Season 2 of Severance answered some of the fans’ burning questions, explaining why the MDR work is so mysterious and important and what’s happening on the Testing Floor. After the season finale, we also better understand the purpose of the Mammalian Nurturable department and why Cold Harbor was so crucial for Lumon. Still, the world of Severance is shrouded in mystery, with many exciting loose threads for Season 3 to explore. Although the series seems to be approaching its end, Season 2’s finale didn’t address some obvious elephants in the room. So, now that we can binge the entire season on Apple TV+, it’s time to discuss the major questions we have after Severance Season 2.
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WARNING: Spoilers below for Severance Season 2, Episode 10
The final episode of Severance’s second season sees Outie Mark (Adam Scott) and Mark S. joining forces to rescue Gemma/Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) from the Testing Floor. To help her paramour, Helly R. (Britt Lower) kicked off an innie revolution with the newly introduced members of Choreography and Merriment uniting with the MDR team against Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman). Season 3 of Severance will pick up the story from there, hopefully answering our biggest questions.
What’s Going to Happen to Gemma?
Season 2 of Severance explains Gemma spent two years on the Testing Floor of Lumon. As the company’s favorite lab rat, Gemma had dozens of personalities created by the MDR team, each existing inside the confines of a single room where she was imprisoned in a stressful environment — like an eternal visit to the dentist and a turbulent airplane that never lands. The goal was to determine how much suffering the human mind could stand before the memory barriers created by the severance chip cracked.
Gemma is living proof of the horrible human experiments Lumon has been conducting, which include kidnapping, imprisoning, and murdering people. Devon (Jen Tullock) and Outie Mark hope that Gemma’s release will lead to the destruction of the Lumon empire and the end of the severance procedure. However, since Mark S. refuses to leave Lumon with Gemma, she is alone, unaware of where to go next and how to avoid Lumon recapturing her. Season 3 of Severance must reunite Gemma with Devon and show how (and if) they will manage to defeat Lumon.
What Is Harmony Cobel’s Plan?
The second season of Severance shed some light on Harmony Cobel’s (Patricia Arquette) past, explaining how she was indoctrinated from an early age to follow Kier’s teachings. That’s why she allowed the Kiers to take credit for her invention of the severance technology. During the final stretch of Severance Season 2, Harmony seems determined to help Devon and Outie Mark to rescue Gemma. However, we still don’t know what Cobel’s long-game plan is.
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It’s hard to believe Cobel is trying to destroy Lumon and bring an end to the technology she created, especially since she spent so much of the first season carefully studying both versions of Mark. While Cobel is no longer aligned with Lumon’s interests, she is purposefully vague when she speaks with Devon and Mark, and it’s obvious she’s hiding something. Season 3 of Severance should dig into this mystery, revealing if Cobel was undermining Lumon all along, planning to betray Mark, or performing her own sadistic test on severance technology.
Where Is Irving? (And Who Is He Really Working For?)
Irving B. (John Turturro) sacrificed his life in Season 2 of Severance to unmask Helena Eagan’s deception and give the MDR team a fighting chance. Although Irving B. was absent from the season finale, his map to the Testing Floor allows Mark S. to free Gemma from her underground prison. In the outside world, Outie Irving was also working against Lumon, speaking with a mysterious third party on the phone and collecting evidence against the company. To save Irving’s life, Burt (Christopher Walken), a former Lumon goon, sends him away on a train, telling him never to return. Just like that, both versions of Irving left the Severance stage.
Of course, that cannot be the end of their story. Before leaving, Outie Irving says he’s ready to remember his life on the Severed Floor and the love he shared with Burt’s innie. That points toward Irving reintegrating before he returns to help his MDR teammates. But where will Irving go to hide from Lumon? And when will he come back? The answer is most likely connected to Outie Irving’s mysterious ally. Irving could have been talking to Dr. Reghabi (Karen Aldridge), who seems determined to use reintegration to sabotage Lumon. Another possibility is Cobel, who could be working against Lumon even while she was the manager of the Severed Floor. Season 3 needs to answer these burning questions about Irving.
What Is Lumon Really Doing?
Lumon’s endeavors in Severance seem to have a dual nature. On one level, the company works like a cult, worshipping the pseudo-scientific babbling of its founder, Kier. That leads to hilarious and terrifying rituals performed by the management crew of the Severed Floor and beyond. However, on a different level, Lumon functions as an ultra-capitalistic institution, using the same bizarre ideological tools to distract people from the raw exploitation of other people’s work and the unethical shortcuts the company takes in the name of profit — like illegal human experimentation.
While both things can be true simultaneously, Severance has yet to explain where true belief ends and performative worship begins. Is Lumon out to make money and hiding behind Kier’s words to justify their means? Or is Lumon’s fortune being used for an ultimate goal based on Kier’s ideals? Who is a true believer among the administration ranks, and who’s just climbing the corporate ladder by putting up a good show? Season 3 of Severance must explore these questions in depth.
What Does Dr. Mauer’s Desperate Cry Mean?
When Outie Mark finds Gemma on the Testing Floor during Severance Season 2’s finale, they race to the elevator while being chased by Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson). Before the elevator doors close, Dr. Mauer makes a desperate attempt to convince Outie Mark and Gemma to return, shouting: “You will kill them all.” By playing the pronoun game, Dr. Mauer leaves in the air who is “them.”
The obvious answer is that Dr. Mauer tells Outie Mark that all the innies will be decommissioned if the truth gets exposed after Gemma’s escape. However, the final episode of Severance Season 2 explored how far the cult behavior of Lumon can go, with Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) ready to sacrifice a goat and entomb the animal with Gemma so that it could lead her spirit to Kier. That raises the question: is there another sublevel at Lumon where people get entombed? Does being entombed equal death, or is the truth even more sinister? Is Dr. Mauer afraid of losing past test subjects that remain in stasis somewhere? Season 3 of Severance should explain who Dr. Mauer refers to as “them.”
The two seasons of Severance are currently available on Apple TV+.
What other burning Severance question do you have after Season 2? Let us know in the comments!
