Severance Season 1 Recap: Everything You Need to Know for Season 2

Need a refresher on Severance‘s story so far, now that the second season is finally here? Then check out our handy recap of everything in Severance Season 1 you need to know going into Season 2!

Innies, Outies, and MDR’s Mystery Work

Severance Season 1 establishes several super important concepts early in its nine-episode run. The first is the severance process itself: certain Lumon Industries employees – including series protagonist Mark Scout – undergo a procedure to split their consciousness in two. One version of them (their “innie”) only remembers what happens while they’re at work, the other (their “outie”) only what goes down off the clock. Neither version has access to the others’ memories. The upshot of this (from Lumon’s perspective) is that severed individuals can’t blab about – or otherwise interfere with – what they’re working on. Not that they could, anyway. Mark and his Macrodata Refinement division colleagues Helly Riggs, Dylan George, and Irving Bailiff have no idea why they spend their days sorting encrypted numbers; all they know is that doing so elicits different emotional responses in them.

Mrs. Selvig Is Really Ms. Cobel

The big reveal at the end of Severance Season 1’s debut installment is that Mark Scout’s ostensibly benevolent neighbor Mrs. Selvig is really his sadistic manager at Lumon, Ms. Cobel. Mark spends most of the first season unaware of the Cobel/Selvig connection, with his innie only learning the truth in the final episode. By then, even Cobel’s bosses, the Lumon board, are wise to Selvig’s increasingly unhinged behavior towards Mark and his family (plus her cover-up of Helly’s suicide attempt in Episode 4). The board suspends Cobel in Episode 8 for the remainder of Season 1.

Petey, Reghabi, and Reintegration

One of Severance Season 1’s key subplots revolves around Mark Scout’s former co-worker, Peter “Petey” Kilmer. It turns out Petey underwent reintegration: an experimental procedure that (as its name suggests) gives the subject access to both their innie and outie memories. Petey ultimately dies as a result of being reintegrated, but not before he shares disturbing details of what’s going on at Lumon with Mark’s outie. Mark’s outie later meets Reghabi, the ex-Lumon scientist responsible for Petey’s reintegration. Through her, he gets wind of a wider anti-Lumon resistance movement operating from the shadows (although we don’t meet any of Reghabi’s fellow revolutionaries).

Related: Severance Season 2: Who Is Ms. Huang?

Irving Falls for Burt (And Vice Versa)

While Severance is first and foremost a sci-fi thriller, Season 1 still makes room for occasional tenderness. Arguably the best example of this is the romance between Irving Bailiff and Burt Goodman. Irving and Burt hit it off the moment they meet, and their affection for each other even chips away at the animosity between their rival departments. That’s a big no-no as far as Lumon’s concerned (the company actively fosters such intra-office divisions) and Burt is forced to retire – or, from his fellow innies’ point-of-view, die.

Devon Discovers Severance Happening Outside Lumon

It’s easy to dismiss (or even outright forget) Severance Season 1’s plot thread involving Mark Scout’s sister, Devon, and Gabby Arteta. The pair only interact briefly in the first season, and these encounters have little direct impact on the main narrative. Yet their scenes together are all but guaranteed to have a major impact on Severance‘s overarching story. After all, Devon discovers that Gabby (with the backing of her pro-Lumon senator husband) side-stepped the pain of childbirth via severance. This means the procedure isn’t solely confined to Lumon’s walls, which – depending on how many other non-Lumon severed people there are – could have huge repercussions down the line.

The MDR Team Triggers the Overtime Contingency

Severance Season 1 adds another wrinkle to the innie/outie concept in Episode 6: the Overtime Contingency. This is a means of switching severed employees to their innie form outside of work hours in special, business-critical circumstances. Dylan George successfully triggers the Overtime Contingency in the closing moments of Episode 8, allowing Mark Scout, Helly Riggs, and Irving Bailiff’s innies to temporarily “escape” Lumon’s severed floor in Episode 9. Mark learns that Ms. Cobel is masquerading as Mrs. Selvig, and that his wife Gemma, is still alive. Helly discovers she’s Helena Eagan, a descendant of Lumon founder Kier Eagan. And Irving rushes to Burt’s place, only to see his outie shacked up with another guy.

Related: Who Does Keanu Reeves Play in Severance Season 2?

Ms. Casey Is Mark’s Wife, Gemma

As if the twist that Mark Scout’s supposedly dead wife Gemma is still alive wasn’t enough, there’s an added kicker: she and Mark work together! Gemma’s the severed floor’s wellness counselor, and goes by Ms. Casey. Did Gemma really die? Or did Lumon fake her death? And if she died, how did she come back? These are all questions Severance Season 2 will hopefully answer!

All nine episodes of Severance Season 1 are currently streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes of Season 2 drop Fridays.