WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
This month marked the end of a brief and wondrous era with the truly epic conclusion of the second installment of Severance. In Spring 2025, we have been reveling in a moment of elite prestige television that has been an absolute delight to watch, discuss, and theorize around, with a never-boring trip to the world of the White Lotus for a third calamitous vacation coinciding with the addictive and long-overdue Season 2 of Apple TV’s crown jewel: Severance.
Both shows are arguably unrivaled by anything else on TV right now in terms of wit and intrigue, and we have been having so much fun watching the slow unboxing unfold in these two “puzzle box”-style, character-driven dramas.
Severance concluded with a brilliant, 76-minute finale that we are still thinking and talking about over a week later. Really, there’s enough here to unpack, pick apart, and digest that we’ll stay fed for however many years it takes for the officially-confirmed third installment to roll out (hopefully a maximum of two, Kier willing).
The central themes at work in Severance left plenty of discussions to be hashed out by vitriolic warring shippers and stans on X. We’re confronted with the peculiar battle of allegiances of Mark Scout vs. Mark S. (ostensibly the same person but also … kinda not?), which necessiates the important discussions about identity and existence that lie at the multi-faceted heart of this show.
Overall, we were happy to left with a satisfying number of answers for a show that raises so many questions. We finally see outie Mark reunite (albeit briefly) with Gemma, the wife he long believed to be deceased, and are treated with an extra-long runtime and the unexpected and spectacular bonus of an iconic marching band scene featuring a Mr. Milchick dance sequence that will stay in our hearts and minds forever – one that spawned various alternate soundtrack reimaginings across the social media multiverse.
Severance. Madness. This is what March 2025 is all about.
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 21, 2025
(Via @coleadamss)
pic.twitter.com/avvI4lcPNd
Ultimately, we had very few complaints about this season (other than the length of time it took to be delivered to us, which, to be fair, was understandable, given the challenges surrounding production, and it was well worth the wait regardless). Of course, the lag time between seasons did pose a challenge in terms of what we remembered about the first season. In hindsight, we really wish that we had rewatched the entireity of Season One and paid it close attention rather than relying on recaps and podcasts. Severance is a nuanced show, and there were a lot of details about the weird world of Lumon that we only vaguely remembered. I expect that some of the payoff would have been greater if we had re-watched S1 right before S2, so rewatchers and/or future binge-watchers will undoubtedly have a more seamless viewing experience than O.G. viewers coming back near-blind off the hiatus.
The White Lotus, Season 3
The White Lotus has been one of our favorite shows on television for a few years now. It is a fascinating commentary on class and privilege and, most especially, human behavior and its darker, more animalistic side. Mike White has created the perfect destination show with this anthology in that it mixes the high drama of complicated relationships and family dynamics and isolates that drama in a space that is far from home for the majority of the characters we study throughout the duration of the season. There are world views to be challenged, unexpected interactions to be had, and truths to be uncovered.
The show remains masterful at peeling back layers of privilege and pretense to reveal the raw humanity (or lack there thereof), materialism, loneliness, and longing underneath. The luxe Thai resort hotel and spa serves as both the luxurious, gorgeous backdrop we’ve come to expect from our White Lotus destination vacations, familiar and yet entirely different from previous seasons, and a juxtaposition of the haves- and have-nots (and, perhaps, soon-to-have-nots in the case of our Carolinian friends), the spiritually enlightened and the spiritually bereft. The show’s signature dark, shock-factor humor and sharp wit, continue to make The White Lotus appointment viewing in its third season.
We’ve heard criticisms that the show’s third series is “boring” or “predictable” compared to others, but, respectfully, we don’t agree. This season has been particularly entertaining and has served up some peak humor with outrageous scenes and characters that have had us laughing out loud, like Sam Rockwell’s unforgettable speech during his guest appearance as a former associate of Walton Goggins’ Rick, and Parker Posey’s Triangle-royalty, Chapel Hill southern belle Victoria Ratliff. The White Lotus isn’t necessarily the murder-mystery that some seem to want so badly for it to be, but there is certainly plenty of drama, intrigue, suspense, and gorgeous imagery to be found on property within the bounds of the resort locations we’ve visited so far; more than enough to keep us guessing and theorizing from week to week on what our varied cast of resort-bound friends will get up to, and how they will interact with one another.
With only two episodes left in the world of The White Lotus Thailand, we’re also wondering what else might we discover about the shady underworld dealings of the cadre of shady characters who seem to frequent every White Lotus we’ve been to so far, or whether or not we’ll ever find justice for Tanya McQuoid. What is going to go down at Greg/Gary’s ominous house party (and why is anyone agreeing to go to this guy’s house in the first place)? And what other dastardly deeds we might be forced to infer and/or view with our eyeballs this season? Could anything be worse than what we’ve already been shown? Probably not, but we’ll certainly have fun speculating until the season finale about what twists and turns might lie ahead.
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