The magic trick of Severance Season 2 remains how strange it can be while still a recognizable reflection. How it can still capture 9-5 office work, productivity maximization, corporate retreats, and more despite its flights of fantasy. Even as the specifics grow more bizarre and singular, it nonetheless feels accurate to the experience of working in America. Viewers, of course, don’t have their minds wiped at the end of shift every day here in the real world. Still, the sense of alienation, the weird partial connections you build at the office that never make it to life outside, and the unhealthy codependence between worker and employer are all very relatable.

Hearteningly, Severance Season 2 also doesn’t lose its humanity as it tunnels deeper into Lumon lore and machinations. The six episodes (of 10) provided to critics demonstrate the series grows odder and more complex in its second go-round. And yet, it doesn’t lose touch with its empathy. It continues to understand how one’s relationship to employment can be maddening, on the one hand. On the other, it often provides a real source of connection and stability. The show captures that without treating its white-collar characters with the smug condescension that frequently infects other workplace satires.

That’s not to say the show is taking it easy on the Massive Data Refiners, their colleagues, friends, or family. Things pick up with Mark S (Adam Scott) returns to the offices under Lumon. For his innie (the worker), this feels like moments after the quartet managed to wake themselves up in their outies’  (the non-workers) worlds. He—and the audience—quickly learn it has been months. Additionally, he’s the only member of the MDR office that’s returned. In place of the other three is a random new trio played by Alia Shawkat, Bob Balaban, and Stefano Carannante.

Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) is back, elevated to the role the dismissed Mrs. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) once occupied. At the board’s command, he does his best to make Mark ok with his new co-workers by highlighting new snacks and vague tales of the previous MDR quartet achieving a level of fame in the outie world. It does not work. Before long, the employee has forced Lumon’s hand, leading to the return of Mark’s entire team.

Everyone returns as changed as Mark, if not more so, by their brief moment of living above ground. Irving (John Turturro), formerly the biggest true believer of the group, has become suspicious and seems tempted to “retire.” Dylan’s (Zach Cherry) brief encounter with his family has made him susceptible to certain temptations. Helly (Britt Lower) lies about what she glimpsed and did with her outie’s life and seems somehow simultaneously more and less comfortable in her skin. Have their experiences straddling their two worlds broken them? Corrupted them? Perhaps even redeemed them?

Whatever the case, Lumon clearly isn’t taking their short-lived rebellion lying down. In addition to co-opting it for corporate mythology, the company is doing all it can to unnerve and unsettle the quartet. That includes Mrs. Cobel still skulking about outside Mark’s home. Worse, it also means Lumon is attempting to convince Ricken (Michael Chernus) to write an “innie friendly” version of his self-help book that played no small part in the MDR’s revolt. In the innie world, Lumon has rearranged office locations and brought in new employees like Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), a seemingly literal child now filling Mr. Milchick’s old position, and Lorne (Gwendoline Christie), the rigid head of the goat department.

Despite these—and several other—complications, Severance Season 2 maintains an efficient pace and a clear-eyed sense of storytelling. There are plenty of strange and confusing developments, but they feel intentional, not evidence that creator Dan Erickson has lost control of the steering wheel. Additionally, the complexity never grows to overwhelming or annoying proportions. As odd as the show can be, it still feels like it is playing fair with its audience.

Speaking of odd, the series has also upped the strangeness outside of Lumon, the outie world, if you will. At first, this feels like it may be a step too far, something that upsets the balance between the real and fanciful. However, it quickly stabilizes, allowing the innie world to go even further. Additionally, it deepens the idea that as weird as this is, it mirrors the audience’s life in and out of work. Yes, everything is heightened, but it encourages one to consider their employers’ rules, rewards, and narratives. All of Severance Season 2 is weirder than our real world, but if you account for the storytelling multiplier, things are perhaps not as distant as you might expect.

Finally, the visuals of Severance remain a treat. The outie world, despite being where the sun “lives,” continues to look mostly like it exists only in twilight and dark of night. Even scenes that unfold in daytime are shot through with the kind of grey-blue winter light that will be familiar to anyone who’s spent time in places like the Northeast or Midwest. Meanwhile, the innie world is all artificial light, but it is bright, clean, and almost cheery in its unblinking illumination. That is until one wanders down a dark hall, where somehow the bright lights that are everywhere else don’t seem to penetrate.

Severance Season 2 also heightens the visual contrasts between the characters’ innie and outie versions. Scott’s Lumon face appears increasingly waxy as if he’s wearing a mask of his own visage over his real face. Meanwhile, his above-the-ground look is tired and a bit ragged but more handsome and comforting. At Lumon, Cherry’s mouth is always open, as if he’s catching his breath, but he’s also seemingly attentive and focused, swinging his gaze back and forth. On the surface, his face is more placid and disconnected, almost somnambulant. Each new detail raises interesting questions about which self is authentic, has a right to exist, and if there’s a way to resolve that question.

This reviewer could likely go on for a thousand more words and still not exhaust every detail or stray thought. Nonetheless, it seems a better idea to let the audience experience Severance Season 2 itself now and start to assemble their personal thoughts and theories.

Severance Season 2 takes the elevator back down to AppleTV+ on January 17.

Severance Season 2 Trailer: