The premiere of Severance Season 2 this week has left me considering a few of the strangest moments from Season 1. As the employees of Microdata Refinement put together to enact their grand plan of using the Time beyond regulation Contingency Protocol to reveal the secrets and techniques of the severed ground to the surface world within the episode titled “What’s for Dinner?”, Dylan (Zach Cherry) partakes in his end-of-the-quarter reward: a waffle occasion. Stated occasion takes place within the Perpetuity Wing of the severed ground of Lumon Industries, within the reproduction house of Lumon’s founder, Kier Eagan. Whereas the prize for being primary in your division for the quarter does certainly embrace a plate of waffles, it additionally consists of a surreal, seemingly sexual encounter with 4 masked strangers meant to signify Kier’s “4 Tempers,” which we first noticed depicted in a portray in Episode 2, “Half Loop.” The true kicker is that the winner is required to put on a masks modeled after Kier Eagan’s face whereas indulging within the expertise.

Nothing Might Have Ready Me for ‘Severance’s Waffle Get together

Whereas the illustrious waffle occasion was teased varied occasions in Season 1, nothing might have ready me for what it entailed. Though a room filled with goats in a company workplace constructing ought to have satisfied me to count on the sudden, the waffle occasion is well probably the most weird second in Severance to this point. Every thing Kier-related inside the Lumon banner undoubtedly operates below a cultlike mindset, so why not have sexual encounters steeped in Kier lore to make it work applicable? Possibly that is why scenes from the waffle occasion are intercut with Concord Cobel’s (Patricia Arquette) rage-fueled outburst after being fired from Lumon, however the entire scene made me really feel utterly uneasy.

Nothing is extra comforting than a cryptic message left on the plate of the scrumptious breakfast deal with you simply ate, proper? It might need been the eerie rating, the bust of Kier staring proper at Dylan as he loved his waffle, or the erotic 4 Tempers cosplayers, however all the things about this scene feels so nervewracking. Possibly the masks invoke the concern I had after I first watched The Strangers, or possibly I am simply not into corporate-mandated horny time. To not point out, with Dylan bailing earlier than issues get going, we’re left with no concept how this encounter would even play out, nor if each waffle occasion performs out the very same means. It raises so many questions on this regard — who else at Lumon has skilled a waffle occasion? What number of occasions have they skilled them? Why does it appear so regular? Why was Dylan so enthusiastic about this? These are questions that I doubt will earn solutions, making this scene much more mysterious and freaky.

Waffle Events Serve a Higher Function in ‘Severance’

In an interview with Selection, Severance creator Dan Erickson defined that the waffle occasion is one other means for Lumon to create the proper work-life steadiness. Because the outie model of a severed employee is more likely to have sexual experiences, so ought to their innie. A waffle occasion is the place the viewers will get a entrance row seat to what intercourse appears to be like like on the severed ground — at the least, intercourse that’s condoned by the powers that be. Whereas the corporate forbids any form of intimacy or romance between coworkers, this gives an outlet for his or her staff within the strangest means attainable, and all in reverence for Kier Eagan. Erickson additionally acknowledged that the thought of the waffle occasion began off as a joke — a joke become actuality that can endlessly be seared into the material of my mind. Thanks, Severance!

All of this connects again to Lumon’s spiritual, cult-like tendencies, together with the cat o’ 9 tails positioned subsequent to the masks of Kier on his mattress, the tassels of that are labeled with Lumon’s Core Rules — Imaginative and prescient, Verve, Wit, Cheer, Humility, Benevolence, Nimbleness, Probity, and Wiles. These attributes have been all apparently portrayed in Kier, which each and every Lumon worker is anticipated to stick to, as a way to honor the legacy of the founder via the work of his firm. The position of the flogger appears to insinuate that Dylan could have had the choice to beat the Core Rules into the 4 Tempers as an act of delight — if he’d caught round to complete his waffle occasion, that’s. To not kink disgrace, however that’s some twisted fantasy to play out throughout work hours.

Season 2 of Severance premieres January 17. Make amends for Season 1 on Apple TV+ within the U.S.

WATCH ON APPLE TV+