Summary
- Apple TV+’s Severance ended its first season on four unforgettable cliffhangers.
- Though renewed for a second season by Apple TV+, Severance’s delays have only built viewer anticipation.
- Severance’s overall concept has proven to be inherently addictive for drama TV fans.
Following its first season, Severance became one of the most talked about TV series due to the evolving mystery surrounding the extremely secretive Lumon Industries and the nature of the work done there. Since Season 1 wrapped, the excitement among viewers has only continued to grow. It’s become evident in the time between seasons that its multiple cliffhangers have catapulted the show’s Season finale to a status that only a handful of TV shows could ever hope to achieve.
Severance‘s Season 1 finale sits alongside other classic finales with its masterful storytelling that left all the show’s main characters in dire situations. The repercussions that Severance‘s cliffhangers will surely have on the characters echo other classic season finales, like LOST‘s Season 3 finale where the final moments prove to be the first flash-forward of the series, revealing fates for characters audiences weren’t expecting. Then there’s the more recent Doctor Who finale, “The Power of the Doctor,” that left viewers in awe — and confusion — at the return of David Tennant in the titular role. It’s a staple of drama television to tease what’s to come in future seasons with an effective finale and the writers in question more than lived up to that challenge on its way to Severance Season 2.
Severance Season 1 Cliffhangers Were the Most Interesting
Severance ultimately finished its first season with not one, but four different cliffhangers. Mark S. learned of his wife’s fate, Irving attempted to reach out to his work crush Burt, Dylan was tackled by the determined Mr. Milchick and Helly revealed to the world how “innies” (those who allow their personalities and memories to be blocked out during work hours) actually feel. All these events will make a major impact on the storylines of Season 2 and the sense of unpredictability surrounding each moment created a sense of urgency one doesn’t get from just any TV series. Hearing Adam Scott’s Mark scream “she’s alive!” to his sister in the final seconds of the episode has stayed on viewers’ minds since the night it aired, acting as a perfectly anxious cap to the season.
While Mark is coming to terms with his own issues, the other main characters have now placed themselves in precarious situations that will ripple out over the course of the series. With the veil starting to be pulled back as far as Lumon Industries goes, any number of devastating outcomes could come about as a result. Helly and Dylan especially have put themselves right into the line of fire. It’ll be more than interesting to see how Helly’s family, who founded and run Lumon Industries, react to her outburst from the finale. Dylan, however, is still in the actual office and audiences leave him getting tackled by star employee Mr. Milchick, so it’s likely he will face the most immediate repercussions. It’s cliffhangers like these (with limitless directions to take) that help to define Severance‘s Season 1 finale as one of the best.
Backstage Delays and Hollywood Strikes Have Only Built Anticipation
With reports of a chaotic production delaying Severance Season 2, as well as the show being put on the shelf along with so many others during the recent writer’s strike, the next season of the show has faced many setbacks. Despite how heavily that looms on the series, however, it has seemingly worked in favor of Season 1’s finale situation. In making audiences wait for as long as they have, the anticipation for Season 2 has only built more and more with each passing day. It’s currently at a fever pitch even with no premiere date announced for the follow-up season.
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Audiences have been getting more and more used to their favorite shows taking extended breaks from one season to the next. Stranger Things viewers famously needed to wait 3 years between the third and fourth seasons to find out what happened to the residents of Hawkins. Fans of Deadwood had to wait 12 years between the Season 3 finale and the series finale, Deadwood: The Movie, which released in 2019. Despite the unfortunate reasons for Severance taking so long to return to Apple TV+, it’s not an unprecedented development, and it’s not necessarily a negative thing. If Stranger Things and Deadwood have taught viewers anything, it’s that sometimes these gaps between seasons are very much worth the wait.
Severance Earned Its Finale With a Great First Season
As obvious as it may be, the reason the cliffhangers in Severance Season 1 worked so well were because the show’s premise delivered such an engaging plot to follow throughout Season 1. With so many interesting concepts and mysteries introduced, Severance left viewers invested in every little detail. By providing only fleeting moments of hope in the finale, the cliffhangers only made the experience more painful for viewers having to wait.
For example, Helly is a character who joins the Lumon Industries workforce at the start of the season and only grows more disenchanted with the job as the season develops. It gets to the point where Helly attempts to kill herself when she realizes that she isn’t allowed to quit. Helly’s “outtie” (herself from outside of Lumon’s offices) won’t let her leave the job. At first, this is extremely puzzling. As the season rolls on, however, breadcrumbs are left to suggest that there’s more to her employ in the Severance program — like the fact that it is entirely self-imposed.
This arc is what makes Helly’s cliffhanger so engaging. Severance provides one of the more memorable twists when audiences see Helly’s “innie” learn that she’s part of the Eagan family and that she took her job with Lumon solely as a publicity stunt to validate her family business in the eye of the public. Having that same “innie” then reveal that life within Lumon is miserable at a gala specifically designed to secure legality for the Severance Procedure only serves to cement the Season 1 finale as an all-timer.
Whether Severance drops the ball in Season 2 or delivers a worthy follow-up to the incredible first season remains to be seen, but there will never be an argument against its first season finale hitting a homerun. It left all the main characters in positions that fans of the show can’t help but be interested in following through on. Will Mark S. and Ms. Casey ever reconcile? Will Helly help take down her creepy, cult-like family business? Will Dylan’s “innie” ever meet his kids, and will Irving ever hook up with Burt? These are questions audiences will have to wait for Severance Season 2 to answer — hopefully, that will be sooner than later.
