Severed

On Thursday of last week, while the rest of the world watched the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament, I sat down outside and turned on two SEC baseball games. Neither was LSU, but I've gone from LSU baseball fan to general college baseball fan, and I'm watching games just to see how good teams are, just like I would watch a Bills/Ravens Monday night game in October.

Starting the night at the ballparks.

But I wasn't so in to it that I wasn't going to flip to Apple TV and watch the Season 2 finale of Severance. But I've also been a huge huge fan of The Pitt, and I saw a post from a TV reviewer saying that that night's episode was the best of them all. I messaged him to ask what I should watch first.

Seriously, quit now. There's a shocking twist 2/3 of the way through Season 1, and I'm going to spoil it.

(I did not include the Alabama/Tennessee baseball game in my list of what to watch, because I don't want this internet stranger to think I am insane.)

So at 8:00, I went in to the house and started watching Severance. But what made this viewing particularly fun is that just as it was starting, V came into the room, plopped into a chair, and started watching with me. He has never seen one second of Severance. It was much like watching with a newly-created innie.

From here, I'm going to get spoilery, so now is the time to bail out if you're not current and plan to watch the show. And you definitely should plan to watch the show.

The episode starts with Mark Scout and Mark S having a conversation via video recorder. So I gave a quick explanation about how had two distinct personalities inside his one body with their own experience, etc. He was along for the ride.

Then, we got to the weird office stuff at Lumon. While we long-time viewers were enthralled by the appearance of Jame on the severed floor, V was basically where we were when we went with Helly to the severed floor for the first time.

"They have that giant room for two desks right together?"

"Wait -- their job is just to hover over numbers all day and then click on them?"

The next thing we knew, Milcheck was sprinting out of the office (which was the funniest moment of the whole series to me), and coming in to do a comedy bit with an animatronic old guy. We both marveled at this new, bizarre celebration. No sooner did we get through that than the whole big room -- which has never had more than six people in it -- was filled with a giant marching band.


I would love to have gotten some more screen shots. The cinimatography was amazing this episode. But they have it somehow locked down from the mac's screen grab capabilities, and I'm too high rent to get in a dark room and try to do it with the phone.

Milchick with the drum major baton brought me happy memories of the defiant jazz dance party in season 1. I love watching his moves so much. If Dancing With the Stars casts Tramell Tillman, I'm back in for the first time in years.

After the marching band in the office bit, V got to enjoy a lot of action sequence stuff that didn't require a lot of exposition from me.

Once we got to the Mark/Gemma reunion, my explanations had to go in overdrive. In quick succession, Mark Scout (covered in blood) had to coax a new Gemma innie into the hall, where she immediately became original Gemma. They got into the elevator, went into an embrace, and before I could finish the explanation, "oh God, they're about to turn into co-workers who don't know each other very well" it was Mark S and Ms. Casey.

Ms. Casey's, "What is occurring?" when she found herself smooching a blood-soaked co-worker was the second funniest moment in the series.

When they got to the stairwell door, I quickly explained one last switch, where Ms. Casey became Gemma again, but this time looking at Mark S instead of Mark Scout.

I can't imagine that V followed all of that. Just trying to type it has my head spinning.

But it was a really fun way to watch the episode.

I also stayed up to watch The Pitt, which was as excellent as advertised. I didn't pick up the baseball final scores until the next day.