“‘The Separation’ is back.” Here’s a recap of season 1 to refresh your memory.

In our world, it’s been almost three years since Season 1 of the dystopian sci-fi office thriller “Severance” became a smash hit on Apple TV+. But in Kier, the fictional town where the action of the series takes place, only five months have passed since the events of the season 1 finale.

The Season 2 premiere picks right up (a word of warning: you probably remember even less than you think), so if you can find 41 minutes in your uninterrupted life, we highly recommend to watch the final again. But if you don’t have time, here’s what you need to remember before watching Season 2, which made its surprise debut on Thursday, the night before it was scheduled to be released.

“Innies”, “Outies” and severance pay

“Severance” follows the lives of a group of workers at a company called Lumon Industries who have agreed to undergo a procedure known as “severance.” During this operation, a device – the Severance Chip – is inserted into their brain. This separates their work selves, known as “innies,” from their home selves, known as “outies.”

The lives of innies are narrowly bounded, their consciousness extending only as far as the office walls and the beginning and end of each workday. Innies generally cannot send any messages to their “outies”, and although they can tender their resignation, their outies never accept them.

The show’s core group of band members – Mark S. (Adam Scott), Irving B. (John Turturro), Helly R. (Britt Lower) and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) – work in a sterile, state-of-the-art office. timeless by doing “macro data refinement”, which is moving numbers around on a computer screen of the future – and that’s it. None of the refiners know what these numbers mean.