I wrote this thread on Bluesky, but I wanted to bring it here and let my thoughts marinate more without a character limit.
The more I sit with it, the more I appreciate that one of the most powerful themes of Severance S2 is intersectionality and solidarity. Yes, you can be in a position of power and still be the victim of institutionalized oppression and exploitation, with some in a more tenuous position than others!
But if everyone recognizes that and realizes there is a common goal to dismantle the thing, some can utilize their positions of greater influence to help! People are often in different places regarding their security and survival instincts, though, and need their glass breaking moment.
One of the things I love about Cobel's arc this season is that in retrospect it's a slow glass-breaking moment. An older, well educated, white woman, part of the institutional in-group, who has been horribly exploited by that institution. Being shunned, she attempts to intimidate the power structure on her own, and realizes all at once (in a scene that baffled me at first but which is now so impactful) that even if she holds some very powerful cards, she cannot do this alone. Her intentions are still not 100% clear, and she may still be only motivated by her own whims, but her actions in solidarity were still materially harmful to the institution.
Milchick's arc MUST be focal next season. The real cliffhanger for me was not knowing how this man - this highly capable, empathetic, joyous, brilliant, Black man who gives everything to maintain only a modicum of power within the system, use that to champion tiny humanitarian reforms, and lose his personhood in the process while grappling with the fact that he will never be allowed to make real change within this evil racist institution - reacts to being the face of Lumon, the oppressor, in the eyes of this uprising. I'm truly hoping for that to be the culmination of his own slow glass-breaking moment. Drummond is dead. Bar the floor, Milchick. Don't let anyone in. Solidarity. "Fuck you, Mr. Milchick?" Nah, fuck LUMON.
Lastly I want to mention Ms. Huang, whose impact on the season's themes became blindingly clear once I viewed it through a lens of intersectionality. She's a young Asian woman beloved by an academic institution with a pipeline to the evil racist corporate institution. Expected to be good, subservient, a blank slate for their needs. Model minority. Her only outlets for expression and agency are explicitly taken away or denied (the theramin, her ring toss game), and along the way she sees Milchick as her oppressor. Having no other avenue for agency, her only attempt to claw any power out of her situation is to report him to the institution. But Milchick knows she is a child. The aftermath of her "acting out" in this way is another major moment for him, as he seemingly begins to realize that he should be a role model and champion for this child, who is tacitly powerless, but he cannot be that within Lumon's system.
This post is only about the corporate-affiliated representatives of these themes, but it goes much deeper. Literally. The implications of Gemma's story and place within the narrative as an Asian woman are A LOT to read through the lens of this theme. But for now... wow.
Anyone who says S2 is lacking in cohesion and "moving the plot forward" can suck it.
