The Severance Season 2 Finale Gets Violent, But Did The Show Need To Cross That Line?

This article contains surprisingly gory spoilers for “Severance” season 2, episode 10 — “Cold Harbor”

Like just about every other sci-fi thriller out there, “Severance” has been known to get its hands dirty on occasion. However, the show is nowhere near as bloody as you’d expect from a dystopian show about manipulated low-level workers struggling against a powerful megacorporation with a built-in religious cult and intentions of global dominance. In fact, I’d argue that a relative lack of physical brutality is a large part of the series’ allure, as it allows “Severance” to focus on the impending sense of white collar doom that’s both its crooked backbone and its greatest asset. But what would “Severance” look like if it woke up and chose violence? How would this impact the show’s atmosphere going forward?

The “Severance” season 2 finale, “Cold Harbor,” sets out to answer these questions and more by releasing a generous dose of gore into the usually pristine corridors of Lumon’s ominous underground complex. The episode features a fight scene that would be violent by any show’s standards, as well as an unexpected and bloody death that wouldn’t be out of place in a slasher movie. In a less bloody example, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) also adds to his work-related injury quota when Helly R. (Britt Lower) smashes him in the face with a Lumon-issued trombone, of all things — and it’s telling that compared to the other violent moments, this fairly nasty hit plays out as borderline comedic.

“Severance” has featured tactical displays of violence before, but never even nearly to this extent. Was it worth it? Let’s take a look at the events that make “Cold Harbor” the most physically brutal “Severance” episode yet, and whether all that violence truly brings anything to the table.

It all begins with a TV show staple “Severance” tends to steer clear of: a fight scene. When Mark S. (Adam Scott) unwittingly interrupts Mr. Drummond’s (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) goat sacrifice ceremony, the hulking security chief faces stares down the Macrodata Refinement Team leader, just like Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) and the severed floor’s former security man Doug Graner (Michael Cumpsty) have done many times before. In a moment of true shock, Drummond doesn’t leave it at that. Instead, he punches Mark and begins an unrelenting assault, with clear intentions to kill the much smaller protagonist with his bare hands. Fortunately, Mammalians Nurturable head Lorne (Gwendoline Christie) soon joins in the fray, and after getting over the initial shock of being physically attacked, she proceeds to fight back and utterly wreck Drummond.

It’s vicious stuff, unlike anything “Severance” has shown us. It’s also just a precursor to the episode’s bloodiest moment: When Mark takes Drummond hostage and they take an elevator to Lumon’s testing floor, he unexpectedly reverts to his outie persona. During the personality shift, outie Mark accidentally fires a bolt gun at Drummond’s neck, fatally severing an artery and causing poor Mark to wake up in a rain of blood.

Granted, it’s surprisingly cathartic to see the irredeemable Drummond — who was already on the receiving end of a fine Milchick meltdown moment in “Severance” season 2, episode 9 — get his just desserts one last time. It’s also nice to see Christie bring hints of her “Game of Thrones” character Brienne of Tarth on the show, as Lorne beats the hulking, bearded Lumon man in much the same no-holds-barred way Brienne won her own melee against the Hound (Rory McCann).

At the end of the day, the violent moments of “Cold Harbor” work suprisingly well. While I tend to prefer “Severance” when it focuses on Lumon’s mysteries and the interpersonal relationships of its severed workers, the shock value of not just the violence but how far the show is willing to take it does what it sets out to do. Just like many of the best “Severance” moments, the thoroughline from Drummond’s first punch to Mark using the necktie splattered with the Lumon heavy’s blood to open the DNA lock of the Cold Harbor room and rescue Gemma (Dichen Lachman) is both completely logical and utterly impossible to predict. The sequence is also narratively important beyond its immediate effects, as it sets up a potential friendship/alliance between Lorne and Mark, and even finally reveals what Mammalians Nurturable actually does — they grow sacrificial animals for some mysterious Cold Harbor-related purpose.

Because of all this, the bloodletting manages to hit all the beats of a quality “Severance” plot line, astounding the viewer and moving the narrative toward new, exciting directions. Besides, it’s not like the show hasn’t been violent before. In moments that range from Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) killing Graner in season 1 to Irving B. (John Turturro) attempting to drown Helena Eagan (Britt Lower) in the season 2 episode “Woe’s Hollow,” the show has proven adept at targeted deployment of violent moments. Still, those scenes have been absolutely nothing compared to the violence of “Cold Harbor,” and “Severance” has always been more about mental anguish than physical splatter. As such, the show should continue to tread carefully around blood and gore if it wants to retain its uniquely unnerving soul.