Warning: This review of Severance season 2 episode 2 will contain spoilers.

After last week’s season premiere focused mostly on the plight of the innies following the events of the season 1 finale, it seems fitting that Severance season 2 episode 2 would focus mostly on the outies. In fact, “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig” picks up immediately after Mark’s (Adam Scott) innie blurts out the truth about Gemma. The episode doesn’t advance the plot of the season significantly, but it fills in some necessary gaps, while highlighting some of the show’s best secondary characters.

The most chilling plotline in the episode comes as we learn, for the first time, more about Helena Eagen (Britt Lower) and her role within Lumon. The big question since her outie’s identity was revealed was how dissimilar she would be to her innie, openly rebelling against the system that put her there? The truth is that she’s much more cunning and cold-hearted than the version that we last saw in Severance, as we see her handling the fallout of her own whistle-blowing at the season 1 finale gala. Her “confession” about her outburst, as she attempts to whitewash her innie’s comments, continues the show’s agenda in how corporations can so easily deflect controversy from within and control its employee’s lives. It’s a dark and understated inversion of the break room penance which was so prominent in Severance season 1, which was unquestionably designed to break the employees’ spirits and minds, and one wonders what effect this will have on Helena’s spirit going forward.

That the rest of the severed employees, namely Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro), suffer the most by getting fired only hammers that point home even further. We knew it before, but episode 2 really shows how ruthless and all-encompassing Lumon is in protecting its corporate image. Or, perhaps, it’s the image of its mysterious founder, Kier Eagen. Being a severed Lumon employee is so toxic, as Dylan learns, that he gets pushed out of an interview at a door warehouse.

Milchick’s (Tramell Tillman) attempt to do damage control results in the best scene of the episode, with a killer final line that gets to the heart of what Severance is really about. Of all the great performances within the show, I’ve always been drawn to Tillman’s as a menacing Yes Man who thinks a wide grin can mask whatever demented tasks he’s hocking. “I’d hate to reward his courage with non-existence” is a hell of a guilt-trip statement to Mark when he expresses dismay about coming back to Lumon.

The debate around innies continues to be one of Severance‘s most thought-provoking aspects. What happens to an innie when their outie quits or retires? Obviously they no longer exist, but what happens to their thoughts, dreams, feelings, memories? Episode 2 doesn’t put the conversation front and center, but it’s at the heart of Mark’s guilt in never returning to Lumon, which Milchick exploits to perfection. Similarly, Helena finally gets to see the footage of her innie kissing Mark from the season 1 finale, and it seems to awaken something within her.

We still have more questions than answers when it comes to Helena and why she became severed, but we can read a lot into Britt Lower’s layered performance in episode 2. Maybe watching that footage made her realize that her innie has real desires which were missing from her life outside, slavishly devoted to her family and the company. The initial read when she learns she’ll have to go back to the severed floor is dismay, but I wonder if there’s at least a hint of excitement within her. This also calls into question the events from the season premiere, when Helly lied about what her innie saw. Is there a chance that that was actually Helena Eagan, posing as an innie?

Severance was smart to position “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig” as episode 2 of season 2, rather than make it the premiere. It’s not that we didn’t care previously about the outies, but knowing how their actions can tighten the noose around the innies without really knowing it is one of the most compelling aspects of the show. Now that the table has been set, and we’ve caught up with both the innies and the outies, it feels like Severance season 2 can properly move forward.

• You Got Your Lost in My Severance!: There isn’t a lot of lore dumping we see in episode 2, but we learn the slightest bit more about the origins of Bob Balaban, Alia Shawkat, and Stefano Carannante’s characters from last week’s episode. What is “5X”, which Milchick refers to when explaining where they’ll come from? We also get a reference to something called “Cold Harbor”, which sounds effectively ominous and important.