On ‘Severance,’ the Food Is Its Own Chilling Character

This article contains key details from previous episodes of “Severance.” It does not include any spoilers for the Season 2 finale.

It wasn’t your imagination: Something was off about the food from the start.

That first glimpse of cantaloupe and honeydew, arranged in the office to welcome Helly R., played by Britt Lower, was a little unnerving: Melons in jagged halves — severed! — filled with anemic, out-of-season fruit.

“Severance,” the Apple TV+ show written by Dan Erickson and executive produced by Ben Stiller, follows a group of Lumon Industries employees with chips in their brains that divide their work selves (“innies”) from their main selves (“outies”). For innies, whose lives are confined to the office, who never sleep or see the sun, a snack is a treat. So why doesn’t it feel like one?

The food on “Severance” leaves a bad taste in your mouth because it’s as fluent in doublespeak as the show’s most ambitious corporate climbers. In the show’s second season, which wraps up this week, food has acquired all the chilling, spine-tingling dissonance of upper management, refusing your request for a raise with a warm, unflinching smile.

“I always try to design the props and food to have some connection, some metaphorical undertone,” said Catherine Miller, the show’s prop master, who devised season one’s melon presentation to fit the “very graphic, very minimal” aesthetic of Lumon’s retro office. “I think food has the ability to define time and place and mood and overall emotional connection — it can become its own character.”