Every “Severance” viewer already knows this, but it bears repeating: Lumon Industries is weird as hell.
A lot of the weirdness is rooted in the work, which is mysterious and important; none of the severed workers know what they do, even when they’re in the office, and then there are elevators in dark hallways and baby goats — all of which are surely bound to turn heads when the wider world learns their true purpose, even if they’re above board at the company.
Then there’s the weirdness that’s just for flair. It’s one thing for severed workers to deify company founder Kier Eagan, but why do unsevered employees like Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and Milchick (Tramell Tillman) play along?
Season 2, Episode 3 features one such flourish on the surface, but it’s a tiny detail that adds immense complexity. Upon his promotion to floor manager, Milchick receives a gift: a set of paintings.
“The Board austerely desires for you to feel connected to Lumon’s history,” their proxy, Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander) tells him in a one-on-one meeting. “To that end, please accept from the Board, these inclusively recanonicalized paintings, intended to help you see yourself in Kier, our founder.”
You can see the wariness on Tillman’s face before the paintings are revealed; Milchick suspects exactly what’s behind that flowery Lumon language, what ideas aren’t expressed explicitly but which he always carries with him. The Board is acknowledging Lumon’s rare Black manager, and carefully trying to keep him in line. Sure enough, he unwraps a painting in which Kier Eagan is reimagined as a Black man — again, Tillman’s unreadable expression speaking volumes.
“That was something that we didn’t want to shy away from,” series creator Dan Erickson told IndieWire ahead of Season 2. “Milchick as a Black man working at a place like Lumon that feels in so many ways entrenched in tradition, and literally has been run by this one family since the Civil War. We wanted, in a ‘Severance’ way, to acknowledge that honestly and what that would be like, and what some of the challenges are that that he would face, and that it wouldn’t always be overt. Sometimes it would be dressed up in this veneer of pleasantness and acceptance, but there’s always something behind that.”
Tillman told IndieWire that while the scene reframes how Lumon sees Milchick, it didn’t change anything about how he portrayed the character.
“What was very important to understand is that Milchick is very aware of his Blackness,” Tillman said. “He’s very aware that he is different from the corporate structure in which he works. I had extensive conversations with Dan and Ben around the topic of racism and his placement in Lumon, and also with Natalie as well, the fact that there’s a colorism aspect.”
When Milchick examines the paintings in silence (after a perfect “Oh. Oh my”) Natalie expresses that she received the same gift upon her own promotion, “and found it extremely moving.” She flashes that corporate smile and seems convinced — but Alexander gives her own subtle display when the Board initially instructs Natalie to say this.
Tthis is the first time “Severance” has acknowledged the character’s race directly — a decision that was made only with Tillman’s approval and involvement.
“I’m grateful that these conversations were happening and continuing to happen and are still happening,” Tillman said. “We’re stepping forward with care, because I don’t ever want to tell a story of such delicate nature lightly so as not to disrespect the character, and also disrespect the audiences that will be investing in this story.”
The episode 3 scene is unsettling — partly because it’s “Severance” and that comes with the territory, but because it of how it juxtaposes Milchick’s reality with Lumon’s consistent glorification of the past. It forces him to directly confront that up until now, the Board was as aware of his race as he was, and that realization seems to rattle our usually pristine floor manager.
“I’m grateful,” he tells Natalie, with his signature Milchick professionalism. “It’s meaningful to see myself reflected in…” He trails off, the Lumon language failing him for the first time we’ve ever seen. The Board ends the call and thusly Natalie ends the conversation and meeting, offering Seth a wan smile and rare first-name recognition.
“Even in his management role, he would always in the back of his head be wondering, ‘Well, what do these people actually want from me, and do they have my best interests in mind?’” Erickson said. “What are the strange challenges that he specifically would have to face, as opposed to somebody else working in that same position?”
Arquette, who joined Tillman for the interview, noted that Lumon’s past is at odds with its present. “If you look back at the turn of the century, there was so much racism — not that there’s not today — but to not have it be a part of that story? It’s interesting,” she said. “And how much people glossed over that in the history of any religion, if you really look back, and people just don’t want to look back.”
And while the Board must — or at least should value Milchick immensely — there’s no doubt that as with everything Lumon, the paintings serve more than one purpose. They’re intended to ensure his fealty — but will they?
New episodes of “Severance” premiere weekly on Apple TV+.
