In the after-show segment, the actor who plays Milchick said his motivating anger for the scene was the ingratitude of his underlings. “I brought a fifty piece marching band! What the Hell do they want?”
A fifty two piece marching band, of course. One piece for every card in the deck. Poor Milchick! So much great work undone for want of a little more…
Such was also what upset him about Dylan’s request to quit. It smacked of ingratitude.
Milchik is desperate to be appreciated. His world is as much all work as any innie. Maybe more? They at least have non work interactions with each other. His bosses have only criticism of him, much of it racist in origin. His employees see him only as the enemy and no matter how hard he thinks he is working to be a kind and generous supervisor (one can only imagine how hard he worked on that marching band number!) what he gets is “Fuck you Mr Mikchik.”
His bosses hate him. His employees hate him. And he has earnestly tried his very best, above and beyond, to get all of their approval and appreciation.
That’s the fate of middle management!
After reading this thread (thank you all for the illumonating input), I rewatched the finale with a fresh set of what I hoped to be enlightened eyes.
It’s still bad.
No delusions that any minds will change and that is not the intent.
Just rather taken aback that this, of all shows, would feature attempted goat sacrifice, gratuitous violence and an indoor marching band (any of which sounds like a side-stage act at Lollapalooza).
All in all, the season two finale felt like a Three Stooges short directed by David Lynch.
However, for those who enjoyed it, c’est la vie!
Thank you for sharing your feedback. 
I mean you remember the waffle party in season one, right? Surely the idea of an attempted (or even fully consummated) goat sacrifice (or the marching band) can’t have seemed that far out of left field? As to the violence… sure, it was more graphic than usual, but (1) that doesn’t make it gratuitous and (2) Severance, as a process, is all about violence. It is exercising unparalleled, coercive control over the minds and bodies of those subject to it. That you don’t see that as inherently violent says as much about you and the society you and I both have (presumably) come up in (where our elected officials don’t bat an eye at the spike in maternal mortality caused by supposedly pro-life abortion bans, but they lose their freaking minds over the death of a member of the ruling class at the hands of a loan gunman) as it does about the show.
I don’t see any reason to think that the reintegration storyline is over. One thing to remember is that the second half of this season covers a very short period of time. I think from the Ortbo to the finale is a little over a week. My prediction for next season is that Innie Mark and Helly will be trying to hide within the severed floor, but Mark will start experiencing Outie Mark’s memories.
I really like that idea. And eventually some degree of their shared agency.
Reintegration will be left hanging out there to give the flimsiest hope of a happy ending that will almost certainly never be delivered.
And perhaps on a quest to find some portable reverse Glasgow block.
And also note, this attitude has been cultivated in him by years of oppressive conditioning by Lumon and the Eagans. That was part of the reason for Ms. Huang to be in this season, and also Cobel’s back story.
Lumon’s “normal” employees are all recruited as child labour, and subjected to years worth of conditioning designed to break down their spirit and make them entirely devoted to the Eagan cult. That conditioning is all about telling them how terrible they are, and making them desperate for rewards and approvals, which are doled out only reluctantly, and in small amounts. I mean, look at their “performance evaluations”, which are really just ritual humiliations.
Milchik and Cobel are almost as much victims of Lumon as the innies are.
Emphasis mine
Most appropriate misspelling ever.
You know, sitting quietly at home this afternoon, thinking for a moment, I had this thought: “Did I write loan when I meant to write lone somewhere recently? Nah. Couldn’t have…”
Just finished S2 right after watching S1 for the first time, and I thought it held up the same high quality. And very satisfying, the more I think about it - iMark’s decision fit with the character and I think the overall theme of the show, about how the desires and internal lives of the innies are consistently disregarded by everyone else, up to and including we the viewers (at least to some extent).
I think Severance is as good as any show I’ve seen since prime HBO (Wire, Sopranos, Deadwood, etc.).
Yeah, iMark’s dilemma and decision was fantastic, and perfectly in character. A fair bit of what came earlier in the season ended up not making sense, not fitting into the established rules of the world, or not going anywhere… imho. Plenty of people do seem to rate S2 just as highly as S1, however, so… ymmv.
I loved both seasons but kinda wish they had just ended the show. They explained every mystery in a satisfactory way (ok, not the goats, that was kinda weak) and the only thing up in the air is what is going to happen to the innies now. Without all the mystery and quirkiness that is more of a couple episodes situation than a whole season.
I don’t think we really know what Lumon is really all about, yet. All the weird cult stuff is from the POV of the innies and their bosses. Do the bosses we have seen have bosses? We haven’t really seen what the organization looks like from outside of the town of Kier (except for that brief visit to Salt’s Neck) or how it is integrated with the rest of the world. It’s like only knowing about the 1970s by getting a glimpse inside Jonestown.
They are a cult trying to do culty things. At least that’s the impression I got. The whole project is just a way to control people’s tempers.
That could all be misdirection. If Lumon just turns out to be an analog for Scientology or Amway, I’m going to be very disappointed.
I’d be more disappointed if they were just a generic evil corporation trying to make money.