Severance fans, if you’ve ever wanted to read the wise words of Dr. Ricken Hale (Michael Chernus) for yourself, you’re in luck. On Jan. 31, Apple Books released the first eight chapters of The You You Are: A Spiritual Biography of You, Ricken’s self-help book that spurred Lumon Industries’ Innies to action in Severance Season 1.
These are available in ebook format, or in audiobook format, with Chernus himself narrating.
The You You Are is the second Severance companion book to be released, with the first being 2022’s The Lexington Letter. While The Lexington Letter is an epistolary thriller diving deep into Lumon’s secrets, The You You Are is a mix of self-improvement advice and cringe comedy. What else would you expect from Ricken, who famously hosted a dinnerless dinner party?
Apple Books’ excerpt features several memorable lines from The You You Are that we heard in Season 1, like “they cannot crucify you if your hand is in a fist” and “a society with festering workers cannot flourish, just as a man with rotting toes cannot skip.” Even “Destiny, An Acrostic Poem Experience” makes an appearance.
But the first eight chapters of The You You Are also flesh out our understanding of the often-infuriating Ricken, as well as give us more clues about the broader world of Severance. From Ricken’s backstory to Lumon’s interference in his work, here are four fascinating things we learned from The You You Are.
Lumon doesn’t want people reading The You You Are.
Zach Cherry, Adam Scott, and John Turturro in “Severance.”
Credit: AppleTV+
In Season 2, episode 3 of Severance, Ricken tells his wife Devon (Jen Tullock) that he is working with Lumon to write a version of The You You Are specifically for Innies. Of course, that version will completely undermine the original book’s themes, but for Ricken, this is too big an opportunity to pass up.
Apple’s released version of The You You Are goes one step further, implying that Lumon has completely derailed the publication of Ricken’s work. In an introductory note, Ricken writes, “As you know, the book was meant to release nationwide this week, and I was deeply eager to share its splendors with you. Unfortunately, events beyond my control have led to a brief delay as I liaise with several corporate parties as to precisely where and in what form the book should be released.”
Sounds like this is Lumon in crisis management mode following the events of the Season 1 finale.
Ricken goes on to say that he negotiated for the release of the first eight chapters. (According to Season 1, there are at least 29 chapters.) That means we miss out on the context for such banger lines from Season 1 like “bullies are just bull and lies” or “it was not me who was wrong, but literature itself.” Here’s hoping we’ll get the last chapters by the end of Season 2 — or perhaps tied to a future season?
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Ricken has a truly wild backstory.
Patricia Arquette, Michael Chernus, and Jen Tullock in “Severance.”
Credit: AppleTV+
The You You Are is required reading for anyone who has ever wondered, “why is Ricken so insufferable?” (I know I have.)
The answer began at birth, the circumstances of which make for such a bizarre passage I simply have to include it in its entirety:
Readers of my previous books know that both my conception and birth took place in a small theatre behind a defunct perfumery in Western Oregon, as part of a nine-month performance art piece originated by my parents titled “Smells Like Afterbirth, F**ker.” It was noteworthy in that I was the first child sired exclusively for theatrical purposes, and critics at the time hailed it as “a baroque deconstruction of the increasingly perverse human urge to procreate.”
Ricken writes that his parents (whose performance group is called HumpDumpster) held a Boston bar hostage at gunpoint as one of their next pieces, resulting in a prison sentence and in Ricken spending much of his youth alone. The information, equal parts tragic and hilarious, proves enlightening. No wonder Ricken seeks connection with others in pretentious artsy circles.
The You You Are is full of other Ricken stories, including way too much information about his sex life, as well as some tidbits about Mark (Adam Scott) and Gemma’s (Dichen Lachman) lives before Gemma’s death and entrapment in Lumon.
Mark and Gemma show up in The You You Are — kind of.
Michael Chernus and Adam Scott in “Severance.”
Credit: AppleTV+
Ricken explores his relationship with Mark and Gemma throughout The You You Are. He refers to them under the pseudonyms of Flip and Nan, because they wanted their real names left out of his book. (Can you blame them?)
In one anecdote, Ricken writes about him, Devon, Mark, and Gemma going on a hike — a story he brings up to Innie Mark in the Season 1 finale, asking him, “you remember the funny bees?”
The “funny bees,” we learn in The You You Are, came from a wild beehive that Ricken found both hilarious and a commentary on human society. But perhaps the most intriguing detail from the hiking story is what we hear about Gemma from Ricken. From the sound of it, they had far more of a bond than he currently has with Mark. He says the two of them read Doctor Zhivago during a lunch break on the hike, and that she entertained his bee theory while Devon and Mark mocked it.
These instances could simply be Ricken projecting kindness onto Gemma, something we see in a later story about her texting him that she is enjoying a “self-produced Tuvan throat singing album” he gave her for her birthday. (What a gift!) After Gemma’s death, a grieving Mark tells Ricken that he and Gemma laughed at it. But, Ricken ponders, was the laughter playful or cruel? Either way, it colors what he thought of his interactions with Gemma in life, making for a surprisingly sad scene in a book that is otherwise full of Ricken’s nonsense.
The fact that Mark plays such a large role in The You You Are adds a new layer to his Innie finding so much meaning in it. There’s no way he could have known the “Flip” passages were about his Outie, but it’s surreal to think of him learning about memories only one part of him knows. Plus, it adds more weight to Ricken’s sadness at Outie Mark not having read the book. The You You Are isn’t just an exercise in Ricken’s ego — it’s also partly an exploration of his grief about Gemma, and perhaps his own strange way of extending an olive branch to Mark.
The You You Are has a Lexington Letter Easter egg.
Jen Tullock and Michael Chernus in “Severance.”
Credit: AppleTV+
In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it passage, The You You Are mentions “the Dorner truck explosion” as the reason Devon and Ricken finally moved away from the city. The Dorner truck explosion plays a key role in The Lexington Letter, with Dorner referring to Lumon competitor Dorner Therapeutics.
The Lexington Letter follows former severed Lumon employee Peggy Kincaid, who finds a way past to bypass Lumon’s code detectors and communicate with her Innie. From their written conversations, Peggy learns that she completed a file just two minutes before a Dorner truck blew up in New York City. Was this just a coincidence, or had the Lumon file triggered the explosion?
The You You Are doesn’t offer any further information on the subject, but its brief mention here highlights the impact the Dorner truck explosion had on the wider world of Severance. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before it’s announced on the show itself.
The You You Are is free and available for download on Apple Books. Severance Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with a new episode every Friday.
