‘Severance’ Creator Dan Erickson On “Relief” Of MDR Reunion In Season 2, Helly’s “Ultimate Shame” And Outside Context That “Seeps In”
SPOILER ALERT: This post spoils the first episode of Severance Season 2.
Severance creator Dan Erickson knows the context in which Season 2 has been released is important.
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Season 2 of the Apple TV+ workplace thriller arrived Jan. 17, almost three years after the first season debuted on the streamer Feb. 18, 2022. The first season had the tapering of the COVID pandemic in its rearview mirror, and Season 2 lands following — and delayed because of — the dual strikes in Hollywood that made up the second half of 2023.
“I wouldn’t even say that we consciously put that into the season, but I think you can’t help that it seeps in. And it certainly will seep in for people watching,” Erickson told Deadline. “Whatever is going on in the world, that affects the context with which people are watching the show. It’s going to be really interesting to see how people respond at this particular time that [Season 2]’s coming out.”
In the below interview, Erickson recalls the road to both Seasons 1 and 2 and how the “Severance” barrier will continue to factor into Season 2 as will Helly’s outtie identity as an Eagan.
DEADLINE: Was the reunion between Mark, Dylan, Irving and Helly ever planned for beyond the first episode?
DAN ERICKSON: I mean, at the end of the day, they’re the heart and soul of the show. We did talk at one point about drawing that out a little bit more, and it was tempting, I remember the day that we shot the first scene with Stefano and Bob and Alia, we were like, “Oh, I would want to watch this show too. This would also be a really fun show in an alternate universe.” But even as charming as that group is, I think there’s a sense of relief that comes in that scene where Irving and Dylan and Helly do come out of the elevator, because we’ve invested so much in them, and we love them so much, and we want to see them together. We talked about drawing it out a little bit, but at the end of the day we know what people want, let’s get there.
DEADLINE: Helly isn’t being truthful in the first episode of Season 2 when she reveals what she saw up there in the Season 1 finale. Can you tease at all if we will find out why they are sorting this data? What are they sorting?
ERICKSON: Yeah, I mean, Helly and the Night Gardener, there’s something going on there. Something that we talked about is the sense of shame that each character would each get — the three characters that did go up. Dylan, of course, was the hero of MDR, and was standing there holding the line with the switches, but Mark and Irving and Helly, they all went up and each found something that really shatters their perception, and Helly finding out that she is an Eagan is the ultimate shame. So the question is, would she be willing to share that information right away, or is that something that she would have to take time to process for herself before she’s willing to bring that to the group? And would she be scared that she’ll be judged or ostracized, that her friends will not accept her if they know that she is part of the reason that they’re there? So it was a really interesting scene to go into from writing and then when we were shooting it.
DEADLINE: What would you say you learned from the making of Season 1 of Severance that you wanted to incorporate into Season 2?
ERICKSON: The relation between the character comedy component of the show and the dark science fiction thriller part of it, I always knew that those were two of the main basic pieces of it, but I didn’t always get how they fit together until I had seen it. Watching the show, I was like, “Okay, it’s a comedy in the foreground, and then it’s a thriller in the background,” where they’re arguing over group photos and pencil erasers, but then, as it’s happening, if you’re paying attention, there’s this dark thing brewing behind them that threatens to swallow them whole.
It wasn’t until every member of our creative team —our production designer and our cinematographer and our directors and our actors — had all put their stamp on it, that I figured out how it worked, and it was easier to write in that way, Season 2, but then, on the other hand, there was a lot more pressure, because all of a sudden we had this thing that we weren’t sure was going to be as widespread of a of a hit as it was. There was the pressure of, can you replicate that? And can you do it again? So it was harder and easier at the same time.
DEADLINE: It’s a commentary on corporate work culture and what goes on in those structures. Have things that happened within the gap between this new season and the previous season that, that you really wanted to bring into the show?
ERICKSON: It’s funny because we released Season 1 as people were starting to come back to the office. At the same time, there were some jobs where people were like, “Hey, maybe we don’t have to come back to the office. Maybe this is something where people could work from home.” So that was an unexpected context into which we were releasing the first season. But since then, we’ve had the Great Resignation, where a lot of people, especially younger people, are saying “Hey, does work need to play the role that it always has in our lives? Or is there another way to do this?” But then, of course, the question is, “Well, what’s on the other side of that?” You can divorce yourself from the old system, but then what is the new system? It’s a fascinating time to be living because people are trying to figure that out.
RELATED: ‘Severance’ Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Land On Apple TV+?
And then, of course, in our particular industry, we had these massive, months-long strikes that took place for the Writers Guild and the [Screen] Actors Guild and so we were all going to meetings and having these conversations and hearing from people at all levels of the industry, people who were upper level writers, who have been working for decades, and then people who were new writers. And on the actor side, it’s people who make their living as background extras and people who are big movie stars and all of us were in conversation, asking this question of, “What is the appropriate relationship between work and life and between employer and employee, and how much of ourselves should we be willing to give up for the sake of having a job?” even a really great coveted job, like this one, and what should we expect back from the people that we work for?
DEADLINE: The blurred lines between the innie and outie memories factor into this first episode. Is that meant to confuse the audience?
ERICKSON: It’s not specifically meant to be confusing, there is an ambiguity to it, as to what exactly transcends the severance barrier. It’s kind of baked in, because of course, the characters know how to speak English when they wake up on that table, and they know what a chair is, and they know what another person looks like. There are certain things that are intrinsic where they have made their way into the the part of your mind that that is where it can transcend the barrier.
But then, you continue to interrogate that, and you’re like, “Well, what about strong feelings, like love? Would you recognize your spouse, if you saw them on the other side, or even if you didn’t consciously recognize them, would there be some part of you that does? And if you’re crying in your car before you come into work, physiologically, what does that do to your body? Do you still feel that when you come down the elevator?” In a way, we’ve figured that out, but we also can’t figure that out because it gets to questions of nature versus nurture and mind versus body, and what is intrinsic to who we are, and what is based on the experiences that we’ve had. I think it’s an intentional, not even intentional, but it’s just those are questions that we’re going to be continuing to ask through the entire series.
RELATED: Ben Stiller Likens ‘Severance’ To Hollywood Today: “Constriction And Choices That Are Safer”
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