Episodes 01

“Good News About Hell”

A woman wakes up in a conference room with no memory of who or where she is. After being given a survey and learning she is Helly, a new hire at Lumon Industries, she is allowed to leave but finds she is unable to do so. She then sees a video explaining that she has undergone the “severance” procedure, which split her memories to create a version of herself that will only exist inside the workplace. Mark Scout, who works alongside Helly in Lumon’s Macrodata Refinement (MDR) division, discovers he is being promoted to department head in light of coworker Petey’s sudden departure. The “outside” version of Mark, a former professor grieving his wife’s death and living in the Lumon-subsidized town of Kier, encounters a man claiming to be Petey who gives him a letter with cryptic instructions. Mark returns home and interacts with his neighbor Mrs. Selvig, unaware that she is his boss, senior manager Harmony Cobel.

Episodes 02

“Half Loop”

The previous day, Helly undergoes the severance procedure as a new employee, implanting a microchip inside her brain. At the office, the severed Helly is introduced to her new coworkers, Dylan and Irving, and is instructed that her job is to sort encrypted numbers into digital bins as part of “macrodata refinement”. During a welcome party headed by floor manager Milchick, Helly becomes uncomfortable and attempts to escape by writing her outside self (or “outie”) a note of resignation, but the elevator shuts down. Mark claims this is due to Lumon’s built-in “code detectors” which prevent unauthorized communication between selves. Mark claims responsibility and is put into the “break room” as punishment. Later, Irving hallucinates a black liquid covering his desk and is administered a “wellness check”, where counselor Ms. Casey recites various facts about Irving’s outie, with Irving forced to react neutrally. At the wellness center, Irving also meets Burt, the head of the two-person Optics and Design department. Outside, Mark once again meets with Petey, who explains that he has “reintegration sickness” from reversing his severance. Petey tells Mark of the break room and plays a recording of himself repeatedly reading out a stringent apology, with Milchick forcing him to repeat the lines. Mark gives Petey shelter in his house. As he is taking a shower, Petey suffers hallucinations and collapses.

Episodes 03

“In Perpetuity”

Petey tells Mark that mysterious benefactors helped him undergo the reintegration procedure. While Mark is at work, his sister Devon and brother-in-law Ricken deliver a book authored by the latter to his doorstep, which Mrs. Selvig steals and takes to Lumon to check for hidden messages. As she searches Mark’s house, Petey recognizes her as Cobel and flees the house, suffering more hallucinations and eventually collapsing at a convenience store. At the office, Helly learns her resignation request sent to her “outie” has been denied. Mark thwarts her various attempts to smuggle other messages to her outie. To help Helly understand why she is working at Lumon, Irving suggests they show her the office’s Perpetuity Wing, which documents the history of Lumon’s founder, Kier Eagan, and his succeeding dynasty. After attempting another escape, Helly is brought to the break room, where Milchick forces her to repeatedly recite an apologetic passage. After his shift, Mark follows ambulance traffic to the convenience store and witnesses Petey being carried away by paramedics after his breathing stops. Mark rushes home to remove evidence of Petey’s stay, but is interrupted when Petey’s abandoned cellphone rings.

Episodes 04

“The You You Are”

Mark misses the call on Petey’s phone and stashes it, noticing several missed calls from the same blocked number. The next day, Irving visits Optics & Design, where he grows closer to Burt and discovers Ricken’s book left behind by Milchick during Helly’s attempted escape. Mark decides to keep the book despite promising to give it to management. Helly returns from the break room after being forced to read her apology over a thousand times; she finds a paper cutter and threatens Cobel with self-mutilation unless she is granted a recorded resignation request. However, her outie sends back a recording firmly denying the request. Later that night, Mark receives a news notification reporting that Petey died from an “unknown ailment”; Petey’s phone rings shortly after. Cobel attends the funeral as Mrs. Selvig and extracts Petey’s severance chip prior to his cremation. She then has Ms. Casey perform a “special” wellness check on Mark, which she watches remotely. Casey has Mark sculpt his emotional state out of clay; Mark sculpts a tree, which his outie visited in remembrance of his late wife Gemma after the funeral. Irving discovers that O&D actually has at least seven employees, working in a massive unlabelled back room. Dylan finds Ricken’s book hidden in Mark’s files. Helly smuggles out an extension cord and hangs herself in an elevator shaft.

Episodes 05

“The Grim Barbarity of Optics and Design”

Helly is injured by her suicide attempt, but ultimately survives; she returns to work three days later. Mark continues to read Ricken’s book, which carries strong anti-establishment sentiments. Outside work, Devon gives birth. When Helly returns, Cobel orders Ms. Casey to watch her closely, but Mark sneaks Helly out of MDR and reveals he has been recreating Petey’s map. Helly agrees to help Mark with recreating the map after they discover a previously unknown department in which a single employee feeds baby goats. Burt admits to Irving and Dylan that he lied about the size of O&D due to MDR being seen as untrustworthy; they realize Lumon is pitting the departments against one another. Burt takes the two to O&D’s back room and introduces them to his employees.

Episodes 06

“Hide and Seek”

Lumon security chief Doug Graner calls Cobel to inform her he has identified ex-employee Reghabi as the one responsible for Petey’s reintegration. Irving and Burt admit their feelings to one another, but the former admits he is not ready to commit to a relationship. After learning Ms. Casey was sent to the break room for failing to watch him and Helly, Mark has Irving introduce MDR to O&D, where he calls for the departments to work together to uncover Lumon’s secrets. However, Milchick finds them and sends Mark to the break room. Milchick later briefly awakens Dylan’s innie inside his outie’s home to locate a card Dylan stole from O&D, leading Dylan’s innie to discover he has a son. Devon meets Gabby, a woman she met at the birthing lodge, but Gabby does not recognize her; Devon later learns Gabby’s husband Angelo Arteta is a Lumon-backed state senator who supports legalizing severance. Cobel, as Mrs. Selvig, gets close to Devon and Ricken by acting as their lactation consultant. Mark goes on a date with Alexa, Devon’s midwife, to a concert by Petey’s daughter’s punk-rock band, and sings along to an anti-Lumon protest song. Later, Mark finally answers Petey’s phone and is contacted by Reghabi to meet in person at a nearby university. Cobel orders a keycard-locked door to be installed at the entrance to MDR.

Episodes 07

“Defiant Jazz”

While Mark is meeting with Reghabi, Graner enters the building – following a tip from campus security – and tells Mark he works with him. Reghabi kills Graner and gives Mark his access card, telling him to bring it to his innie. Devon tells Cobel (posing as Mrs. Selvig) that she suspects Gabby severed her memories to avoid the pains of childbirth. Milchick engages in a “Music Dance Experience” with the department as a prize for Helly; Dylan refuses to participate and eventually attacks Milchick, enraged that he cannot know any more information about his child. Milchick leaves to report the incident to Cobel; Dylan, meanwhile, tells the department of Lumon’s ability to wake them up outside the severed floor, known as an “overtime contingency”. Mark and Helly scheme to find the security office; inside, they find Lumon strictly monitors all of its employees, and that the overtime contingency is activated using two levers. Dylan offers to stay behind after hours to wake Mark and Helly up on the outside. Irving departs to O&D, worried about Burt’s safety. Upon arrival, he discovers that Burt is retiring, and openly berates the non-severed Milchick for exploiting the severed employees. After work, Alexa visits a drunken Mark, who scares her off after ripping up a photo of Gemma. After she leaves, Mark reassembles the photo, revealing it to be of Ms. Casey.

Episodes 08

“What’s for Dinner?”

Irving’s outie is shown to be living alone in an apartment, where he spends much of his time painting identical images of a dark corridor. Helly reaches 100% on her data refinement file, thereby meeting MDR’s quota for the quarter. Cobel schedules Mark for a final wellness session with Ms. Casey, and appears disappointed when Mark and Ms. Casey fail to remember each other as husband and wife. She then orders Ms. Casey sent back down to the “testing floor”, whose entrance is shown to be the same corridor in Irving’s paintings. While MDR celebrates quota, Cobel is suspended by the board for withholding knowledge of Helly’s suicide attempt and her extracurricular activities as “Mrs. Selvig”. The MDR team prepares for Dylan to remotely awaken them on the outside; Helly kisses Mark before departing. Mark’s outie attends Ricken’s book-reading party and tells Cobel (as Mrs. Selvig) that he plans to quit Lumon; Cobel, herself feeling betrayed by the company, encourages him to do so. Dylan receives a “waffle party” as a reward for meeting quota, in which he dons a Kier Eagan head and sits within a replica of Kier’s bedroom in the Perpetuity Wing while ritualistic and seductive dances are performed in front of him. Dylan leaves midway to access the security office and activates the overtime contingency to awaken Mark, Irving, and Helly’s innies in the outside world.

Episodes 09

“The We We Are”

Mark’s innie awakens in Devon’s home and finds himself hugging Cobel. While excusing himself to find Devon, he calls Cobel by name, alerting her that the overtime contingency has been activated. Cobel calls Milchick and has him check the security office. Mark privately reveals to Devon that he is in innie form; Devon tells him of Gemma’s death, and learns that “Mrs. Selvig” is Mark’s boss. Mark encourages Devon to report Lumon’s misdeeds to the press as Lumon likely controls the police. Irving wakes up in his apartment, discovering his outie’s paintings and background in the U.S. Navy, and finds a map and employee directory in the closet which he uses to locate Burt. Helly wakes up at a Lumon gala where she learns that her outie is Helena Eagan – daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan – who underwent severance to build public support for legalizing the procedure. Cobel races to the gala and attempts to stop Helly from making a scheduled speech. Milchick reaches the security office and cuts his way through the makeshift restraints Dylan has placed on the door. Helly gets onstage and tells the crowd of the innies’ subjugation and torment. Irving arrives at Burt’s house only to find he is already in a relationship. Mark finds a photo confirming Ms. Casey to be Gemma. He rushes to tell Devon, but is only able to say “She’s alive!” before Milchick tackles Dylan, deactivating the overtime contingency and reverting the three to their outie state.