Open Discussion: ‘Severance’ Season 2 Finale

Questions, theories, suspicions — gimme it!

After binge-watching the last five episodes of Severance S2 yesterday, saying "I'm pretty confused" would be an understatement. Some of the later plot developments in this season felt as if we were given specific pieces to a jigsaw puzzle — which only has its edge/border outline (established in Season 1) — that are quite far from connecting to the more comprehensible parts of the big picture we are building.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as far as TV mysteries go, but I think some of the more obscure plot points were introduced too early without a coherent build-up that would allow us to draw plausible connections. If that’s by design (and based on the statements that creator Dan Erickson gave, it very much is) to make us come up with wild speculations about what direction the show is heading, I have to say it's working.

I decided to try something new that I haven’t done on The Screen before: Instead of attempting to crack the case by myself, and likely going insane in the process, I want to start an open discussion to see what all of you think, what theories and opinions you have, and perhaps help each other untangle a few things that concluded in this chaotic and strange finale.

To do that, I will share the questions and observations I was left with after finishing the season. Naturally, we're entering spoiler territory now, so if you aren't caught up with the finale yet, watch it and then come back to continue.

Why Gemma? Why was she the “chosen one”?

I won't lie, the explanation of what the MDR department (specifically Adam Scott’s Mark) was working on all this time being Gemma, (Dichen Lachman) and her 25 innie personalities, has been slightly underwhelming. If this is only the first sentence of a longer answer that will later reveal something much darker and overarching, I’ll probably be fine with it in the long run. But as it stands now, I must ask: If she’s been the primary experiment and secret all along, why wasn’t she more guarded and protected by Lumon? Why was she allowed contact with many other innie-employees, including her husband? Was that an essential part of the process to create more innies? Was she chosen because of her miscarriage? And why has she joined Lumon in the first place without telling her husband? It just doesn’t make sense why she’d hide all that from Mark and her loved ones based on what we know about her.

What did the rest of MDR work on besides Mark?

It begs the question: what the hell were Irving (John Turturro), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Helly (Britt Lower) working on alongside Mark? Did they also contribute to “Cold Harbor” and the other files or did they have their own individual experiments we don't know about? What if their work was all fake to provide the right environment for Mark? Were they disposable and replaceable from the get-go? Given that the season-opener brought in a completely new group of people to replace them (except Mark), it seems likely that they don't matter as much as we were led to believe. Not to mention that Irving was fired, and Dylan's resignation didn’t strike Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) as a huge and devastating deal. And then there are a bunch of other departments with dozens of severed employees we barely know anything about, let alone their function in the Lumon machinery.

Is the avoidance of emotional pain Lumon’s ultimate goal?

Based on Jame Eagan’s (Michael Siberry) weirdly poetic and resentful statements and Dr Mauer’s (Robby Benson) twisted affection toward Gemma’s various personalities, it looks as if the whole “Cold Harbor” operation was built on finding a way to escape emotional suffering. This is quite an intriguing twist yet somehow a little small-scaled for such a massive and influential company as Lumon. Couldn’t they come up with a drug or chemical that does that? The whole experiment with Gemma and MDR feels like an overly complicated and elaborate effort to find a “remedy” for loss and heartbreak.

However, as suggested by some viewers, the goal may be to extract the chip from Gemma’s head with all of her innies and implant it into another person who'd be able to jump between those personalities as they see fit. Perhaps even Father Eagan would have a go with it to ease his own hurt about his daughter and potentially the grief towards his late wife?

Is there a war brewing between the innies and outies?

I’m not sure how much plausibility this alternative could have, but to me, one of the most fascinating aspects of the finale was the conversation between Mark’s innie and outie. Essentially, this hinted at the impossibility of how the two personalities can't live a life together. Their incentives, thoughts, and even feelings are completely separate, and almost entirely at odds with each other. If you will, the innies are nothing but slaves waiting to be freed to have a chance at a life they were never granted. The conundrum is that without their outies, they wouldn’t exist in the first place.

Dylan’s resignation and letter from his outie echoed the same sentiment and posed the question of whether an innie is allowed to have their own free will. Mark choosing Helly in the end instead of his outie’s wife can suggest he’s choosing rebellion (or revolution) to completely go against “reintegration” since that would practically kill their persona and cease their existence once and for all.

Is Burt with Lumon?

This may be on me, but I wasn’t positive whether Burt (Christopher Walken) saved Irving by sending him away or was he ordered to do so by Lumon because he still has a duty or responsibility to the company. Was this a selfless act?

Who’s side is Cobel on now?

Interestingly, episode 8 ("Sweet Vitriol") which revolves entirely around Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette), was the least favored one by viewers (with the lowest IMDb rating), despite the fact that she’s among the most complex characters of the series. Very easy to hate, no doubt about that. Personally, I think “Sweet Vitriol” came a season too early, but it nevertheless hinted at the love-hate dynamic she developed with Lumon. I believe her past deserves a painstaking examination (and a lot more clarification) that would help us understand why her feelings are so ambiguous toward the Eagans, and whether she’s on their side or has an ulterior motive in all this. My main problem with the episode is that there was no lead-up to it, and the relationships we were introduced to all of a sudden were made of broad strokes that are challenging to relate to or make sense of without revealing where they originate, to begin with. And, of course, they raise myriad of questions about how and when Cobel got involved with Lumon in the first place.

So, after she was ditched for the majority of the season, it was somewhat surprising that Mark would seek out her help given what she put her through previously. I get that he did it because he thought he had no other choice to find and save Gemma, but still, I felt there should’ve been a more plausible build-up to why he decided to “trust” her in the end.

Where do the goats come into all this?

I hope the baby goats serve more purpose than simply being animal sacrifices, but the finale pretty much ruled out most other possibilities. In a way, that explanation perfectly aligns with the Eagans and their perverted Kier cult worship, but I can’t help but feel that this was just a ploy all along when it could’ve been so much more. But who knows, maybe we’ll find out it is in Season 3 (which is already confirmed).

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I could go on with the questions, but these are the most burning ones I’m dying to figure out after the finale. So, if you have a theory or an interpretation that I may've missed, don’t hesitate to share it in the comments. Let’s discuss and descend into that Severance rabbit hole.