Severance's Adam Scott teases Mark's personal battle in season 2

Office worker Mark, who has been “severed” to maintain a work/life balance, began to question the sterile life in which he worked and lived, seeing the same three faces every day and sitting in an office cubicle as part of the ambiguous “macrodata refinement” (MDR).

Season 1 ended with Mark’s “Innie” temporarily breaking free into his “Outies” mind and discovering his wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman), whom he believed was dead, was actually alive and someone he knows as “Ms Casey” within Lumon’s walls.

With his world now shattered, and his time as an Outie now over, Mark has to deal with the fallout of MDR’s coup on the company as we pick up right where we left off for season 2.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, actor Scott teased the trouble is only just beginning for the Innies trapped within Lumon’s walls.

“Season 1 was watching Innie Mark gradually grow disillusioned with Lumon, with this place that he believes in wholeheartedly, his whole identity is wrapped up in this place and Lumon, with Kier and Ms Cobel, you know, who’s like a mother figure to him,” he explained.

“He loves this place, and it's all he knows, and so we watch him gradually grow disillusioned with it.”

“By the end of the season, I think he figured he had hit the ceiling of how disillusioned he could be with this place, but then he finds this explosive piece of information in his Outie sister's house, and I think that blows the doors off, as far as anything he ever thought could happen, how depraved a company or a person could be. I don't think his mind had ever even gone there.”

Scott continued: “So we're kicking the season off with Innie Mark having this piece of information and how that will affect him down at MDR, whether he'll be able to take that information and get it to his Outie, and how he would even try to do that."

He teased: "Who knows, but that's where we're starting. That's where the season is teeing off.”

While the cast are keeping tight-lipped about what to expect from the upcoming second season, which has been three years in the making, one thing that’s sure to be addressed is Innie Mark’s growing affection for co-worker Helly (Britt Lower), who viewers have learned is actually the daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan.

Helly, a descendant of mysterious founder Kier Eagan, allowed herself to be “severed” to prove that the system works, and has a prominent position within Lumon. But in accordance with severance rules, even her Innie is unaware of this, with workers being offered limited information about their life in the outside world in order to focus on their job.

Growing close to Mark, she was one of the frontrunners of the MDR coup, helping Mark, Irving (John Turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry) in their efforts to communicate with their Outies.

Before the mission, she stole a kiss from Mark – which could prove another complication for him now he knows his Outie wife Gemma could still be alive.

“That's really complicated,” Scott said, keeping schtum about what lies ahead for the pair.

“That's kind of like where the show... I think it lives, in terms of that tension,” he added. “Just, on my end, the tension of this idea of this first season where we've seen this relationship grow, and really these Innies grow as people, almost start to mature.

“You could say that they're kind of like children in the first season, and we've said in the second season, it's like they're turning into adolescents, or they're starting to just test the bounds of their world and develop emotional connections with each other.

“Those two aspects, Mark's Outie and Mark's Innie, are really at odds with each other in season 2.”

Severance season 2 launches on Friday 17th January on Apple TV+ with new episodes airing weekly. Season 1 is available now. Sign up for Apple TV+ here.

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