Severance: How food plays an equally important role in the chilling Apple TV series

As the popular second season of Severance draws near its finale, the oppressive world of Lumon employees is being unmasked in its entirety. The frigid and barren workspace at Lumon is relentlessly controlled by the upper management. In terms of ensuring the compliance of its rather docile innie employees, food is used as a chilling tool throughout both seasons of Severance.

From the lackluster and tasteless melon to the barebones snacks that are ironically termed as treats, Lumon employees have the misfortune of being treated to foods that barely nourish their appetites, ensuring that they remain perpetually servile.

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What is the significance of food on Severance?

By now viewers have come to realize the full extent of the oppressive regime that Lumon really is on Severance. The company uses cutting-edge technology via brain chips that sever the working selves of its employees from their normal selves.

The employees are given no encouragement, do not have access to sunlight and are forced to work in drab blue environments. It is only natural that in such a setting, food would be deprived of its usual attributes and would function only as a tool of manipulation.

For the innies, food acts as an extension of the principle of the carrot and the stick. The food vending machines at the severed floor are filled with uninteresting and malnourishing portions of such snacks as sunflower seeds and dried blueberries. These are enough to relieve the pangs of hunger momentarily but would not go a long way to satiate someone's appetite completely.

On the other hand, a disregard for the food offered to the employees often results in the withdrawal of what little provisions had been granted in the first place. This was illustrated by the ORTBO or the corporate trip during which the employees scoff at Mr. Milchik's retelling of Lumon's narrative. As a direct consequence, Mr. Milchik has their marshmallows tossed in the fire.

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Severance prop master speaks about the use of food on the Apple TV+ show

Catherine Miller worked as the prop master on the Apple TV+ show and as per a report by the NY Times, she meticulously designed the infamous melons that were presented throughout the first season of the show. Miller commented:

"I always try to design the props and food to have some connection, some metaphorical undertone. I think food has the ability to define time and place and mood and overall emotional connection — it can become its own character. Melon has been a theme over the two seasons, and each time we see it, we want to up the ante,"

Speaking about the marshmallows from the corporate outing scene, Miller remarked:

"We knew we wanted the marshmallows to be special. We tend to do angular instead of circular for the Brutalist aesthetic.”

Miller also revealed that she derived inspiration for this portrayal of food from the food trays displayed in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Severance season 2 finale drops on March 20.