Season 2 Episode 9: The After Hours
Aired: March 14, 2025
Synopsis: Mark and Devon team with an ally. Helly investigates further.
Directed by: Uta Briesewitz
Written by: Dan Erickson
I know I’m in the minority here, but I’ve found this season a bit frustrating. Like the show has been teasing certain things for so many episodes with very little payoff.
This episode specifically just felt like it was all buildup.
Well, the season finale is over an hour long so I assume there’ll finally be payoffs to most of the plot lines going on.
That, or it’s going to be Cobel standing menacingly in front of the fire saying vague one-liners for an hour. I can’t wait.
I have a lot of confidence in the finale. It just seemed like the entire season was buildup for the finale.
This episode was all buildup, but the season has given us a lot.
Helena broke into the group and was discovered.
Irving forced into retirement.
Burt, while still mysterious, being a Lumon lifer.
Mark reintegration.
Mark & Gemma’s relationship & her “death”.
Gemma’s life since death.
Cobel’s life in Lumon as the architect of Severing.
Sure there is still a lot of questions, but we’ve learned a lot about different characters this season.
Apologise for the word!
All those lumen goons are still so weird
It’s funny that Dylan’s outtie threatened to quit, but then the innie gets the last laugh by basically getting Dylan fired. You’d still have a job if you didn’t get pissed about your wife kissing yourself.
And yet it’s sad that the innie is basically ending his own life because he realizes he can’t have what outties take for granted.
I don’t get why Dylan was allowed to quit since the whole premise is that innies are trapped down there. Did that make sense to you? Maybe I need to watch it again
Was he actually allowed to quit? I just saw it as a resignation request. It’s possible they don’t actually need Dylan anymore, especially with Irving gone, Helly in danger, and Mark who knows where. Maybe they just existed to convince Mark his work was important.
That’s a good point. I’m probably wrong for saying Dylan was fired. In the past, innies can only quit if their outties allows it. Maybe this time (on paper) it will go through because both the innie and the outties want to leave. Officially, maybe Dylan already completed all of his mysterious tasks.
“It means ‘eat shit’, Mr. Drummond.”
Milchick going off on Drummond was so satisfying. That entire exchange might have solidified him as my favorite character.
At this point I’m rooting for him more than the main characters. My guy just wants to do his job in peace but is getting disrespected from all sides since the start of the series.
Yesss, that was so satisfying! I knew there was going to be something after they featured the disciplinary meeting in the recap. I’m afraid to see how they react, though.
Mark looked really good, he hasn’t completely lost glow-up from episode 7.
I was expecting something more from this episode, I hope finale will deliver.
The sibling writing and acting between Devon and Mark never stops being charming. I love their initial banter in the car (“Tragically, you’re you”), and every time Devon reaches out to support him, it feels like genuine concern and affection. Her reassuring iMark in the cabin was so sweet.
She did absolutely no meaningful reassurance in the cabin. Not even telling him where he was, just “okay, here you go, into the literal flaming room with your least favorite person with no warning, conversation, or basic questioning beforehand”
This storyline is my least favorite part of the whole show, because Cobel and Devon, when she’s around Cobel, both speak like typical “mystery box show” characters. The whole bit about the file, where they just say “the file” and then have a long-ass pause before saying “Cold Harbor” was so annoying. This gives 0 explanation to Mark and just works as a wink at the audience like “Wouldn’t you like to know what that means?”
Other characters typically speak fairly realistically or at least in a straightforward way that makes sense. Any omissions tend to happen because characters don’t ask the right questions. Here, Mark asks the right question and gets fuck-all in return.
To be fair, he didn’t even ask “what is cold harbor? Why does it kill Gemma” or anything useful after cobel dropped the name though. Which is crazy that he doesn’t know what he does at work, finds out what he does at work will kill Gemma, but asks nothing more
I agree. But I also thing Devon is connected to all of this more than she is letting on. I think the “helpful” sister arch is not the full story. But they do have a well written and acted relationship.
