“She’s alive!”

Mark Scout (Adam Scott), the fractured heart of AppleTV+’s “Severance,” yelled these two words to end Season 1 on April 8, 2022. Devoted viewers have waited nearly three years to discover what happens after the critically lauded series’ cliffhanger.

Re-entering the “Severance” world created by Dan Erickson, an executive producer with director Ben Stiller, is especially challenging given the mystery around the central Lumon Industries and its controversial procedure, right there in the title, known as “severance.”

The voluntary surgical chip implantation splits each employee’s brain into two entirely separate personas: the “innie,” who endures unending work days in the banal but dangerously controlling workplace with no memory of their own personal life, and the “outie,” who has no memory of the horrors the innie endures each work day.

Making Season 1, Erickson “had a lot of ideas about where (the story) was going; it was just a question of how far we’d go,” Stiller tells USA TODAY. “Not knowing the reality that it would be almost three years before Season 2, or even if we’d get picked up for Season 2.”

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Here’s a refresher on where we left off with Season 1 of “Severance” before Season 2 kicks off Jan. 17 on AppleTV+.

When does ‘Severance’ Season 2 come out?Premiere date, cast, where to watch and stream

Why did Mark yell ‘She’s alive!’ in the ‘Severance’ Season 1 finale?

Mark’s outie agreed to the severance procedure to compartmentalize his sorrow after years of all-consuming grief over the tragic loss of his wife, Gemma. His innie, unaware of this grief, toils in Lumon’s enigmatic Macrodata Refinement department (MDR), disillusioned with the monotony, the secrecy and the repressiveness of Lumon’s operations. Sparked by a rebellious new hire, Helly R. (Britt Lower), Mark begins to unravel the secrets of the severance programs with Lumon colleagues Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) and Irving B. (John Turturro).

In a risky gambit to uncover and reveal the truth, the team activates the Overtime Contingency protocol. Dylan breaks into the security office and holds two levers simultaneously to enable the forbidden procedure that allows Mark, Helly, and Irving’s innies to experience consciousness in the outside world for the first time.

Mark’s innie wakes up in his outie’s life to find his counterpart still drowning in grief. But the most shocking revelation comes when, at the home of his sister Devon (Jen Tullock), he sees a wedding photograph with his supposedly dead wife and recognizes her as Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), the part-time Lumon Industries wellness director. Mark’s shock prompts the “She’s alive!” cry just before the protocol is interrupted, and Mark’s outie returns.

“To have this moment of realization when Mark realizes who Gemma is seemed like a really fun cliffhanger,” says Stiller. “Once you saw that Irving, Mark, and Helly had been out in the real world — and Dylan, to an extent— all of a sudden, we opened up the world of their outies”

Who is Helly’s outie in ‘Severance’?

Helly’s innie finds herself as the star of a high-profile Lumon gala in the Season 1 finale, where her outie’s identity is revealed to be Helena Eagan, daughter of Lumon’s CEO and scion of the Eagan dynasty. Helena has voluntarily undergone severance to promote the technology. However, Helly’s innie uses her keynote gala speech to smash the illusion of a helpful program by declaring, “We are prisoners!” Lumon officials tackle her from the podium just as the protocol is deactivated.

Irving’s innie awakens to find that his outie has been obsessively researching Lumon, painting his home with unsettling black-and-white imagery close to the innie-reality. Among his outie’s possessions, Irving finds a map and employee directory that lead him to the home of his secret innie love interest, Burt (Christopher Walken). Irving sees Burt through his window, happily spending time with another man. Still, he approaches Burt’s door to make a connection just as the Overtime Contingency is deactivated, thwarting the reunion.

Why was the Overtime Contingency stopped in the ‘Severance’ finale?

In Episode 6, Dylan discovers that his outie is the father of a child his innie was not aware of, motivating him to take big risks. Dylan heroically holds the levers in the security room to allow the Overtime Contingency to play out. However, Seth Milchick (Tramel Tillman), the supervisor of Lumon’s “severed” floor, finally breaks through the doors and tackles Dylan, stopping the protocol.

Milchick, who has not undergone the severance procedure, ruthlessly enforces Lumon policies, including the infamous “break room,” where disruptive employees are sent to undergo bizarre disciplinary procedures.

Who is Harmony Cobel in ‘Severance’?

Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) is the zealous Lumon senior manager who oversees Milchick and the severed floor. Harmony has secretly adopted the alias “Mrs. Selvig” and poses as a neighbor to surveil Mark, allowing her to monitor Mark’s activities inside and outside Lumon Industries. During a party in the season finale, Mark’s shocked innie discovers Selvig’s true identity but inadvertently refers to her by her Lumon name, alerting her that the innies have permeated the outside world. Cobel immediately alerts Milchick to stop the Overtime Contingency activation.

Contributing: Gary Levin