Severance Made Me So Uncomfortable With Mr. Milchick's 'Blackface' Paintings, And Tramell Tillman Pinpointed Some Thought-Provoking Details

Spoilers below for the third episode of Severance Season 2, so be warned if neither you nor your innie have watched via Apple TV+ subscription.

From the surprising introduction of new supervisor Miss Huang to Keanu Reeves voicing a building to Gwendoline Christie’s debut as a goat herder, Severance Season 2 is hitting on all cylinders with its first three episodes. But even with all the discomfort that has surfaced thus far — seeing new faces around the MDR cubicle, for three — nothing could have set me up for the skin-crawling gift that Lumon’s Board bestowed upon an unwitting Seth Milchick. What if Kier Eagan, but also…Black?

Tramell Tillman’s presumed loyalist was rewarded for his de-facto promotion in the wake of Ms. Cobel’s scream-filled departure, but not in a way where anyone at Lumon wanted to sate any of Seth Milchick’s true desires. Rather, “Who Is Alive?” featured Sydney Cole Alexander’s Natalie offering the new Severed Floor boss a collection of “inclusively re-canonicalized” portraits of Kier Eagan as a Black man, with other subjects also recontextualized in such a way. To call it wildly inappropriate is feloniously understating things.

The actor himself talked to TVLine about that discomforting exchange, and I’m intrigued by the way Tillman described Milchick’s thoughts in that moment. As he put it:

Let's tiptoe across eggshells for a few theoretical takeaways from Tramell Tillman's insight.

• Despite Severance having a generalized near-future setting, it's very clear that Lumon's presumably all-white Board never got the endless array of memos both metaphorical and literal that preach the ills of blackface. Perhaps "they" believed that presenting it as an artform elevated it to a higher status, but they would be wrong. I really can't tell where their motivation falls on the scale of "deviously manipulative" to "offensively affectionate."
• Natalie's eyes in this scene made it clear that Milchick's reaction to the gift was important, and Tillman echoes that thought by saying they're meant to be enjoyed publicly. But by whom? They appear to be all of the same portraits of Kier hanging within the Perpetuity Wing, which is itself an oversized shrine that is only ever meant to be visited by employees on the Severed floor. Does the Board want Milchick to hang them up in the halls?
• For Tillman to use the word "descration" in relation to Milchick's mindset implies that the character is aware the Eagan lineage isn't one that would likely embrace Black culture in the "real world," as it were. And perhaps that is part of the point, that those in charge are only willing to desecrate their own image in a place where outside eyes aren't watching. We'll have to wait and see if he gets chastised for storing the collection on a closet shelf.

This isn't a takeaway exactly, but I want to know what the employees who were responsible for crafting and printing copies of those portraits thought while they were doing it. As well, is the Board only interested in race-swapping with the portraits, or did Natalie's portraits also turn Kier into a female? I'd be hesitant to think so, but considering Lumon has had past female CEOs, and with Helena next in line to take the throne, it might not be so far off.

Praise...someone for the episode not giving audiences a close-up shot of the Kier Taming the Four Tempers painting, in which the Lumon founder is shown wielding a whip. Nobody needed that.

Will Milchick use these paintings are fuel for his fury at a later point in Season 2 when confronting the Board? Or will he have to continue compartmentalizing his disgust for the rest of time? Join us in finding out every Friday on Apple TV+.