“Mixed feelings” - Adam Scott and Ben Stiller reveal true feelings on Severance season 2 ending

Spoiler Alert! This article contains spoilers about the season 2 finale of Apple TV’s “Severance”.

“Severance” season two came to its dramatic end and in doing so, answered some questions, but left several new ones. Thankfully, director Ben Stiller has confirmed that there will be a season three (and that it won’t take three years to come out this time). So eventually, those questions will be answered too.

In the finale, Mark Scout’s outie, played by Adam Scott, is able to speak to his innie by way of a back-and-forth video recording - a scene which Stiller said was extremely difficult to shoot and for which he praised Scott for his performance. The conversation between Mark’s two selves starts off civil, but quickly turns hostile as his innie starts to question his outie’s motives.

In the end, Mark’s innie agrees to help rescue his outie’s wife, who’s being held hostage and tortured on the Testing Floor. His outie is able to reunite with his wife, played by Dichen Lachman, only briefly before they are both transformed back into their innie selves. Mark’s innie leads his wife to the exit but hesitates to exit the door himself, knowing he will never be able to have the life he wants with his own love interest, Helly (played by Britt Lower). He eventually turns around, choosing Helly, while his outie’s wife desperately pleads for him to turn around and join her.

It’s a heartbreaking and frustrating ending, as you see all the work Mark’s outie went through to save his wife, who he’d previously thought dead, only to be denied their happily ever after.

What Adam Scott said about the “Severance” season 2 ending

For Adam Scott, he said he has “mixed feelings” about the ending of the show - understandably.

“It’s difficult...actually, it’s not, because I think emotionally it’s a no-brainer, but logic-wise, they went through logically what’s in front of them and decided, ‘You should go,’ but their hearts told them something else,” said Scott.

“I think for Innie Mark and Helly, it’s one thing, but then watching it, I feel horribly for Gemma,” he went on. “Obviously, it’s heartbreaking. And for Outie Mark too, they finally were right there, and it got pulled out from under them."

“So I don’t know, I have very mixed feelings about it because I think of it as a two-pronged decision. And when you have colliding interests, but you’re in the same body, then it’s going to come to a head at some point.”

What Ben Stiller said about the “Severance” season 2 ending

For director and executive producer Ben Stiller, that was the whole point - to make you feel torn between the emotions of Outie Mark and Innie Mark, and to see the innies as individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and challenges.

“Innie Mark has his own life. Outie Mark has his own life,” said Stiller. “Outie Mark, we meet first in terms of understanding what he wants, but then over the course of the first and second season, Innie Mark is living his life and developing these emotional attachments and relationships in his life that are very valid.”

“It’s this inevitable confrontation that has to happen between the two of them.”

Stiller said he wanted the audience to be split into “Team Innie Mark” and “Team Outie Mark”. He also said that he and his team always knew from the start how the season would end. He spoke about the theme of love in the “Severance” world, and how there could be an argument that it transcends the innie and outie selves, as we saw with Irving and Bert, whose outies were also drawn to each other. However, in Mark’s case, his innie didn’t feel that love towards Gemma. He only felt it with Helly, which is why he ultimately chose to go to her.

“It’s a painful realization for him in that moment... it’s a moment where he, you know, it’s a choice between two loves, but it’s also a choice between two identities and two wives, and it’s him saying, you know, my love and thus my existence is valid and is as important as that of my Outie.”

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