Severance Season 2 Episode 9 The After Hours recap

The penultimate episode of Severance Season 2, Episode 9 titled The After Hours, has officially put all the characters in a very exciting situation going into next week's Season 2 finale. Let's recap everything that happened in tonight's episode of Severance.

The episode starts with Helena swimming at what appears to be the Eagan home. She walks into the room with her father Jame Eagan, who says it's a momentous day. Helena asks if he's going to eat to which he replies, "I'll watch." Weirdo. She cuts a hardboiled egg into six slices—man, the Eagan family loves eggs, eh?—evenly spread on a weird plate of a child being held down in a chair by two men and begins to slowly cut and eat them to watch Jame responds "I wish you ate them raw." What? Weirdo, again. We then see Helena driving away from the home with a giant water tower with the Lumon water drop icon on it.

Ms. Huang graduates from Wintertide Fellowship

Next we see Milchick telling young Ms. Huang that she has officially finished her Wintertide fellowship, and that her bed will be moved from her parents' home to the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center in Svalbard, where she will work to steward global reforms. Gunnel Eagan? I could be wrong, but I don't think we've heard that name before! "I thought I would be finishing the quarter?," Ms. Huang asks. Milchick tells her that Empathy awaits, before demanding she must destroy her handheld ring toss game as a way of making a betterment sacrifice as part of graduating from the fellowship, which she does. Huang is later picked up by a Lumon branded bus.

Gretchen comes clean to Dylan's outie

Meanwhile at outie Dylan's home, Dylan's wife Gretchen admits to kissing innie Dylan at Lumon. "How?," he asks, leading to him getting understandably upset and confused. Gretchen returns to Lumon and tells innie Dylan that she "told her husband about you this morning," which Dylan was understandably confused about, before asking if outie Dylan was glad for them. She responded with an obvious no, to which Dylan said he should be because he's actually making her happy. Ouch, what a self burn. Kind of. Gretchen explains that she can't see innie Dylan anymore as he threatened to quit. Innie Dylan begs her to somehow be with him, leading to him proposing with a ring he made out of materials from the Lumon severed floor, saying he can give her a life. A crying Gretchen tells her she's so sorry but she can't, and leaves.

Helly tells him he should save it and give it to someone he meets down here, to which Dylan replies "It's just R&D and the goat people." Very true, Dylan. In the end, Dylan fills out an innie resignation request, to which Milchick says it is very disappointing and reeks of ingratitude for them allowing him to meet with Gretchen. After finishing the form, Milchick tells Dylan to return to the elevator and wait, to which Ms. Huang apologizes to Dylan and says she should have facilitated their meetups better. Dylan tells her it's not her fault, before heading to the elevator. Will outie Dylan accept the resignation given the circumstances, effectively "terminating" innie Dylan?

Irving sees Burt sooner than he expected

Irving goes into his apartment to see Burt sitting there, reading through Irving's notes on what he's discovered from Lumon. "May also be connected to several recent disappearances or deaths. Goodman may have participated as a low-level Lumon enforcer or goon," Burt reads and laughs. "Lumon goon, that stings." Burt then asks Irving to go for a ride with him, to which Irving declines, but Burt demands once again, "Go for a ride with me." He does. Burt explains to Irving that he never hurt anyone, and that he only drives people to places and then never asks what happens to them when they get there, to which Irving asks if that's what's happening right now.

Eventually the two come to a train station, where Burt gets Irving a one-way ticket and gives it to him, telling him it goes as far away as possible, but that he can never know where Irving gets off the train, and Irving can never return to Kier. Irving says no because Lumon will come after Burt. Burt tells him the reason he severed was because he liked the idea he could be innocent again, but his innocent self fell in love with Irving. Irving said he wants to remember that as he never fell in love before, to which Burt says it's probably better they didn't. After an intimate moment, where Irving tells Burt he wants to have their love, but Burt says they simply can't, Irving leaves on the train with his dog. We see the train riding off towards a sunny location; is this the last we'll see of Irving? I certainly hope not.

