Ahead of Severance Season 2, Episode 9, titled The After Hours, fans noted its shared name with an episode of The Twilight Zone from 1960. While episode titles are often reused across television, the connection to a show as foundational to sci-fi as The Twilight Zone has led to deeper analysis.
In The Twilight Zone episode, Marsha White (Anne Francis) searches for a gold thimble in a department store’s ninth floor, only to find it empty except for one saleswoman. The woman assisting her is a mannequin, and eventually, Marsha realizes that she, too, is not human. Every year, mannequins take turns living as people, and Marsha has stayed out too long, forgetting her true identity.
The themes of identity and reality in The After Hours resonate with Severance, particularly after Chikhai Bardo revealed that Gemma (Dichen Lachman) is alive and being held in a hidden Lumon facility. The MDR team has tried to uncover the truth about the sub-basement, but no official confirmation of its existence has been acknowledged. While Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson) has appeared outside, others, including Sandra Bernhard’s nurse, remain a mystery.
Marsha’s experience in The Twilight Zone contrasts with Gemma’s, who is forced into a controlled existence with no understanding of her past life. Marsha is gently led back to her reality, while Gemma is manipulated into forgetting hers. The parallels extend beyond Gemma—Dylan (Zach Cherry) struggles after discovering his Outie’s family, Irving (John Turturro) resists returning to his routine after losing Burt (Christopher Walken), and Mark (Adam Scott) pushes toward reintegration upon learning about Gemma.
“When you’re on the outside, everything seems so normal,” Marsha says in The Twilight Zone. In Severance, normalcy is unraveling. Dylan is unsettled by Gretchen’s (Merritt Wever) deception, Irving considers escaping with Burt, and Mark is willing to work with Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) to find Gemma. Even Milchick (Tramell Tillman) begins to push back against authority.
Marsha ultimately accepts her fate without resistance, acknowledging the experience as enjoyable but fleeting. For Gemma, time outside of Lumon must feel distant and unreal. What she once knew as her life is now something she can only recall as if it were a dream.