Apple TV+’s Severance set records as the most-watched series on the platform, intriguing audiences and creating the sort of watercooler buzz production companies dream of. In the vein of Lost and Westworld, the Severance team created a somewhat familiar setting with a “What if…?” twist that extends the uncanny valley phenomenon to an entire populace. At Lumon, we find people who look and react as we might but are accepting of (even promoting) circumstances unlike anything we can fathom.
RELATED: Catch up with our recap of the Severance Season 2 finale, “Cold Harbor”
To be fair, the idea of a work/life severance isn’t far from the elusive work/life balance we strive for today. Furthermore, the idea that a work “Innie” and a life “Outie” could co-exist with no overlap in consciousness or memory aligns with jobs with confidentiality clauses or proprietary intelligence concerns. Who hasn’t wanted to switch their work brain off when they go home?
Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers for Severance Season 2. If you haven’t watched the entire season, you may want to stop here.
What Answers Did “Cold Harbor” Give Us?
The Severance Season 2 finale fulfilled the promise of the abrupt Season 1 finale wherein Mark S. (Adam Scott) realized that Lumon’s Wellness Director Miss Casey (Dichen Lachman) was the Innie persona of his Outie’s presumed-dead wife, Gemma. Innie Mark’s final act during the Overtime Contingency event was to tell his Outie’s sister, Devon (Jen Tullock), “She’s alive!”
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Similarly, his last act in Season 2, after seeing that Gemma successfully escaped the Severed Floor, is to choose a life with Helly R. (Britt Lower), the Innie persona of Helena Eagan, the heir to Lumon. They run off together towards an unknown and impossible future, still trapped on the Severed Floor of Lumon, still at the mercy of their Outies and the Lumon higher-ups. Except Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson). Because he’s very, very dead.
We also learned that the purpose of Mark S.’s Macrodata Refinement job was to identify the building blocks of Gemma’s mind in the fields of numbers and isolate them into files. Each file, in turn, became a new Innie persona for Gemma, trapped on the Testing Floor, somewhere below the Severed Floor. Each Innie persona lived an existence of persistent and unrelenting trauma.
What Questions Remain?
Oooh, so many questions burn with the fire of Kier in our minds. Many could be answered by a well-executed third season (or maybe a couple more, considering the name of the production company is Fifth Season). But some may never be answered satisfactorily for everyone.
1) How Did Lumon Capture Gemma?
According to all official accounts, Gemma Scout died in a car accident two years ago. Her husband Mark identified the body, arranged the funeral, mourned, and spiraled into grief. Her sister-in-law accepted her death.
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But Gemma lived on at Lumon. First as Miss Casey, who would appear to be a random Innie, and then as the various Innies as Mark completed MDR files. Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson), who participated with perverse affection in all her Innie testing scenarios, fed her lies and vague promises. Nurse Cecily (Sandra Bernhard) escorted her wherever she went, insisting on compliance.
So, how did they get her there? How did they get her to comply? Was she complicit with the ruse that “killed” her Outie? Did she agree to this procedure? What could they have offered her to coerce her to let her family think she was dead for years?
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Actually, we probably know what the incentive was. A child. In the scene in “Chikhai Bardo” in the waiting room of the fertility clinic, Dr. Mauer walks by, turning to look at Gemma as she finds a seat. Is the Butzemann Fertility Clinic associated with Lumon? Was Gemma chosen through her application? Did she agree to something in accessing treatment that put her on the Testing Floor?
2) How Did They Know Mark Would Join Lumon?
Even if Lumon found a way to coerce Gemma into participating on the Testing Floor, how could they have known that Mark would spiral into grief, lose his teaching job, and choose to undergo severance to work at Lumon? Did Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette), in her role as next-door neighbor Mrs. Selvig, spur the spiral and plant the idea of severance?
Does the fact that Mark S. completes the Cold Harbor file — manifesting a Gemma Innie traumatized by infertility — mean that he still shares his Outie’s subconscious? Are Innies just facets that appear in a consciousness, like when slices are taken off a gemstone?
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3) What’s Happened to Ricken?
We haven’t seen Ricken (Michael Chernus) since “Trojan’s Horse” when Devon walked away from him and his new Innie version of The You You Are. Since then, are we to assume she left him alone with the baby to run around the backwoods with Mark and Cobel? It’s been at least a couple of days since she’s been home. I personally wouldn’t leave Ricken alone with a baby for that long.
Ricken’s also on Lumon’s radar. His book attracted enough attention to warrant Natalie’s (Sydney Cole Alexander) personal involvement. Won’t they notice that Devon’s missing for multiple days? Combined with the mysterious visit to the Damona Birthing Retreat by ex-employee Cobel and an unnamed pregnant lady where NO BABY appears, alarm bells should be sounding.
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4) What’s With the Egg Ritual?
Of all the weird cult-y things Lumon gets up to, Helena Eagan’s breakfast(?) with her father Jame (Michael Siberry) is the most bizarre. Maybe it’s the methodical placement of the egg wedges on the disturbing china pattern depicting two children in Puritan hats restraining a third child dressed as nobility.
Perhaps it’s the fact she eats a few tiny bites with no particular enjoyment while her father watches and makes high-pitched whining noises. There’s also the intense lap-swimming she engaged in before coming to see him, as though she must burn off any energy to assume a calm demeanor when they meet. And, of course, there’s his comment that he wishes she’d “take them raw” before leaving the room. We can only assume he’s referring to how Kier Eagan was reputed to have three raw eggs with milk every morning.
5) In What Reality Does Severance Exist?
It’s a big question and not one likely to be truly answered. The easiest assumption is that Severance takes place in an alternate present-day. All the non-Lumon technology seems familiar and comparative to what we know — cars, appliances, cell phones — and the equipment on the Severed floor even seems a bit archaic.
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However, it appears to always be winter in this world. When Harmony Cobel drives to Salt’s Neck, there are icebergs in the bay. We never see any other seasons. Inside Lumon, they must rely completely on the accuracy of the clocks because there are no windows on the Severed Floor with which to track the passage of time. Outside Lumon, there are no time markers like holidays or birthdays.
Most of Severance occurs within the fictional town of Kier, Pennsylvania, with its many suburbs and housing developments named for Kier Eagan’s descendants. But we never see a true city. The Lumon Branch 501 building is the lone building for as far as the eye can see. Similarly, the Eagan family compound is an isolated and singular structure.
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So, if it is 2025 in Severance, it is one that diverged from ours a long way back, perhaps as long ago as 1865, when Kier Eagan founded Lumon Industries and began to wage his “war on pain.” The common use of ether as a recreational drug to the exclusion of others implies Lumon’s influence is global. As the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center is in Svalbard, Norway, the overtly Scandinavian elements of the Kier mythology dovetail with the winteriness of this reality.
Honestly, the Questions Never End
What questions are burning your brain as we settle into our wait for Severance Season 3? Do you wonder where Irving ended up and if he’ll return? Will Burt and Fielding’s relationship survive the Innie experience? Does Drummond deserve to be buried with a goat from Mammalian Nurturable? When will the Board make their true intentions known?
Seasons 1 and 2 of Severance are streaming now on Apple TV+.
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