Mark needs a mental day

We get a brief scene of Gemma sitting in the place we saw from Severance Season 2 Episode 7, before seeing that the Cold Harbor project is still at 96%. The main in charge of looking after Gemma calls Drummond and says it's 9 o'clock but the numbers aren't moving. Drummond calls Milchick and demands he get Mark into the office and working on MDR now as the results for Cold Harbor were promised for today. Milchick calls Mark, who doesn't answer, as he is driving out to a secluded area with his sister to meet up with Harmony Cobel. They get to the location and eventually Cobel arrives and asks how Mark is doing. He sarcastically says he's doing good, you know, as his wife is being held prisoner at Lumon and he just got brain surgery in his basement. Cobel says they are allies now. They talk about the plan to head to the birthing cabin to speak to Marks innie, to which Cobel says they don't even know if his innie has completed the file yet (Cold Harbor) but that she assumes not. Mark asks what the file is and Cobel tells him that if his innie has completed Cold Harbor that Gemma is already dead. I can't wait to find out exactly what Cold Harbor actually is. Next week's finale is titled Cold Harbor, so surely we'll learn, right? Cobel tells Mark to call Mr. Milchick and tell him he's feeling unwell and won't be coming in today, because if Milchick smells that they are up to something, they will lock Mark out of the building.

Meanwhile, Drummond berates Milchick over Mark not showing up for work, asking him if "This is tightening the leash?" He is furious that Lumon's most vital refiner is "missing in the wind on what was to be Lumon's finest day" and tells Milchick it is his fault. "I have followed protocol, Mr. Drummond, but I thank you for your remonstration." In case you're like me and have no clue what that means, it means 'the act of expressing earnest opposition or protest'. Drummond says it's a needlessly complex word for a simple idea, and demands Milchick apologizes, which he does twice. Drummond demands he apologizes again, to which Milchick responds, "Devour feculence." I had an idea what this one meant, but Milchick confirms it. "Eat shit." As Milchick says: "To put it monosyballically, it's not my fault what Mark Scout does when he is not at work. It's yours." Ohhhh got em. Milchick has become perhaps my favorite character in the show, and it's clear he's starting to finally waver from his allegiance to Lumon, at least somewhat.

Mark calls Milchick, saying he's been worried about his nosebleeds he's having and drove to a clinic in Soil Hill and that they want to do a few more tests. Milchick insists on letting Lumon send a car as Mark is a valuable employee, demanding to know Mark's location. Mark thinks before explaining that he's not sick but he just needed a day. Milchick asks if he can know why, to which Mark says "No, I've just got life stuff. Isn't that what Lumon's all about? Balance? Work is just work, right?" Everyone can relate to that, right? Milchick has an internal struggle on whether to give this to Mark or push further, especially after what just happened with Drummond. In the end he asks for Mark's word that he will report to work tomorrow, to which Mark says he promises he will be there.

Cobel and Devon want to talk to Mark's innie

Mark gets in the bed of the truck covered with tarp, and he, Devon, and Cobel arrive at the severed birthing cabin. Security says no one scheduled to be there, to which Cobel says it's "one of Jame's and that no one is to know they are there." Sounds like Jame might have a ton of little Eagans running around non willingly. Cobel tells the security that Devon is Miss Marsha White from the ninth floor in the Specialty department, and that she is "looking for a gold thimble." Security lets them through.

Marks innie wakes up in the birthing cabin with Devon there. He tries to leave, and Devon explains that if he goes out the door, Mark will just turn around and come back in. She takes him upstairs to see Cobel, explaining that they need to talk.

Meanwhile, Helly goes to the breakroom where Irving hid the directions to the dark hallway and elevator. She returns to their work room and is trying to memorize the directions to the elevator, when suddenly Helena's father, Jame Eagan appears behind her and says, "You tricked me. My Helly." to which Helly responds, "What the fuck?" Couldn't have said it better, Helly.

All in all, this is about as satisfying of a penultimate episode as you can ask for. It feels as though for Iving and Dylan, this episode very well could be their last appearance of the season. Maybe even the series? I hope not, but it's quite possible based on how things ended.

Next week's season finale, Severance Season 2 Episode 10 titled Cold Harbor is a whopping 76 minutes but may every well focus on Mark, Cobel, Helly/Helena, and what exactly the Cold Harbor project actually is. I can't wait.

The season finale of Severance airs on March 20 at 9 pm EST.

The post Severance Season 2 Episode 9 The After Hours recap appeared first on Destructoid.