Apple TV+ ‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 3 Review - Where is Ms. Casey?

What happened to Ms. Casey? Where is she? These questions drive Mark and Helly in Severance Season 2, Episode 3. On their quest to find the location of this former wellness counselor, Mark and Helly arrive at a goat farm, a department by the name of Mammalians Nurturable. You can't help but roll your eyes and scream, "What is this company?" Also, are those grasses real? Were they grown inside the building or exported from outside? What exactly is the job description of the workers in this department? It would have been nice if Severance had provided us with a little detail regarding the daily activities of these employees instead of merely using them to increase the "weird meter" of this series. Gwendoline Christie, as Lorne, introduces subtle comic shades into her solemn lines, and when she rings the Lumon bell to call her colleagues, the situation teeters on the verge of becoming menacing. These intense feelings, however, are deflated quite lazily. The crowd turns in the favor of Mark and Helly too easily. There is a "pouch joke" at the end, but it isn't very funny.

What's Huang's deal? Why hire a kid at the company? She is appropriately cold, all right, but for now, she looks more like an odd embellishment than a flesh and blood individual. She takes the innie Dylan to a meeting with his outie's wife, and the first question that pops up in your mind is this, "Is this woman really Dylan's wife?" Since the innie Dylan doesn't know much about his outie's personal life, he can easily be tricked into believing whatever Lumon wants him to believe. Lumon, it turns out, isn't that cruel. The woman, indeed, is revealed to be Dylan's wife. This is a superb scene that displays what Severance, with its sci-fi concept, can achieve. The innie Dylan is told that his outie never "found his thing." "So he is a fuck-up," the innie says to the wife. The character's disappointment is palpable and gives rise to all sorts of sad feelings because Dylan, basically, finds out that he isn't a hero outside. This is like your future self telling your past self that you achieved nothing - that you weren't able to fulfill your dreams. If only Ms. Casey had been in the building. Her calm demeanor and gentle words could have uplifted Dylan's spirit.

I think I might be overlooking Britt Lower's performance as Helly. Notice how she smiles in front of Mark before starting the search for Ms. Casey and how she smiles in front of Cobel when she meets her outside the Lumon building. The two expressions, on the surface, don't appear very different, but Lower brings subtle changes to her smile during both scenes. What looks tender and inviting with Mark shifts to something much more intimidating in Cobel's company. One can pick up on tense undercurrents during this meeting, and Cobel looks pretty vulnerable in the presence of Helly. We hear a word, "Cold Harbor," which Mark is apparently close to completing. What exactly does it mean? Episode 3 provides little time for pondering as our mind gets distracted - and excited - by Mark's reintegration procedure that merges the memories of the innie Mark with that of the outie. I can't wait to see what will happen next week.

Final Score- [7/10]