10 Best Episodes of ‘Severance’

‘Severance’ follows Mark and his team at Lumon Industries, where a medical procedure splits memories between work and home. Inside the Macrodata Refinement department, innies spend their days sorting mysterious numbers while outies live separate lives with no knowledge of what happens on the severed floor. The show builds its world through office rituals, coded handbooks, and a maze of corridors that hint at a much larger corporate design.

Across its run, the series develops threads that connect the workplace to the outside world. Break Room punishments, wellness sessions, and the Perpetuity Wing reveal company doctrine, while a device called the overtime contingency lets innies wake up beyond the office. These episodes map out that expanding picture, tying personal histories to Lumon’s secrets and setting up turns that reshape what the team believes is possible.

Good News About Hell

Helly wakes up in a conference room with no memory and meets Mark, who has just been promoted to lead Macrodata Refinement. The premiere walks through the severance rules that govern innies and outies, introduces Harmony Cobel’s dual presence at work and in Mark’s neighborhood, and shows how onboarding locks new employees into Lumon’s system.

The episode establishes the Break Room as a threat, outlines wellness and team-building procedures, and sets MDR’s daily task of scanning numbers for perceived emotions. It also plants early clues about prior refiners and makes clear that Petey’s departure will connect Mark’s two worlds in ways he does not expect.

Half Loop

Helly tries to resign as an innie and records messages to the outie who controls her life. Mark receives an unexpected contact from a former colleague, which starts a slow drip of information about what Lumon hides from its workers.

Security tightens around MDR as Mr. Milchick enforces policy and the manual appears as a tool for control. Outside the office, Cobel keeps a close eye on Mark under an alias, creating a link between corporate supervision and Mark’s personal routine.

In Perpetuity

The team visits the Perpetuity Wing, a museum-like space dedicated to the founding family and company lore. Displays of artifacts and recorded speeches provide a curated history that frames employees as part of an almost religious tradition.

Ms. Casey’s wellness sessions appear as calm, scripted check-ins that measure workers against ideal behaviors. The trip reinforces that departments are isolated on purpose and that even sanctioned excursions are designed to feed devotion to company myths.

The You You Are

Ricken’s self-help book begins to circulate in unexpected ways and becomes a quiet catalyst inside Lumon. Irving’s routines grow more rigid as he tries to make sense of unusual experiences on the floor, while Mark adjusts to leadership with Helly pushing against every boundary.

The episode ties outside literature to inside awakening, showing how a simple text can spread through the severed floor. It also tracks how small acts of curiosity lead MDR into spaces and relationships that are not part of their assigned workflow.

The Grim Barbarity of Optics and Design

Irving meets Burt from Optics and Design and discovers that the departments are taught to fear each other. The two groups compare duties and histories, revealing conflicting stories about who does what and why the walls between them exist.

MDR learns that O and D keeps catalogs and maps that do not match what MDR has been told. The encounter lays out the politics of the severed floor and shows how trust between workers can threaten the stories management prefers.

Hide and Seek

Helly faces consequences that spell out exactly how the Break Room operates, including required recitations and monitored emotion. MDR continues to follow crumbs left by a former colleague and notices gaps in maps and schedules that point to hidden areas.

Management responds with surveillance and tighter controls while Milchick monitors micro-movements in the office. The episode clarifies chain of command, the limits of the wellness program, and the steps employees take to test the edges of the floor.

Defiant Jazz

A perks event meant to boost morale turns into a flashpoint between MDR and security. The music and treats provide cover for a confrontation that changes how the team plans to act inside Lumon.

The hour brings the overtime contingency into play in a new way, showing how a signal can wake an innie in the outside world. That mechanism becomes the practical key for everything that follows, connecting desks and elevators to living rooms and front doors.

What’s for Dinner?

Mark attends a party at his sister Devon’s home where several storylines intersect. Conversations at the table link personal acquaintances to corporate interests and set a clock for what MDR needs to do back at the office.

Inside Lumon, the team prepares a coordinated move that depends on timing, access, and the overtime device. The episode puts characters in the same physical spaces to expose hidden relationships and positions everyone for the discoveries in the next hour.

The We We Are

The plan activates and the innies wake outside the office with limited time and no prior memories of their outie lives. Each member of MDR lands in a different location, turning homes and public spaces into new kinds of workplaces.

As they navigate phones, photos, and unfamiliar faces, they uncover identities and connections that reshape their understanding of Lumon’s control. The episode locks together threads about wellness, the Break Room, and department rivalries, and it shows exactly how far the team is willing to go once they see the bigger picture.

Hello, Ms. Cobel

The new season opens in the direct aftermath of the uprising, with MDR returning to the severed floor under watchful eyes. The company circulates fresh messaging meant to explain recent events and restore order, while Mark looks for answers that connect the office to someone he cares about.

Outside Lumon, relationships and responsibilities change in ways that complicate the team’s next steps. The hour establishes new leadership dynamics, confirms the continued use of the overtime device, and sets up searches that carry through the season.

Share your favorite ‘Severance’ episodes in the comments and tell us what moments hooked you.