Why Didn’t Milchick Fire Mark?

The season two premiere of Severance took place entirely within the walls of Lumon Industries, leaving viewers in the dark about the consequences of the Innies’ uprising in the outside world — at least for an extra week. Episode two, “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” is a sort of companion piece to the first episode, mirroring the premiere’s approach by taking place solely outside the severed floor. While it gave viewers a bit more insight into the inner workings of Lumon and the lives of the Outies, it also raised more questions to add to the show’s growing list of mysteries.

It’s still unclear what effect, if any, the Innie rebellion had on the world at large, but it definitely had an impact on the Outies, at least initially. Lumon is quick to cut ties with Irving (John Turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry), unceremoniously firing them both after the events of the season one finale, making up stories to justify their decision. However, a similar fate does not befall Mark (Adam Scott). In fact, not only does he not get fired, but Lumon goes to great lengths to keep him around. Why does Mark get to keep his job while his coworkers don’t?

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Mark is Clearly Very Important to Lumon

After visiting Irving and Dylan to serve them their walking papers, newly promoted severed floor manager Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) drops in on Mark at his sister Devon’s (Jen Tullock) house shortly after the “Overtime Contingency” is switched off. He explains what happened and tries to grill Mark about what he remembers, but he claims not to know anything. When Mark expresses some hesitation about returning to work on Monday, Milchick tries his first tactic to keep him around. He labels Mark’s Innie’s actions as reckless, but also very brave. He implies that if Mark doesn’t come back to work, he’d be rewarding his Innie’s bravery by effectively killing him.

A while later, Milchick drops in on Mark again at his sparsely furnished home and tries to sweeten the deal to entice him back, offering a 20% raise. On top of that, he appeals to the reason Mark decided to sever in the first place: his grief over his wife’s loss. He tells him his Innie is happy and content, and has even found a budding romance with fellow Innie Helly (Britt Lower). Milchick wants to convince Mark that through the severance process, he has found the kind of peace that he was after, and that he’s unable to find in his waking life.

As seen in the first episode, Mark does return to work, immediately causes all kinds of trouble, and demands the return of his original co-workers. Surprisingly, the mysterious Board capitulates, and Milchick is dispatched to offer Irving and Dylan their jobs back. As for Helly, he doesn’t have to convince her, since her Outie is a member of the Eagan family.

All this shows that Lumon is willing to put forth considerable effort to keep Mark around, even if that means re-hiring the rebellious Innies they just let go. It’s clear Mark has more importance to the company than just being a Macrodata Refiner. A conversation between the higher-ups late in the episode gives us a clue as to why: he’s apparently crucial to completing a mysterious project called “Cold Harbor.”

What is “Cold Harbor?”

Attentive viewers likely noticed that the series first made mention of “Cold Harbor” in the season two premiere. The Innies decide to stick it out at Lumon long enough to figure out what’s going on with Miss Casey (Dichen Lachman), who was discovered to be Mark’s apparently-dead wife Gemma. At the end of the episode, the team sits down at their work stations to begin their mysterious task, and the name of the file they’re working on is “Cold Harbor.” As Mark gets to work, the image of Miss Casey’s face flashes across the screen.

Severance creator Dan Erickson and his fellow writers have yet to explain exactly what sort of data the MDR team is refining (if they ever will). However, it seems pretty likely that “Cold Harbor” has something to do with Miss Casey, and that Mark is a necessary piece of the puzzle. It’s been clear since season one that the higher-ups know the connection between Mark and Miss Casey, and that they’re careful to make sure Mark doesn’t find out about it. This is probably also why Mark’s former boss, Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette), kept extra tabs on his Outie by posing as his dotty neighbor, though this action also led to her firing at the end of season one.

The big question since the revelation of Miss Casey and Mark’s true connection is how she could be alive on the severed floor and apparently dead in the real world. In an argument with Devon at a diner, Mark pushes back on her desire to look into his “she’s alive!” outburst from the season one finale. He says that he was the one who had to identify her burned body, which makes it seem unlikely that he would have made some kind of mistake or ID’d the wrong person. Miss Casey is clearly one of Lumon’s many bizarre experiments, being sent to the “testing floor” after her firing rather than being allowed to return to the outside world.

How Mark factors into these tests is still unknown, but it’s clear he’s crucial to the completion of “Cold Harbor.” It’s possible Lumon is setting them up as another kind of severed success story to bolster their public image, having the power to reunite a couple by reversing death itself. Severance fans no doubt can’t wait to see whatever answers — or more questions — are revealed with each subsequent episode.

Severance

Release Date

February 18, 2022

Showrunner

Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman

Directors

Ben Stiller

Writers

Dan Erickson