‘Severance’ Season 2 finale explained
“Severance” fans have been waiting for the arrival of “Cold Harbor” — the 10th and final episode of Season 2 — for weeks.
While the second season of the twisty hit Apple TV+ show has deepened the mysteries of the corporation called Lumon and the “innies” who work there, as well as their split-mind “outies” who live in the real world, there have been far more questions than answers.
Thursday night marked the premiere of “Cold Harbor,” and while it gave quite a few answers to what Mark S. (Adam Scott) would do to free his not-actually-dead wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman) from the experimental clutches of Lumon’s lower floor, viewers are still left with a lot of questions — and a set-up for a tense Season 3.
Here’s what we found out as Season 2 wrapped up, what we think we know … and where we imagine things might go next. At least, that’s what our outies think.
Long Before I Discovered My Irish Heritage, Irish Folktales Comforted My Dying Grandfather — And Inspired My New Book (Exclusive)
It was the 1990s, and Pop-Pop was dying. Pop-Pop was my grandfather, wrestling with late-stage diabetes, and he didn’t have long to live. This news hit me hard; I’d appointed him years earlier as the Good Guy Role Model in my life when my adoptive father absented himself from that position.
I needed to go home and see him one last time. Whoever Sylvan Bernard Gordon had been to anyone else in his life, he taught me the value of shared, companionable silence riding next to him in the car, his easy-listening radio station lulling us with elevator music. He was the grocery shopper and salad-preparer in his household, normalizing for me that men could choose to do those things in a family. He never did convince me to enjoy golf, though I would watch it with him just so we could hang out more.
What I didn’t know then was how he was about to indirectly lead me on an unexpected journey – one that took decades to come to light in my new book, The Only Song Worth Singing.
Natalie Morales on playing a ‘guilt demon’ in ‘My Dead Friend Zoe’
Playing a deceased character in a movie might seem to be one of the easiest roles an actor could take on. After all, what is there to do but lie around and be… well, deceased?
Not so for Natalie Morales, who plays the title character in the moving, funny, and very human new film My Dead Friend Zoe. At the start of the film, Zoe is just a figment of her best pal Merit’s (Sonequa Martin-Green) memory and imagination, razzing her at a meeting for military veterans one minute, and then jazzing along with her to their favorite tunes on a drive. But as the movie unfolds, we learn more about the pair, who became close while serving overseas in the Army — and we learn what Zoe was like when she was still in the present tense.
Oscars flashback: Clint Eastwood leads the way
In any given year, what makes for a best picture? Are there clues as to what might win, strewn throughout any given Oscars broadcast? As a matter of fact, there usually are — at least if you know what to look for: a sweep, a director win or even a chance to make history. Still, at the 77th Academy Awards ceremony, held Feb. 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, “Million Dollar Baby” was not a lock on the prize — until all at once, it was.
Oscars flashback: Morgan Freeman enters the history books
The Academy Awards itself had already reached a geriatric age by the time the 2005 ceremony rolled around. But that doesn’t mean there were no more milestones to be set or records broken. And indeed, history was made that evening: The lead actor and supporting actor Oscars were both won by Black men for the first and, so far, only time.
The 77th Academy Awards event at the Kodak Theatre was in some ways a triumph of representation. Jamie Foxx became the first Black actor to receive two acting nominations in the same year, and he’d go on to win one of them, besting “Hotel Rwanda” star Don Cheadle, among others, for his lead performance in “Ray.” By that time, Morgan Freeman had already triumphed in the supporting category for his turn in “Million Dollar Baby.”
Oscars flashback: An Oscar for playing an Oscar winner
Never question the way Hollywood loves a good old biopic. After all, the 77th Academy Awards ceremony, held on Feb. 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, provides all the proof you need. Not only did lead actor go to Jamie Foxx for playing Ray Charles in “Ray,” but the supporting actress win went to a stellar performance by Cate Blanchett for playing legend Katharine Hepburn.
Oscars flashback: Charlie Kaufman expresses ‘Eternal’ gratitude
Although there are original screenwriters aplenty in Hollywood, it’s hard to imagine anyone more truly sui generis than Charlie Kaufman. After all, he’s the guy who managed to earn two nominations for the same film, when his fictitious twin brother, Donald, was nominated as co-writer on “Adaptation,” a mind-bending 2002 film starring Nicolas Cage in dual roles.
So it seemed all but inevitable that one day Kaufman would take the stage at the Oscars — which is exactly what happened in 2005, when he scored his first (and so far only) golden statuette, this time in the original screenplay category.
Oscars flashback: Documentaries about children prevailed 20 years ago
The documentary Academy Award categories have an unusual history dating back to the early days of America’s involvement in World War II, and many of the nonfiction shorts and feature films vying for recognition back then reflected the nation’s preoccupation with combat. The first documentary Oscar was awarded in 1942 to a Canadian short called “Churchill’s Island,” with special awards given to two features. The following year, doc features and shorts were combined and largely created by various government organizations. By 1946, as Hollywood and the rest of the country emerged from WWII, there simply weren’t enough qualifying feature documentaries to even run the category.
Things have changed quite a lot since then, with documentaries growing in popularity and tackling a wide array of topics. Twenty years ago, both doc winners focused on the lives of children in difficult and desperate situations.
Oscars flashback: Javier Bardem leads Spain to victory
The Oscars ceremony may look like a lot of glitter and glam on the surface, but beneath the glossy surface lurks a battle of worldwide proportions! Or maybe it’s just the competition for the foreign language film award, which since 2020 has been called the international feature film award. And on Feb. 27, 2005, in Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre the battle royale was fought by Spain, Sweden, France, Germany and South Africa … with Spain emerging as the victor.
Oscars flashback: When Beyonce performances did not translate into gold
Beyonce can seemingly do just about anything — but as it turns out, her performing a song on the Oscars telecast is no guarantee of victory. That’s something that everyone at L.A.’s Kodak Theater learned 20 years ago when she sang (or duetted on) three of the five tunes nominated for best original song. And the winner? A (self-acknowledged) “totally unknown person.”
