Season 2 of Layoff makes Lumon even more horrifying with one addition to the cast

This article contains spoilers on “Severance” Season 2 Episode 1 “Hello, Mrs. Cobell.”

Going inside mind-blowing Severance Season 2, the show's first season had already driven home that Lumon Industries was doomed to fail. The surreal, dystopian office environment and depersonalization process that essentially imprisoned the “innie” workers forever while their “outsides” can enjoy life without effort is just the beginning. Everything from Mr. Milczyk's (Tramel Tillman) eerily comforting smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes to the stick-and-carrot treatment of disengaged employees, where rewards range from the utterly unsatisfying to the horrifying absurdity of a waffle party. there is much more going on than simple high-confidential office work.

The season two premiere, titled “Hello, Mrs. Cobell,” reveals that Lumon has many more horrors in store. With Milchick now seemingly promoted to Mrs. Cobell (Patricia Arquette), Mark S. (Adam Scott), Hellie R. (Britt Leuer), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) and Irving B. (John Turturro) to return to the “Retreat” office in an unwanted manner. – and discover that their new leader, Miss Juana (Sarah Bock), seems too young to be working on a top-secret project.

While Boka herself was born in 2006, Huang is certainly much younger. Given the heroine's school uniform and Mark immediately noting that she is a child, it seems that Lumon is now engaged in child labor.

The revelation that the new authority on the chipped floor is an eerily calm child leaves every separated employee suitably nervous, and it doesn't really help that Miss Huang – like Mr. Milczyk – doesn't seem to be separated herself. During the introductory ball game, she reveals that it's her first day on the job and that her previous gig was as a transition quarterback. This seems to imply that Lumon recruited him directly from the school setting.

So what's a non-segregated kid doing in the prestigious position of Warden, which for all intents and purposes seems to be Lumon's most important department? More to the point, is she alone or are there other kids working at Lumon since the episode also reveals that the company operates over 200 locations? Presumably Severance will answer those mysteries at some point, but for now it seems like one that would cause even more outrage than the firing process itself should let the public know.

In “Severance” Season 1, we discover that Lumon Industries wants to take the titular process on a large, potentially global scale for reasons that are unclear. The revelation in “Hello Mrs. Kobel” that the company is not only pandering to the public, but also enlisting a child to oversee its flagship project, seems to lead to a horrifying revelation later. Combine this with everything else you need to remember about “Severance” and Lumon before diving fully into Season 2, and it looks like the show's upcoming ride is going to be wilder than ever.