Hello, Ms. Cobel is the first episode of the second season of Severance.

We hear a cacophony of echoes of the panicked pleas made by innies Mark S., Helly R., and Irving B. in their final moments outside Lumon during MDR’s mutiny.

Mark convulses inside the elevator. It dings, and Mark looks around the elevator wildly. The elevator doors slide open to reveal the familiar sight of the severed floor foyer. Mark lunges out of the elevator and again looks around the foyer as if trying to get his bearings. The clock on the wall reads 9:05, and no other people are in sight. Instead of turning right to head to MDR, he sprints down the corridor to his left through the winding maze of white walls and doors.

Mark makes turn after turn at top speed, at one point passing a glass-walled room filled with empty desk clumps and purple carpet. Finally, Mark rounds a corner and comes to a halt. He steadily approaches a door, and the faint imprint of letters spelling “WELLNESS” can be seen on the wall. He opens the door and enters what looks to be the former Wellness Center waiting room, except the two interior office doorways are walled over, the snake plants are gone, and the walls are completely bare. As Mark surveys the room in shock, an unidentified man lurks in the hallway behind Mark, spying on him briefly before disappearing down a corridor.

Resigned and in disbelief, Mark marches out of the Wellness Center and reports directly to Macrodata Refinement. There, he is confronted by three unfamiliar refiners occupying his desk clump. Mark doesn’t know them, yet they seem to be expecting him and already know his name. The refiner in the suspenders and bowtie introduces himself as Mark W.. The refiner in the suit and tie speaks in Italian (Perché stai in piedi modo strano?) to the refiner wearing a business dress. Before Mark can respond, in walks Mr. Milchick holding a bouquet of blue balloons bearing a screen print of Mark’s head. He is wearing a suit coat and blue turtleneck, rather than his traditional white shirt and black pants. Mr. Milchick greets Mark S. with kind eyes and his signature smile and purrs, “Welcome back, Mark S. Been a minute.”

Mark, now holding the bouquet of balloons, and Mr. Milchick walk along the corridor to the management office. Mark inquires about the fate of his MDR team, but Mr. Milchick deflects. He laments that what Mark’s team “did five months ago was one of the most painful moments in the history of this company.” They arrive at the management office and Mark is introduced to Miss Huang, the new deputy manager of the severed floor who now occupies Mr. Milchick’s old desk and is clearly a child. Mr. Milchick assures Mark that Miss Huang will look after his balloons while they chat in his office. Mark hands off the balloons to Miss Huang and enters Mr. Milchick’s new office, which appears to be Ms. Cobel’s old office. It is filled with boxes and shrink-wrapped office fixtures, and the art has changed. A Milchick's Bonsai Tree sits in the corner.

Mark shuts the door and attempts to voice concern about Miss Huang’s juvenile status, but Mr. Milchick ignores him. Mr. Milchick informs Mark that Ms. Cobel is no longer with Lumon, and that he, Mr. Milchick, is now the manager of the severed floor. Mark inquires once again about the whereabouts of his team, and Mr. Milchick contends none of them were fired but all refused to return to Lumon. He tells Mark that the four of them have “achieved international fame” and hands Mark an issue of a Redacted Kier Chronicle newspaper featuring a photo of the foursome riding through a town parade above a heavily censored article praising their mutiny. Mr. Milchick reveals that they have become the face of “Severance Reform” which has inspired Lumon to execute a complete overhaul of their company culture and work environment.

Mr. Milchick alleges, even after the reforms were put in place, Mark’s outie is the only one who insisted on returning to Lumon and even begged to let him return right away. Mark, not buying Mr. Milchick’s story, demands to hear this directly from his team members, but Mr. Milchick denies his request. Mr. Milchick concludes their chat by curtly dismissing Mark with a patronizing “Enjoy your balloons.”

Mark returns to his desk where his new team proceeds to pepper him with questions about the outside world. When Mark opens the door to the supply closet, he discovers that it is no longer a walk-in closet but merely a few built-in wall shelves above a set of drawers.

Miss Huang enters the office, holding a red ball and invites all the refiners to join her in the kitchenette for a getting-to-know-you exercise. Miss Huang kicks it off by sharing that today is her first day as deputy manager and that her previous job was a crossing guard. Mark W. shares that he’s from “the MDR department of Branch 5X” where he worked with Gwendoline Y., the refiner wearing the business dress, before it recently shut down. Mark goes next and shares he’s been at Lumon about two years and that he’s “lucky enough to have made four new friends today.” Miss Huang kindly reminds Mark that she is a supervisor, not a friend, so Mark amends his statement to “Three new friends,” and flares his Kind Eyes at her.

Mark is the last one to leave at the end of the workday. He shuts down his workstation, turns off the overhead lights, and enters the elevator. It dings, then dings again, and Mark is back on the severed floor. Back to work.

