Milchick and Irving steal the show in Severance season 2

The latest season of Severance, Apple TV’s hit show created by Dan Erickson and produced by Ben Stiller, hit its halfway point earlier in the week. With five episodes to go, it’s time to take a look at the performances that have captivated audiences thus far, including Tramell Tillman’s Seth Milchick, and John Turturro’s Irving Bailiff.

Tillman’s Milchick

Some of the most immediate standout facets of the latest season are a couple performances.

Most notably, Tramell Tillman continues to captivate audiences with his unsettling portrayal of Seth Milchick, a man entrusted with what seems like an impossible task. To be a friend to the Innies, as well as an enforcer keeping them in-line. The anxiety inducing shifts between these two personas Tillman displayed in his interactions with Macrodata Refinement made Mr. Milchick a captivating enigma operating as a mediator between the severed workers and the head of the severed floor, Patricia Arquette’s Ms. Cobel.

Milchick’s feigned amiability was often even more spine-chilling than Ms. Cobel’s stone cold demeanour. And in the latest season, Tillman has been given the opportunity to take that balancing act to even more frightening heights. As the new head of the Severed floor, fans have been able to see a new side of Mr. Milchick as he navigates the increased scrutitiny from Lumon that comes with his new found responsibility.

While the whiplash he evokes in viewers down on the severed floor is still present in all its viciousness, Tillman has been able to show a subtler side of Milchick these past few months. In episode three, Mr. Milchick received a gift from the Lumon board, re-imagined versions of paintings of Kier Eagan, the company founder. In these paintings, Kier is portrayed as a black man, to allow Milchick to see himself in the company.

Superimposed on the commentary of corporate goliaths’ affected care for inclusivity, and the tone-deaf ways in which it materialises, is a disturbing scene between Tillman’s Milchick and Sydney Cole Alexander’s Natalie. The two-express discomfort through strained faces, as Milchick forces out words of gratitude, and Natalia is ordered by the board to reiterate her own appreciation for receiving similar paintings in the past. Tillman and Cole’s ability to convey Milchick and Natalie’s fear of the company, all while reifying how such a present only serves to showcase their lack of worth to Lumon, is stunning.

Now, as the season progresses into its second half, it seems as if Tillman will be tasked with further embodying the latter of his two aforementioned roles. Namely, being an enforcer. After a mid-season performance review highlighted Mr. Milchick’s shortcomings in operating the severed floor, with Olafur Darri Olafsson’s Mr. Drummond suggesting a less friendly approach to managing the Macrodata refinement team, Tillman’s character simply says that he is “tightening the leash.” A brief scene later in the episode of Mr. Milchick and Adam Scott’s Mark, gives fans a preview of what this more callous approach might look like.

And fans will indubitably be excited to see more of it in the episodes to come. However, Tillman isn’t the only one putting on an incredible performance this season. John Turturro’s Irving Bailiff has been pivotal, especially in episode 4, arguably the most engrossing episode thus far. It marked the end to an incredible arc for Turturro’s character.

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Turturro’s Irving

Irving began the season depressed and filled with despair upon returning to the severed floor. Whether it was seeing Christopher Walken’s Burt, his love interest, happily married when he ventured in to the outside world at the end of season 1, or the realisation that the Burt he knew was dead after Zach Cherry’s Dylan whispered it into him, Irving was in dire straits. Wishing for the ignorant bliss he once had, Turturro’s character seemed set on leaving Lumon.

Yet, he didn’t. He stayed, but those feelings of distress only grew within him. And in episode 4, they burst out. At least, seemingly so.

What at first glance appeared to be Irving’s departure down a dark path of alienating himself from the co-workers he had begun to detest, was really him waking up. Ironically, the man that seemed to be the most immersed in the religion of Kier in the first season, was the only member of Macrodata Refinement to see through Lumon’s latest ploy, replacing Britt Lower’s Innie Helly with her Outie Helly.

Turturro subverts expectations with grace, starkly portraying Irving’s decaying relationship with his friends due to the distrust boiling inside, only to reveal that it was because he trusted the people he had come to know, that he knew all wasn’t what it seemed. Irving reveals Lumon’s plans, forcing the board to change its approach and return Innie Helly to the team. However, the insubordination that led to his friend being saved, cost him his life.

But, that isn’t the end of Turturro’s character. It’s revealed later that Outie Irving has his own plans regarding Lumon. And it may have involved his Innie, with Irving telling someone over the payphone, that Lumon may be onto his Innie’s plans.

Turturro has already masterfully illustrated the transformation from faith filled follower to Innie Irving’s dying moments as an awoken martyr. He has painted Irving’s descent into hopelessness, before showing that he never gave up believing in his team.

Now, fans of Severance will tune in to see where Irving’s character goes from here, this time following his Outie in whatever mysterious plan he has in regards to Lumon.

Both Tillman and Turturro are sure to captivate audiences, while fans inch closer to an answer to the myriad of mysteries the show has set up. What is Irving planning? What will Milchick do to control Macrodata Refinement? Who is Miss Huang? What is Cold Harbour, the project Lumon eagerly awaits Mark to finish? And does it relate to Mark’s wife being alive?

Fans may not get answers anytime soon, but until then, viewers can enjoy Tillman and Turturro dominate the screen.

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