Praise Kier! This article contains major spoilers for the season 2 finale of “Severance.”
No matter what you might have had on your “Severance” Bingo card for the final episode of a phenomenal second season, we’re going to go out on a limb and say nobody predicted that. The cross-cutting conversation between Mark Scout’s (Adam Scott) innie and outie, his innie’s highly-anticipated completion of the Cold Harbor file, and their combined attempt to free Gemma (Dichen Lachman) before his innie ultimately chose to stay behind with Helly R. (Britt Lower) are undoubtedly among the biggest reveals and most significant developments in this series to date, of course. But don’t let all the ceaseless demands for our entertainment to do nothing but “advance the plot” distract from one of the funniest and most bizarre additions to Lumon Industries yet: the musical department known as Choreography and Merriment.
It’s impossible to say whether “Severance” creator Dan Erickson purposefully set out to outdo the famed Music Dance Experience (MDE, for short) from the first season, but that’s exactly what he and his creative team pulled off in the season 2 finale. Following Mark S.’s unparalleled achievement (touted as the most important event in the history of the world, naturally), things start to get downright weird — even by Lumon standards. A creepy animatronic of company founder Kier Eagan begins celebrating Macrodata Refinement for their accomplishment, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) engages his “boss” in a cringey (and occasionally terse) comedy routine, and all of it leads to the arrival of an actual marching band strutting through the hallways and performing a bravado musical number right there in the middle of the office.
The chaos of Choreography and Merriment becomes the perfect diversion Helly R. and Mark S. need to start their mission to save Gemma, but the stunt serves an even more crucial narrative purpose. The writers could’ve come up with anything to facilitate this turn of events, but they intentionally opted for something as hilarious and over the top as this. Even amid its darkest storyline of the season, “Severance” reminds us that this show can be as fun and funny as anything on TV right now … and, most importantly, that Tramell Tillman deserves all the flowers.