In the MDR office, the new refiners compare details about their respective branches. Mark W. and Gwendolyn Y. share that their branch’s Perpetuity Wing features animatronic Eagans, suggesting that Mark’s branch is probably older than theirs. Dario R., the refiner in the suit and tie, shares that the Eagans in his “first Perpetuity Wing” were made out of brooms and plates, and that they had a rope instead of an elevator. While the three newbies chitchat, Mark discreetly writes a note on a piece of blue paper.

At the end of the workday, Mark and Mark W. are the last ones in the office. Mark folds his note into a tiny square and says goodnight to Mark W. As Mark puts on his coat at the coat rack, he covertly drops the folded note in the front pocket of Mark W.’s coat before exiting the office.

Mark boards the elevator, and the doors slide shut. Ding. The elevator doors slide open and deposit Mark back on the severed floor. Mark returns to the office to find the three new refiners seated at their desks and Mr. Milchick holding Mark’s blue note. Mr. Milchick reads Mark’s note aloud, revealing Mark’s sorry attempt to forge a cry for help from Mark W.'s innie for Mark W.’s outie to find. Mark denies his involvement at first but quickly relents. He expresses his frustration once again and desire to talk to his former MDR team. As a consequence of his insubordination, Mr. Milchick revokes Mark of his status as department chief, transferring it to Mark W. who accepts with relish.

In an attempt to create a diversion, Mark begins giggling and taunts Mr. Milchick, saying, “You don’t know what I did to the Kitchenette yet, do you?” Mr. Milchick and the new refiners rush to the kitchenette, and Mark takes off down the corridor to the management office.

Mark runs past Miss Huang at her desk and beelines to the credenza behind Mr. Milchick’s desk. He begins rummaging through the drawers and cabinets until he finds what he’s after—the speaker that connects management to the Board. Miss Huang frantically radios Mr. Milchick, who immediately races down the corridors. Milchick bursts in just as Mark plugs the speaker into the jack in the desk. The speaker crackles to life and Mark begins shouting into it, trying to communicate with the Board. No voices respond to Mark, but he keeps talking, “It’s Mark S. From Macrodata Refinement. If you’re there, please listen.” He begs the Board to let him see his friends and challenges their commitment to severance reform. Just as Mr. Milchick storms in the office, Mark ends his plea with “You can’t just make them disappear! Please!” Mr. Milchick rips the cord out of the jack. The speaker is disconnected.

Mr. Milchick escorts Mark to the elevator. Mark asks, “Are you firing me?” to which Mr. Milchick simply responds, “On you go,” nodding toward the elevator. Mark attempts to stop the elevator doors from shutting, but he’s too late. It dings and, unlike the usual end to a severed day, everything goes to black.

Another ding and Mark is back in the elevator, in a panicked state, wearing a different suit and tie. He looks around wildly, much like he did at the beginning of the episode. The elevator doors slide open to reveal an unfamiliar foyer. A new and very large painting, titled Kier Pardons His Betrayers, hangs on the wall in place of the clock. As Mark looks around the foyer, getting his bearings once again, the elevator dings and out comes Dylan. Mark tries to update Dylan about everything he’s learned over the last two days—Cobel’s firing, the new refiners, Mr. Milchick’s new role. Suddenly the elevator dings, and they hear Irving yelling, “Burt!” And pounding on the interior of the elevator. The elevator doors open, and Irving walks in the foyer slowly, in a state of shock. Irving meanders down the corridor in the direction of their office, and Dylan follows. Mark trails behind, keeping one eye on the elevator. Finally, another ding. It’s Helly.

Helly stumbles out of the elevator, breathless and seemingly in a state of shock. Mark immediately embraces her, asking if she’s okay. Helly seems a bit dazed, but they head down the corridor to the office.

In the MDR office, Irving has locked himself in the bathroom and won’t come out. Mark attempts to catch everyone up to speed and speculate as to why they don’t seem to be in any trouble. Just as Irving finally comes out of the bathroom, Miss Huang appears and informs them that Mr. Milchick is waiting for them in the Break Room. The four follow her down the corridor and file into the Break Room where they are greeted a smiling Mr. Milchick.

The refurbished Break Room is now brightly lit and furnished with four chairs and a projector facing a video screen. The walls are decorated with Lumon-themed Motivational Posters. Mr. Milchick welcomes the refiners and invites them to watch Lumon’s newly developed orientation video for innies. The video, narrated by a personified Lumon building, features claymation reenactments of key moments in the office leading up to the MDR team’s mutiny, an event which has been coined the “Macrodat Uprising.” It credits the four as the impetus for Lumon’s company reforms, reforms which include hall passes, new vending machine offerings, Bobbing for Pineapples privileges, and a “playful mirror room.”

