Trust “Severance” fans to leave no stone unturned.
Ahead of Season 2, Episode 9, “The After Hours,” eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the latest installment of Dan Erickson’s Apple TV+ thriller shares its name with a chapter of “The Twilight Zone” from 1960. TV episodes have the same names all the time, not least due to their sheer volume in existence and common phrases that repeat (Season 1’s “Hide and Seek” shares its title with episodes from “Adventure Time” and “Bluey”) — but something as integral to sci-fi television as “The Twilight Zone” merits further exploration.
“The Twilight Zone” Season 1, Episode 34 stars Anne Francis as Marsha White, a woman searching a department store for a gold thimble when she starts to experience eerie things on its ninth floor. The entire area is deserted and empty of merchandise, except for exactly what she needs. The woman who helps her turns out to be be a mannequin. Oh and yeah — there is no ninth floor.
“The After Hours” invokes immediate “Severance” parallels, but first to the recent “Chikhai Bardo,” which revealed that Gemma (Dichen Lachman) is alive and well in the Lumon sub-basement, being subjected to perverse experiments and routine torture. Officially, the sub-basement probably doesn’t exist. The MDR team has searched the floor and asked for answers but has still not come any closer (except for our dear departed Irving B., who left behind detailed instructions that have yet to yield results). And the people down there? Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson) has at least appeared elsewhere, but what about Sandra Bernhard’s mysterious nurse? Are we sure she’s not a mannequin?
Ultimately (spoilers from 1960 ahead), Marsha learns that she, too, is a mannequin; for one month of the year, she and her fellow statues take turns living in the human world. She stayed a day too long and experienced disorientation before remembering her reality (the balance needs to be respected!), and the saleswoman (Elizabeth Allen) helped her to do so. It’s a direct contrast with Gemma’s predicament, where she’s ceaselessly gaslit by everyone around her (mostly Mauer, who can “devour feculence”). In “The Twilight Zone,” all the other mannequins come to life to ease Marsha back into normalcy, and they cheerfully send off the saleswoman when it’s her turn.
But the real thread between “The After Hours” and “The After Hours” is how being outside made Marsha feel. She forgets that she’s not human, and she wants more — the same way that Dylan (Zach Cherry) can no longer bear the restrictions of life as an Innie after meeting his Outie’s wife Gretchen (Merritt Wever), the way Irving (John Turturro) couldn’t return to his routine after losing Burt (Christopher Walken), the way Mark was driven to reintegrate after learning that Gemma is alive.
“When you’re on the outside, everything seems so normal,” Marsha says in “The Twilight Zone.” Life was comparatively normal for the Outies in “Severance,” but that’s becoming a thing of the past in Season 2. “The After Hours” sees Dylan rankled by Gretchen’s lie, Irving ready to run away with his love, and Mark taking the help of Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), of all people, to aid in his quest for Gemma. Even Milchick (Tramell Tillman) snaps and talks back to his superior. Not so normal out there anymore!
In the end, Marsha doesn’t push back in the slightest about returning to her original form. While her comrade descends the elevator into the human world, she quietly admits, “It was so much fun.” In a warped way, Gemma would agree; after being held hostage for so long in the sub-basement — including her time on the Severed floor as Miss Casey — her time with Mark and all life before Lumon must feel like a bizarre dream and break from reality. Mauer, the nurse, the rooms — these are her reality now, and the time above? It was so much fun.
The Season 2 finale of “Severance” premieres Thursday, March 20 on Apple TV+. “The Twilight Zone” is available to stream on Paramount+.
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