The Box Set: "Severance: Season Two."

Deconstructing Ep. 9: "The After Hours."

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This is a weekly examination of each new “Severance” episode. It contains spoilers, so if you haven’t watched, come back when you have.

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I’m going to write this deconstruction using only my shortest words.

Actually, I’m not.

“Yeah, no shit.”

In Ep. 9 we got a classic set-up episode for the season finale, and in this case we were treated to an episode heavier on mood and lighter on things actually happening — with the caveat that the elements you might consider meaningful plot movement, such as Irving heading out of town, still have the chance to be reversed, so we won’t count them just yet.

“The After Hours” — an episode where I was fine with having more mood than story because I liked the moods presented — was about moving chess pieces on a board to set up the finale and three moves gave the illusion of sticking out:

1. Irving left Kier, never to come back, allegedly, shuttled there in a bit of “reality diplomacy” from Burt. Meaning, Burt knew they couldn’t realistically be together as lovers and that Lumon (via Mr. Drummond’s visit while Irv was having dinner with Burt and Fields) was on to Irv and that might end very badly. So, at some personal risk, he bought Irv a one-way ticket out of the most dreary exterior train station outside of Russia. And into the mystic.

2. Miss Eustice Huang was unceremoniously forced into a quick Lumon Wintertide ceremony arranged by Milchick and the result is that she’s leaving town immediately, just like Irv. Or, as Milchick so eloquently put it: “Your bed will be moved from your parents home to the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center in Svalbard.” For a great laugh, you should now look up Svalbard and its location in the world. (In this episode, Milchick is not feeling empathetic and this was the first clear indication).

3. Dylan has decided to quit, effective immediately.

That’s a lot of change. Unless that change is undone next week. And yes there were other small movements but, as noted, this episode was really about the mood.

Let’s imbibe that mood now: