Cast and Crew Discuss Season 2 Finale Secrets

Coming just hours after the show’s Season 2 finale shook fans, the “Severance” PaleyFest panel rocked the Dolby Theatre by unleashing a live marching band number — recreating a memorable moment from the episode.

Tramell Tillman, who plays Mr. Milchick, led a marching band through the Dolby Theatre. Prior to the sudden performance, Tillman had been the only one out of the cast and creative team to not show up on stage when his name was called. Just as the panel was getting started — and after Stiller explained that the actor “goes off the grid” at times — Tillman made his entrance with the band.

The Season 2 finale, which was released the day prior to the panel, involves Mr. Milchick acting as a drum major during an elaborate marching band sequence.

The panel was preceded by a screening of the season finale and included creator Dan Erickson and executive producer and director Ben Stiller, as well as cast members Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, Britt Lower, Dichen Lachman, Sarah Bock, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Michael Chernus, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Gwendoline Christie.

“We didn’t have a premiere this season, and we didn’t have a premiere for the first season, too, due to events in the world,” Stiller said during introductory remarks before the screening. “And so this is our first time to really get together, out in public and show an episode and to share it with everybody. And I just want to say, first of all, we’re so grateful that you, the fans, are here to enjoy this.”

During the panel, some of the cast and creatives discussed keeping major plot points under wraps, with Erickson joking about the extent to which it has affected his personal life.

“I’ve come to build my whole identity on secrecy and not being able to open up to anybody,” Erickson joked.

Meanwhile, Arquette said that she enjoyed having secrets. “I like you all being confused and scared,” she said.

The panel went over the evolution of certain elements of the show, including the characters. Erickson, who said he was employed at a “small, windowless basement office in a door factory” when he came up with “Severance,” shared that Mr. Milchick was not initially meant to continue far into the show — at which point, Tillman pretended to walk off.

“Crazy that he just had a marching band moment,” moderator Ben Schwartz said, to laughs.

Erickson said it was Tillman’s performance that made the character significant: “I think it was the line like, ‘You and Petey were one of my favorite office friendships’…it was a line that Tramell read so perfectly that suddenly I was like, ‘Oh, that’s Milchick,’ and now he’s one of the most important characters on the show,” he said.

The panel also covered crucial moments of the season finale, such as a conversation between Mark’s innie and outtie. Scott discussed the process of crafting that scene in which his character’s two personas have a contentious back-and-forth through recorded videos.

“We were changing it right up to the last minute,” Scott said. “While we were doing it, it was something I was dreading because… it could really just not work.”

His approach was to “provide an array of options” and to leave room in the editing process to “have different ways to go and ways to kind of make it feel like a conversation.”

Lower, who plays Helly, spoke about the dynamic between Mark, Helly and Gemma (Dichen Lachman) and offered a new perspective into their conflicting romances.

“I guess on the surface, it looks like a triangle, but if you know me, I love talking about shapes,” Lower said. “It might be a tetrahedron or a hexagonal prism, and so, to add complexity, maybe in that last moment, Helly R. is — it’s love at first sight, seeing Gemma across the hallway.”

Tillman talked about developing Mr. Milchick further for Season 2, given the character’s new responsibility presiding over all the innies.

“He’s in charge now. It’s his floor. What we see is that he’s now in this relationship with leadership, and we see how it sits on him. And just like most people who have dealt in middle management, you get so much more shit,” Tillman said.

The event included new cast members like Christie, whose character Lorne takes care of goats. Christie talked about her love of the show prior to joining the cast, saying: “I was so angry I wasn’t in the show!”

She described her experience watching Season 1: “My mind was blown by it. I’d wait for my boyfriend to go to work and then I’d shut the curtain and I’d watch it, “Severance” at 11 a.m. on a Friday,” Christie said. She would “say to the dogs, ‘You’ve got to be quiet.’”

Christie also spoke about her admiration for the whole “Severance” team.

“Honestly, it does mean a huge amount to me because a show as original and fresh as this, with this amount of tangible passion and intelligence and real depth of heart behind it is so rare,” Christie said. “And I’m in awe of everyone involved in the show, and it is a dream. Thank you so much,” she added.