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The season finale of "Severance," the hit drama series on Apple TV+, is being released this week. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans notes that the program's second season has become the most watched series on Apple TV+.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Fans of "Severance" will remember last season ended with an anguish shout, which became a rallying cry for current episodes.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEVERANCE")
ADAM SCOTT: (As Mark) She's alive!
DEGGANS: That was Adam Scott's character, Mark Scout, who works for the shadowy, cult-like company Lumon. He's undergone a procedure severing his workplace memories from life outside the office, creating two people in one body - an innie and an outie. Outie Mark thought his wife died in a car crash. Turns out she's still alive, held inside the company, requiring the efforts of both innie and outie Mark to rescue her.
The show's twisty storylines have paid off. In February, the streamer told Deadline that "Severance" began its second season as the platform's No. 1 series in history. In last week's episode, a desperate outie Mark even considers teaming with Patricia Arquette's brutal manager at Lumon, who was fired.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEVERANCE")
SCOTT: (As Mark) My wife's being held prisoner at Lumon, and I just got brain surgery in my basement. How have you been?
PATRICIA ARQUETTE: (As Harmony) We're allies now. There's no need to...
SCOTT: (As Mark) Oh, we're allies. Sorry. I just - I guess I'm confused.
ARQUETTE: (As Harmony) We don't even know if he's completed the file yet.
SCOTT: (As Mark) What file?
ARQUETTE: (As Harmony) Cold Harbor. And if you've completed it, she's already dead.
DEGGANS: What is this Cold Harbor file? Can Mark save his wife and himself from a corporation that's exploited them both? These are the questions fans hope to see answered in the season finale, which streams globally on Friday, wrapping up one of the most visually adventurous and conceptually mind-bending seasons of TV around.
Eric Deggans, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF THEODORE SHAPIRO'S "MAIN TITLE - SEVERANCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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