Please try to enjoy the following spoilers equally. This article discusses “Severance” season 2, episode 2.

Every episode of “Severance” brings more and more mysteries into the mix, but is it possible that viewers have been asking the wrong questions all along? Our most pressing concerns to this point have to do with what Lumon Industries is really doing with Ms. Casey/Gemma (Dichen Lachman), what Adam Scott’s Mark S. and his fellow innies are actually accomplishing at their computers all day, and why the heck new Deputy Manager Ms. Huang (Sarah Bock) is a child. (Okay, that last one is the easiest one to solve: It’s because of when she was born.) But maybe we should’ve been wondering where the idea of this mind-bending Apple TV+ show came from in the first place.

In episode 2 of the new season, titled “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” director Sam Donovan and credited writer/executive producer Mohamad el Masri made sure to include one unassuming scene that actually contains a major Easter egg. Halfway through the episode, we follow Dylan G.’s outie (Zach Cherry) after he’s been unceremoniously fired from Lumon for his innie’s actions in the season 1 finale. Hunting for a new job to support his family, he winds up scoring an interview at a factory called “Great Doors.” While an amusing enough scene on its own, this moment signifies something even greater for series creator Dan Erickson. This sneaky inside joke is actually a reference to a real-life job he once had — one that directly inspired what would eventually become “Severance.”

For creator/showrunner Dan Erickson, “Severance” represents his first major production in the industry … and the process of bringing this from script to screen wasn’t an easy one. As he told /Film’s Ben Pearson in a recent interview, he has a specific endpoint in mind for the conclusion of the show should the streamer greenlight enough seasons for the creative team to see this through. However, the exact origins of this dark comedy set at the most dystopian office in all of fiction might prove even more illuminating than its potential ending.

So how does one dream up an off-kilter world as absurd and heightened as the one in “Severance”? Well, having firsthand experience in one of the dullest and most mind-numbing office jobs imaginable certainly helps. While Mark Scout’s reasons for agreeing to the severance procedure stem from the grief of losing his wife Gemma, Erickson once felt similarly about wishing to skip eight menial hours of the work day. In a 2022 interview with NYU Tisch Alumni Relations (the prestigious university where he studied dramatic writing), Erickson revealed how he first came up with the concept for “Severance” — and it’ll sound mighty familiar to anyone who watched the latest episode:

“Upon moving to L.A. after graduation, I got a series of temp jobs, and one of them was at this company that made and repaired doors. It was a weird little windowless office — there were really nice people working there, and I got to know them and like them, but at the same time it wasn’t what I wanted to do. So I found myself walking into work thinking, ‘I wish I could just jump ahead and have it be 5pm and I would be leaving so I could do the things I want to do.’ I realized that’s kind of a screwed up thing to be wishing for. It’s troubling to think that you would give up some of your precious time on this earth because you’re so unhappy with what you’re doing during those hours.”

“If you could be any kind of door, what would it be?” A question as bizarre and off-putting as this one would feel right at home during Ms. Huang’s dreaded ball game in the cramped kitchenette of Lumon’s severed floor, but something tells us this line from Dylan’s interview at a door manufacturing company has an element of truth to it. Dan Erickson might not have any real-world experience with getting his brain severed into innie and outie personalities, but who among us can’t relate to having a horrible office job that we’d have given anything to escape? (If any former coworkers are reading this from my old desk job as a severely underpaid secretary at a university that will remain unnamed, it was a delight.) For Erickson, his own experiences at a factory like this gave rise to the phenomenon that would become “Severance.”

The whole conversation between Dylan and his interviewer highlights just how relevant the series continues to be. In terms of plot, the scene gives us a rare look at how the outside world perceives and discriminates against those who’ve elected to get severed. The interviewer Mr. Saliba (played by Adrian Martinez, whose appearance looks not-so-coincidentally similar to Zach Cherry) seems accepting of Dylan’s, er, passion for doors — give or take a tasteless “door prize” joke. That is, until Dylan makes the mistake of admitting that he’s a former severed employee at Lumon. In a flash, Saliba’s entire demeanor changes and he grows outright hostile, not unlike the anti-severed protestors we glimpsed back in season 1. In terms of theme, this inside joke also doubles as further commentary on corporate America and how Lumon is hardly the only offender to trample on workers’ rights. (When asked about benefits, Saliba initially replies, “There’s a coffee maker.”)

“Severance” tends to hide clues and mysteries alike in plain sight, but for once, both combined in one scene that gave us an inside look at how the entire series came to be. You can catch new episodes on Apple TV+ every Friday.