 of Severance was in a constant state of flux. However, considering the success and love for Season 1 – plus all those Severance theories floating around – I do not doubt that fans will be into whatever story is presented to us on January 17.

Plus, knowing the sheer amount of time, devotion and perfectionism that was put into these new episodes, I think the wait will be well worth it. The world of Lumon is carefully constructed, and the wild plot is intricate and detailed. It takes time to craft things like it, and I respect the Severance team’s devotion to making new episodes that they’re sincerely proud of.

They say good things come to those who wait, and I’m hoping that proves to be true for all of us who have been anticipating the long-awaited return of one of Apple TV+’s best shows. Thankfully, it won’t be long before we’re back in the stark white halls of Lumon with Adam Scott’s Mark and the MDR gang, because Season 2 will finally come out out next month!

While I know there are viewers out there who cannot wait for upcoming Marvel shows such as X-Men ‘97 Season 2 and Dominique Thorne’s Iron Heart, those like myself who appreciate darker stories are most intrigued by the impending WandaVision spinoff Agatha All Along. The new series will soon thrust fans into its Halloween-friendly quest to travel the Witch’s Road, but not before reminding everyone about its stars’ breakout sitcom Parks and Recreation.

To promote the MCU’s latest spooky shenanigans hitting the Fall TV schedule, Agatha All Along’s cast and creators were present for the big red carpet premiere in L.A. on September 16. (Technically a purple carpet to properly match the horror-comedy’s color palette.) And it’s there where current screen-sharers Kathryn Hahn and Aubrey Plaza were joined by their former co-stars Amy Poehler and Adam Scott, as seen in the Marvel IG vid below. Pawnee elites showing out!

How awesome would it have been to be a fly on a wall or a backdrop somewhere at the premiere? Though obviously only with the expressed written confirmation that the event decorations didn't include any live, hungry spiders, though Spider-Man would have been welcomed.

Parks and Rec aired from 2009-2015, with Amy Poehler's optimism-laden Leslie Knope leading a ragtag team of local government employees that earned a spot on CinemaBlend's 100 Best Sitcoms. That squad would serve as an interesting counterpart to Agatha's newfound coven of co-occultists, perhaps in some kind of Challenge-like competition. With WandaVision paying homage to shows like Bewitched and The Brady Bunch, there's no reason why Agatha can't honor Battle of the Network Stars. Well yeah, I guess there are reasons.

In any case, fans were pumped about seeing the reunion, and said as much in the comment section. (Though at least one person wondered why the NBC sitcom was getting all the love without any nods to Hahn and Scott both appearing in Adam McKay's Step Brothers.) Though there were certainly a few comments about Parks and Rec favorites who seemingly weren't present for the Disney+ premiere.

• It’s been Li’l Sebastian All Along - @Oskarate
• Where's Duke Silver 🎷 ? - @elevate.to.resonate
• Hold up, where is Star-Lord? Is Burt Macklin undercover? - @jeffreywale

Lit-rally the only thing that would have made this reunion better is if Rob Lowe's Chris Traeger showed up and made Adam Scott go off and handle some insignificant duty. Well, and obviously a performance from Duke Silver.

Speaking of, Nick Offerman was actually just in his own warped superhero adventure alongside wife Megan Mullally, as part of the shortened fourth season of The Umbrella Academy. So it might have been a little gauche for him to show up on premiere night for Agatha All Along, even for a P&R reunion.

Agatha All Along will make its highly anticipated debut on Disney+ on Wednesday, September 18, at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Yes, we’re still waiting for the return of one of Apple TV+’s best shows, Severance, and yes, we have to keep waiting until 2025. So, for all you fans who are anticipating Severance Season 2, buckle in for a little while longer and take a few deep breaths. Thankfully, though, as we creep closer to the premiere of Season 2, one of the show’s directors and executive producers, Ben Stiller, has also opened up about this frustrating wait, and his most recent comments actually made me feel better about all this.

