Severance Showrunner in ‘Misdirect’ Season 2 Premiere

This post contains Spoilers For “Severance” Season 2, Episode 1, “Hello, Mrs. Coppell.”

In the opening minutes “Break Up” Season 2 Premiere, Mark S. (Adam Scott) walks into Lumon Industries’ Macrodata Refinement office and practically grinds to a halt: his work friends have been replaced by three new faces. “Who are you people?” Mark asks, reflecting the audience’s confusion at seeing Bob Balaban, Alia Shawkat, and Stefano Caranante instead of Brett Lauer, Zach Cherry, and John Turturro. As we quickly learn, these new people appear to have come from a different MDR division in another branch, seemingly giving us a glimpse into just how extensive Lumon’s operations really are.

Mark is clearly not happy about this new development. He tries to frame Balaban’s character, and ends up coming into contact with the mysterious painting, which angers Melchik before, finally, about 20 minutes into the episode, he reunites with Hailey R., Dylan G., and Irving B. finally and the show begins. To feel like her old self again as the audience settles back into somewhat familiar territory and Mark fills them in on it Mrs. Casey’s big development from the end of season one. It’s a great decision for the writers to make, given the fact that viewers have been away from the series for nearly three years.

In a recent interview, I had the opportunity to speak with Dan Erickson, creator/showrunner of “Severance,” about his approach to structuring this first episode in this way, dropping Mark S and the audience into an unexpected scenario and making us feel the dramatic shift. A little under our feet Here’s how Ericsson explained the decision:

“On a fun and playful level, we wanted people to wonder, ‘Oh my God, is this the new cast of the show? Is this going to be a show about these characters?’ And we wanted to create characters where, on a level, you would fit in, because these actors are really fun, it’s Bob Balaban and Alia and Stefano, and they all play well with each other and they’re different. Mark in a way we’ve never seen before.”