After watching the video, Mr. Milchick informs the team that the innies have until the end of the day to decide whether or not to stay at Lumon. He assures them that, like the rest of the severed floor, the Break Room has no cameras or microphones. Mr. Milchick and Miss Huang leave, and the team confers. Mark shares his experience on the outside, that Ricken Hale is his brother-in-law and that Ms. Casey is his outie’s late wife. Helly, rather than sharing her true identity, tells the group made-up story about her experience. She lies that she woke up in an apartment watching a nature show on TV while wearing a save the gorillas t-shirt. She claims she tried to tell everything to a man she found outside who looked like a gardener. Irving questions the concept of a night gardener. When asked about his experience, Irving deflects and promptly leaves the Break Room. Dylan runs after him. Mark and Helly walk back to the office, during which Helly vows to stay and help Mark rescue Ms. Casey. “She's one of us.”

Dylan finds Irving in the hallway leading to the stairwell door and stops him. Irving tells Dylan that he found Burt on the outside and is devastated about Burt’s apparent marital status. Irving wants to leave Lumon as a way to end his own pain and heartbreak, but Dylan won’t let him and blocks the stairwell door. Irving pulls Dylan into a hug and whispers in his ear about his outie’s paintings of the ominous hallway. Irving tries to leave again, but Dylan again blocks him and begs him to stay, for the sake of their friendship. Before Irving can answer, Miss Huang interrupts them with a message that Mr. Milchick would like to see Dylan. Dylan follows Miss Huang, leaving Irving standing by the stairwell door.

Mr. Milchick is in his office on the phone with someone, complaining about the welcome screen on his computer not displaying his name. Dylan enters the office and, unprompted, Mr. Milchick smugly tells Dylan, “Your wife’s name is Gretchen.” He then opens one of the wall panels to reveal a Hidden Door and hallway, and instructs Dylan to follow him. Mr. Milchick leads Dylan into a back room where blueprints of “the new renovation” are spread out on a table. Mr. Milchick rolls out a blueprint called the “Outie Family Visitation Suite” and implies that this renovation would allow innies to meet their outie’s family members. When Dylan presses for confirmation that this unimaginable perk is real, Mr. Milchick's answer is not a definitive yes, but sounds like one. Mr. Milchick asks Dylan to keep this information between them, “only to avoid resentment.”

As Dylan leaves the management office, Miss Huang is playing a game on her computer. Mr. Milchick shuts his office door, and Miss Huang then pulls out a Waterfuls-like handheld water game featuring a playful Kier figurine and floating pool rings in red, blue, and green. On the other side of the door, Mr. Milchick silently fumes at his desk, staring coldly at his computer as “Hello Ms. Cobel” continues to scroll across the screen. Mr. Milchick reaches around and switches off the computer.

In the MDR office, Mark walks back to his desk from the kitchenette. Helly reaches around her computer and feels around for the power switch for a moment before finding it and switching it on. Dylan returns. Seeing Dylan has returned alone, Mark asks, “Where’s Irv?” Before Dylan can answer, Irving emerges and responds, “Right here.” The band is back together. They each switch on their computers and assume the refining position, exchanging looks of varying warmth.

Mark is immediately back in his groove, plugging away at a file named Cold Harbor. He bins a set of numbers into Bin 03, bumping the file’s completion up to 68%. As the percentage on Mark’s screen updates, the same percentage on a different screen updates. The screen is revealed to be a mirror of Mark’s Cold Harbor file data, but in place of the floating numbers is the face of Ms. Casey surrounded by metrics and percentages, and other medical-appearing imagery.

• Adam Scott as Mark Scout
• Britt Lower as Helly Riggs
• Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick
• Zach Cherry as Dylan George
• Jen Tullock as Devon Scout-Hale (credit only)
• Michael Chernus as Ricken Hale (credit only)
• Dichen Lachman as Ms. Casey
• Sarah Bock as Miss Huang
  _with
• John Turturro as Irving Bailiff
• Christopher Walken as Burt Goodman (credit only)
  _and
• Patricia Arquette as Harmony Cobel (credit only)

• Bob Balaban as Mark W.
• Alia Shawkat as Gwendolyn Y.
• Stefano Carannante as Dario R.

• Adam Jepsen as Man in Hallway
• Sarah Sherman as Animated Water Tower (voice)

• Keanu Reeves as Animated Lumon Administrative Building (voice) ^[1]

• The opening sequence of Mark S. racing through the Lumon halls took five months of on-and-off filming. ^[2]

We believe she'd developed an erotic fixation on you and had plans to pursue both you and your outie in what might be termed “a throuple.”

— Milchick, (00:06:40)

Dear Outie, I don't know if this will reach you, but I'm writing to alert you of the heinous conditions in the severed office to which you have transferred me. The branch is run by a shambolic rube who goes by Milkshake. […] A man whose stupidity is rivaled only by that of the nine core principles. If you must continue to send me here, please consider strapping a bomb to me, so that I may explode both Milkshake and the very spirit of Kier Eagan. Wrathfully, your innie, Mark W.

— Mark S.'s note framing Mark W., read by Milchick, (00:15:38)

The fuck? Irv! Dude, what's wrong? You poor up there?

— Dylan, (00:21:46)

Three new friends.

— Mark, (00:12:22)

A night gardener?

— Irving, (00:33:34)

• List of Severance Episodes
• Hello, Ms. Cobel transcript