Fans, Ben Stiller gets it. He understands that the wait for Severance has been frustrating, and he wants to release the episodes too. While speaking with Variety, he opened up about all this and the expectations that are on the show to deliver. He said:

When Stiller has addressed Severance delays in the past, he’s always been compassionate toward fans. However, it’s nice to know that he really gets it, and he’s right there with us.

Along with the above comment, Stiller dived deeper into the expectations that are on Severance. Season 1 was met with a lot of acclaim and love, and people dove deep into the wild mystery that surrounds Lumon and the severance procedure. Now, viewers can’t wait to find out what happens next, and the director is hoping they like it, as he said:

I’ve always had faith in them! While I’m also a bit flustered by the wait that’s lasted over two years, I’ve maintained that Season 2 would live up to Season 1, and Stiller’s quotes reinforce that.

Making me feel even better about the wait, the Zoolander actor continued to explain why he’s “excited” for viewers to watch the sophomore season of Severance, saying:

I guess the perk to all this time between seasons is that the cast and creatives have lived in this world for a lot longer. As Stiller said, they really “understand” them now, and I can’t wait to see where their stories go.

I’m specifically excited to see Mark’s return. Adam Scott is excellent in the role, and he was really starting to crack the conspiracy open surrounding Lumon and the mystery regarding his wife Gemma and Ms. Casey at the end of Severance Season 1.

Along with him, I can’t wait to see this killer ensemble back together. Plus, I’m really hoping that various topics – like the goats – get addressed, because the Severance theories surrounding them are wild.

It sounds like Ben Stiller knows this wait is though, and he’s also excited for the world to see what they’re working on. So, now, I’m feeling pretty good about Severance Season 2. Obviously, I’m still not thrilled that we have to wait until January 17, 2025, to watch it. However, the director and EP’s comments made me feel better, and reignited my enthusiasm about what’s to come in this wild workplace thriller!

From the moment it debuted with a two-hour pilot episode in September of 1994 until it left the air in 2009, ER was a ratings monster. It regularly topped the ratings for the year during its 331-episode run and launched careers left and right. George Clooney for goodness sake! Not only did it have big stars in its regular cast like Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Maura Tierney, and Eriq LaSalle, but it also had a huge amount of guest stars and up-and-coming actors roll through the show. Here is our list of some of the biggest. 

Nick Offerman

Nick Offerman is most well known for playing the great Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation where he regularly delivered some of the funniest lines on the show. He didn't have anything funny to say in his one role on ER where he played a bandmate of a bass player in distress in the emergency room.  

Taraji P. Henson

The accolades for Taraji P. Henson's acting have come fast and fierce in recent years, but she's been showcasing her talent on screen since the late '90s. One of her earliest roles was in a Season 4 episode of ER, and then in Season 5, she returned in a different role. She kept landing guest roles for years on shows like CSI and Boston Legal before landing her starring turn in Empire and the rest is history. 

Bradley Whitford

A few years before the role of Josh Lyman on The West Wing would make him a star, Bradley Whitford appeared in two episodes of ER in 1995. He'd been working regularly for almost a decade at that point and would find small roles here and there for another few years before The West Wing. He's been an in-demand actor ever since. 

Kristin Davis

Before she was a regular on Melrose Place, and before she was one of Jerry's many girlfriends on Seinfeld, Kristin Davis played a woman who was very into George Clooney's character very briefly in one episode of the first season of ER. While she only showed up once on the show, it clearly opened some big doors - and big martini glasses - in the future. 

Zac Efron

Before becoming a star in High School Musical, Zac Efron was almost type-cast as a troubled teen. On ER he played a teenager who turned up in the emergency room after being shot. He was also a troublemaker in an early role on NCIS. These days he's one of the biggest stars to grace the screen, but he used to just be in trouble on screen! 

Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor is something different to different generations. For some, he'll always be Renton in Trainspotting. Of course, for many, he'll always be a young Obi-Wan Kenobi. For even others, he's known as the guy who drove his motorcycle around the world in Long Way Round. You can't help but wonder if that name was inspired by his guest spot on ER in a Season 3 episode called "The Long Way Around" in 1997. 

Julie Bowen

While Julie Bowen is best known these days for playing Claire Dunphy in Modern Family, her career stretches way further back. Her first TV role came in the early '90s and her breakout role came in the 1993 Adam Sandler smash hit Happy Gilmore. In the late '90s, she had a nine-episode run on ER as the reoccurring character named Roxanne Please, who was John Carter's (Noah Wyle) girlfriend. 

Ving Rhames

1994 was a big year for Ving Rhames. Not only did he star in Pulp Fiction, but he also landed a reoccurring role as Walt Robbins, father-in-law to Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle). In total, he appeared in eight episodes over three seasons, but by then he'd also starred in Mission: Impossible and the rest is history. 

Lucy Liu

Lucy Liu is no stranger to hit television shows. She was a star of Ally McBeal in the '90s and '00s, and in Elementary in the teens. Early on, she also appeared in cameos and supporting roles on big shows like NYPD Blue and The X-Files. She also made it onto three episodes of ER, in 1995. 

Chris Pine

Believe it or not, there was a time when Chris Pine wasn't one of the "Chrises" and wasn't one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He was, in his early days, just like so many other actors, just looking to snag any role they could. Luckily for Pine, it was on a show like ER. In fact, the show he appeared in during Season 9 of the show was his first credited acting performance. 

Don Cheadle

When Don Cheadle appeared as a doctor in a 4-episode arc in 2002 on ER, he was already well-established as an actor. In fact, it came not long after he was established enough to take his name off the credits of Ocean's Eleven, despite delivering some of the best one-liners in the movie. 

J.K. Simmons

Any fan of Law & Order knows just how ingrained J.K. Simmons was in prime-time television around the turn of the century. He was a regular on that show, and he turned up in a bunch of others as well, including an episode of ER in 2004. you can always count on a great J.K. Simmons performance, no matter what he is in. 

Christina Hendricks

While she had been cast in a number of shows before Mad Men, Christina Hendricks had never really broken through as a star. That changed with the AMC show, but before that, she was just a regular hard-working actress in Hollywood. One of her earliest gigs was on ER in 2002. 

Adam Scott

Adam Scott is not the only Parks And Recreation star to appear in ER early in his career, but he did have a pretty intense role as an injured man clinging to life in the emergency room way back in 1995. It's hard to imagine it took 15 more years to get the big-time attention he deserves when he landed his role on Park & Rec. 

Glen Howerton

In 2005 Always Sunny In Philadelphia took the world by storm and went on to become one of the longest-running sitcoms of all time. Glen Howerton played a huge part in that, as one of the stars and co-creators. A couple of years earlier, he was playing a very different role as a doctor in six Episodes of ER during its 10th Season. 

Keiko Agena

Gilmore Girls regular and co-star of Prodigal Son, Keiko Agena is one of the few actors who played two different characters on ER. She first appeared on the show very early in her career, in 1998, then later appeared in the final season in 2009. 

Jessica Chastain

With three Oscar nominations and one win, Jessica Chastain has proven she's among the best Hollywood has to offer. She proved her acting years ago though, in shows like ER. In only her second credited role, she appeared on ER in 2004 in an episode called "Forgive and Forget."

Aaron Paul

For most people, Aaron Paul is best known for his legendary role in Breaking Bad but years before that show would become a hit, he played a pretty similar character on ER in an episode called "A Saint in the City," way back in 2003. 

Octavia Spencer

In 1998 when Octavia Spencer appeared on ER, it was the latest in a string of supporting roles she landed early in her career. That string would continue for a little while longer before she emerged as one of the most beloved stars of the teens and '20s after her star-making role in The Help.

