The second season premiere of the Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller “Severance” supplied loads of issues for its devoted followers to obsess over. Did Lumon actually have a good time the core 4 members of the Macrodata Refinement unit for making an attempt to insurgent towards their masters and inform the reality of the world of the innies? What precisely occurred within the exterior world when folks discovered about what it means to be severed? All of those questions feed into the varied fan theories folks have about “Severance” and what its intense mythology all means. Are the innies unknowingly engaged on a technique to switch human consciousness from one physique to a different? Perhaps the goats seen within the first season are being bred to take over as people within the exterior world. And so forth. However one particular concept — that the innies are cogs in some grand simulation, one which will affect each innies and outies — could have simply gotten a bit extra weight due to an surprising cameo look within the premiere.
As followers already know, a key side of the episode comes within the type of some Claymation that Mark and his fellow innies are proven by Mr. Milchick. The purpose of the transient animation is to persuade the innies that their act of insurrection within the late episodes of the primary season was revered and embraced by Lumon, as instructed from the angle of the Lumon Industries constructing itself. The constructing is voiced by none aside from Keanu Reeves, in an uncredited cameo. (Although his title would not seem within the credit, his voice is nearly immediately recognizable due to so a few years of being an A-Lister.) It is a pleasantly jarring second, partly as a result of trendy fashionable tradition is not typically instantly referenced in “Severance,” and partly as a result of the primary season did not boast numerous surprising cameos from well-known actors. However except for the enjoyable of listening to the erstwhile John Wick lay out some company jargon with a smile, there’s one other factor to remember: When you imagine that this present is about characters in a simulation, who higher to additional that notion than the star of “The Matrix”?
Might Keanu Reeves’ visitor spot affirm a bigger Severance concept?
The whole idea of “The Matrix” is centered on the harrowing concept that its important character, white-collar employee Thomas Anderson, is step by step turning into conscious that the world by which he lives could seem regular, however is a complete facade meant to lull humanity away from their true dystopian environment. There is no cult-like determine equivalent to Kier Eagan in “The Matrix” — if something, Anderson himself, who transforms into the omnipotent Neo, is the closest you get to a cult-like determine within the non-simulated world. However it’s exhausting to shake these early photos of Thomas, earlier than he turns into Neo, in a sterile workplace atmosphere being aroused to the sense that each one is just not nicely in his rigorously designed world. Little question there are key variations between “The Matrix” and “Severance,” not least of which is the truth that the previous movie wastes little time in clarifying to the viewers that the “actual” world is not actual in any respect. “Severance” is a daring and surprising present, but it surely’s unlikely going to offer away its endgame fairly so quickly within the second season (if in any respect this yr).
As a substitute, what “Severance” does (and has completed so nicely over its brief historical past) is present morsels, inventive bread crumbs which might be each detailed sufficient and obscure sufficient to permit all kinds of theorizing. It is easy to focus extra on the Claymation video itself and what Reeves is speaking about, versus the character of why he was chosen for the transient position. The language used within the video is sufficient to make the innies’ heads spin, as Lumon is making an attempt to place a constructive emphasis on their actions, once they (and all of us within the viewers) assumed that they might be grievously punished for what they did. Reeves’ supply does veer barely into the menacing at instances, however is supposed to be jovial and upbeat for probably the most half, masking no matter Lumon’s true intentions are. If nothing else, the casting right here feels just like the equal of when Pixar solid Sigourney Weaver in “WALL-E” to voice a maternal-sounding laptop system on a high-powered house cruise; she had gone from rebelling towards such a maternal laptop in “Alien” to turning into that laptop herself. And now we’ve got the person preventing the system turning into the embodiment of the system itself.
If nothing else, Severance’s Keanu Reeves cameo is a superb piece of meta casting
“Severance” has confirmed itself to be stuffed with surprises now that it is lastly again after a painful three-year hiatus. Like a number of the nice style TV exhibits, from “Twin Peaks” to “Misplaced,” the sequence appears to thrive on its most impassioned followers making an attempt to suss out what its endgame is. It was straightforward to get tripped up out of delighted shock at the truth that one in every of Hollywood’s most enduring trendy stars lent his voice to the present for a couple of transient minutes, and since followers are likely to theorize based mostly on the tiniest bits of data, it is simply as straightforward to think about that the star of “The Matrix” showing right here is only a pleased, if deliberate, coincidence. However it would not really feel like a real accident that when the present’s inventive staff deliberate this out, they wished to loop in, of all folks, Neo to ship a message of supposed goodwill to a bunch of rebels.
Might it imply nothing in any respect that Keanu Reeves confirmed up right here to be that messenger? (Or, failing that, may it’s only a enjoyable tie-in, a la the “WALL-E” instance above?) In fact, however of the varied fan theories floating round on-line, the notion that Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan are all a part of some huge simulation, one that could be encompassing the innie and outie worlds in tandem, already felt plausible sufficient earlier than we acquired to listen to from Neo. (It is also value questioning: On the planet of this present, is Keanu nonetheless as well-known as Keanu is right here? Does “The Matrix” exist in that world? That would additionally open up an odd little Pandora’s field of concepts.) As with a lot of “Severance,” this might imply nothing or it may imply every thing. The chances are infinite, as are the ramifications of such a notable cameo.
New episodes of “Severance” season 2 hit Apple TV+ on Fridays.