The emotional angst in Severance’s latest episode is off the charts. It would be too simplistic to call whatever is up with Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) in their respective relationships a love triangle. The show is configuring all kinds of shapes at this point. All four of them are going through it, with hearts and minds being pulled in different directions unbeknownst to their own innies and outies. Episode writer Erin Wagoner takes advantage of this chaos to further the show’s debate about right vs. wrong. Who has ownership over the body, feelings, and desires—the innie, outie, or both? And what about how their decisions impact their literal other half’s life? 

It’s hard to blame a severed person like Mark S. or Helly R. for hooking up with each other in “Attila” because they’re both consenting adults who want to give in to their attraction. In the bleak Lumon landscape, they’ve found love, similar to what Irv and Burt (Christopher Walken) experienced in season one. Yet it’s a massively blurred line. Mark Scout and Helena Eagan have no idea their innies hooked up earlier in the day when they “run into each other” at a restaurant after work in this episode. It’s weird, gross, and sad. Of course, Helena pretends like she hasn’t followed Mark and that it’s the first time she’s ever been this close to him. In reality, she tricked his innie into sleeping with her in “Woe’s Hollow.” Helena selfishly took advantage of Helly R.’s existence then. In “Attila,” her innie, without concern for how she’s also using her outie’s body, has a tender encounter with Mark. Yeah, it’s all kinds of fucked up. 

Severance is in no mood for straightforward answers. It’s making us contemplate the situation from each POV and feel for everyone involved, rightfully opening up important discussions about consent. That said, Helena blatantly flirting with Mark was a hard watch. Girl, get a grip. And that’s without Gemma/Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) fully being in the picture yet. If this feels polarizing now, imagine how tricky it will get once his wife reenters their lives. “Attila” zeroes in on these complex bonds, letting mysteries simmer on the back burner to chew on the characters’ interiorities. But these relationships are, to be sure, going to blow the hell up. We all know it’s coming. 

I’m fearful of how this will affect Irving the most. His innie is already dead, but now his outie’s life is clearly in danger. For starters, Lumon thug Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) breaks into his house and finds his investigative work against the company. Secondly, Irving’s dinner with Burt and his husband, Fields (John Noble), sheds more light on Walken’s character—and it’s not looking great, is it? Burt, a Lutheran church member, has been employed by the company in some capacity for 20 years, even if he lies to Irving and says it’s been 12. Burt also reveals he was tempted to sever himself in the hope that, unlike him, his innie wouldn’t be a scoundrel so that Burt goes to heaven. Just how much of a bad guy is outie Burt that he desperately wanted to redeem himself and the only way to do it was to put that chip in his head? Their pastor also supported this decision. This also lays bare Severance’s concept of whether or not innies are “real people,” a fact that hardcore Lumon employees refuse to accept. 

Irving, Burt, and Fields’ conversation over red wine and ham seems mature on the surface but laced with doubt and paranoia. Fields gets tipsy enough to ask them if their innies’ could’ve had unprotected sex. It’s a valid question that I’m so glad Severance finally brought up. It makes you think of the many, many ways in which getting severed affects those around the outies. When Burt and Irv were being so darn cute in season one, I wasn’t thinking, “Hey, I wonder if either of them has a partner outside whose trust is getting crushed right now?” Here we are, with Burt and Irv still making goo-goo eyes at each other, Fields be damned. They even make loose plans to hang out without Burt’s spouse. They just cannot help themselves. 

The same can be said for the connection Gretchen (Merrit Wever) feels with innie Dylan. She’s developed a fondness for him because he’s not like the outie who forgets to make cookies for their kids, finds it tough to hold a job or interests, and has settled into a monotonous routine. Dylan G. is a sweet listener who praises her beauty and appreciates her hugs. She hasn’t felt that affection in a long time. So she gives him a nice, long smooch. It’s not technically cheating because both Dylans share a heart and body. Yet Wever’s face reveals that Gretchen, as much as she enjoys kissing Dylan G., feels regret because it’s not the husband she knows and lives with. Similarly, Dylan’s innie expresses jealousy considering his outie spends much more time with Gretchen. Damn if that’s not a confounding dilemma.  

It’s impressive how “Antilla” dials up these fraught circumstances. The stakes go well beyond what Cold Harbor is, where Gemma or Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) might be, and any other secrets Lumon has up its sleeves. And another curveball arrives in this episode via Mark’s reintegration process. After his brief memory of Gemma in last week’s cliffhanger, he’s understandably shaken up. He refuses to get plugged into the machine to complete reintegration because, well, Mark Scout is a guy who loves to run away from problems. 

Thankfully, he changes his mind after his bizarre confrontation with Helena Eagan. Sitting across from her at the Chinese restaurant and hearing her teasing sentiments—and the way she calls Gemma “Hanna”—stirs something inside of him. It’s enough to make him rush back home and finish the process. He goes through with it just as Devon (Jen Tullock) arrives to check on him. It’s great timing because she sees her brother collapse as he is unable to take the weight of both his worlds colliding. He might not be ready for it, but I think everyone watching at home very much is. 

Stray observations

• • “Did everyone sever their balls in the elevator this morning?”
• • “We shared vessels” is such a nauseating way for Mark S. to tell Helly R. that he slept with her outie. 
• • Mark and Helly then proceed to go to an abandoned Lumon room, with desks and chairs covered in tarp, to have sex. Again, I must ask, is no one checking what they’re doing all day? Did they just get lucky that Ms. Huang’s managing the floor? Don’t they have cameras up somewhere still? Essentially, how is anyone at Lumon allowing their CEO-to-be to, um, fuck around? 
• • When Fields jokes, “What’s mine is yours” at dinner, I thought we were veering into threesome territory with them. I guess it’s still not ruled out. 
• • In this week’s edition of Severance is a comedy, Mark turning around to see if Helena is smiling at someone behind him in the diner is excellent work from Adam Scott. As is the delivery of “Thank you, I’ve heard nothing about my work so…”
• • Can’t Dylan find out from work if Gretchen has been going to the visitation center or not? It feels like a flimsy lie on her part to blame it on Lumon.
• • Aww, the soft way in which Irving asks if an innie can go to heaven.  
• • Interestingly, the episode’s title is derived from the nickname Burt and Fields have for each other, Attila The Hun. (They got bored with calling each other “hun.”)  
• • Milchick spends most of his time in this hour practicing using small words, per his performance review. 
• • We also get a Ms. Huang tidbit: She’s a Lumon fellow who cannot graduate until Milchick deems her Wintertide material. I’m scared to find out what that means.