Ben Stiller, Adam Scott, and John Turturro Revisit Severance’s Weird Scene on the ‘Severance’ Podcast

From surreal Music Dance Experiences to rooms full of goats, Separation a wonderfully odd show. But nothing on the show comes close to solving the waffle party.

The waffle party is Lumon’s reward for the Refiner of the Quarter. Dylan (Zach Cherry) wins this honor as part of the Innies’ plan to escape Lumon in season 1. To claim the prize, he goes to Kier Eagan’s mansion in the Perpetuity Wing, eats a bunch of waffles, and is treated to a sexy dance from a quartet dressed as the Four Tempers: Woe, Dread, Frolic, and Malice. The message is clear: The waffle party isn’t just a food-based incentive — it’s also a sex-based one.

Ben Stiller and Adam Scott revisited the waffle party in the Jan. 15 of The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scottand podcast guest John Turturro. For Stiller, it’s a waffle party – one of Lumon’s many names coined by Separation creator and showrunner Dan Erickson — “it was kind of an inflection point.”

“It’s probably one of the first questions we had to answer that we put out there,” Stiller said. “You might be thinking forever, ‘What’s a waffle party?’ But we had to somehow show it.”

The question then was, how far is it Separation went with a waffle party? How can they establish its dangerous nature without alienating the audience?

Part of the answer involved a show-style presentation of a waffle party, featuring a performance by Tara Rodriguez (who also helped create the Music Dance Experience at Separation“Defiant Jazz” episode) and masks by Penko Platikanov.

One of those masks was a Kier Eagan mask, which Dylan wears while lying on Eagan’s bedside tableau. That mask in particular stood out to Stiller in the rewatch.

“I haven’t watched it yet [episode] 8 momentarily, and the second I had forgotten that Dylan had a Kier Eagan mask waiting for him in bed,” Stiller said. of the strangeness of the whole affair.”

The actual shooting of the waffle party took place in Yonkers, New York, in a house that is part of the Hudson River Museum. It was the last scene to be shot in Kier Eagan’s iconic mansion, with Stiller estimating that they shot it at one or two o’clock in the morning. (They were under pressure to do everything, because New Years will record there the next day.)

Scott, now wrapped up, was left to watch the waffle event. “It was unbelievable,” he said. “[The dancers] they were talking about it. It was really impressive.”

For Scott and Turturro, the waffle party took on more meaning as an inspiration to their Innies.

“As everywhere and the whole culture of Lumon has no love or anything that can be sexual anywhere, but these are all feelings [the Innies] maybe they don’t have it and don’t understand, this is a great reward,” said Scott.

“If you’re hungry for any kind of connection, culture gets a powerful buzz,” added Turturro.

Separation Season 2 starts Jan. 17 on Apple TV+, with a new episode every week.