When Tramell Tillman’s smiling, happy-go-lucky (at the least on the floor) Mr. Milchick makes his first formal look within the cryptic “Severance” pilot to escort Mark (Adam Scott) to Ms. Cobel’s (Patricia Arquette) new workplace, it’s arduous to consider that any individual in his place may ever let doubts creep in.

However because the present continues, Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller’s office drama reveals extra layers to the degrees of submission on the severed flooring, which among the precise Lumon workers are anticipated to internalize simply as a lot with the secretive, hush-hush nature of the board. And in a chilly, remoted world, Tillman infuses humor, intense power and unstated depth into Milchick throughout each seasons, turning a personality that would have simply been a one-note villain into somebody viewers are compelled to essentially deal with.

As Mr. Milchick grapples for management over the 4 staff on the Macrodata Refinement crew, finally getting promoted to flooring supervisor, he demonstrates the purest type of Lumon puppet. He follows protocol, hosts waffle events for his workers and even throws some dance strikes in (extra on that later) when the time is true. However in the long term, what’s all of it for?

Season 2 provides Tillman the time and house to dig deeper into Milchick’s ideology, particularly within the eerie storyline that includes Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander), the one different high-up Black Lumon employee. After Milchick receives work of Lumon’s final image, Kier, in blackface, he tries to attach with Natalie in a uncommon second of vulnerability. However after Natalie merely smiles, Milchick should maintain in all of the despair. It’s one of the crucial sophisticated and wealthy scenes in the whole present, delivered to life by the subtleties in Tillman’s physique language.

Tillman additionally reveals his vocal management via how Milchick pronounces and twists his phrases for impact, which shortly grew to become one in every of his distinguishing traits. And following the bloody, action-packed Season 2 finale, it ought to come as no shock that Tillman was tapped to seem alongside Tom Cruise in “Mission: Not possible ­— The Closing Reckoning” as Milchick tries with all his may — and nearly succeeds — at flattening the merchandising machine for good.

However in fact, you possibly can’t totally respect Tillman with out mentioning his dancing expertise. The chaotic marching band sequence in Season 2’s finale is made all of the extra exhilarating as a result of Tillman is clearly having the time of his life, making it no shock that the scene has gone viral. He owns it. 

The unabashed pleasure that Tillman brings into uncommon moments like these not solely provides contemporary power into an icy work atmosphere, however hints on the type of life Milchick may’ve led earlier than devoting himself to Lumon’s trigger.

Whereas Scott, Britt Decrease, John Turturro and Zach Cherry play the type of twin innie/outie roles that enable them to point out off their vary, actors like Tillman, who painting characters strictly throughout the Lumon storyline, should play inside dilemmas with larger intonation. It takes an actor as expert and charismatic as Tillman to make us cheer when Milchick tells Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) to go “eat shit” and sigh with aid when the marching band manages to forestall him from operating after Mark and Helly (Decrease).

With Season 2’s cliffhanger leaving Season 3 vast open, there’s a lot extra room for Tillman to discover his character’s backstory. Now that Mr. Milchick has reached a breaking level, the sky’s the restrict — however provided that Milchick is ready to free himself from the jail he’s helped create.