Mena Suvari

As it was for a lot of cast members, American Pie was huge for Mena Suvari. She had been working for a few years in Hollywood before that, picking up roles here and there in shows like Boy Meets World and movies like The Slums of Beverly Hills. Another early role came in a 1998 episode of ER where she played a high school cheerleader who didn't want to listen to her doctors. 

Kirsten Dunst

As a child actor, Kirsten Dunst's career started when she was just six years old. It would be a few years before she landed a brief reoccurring role as a troubled teen in six episodes of ER in the show's third season. 

Dakota Fanning

Quite a few child actors who went on to greater fame came through the doors of the emergency room at Cook County General Hospital, including a young Dakota Fanning. Fanning played a young girl named Delia who came in after a car accident and viewers find out she's a cancer survivor. 

James Cromwell

One of the ultimate "that guys" in Hollywood, James Cromwell has been acting for decades. His career really started in earnest in the mid-'70s and he's been playing supporting and starring roles ever since. On ER, he played a drug-seeking priest in four episodes in Season 7. 

Josh Peck

Josh Peck was a breakout Nickelodeon star as half of Drake & Josh. That wasn't his first role though. After a few small roles and a reoccurring spot in The Amanda Show (which led to Drake & Josh), he landed a small role in an episode of ER in 2002 as a kid with heart problems. 

Eva Mendes

Before Eva Mendes semi-retired to raise her family with Ryan Gosling, she was one of the biggest stars on the planet. You can trace her career all the way back to her very first role which came in 1998 on an episode of ER. It's wild to look back and watch her doing her first on-screen performances with George Clooney and not think about what lay ahead for both of them. 

Shia LaBeouf

Without a doubt, Shia LaBeouf has had one of the wildest careers of the 21st Century. There have been times when he was on top of the world, and others when he... definitely wasn't. One high point early in his career was of a kid in the emergency room of Cook County General in 2000, during Season 6. 

Milana Vayntrub

Milana Vayntrub eventually became one of the most recognizable actors in commercials as the AT&T pitchwoman. Long before that though, she was like a lot of child actors who got their start on ER. She appeared in three episodes, her first three credited roles, as a Russian girl, way back in Season 1. 

John Mahoney

Before scoring the role of a lifetime as Martin Crane on Fraiser, John Mahoney had been a steadily working actor going back to the '70s. After Frasier, he could pretty much write his own ticket. One role he chose to take was that of a self-professed "drag queen" whose long-time boyfriend was in rough shape in the hospital on ER in 2006, making a strong statement about gay marriage before many were brave enough to join him. 

Janel Moloney

One of the many great actresses who found early work in their career on ER was Janel Moloney. Moloney scored only a handful of roles between that and The West Wing, but boy was the West Wing lucky to have her - as was ER in its first season when she appeared in one episode. 

Amy Ryan

One of the most underrated characters in The Wire has to be Beadie Russell, played by Amy Ryan. About a decade before she joined The Wire in Season 2, she starred in a single episode of ER in the show's first season. She's been in many TV shows and movies since, including a beloved recurring role on The Office and in the underrated Netflix original Worth.

Rosemary Clooney

George Clooney isn't the only famous person in his family. His aunt is, of course, the inimitably Rosemary Clooney, who was one of the most beloved singers of her generation. She only had about a dozen acting credits on her impressive resume, but one was ER during the show's first season. What a great experience for her and her nephew. Her son, actor Miguel Ferrer, also appeared in an uncredited role in the series premiere of the show. 

Dan Hedaya

If you grew up in the '90s, Dan Hedaya was seemingly everywhere, but he's probably best remember by that generation as Cher Horowitz's angry but loving father in Clueless. On ER, he plays a lawyer with... questionable ethics, but a heart of gold. He appeared in four episodes over the length of the whole show. remembered