Severance-themed glass cubes in Grand Central are out; full-scale makeovers of Severance shooting locations are in.
On April 5, Apple transformed Bell Works — the Holmdel, New Jersey, complex that serves as Severance's Lumon Industries building — into an immersive Lumon experience. It's the latest in a series of stunts promoting Severance's second season, including the aforementioned Grand Central pop-up and a balloon-themed installation in London. While those were already impressive (I thought about the Grand Central cube almost daily for the entirety of Season 2's run), the Bell Works event somehow made them seem small.
What's it like to step into Lumon Industries?
The thrill of the Bell Works event started well before I entered the building itself. Driving onto the campus, we passed the classic white water tower — voiced by Saturday Night Live's Sarah Sherman in Season 2's "Lumon is Listening" video — and signs welcoming us to Lumon headquarters. While Lumon employees might view these sights with mundane resignation, or perhaps even zealous worship of Kier, all I felt was excitement. Yes, please welcome me to this corporate nightmare!
The excitement only grew after walking through Bell Works' doors. It's not every day you get to immerse yourself in the world of one of your favorite shows and experience cool architecture, but the event instantly offered up that double whammy. Even without the Severance connection, Bell Works is a formidable building, with its mirrored exteriors, tiered walkways, and high ceilings creating a vast retro-futuristic interior. With crowds of fans milling about and exploring the space, it was all too easy to imagine you were clocking into work at Lumon on a busy day.
Bolstering the illusion was the decor, like the Lumon front desk and Lumon's propaganda posters, featuring such hits as "Live, Laugh, Lumon" and "I'm a Frolic-aholic!" There was even a Lumon vending machine, if you wanted to treat yourself to some cursed Lumon snacks. Actors dressed as Lumon employees also milled about the floor, with Sarah Bock even reprising her role as Miss Huang and continuing the Grand Central tradition of Severance actors playing their characters at these pop-ups.
Watching over it all was the massive head of Kier Eagan, projected onto one of Bell Works' floor-to-ceiling walls. The scale was enough to make me want to burst out into the Kier anthem, but I knew my version wouldn't be enough to match the verve of Choreography and Merriment's thrilling rendition in the Season 2 finale.
On the basement level, you could find displays proclaiming that "Lumon is listening," along with the "Missing" Gemma (Dichen Lachman) posters Irving B. (John Turturro) drew for Mark (Adam Scott).
The Lumon vibes extended to the afterparty, which housed office sets where actors played the red ball game or refined data at the MDR desk. One actor was even lying facedown on a conference table, mirroring Helly's (Britt Lower) introduction in the series.
Elsewhere, copies of Ricken Hale's (Michael Chernus) masterpiece The You You Are were displayed in glass cases, while refreshments included a melon bar and a waffle party (served without masked dancers). Someone call Dylan (Zach Cherry), because the perks were out in full force.
The Severance Bell Works event brought Mammalians Nurturable to life.
The centerpiece of the Bell Works event was a Q&A with the Severance cast, showrunner Dan Erickson, and director and executive producer Ben Stiller, all moderated by Stephen Colbert.
The Q&A was full of interesting tidbits. Adam Scott discussed getting a concussion while shooting Mark's fight scene with Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), Britt Lower touched on the challenges of playing Helena acting as Helly, and Colbert tried to get further answers about Cold Harbor.
But the most fascinating part of the Q&A was the set. This was no ordinary stage set-up. Instead, the event recreated the rolling grass hills of Mammalians Nurturable within a massive box (keeping up with the box theme from Grand Central, I see). The contents of the box were kept hidden until the beginning of the Q&A, which started with Severance composer playing the show's theme song live. (Naturally, I got full body chills.) Then, a curtain dropped to reveal Mammalians Nurturable in all its glory, along with Gwendoline Christie in-character as Lorne, the Goat Queen herself.
For several minutes, Christie wandered the stage, ringing her cowbell (or would goat-bell be more appropriate?), trimming the grass and caring for the goats that dotted the fields. A puppet version of Emile, the goat from the Season 2 finale, even made an appearance, standing in the cart Lorne uses to bring him to the goat sacrifice room. Thankfully, Emile avoided death in that episode so he could embrace a career on the stage — the Bell Works stage in particular.
The Severance Bell Works event brought Season 2 fandom full circle.
The entire Bell Works event was an astonishing undertaking, but, just like with the Grand Central cube pop-up, what really took the whole thing over the edge was the presence of the fans.
Grand Central is a massive transit hub, so at rush hour on a weeknight, there's no question that it will be packed with people who are happy to take a gander at actors doing office tasks in a giant glass cube. But Bell Works is much harder to get to, meaning that fans — who only found out about the event at most a day before the event — undertook an even greater journey to arrive there. That's commitment, and it speaks to how much Severance's fandom has grown since Season 1.
I watched Season 1 of Severance back in 2022, when I was still mostly isolating due to COVID-19. Very few people I knew beyond my coworkers watched it, and with my friends scattered in different cities, recommending it to them over texts or phone calls felt like an inadequate way to truly sell them on it. (Especially when it was on AppleTV+, which very few people had.)
In the years since, though, Severance attracted later viewers, making Season 2 the most viewed AppleTV+ show (and a hot topic among friends and family). To see all these passionate fans make the trek to Bell Works was proof of the show's resonance and impact. Perhaps celebrating as a crowd, in a place that means so much to Severance, was the true perk we earned along the way.
