21 burning ‘Severance’ questions we have now after the Season 2 finale

How are you feeling after Severance‘s sensible Season 2 finale? Overcome with woe that it is over? Stuffed with malice and frolic on the episode’s many twists and turns? Dreading one other wait between seasons?

Whichever of Kier Eagan’s 4 Tempers you most determine with on this second, I feel there’s one factor we are able to all agree on: We nonetheless have many questions we would like Severance to reply within the now-confirmed Season 3, particularly after its game-changing cliffhanger that noticed Innie Mark (Adam Scott) save his Outie’s spouse Gemma (Dichen Lachman), then select to stay on the Severed Ground with Helly (Britt Decrease).

From goat sacrifices to the MDR group’s shadow selves, listed below are the 21 questions we’ll be puzzling over between now and Season 3.

1. What’s subsequent for everybody on the Severed Ground?

The obvious query about Severance Season 2’s finale, “Cold Harbor,” is a straightforward one: What on the earth goes to occur subsequent? When final we depart it, the Severed Ground is in a state of emergency, with Lumon certain to crack down quickly. Mark and Helly are nonetheless down there, together with Dylan (Zach Cherry), Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), and a complete marching band from the division of Choreography and Merriment. Do they plan to battle off no matter enforcement Lumon throws at them? Or may Lumon simply pressure all of them unconscious from afar with a severance chip operate, just like the Time beyond regulation Contingency or Glasgow Block?

Maybe most worrying is Dr. Mauer’s (Robby Benson) assertion to Mark and Gemma as they escape the Testing Ground. “You’ll kill them all,” he tells them. Is he speaking about all of the Innies? Might their final stand have doomed all of them?

2. Will Gemma escape Lumon by herself?

Gemma is free from the horrors of the Severed and Testing Flooring, however she’s not out of the Lumon constructing simply but. As chaos rages within the Lumon basement and safety measures doubtless enhance, will she have the ability to escape and blow the whistle on Lumon’s many crimes? This is hoping Devon (Jen Tullock) and Concord Cobel (Patricia Arquette) have a getaway automobile parked within the Lumon parking zone.

3. What’s Ms. Cobel going to do along with her pocket book?

Concord Cobel went on fairly the journey this season, going from making an attempt to get again in Lumon’s good graces to serving to Mark save Gemma within the finale. Alongside the best way, she stopped at her hometown of Salt’s Neck, the place she picked up an vital pocket book stuffed with her designs for the severance chip. She hasn’t executed something with it since then, however may Season 3 see her try to take credit score for inventing the severance process?

4. What was going to occur if Chilly Harbor went off with no hitch?

Gemma entered the Chilly Harbor room in Severance‘s Season 2 finale, the place her Innie was compelled to take aside a crib in a reference to Gemma’s traumatic miscarriage and unsuccessful makes an attempt to have a toddler. To Dr. Mauer’s delight, the severance obstacles held, with none of Gemma’s outdoors ache bleeding via. Nonetheless, the check was not accomplished in full, as Mark (fortunately) crashed the occasion and saved Gemma.

However what would have occurred if the check had proceeded as deliberate? Cobel made it clear they have been going to kill Gemma and harvest her chip, however then what? Dr. Mauer advised Gemma in episode 7 that when she was executed, “You will see the world again, and the world will see you.” Would Gemma have been used as a figurehead or martyr for the subsequent stage of Lumon’s plan?

5. What’s Lumon’s endgame in Severance?

Between all of the disagreeable situations Gemma encounters within the Testing Ground rooms and the concentrate on the severance barrier, it looks like Lumon desires to create a approach for individuals to sever themselves from any and all ache, together with grief. That traces up with Mr. Drummond’s (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) description of Kier’s “eternal war against pain” in the course of the goat scene. Is Kier’s “grand agendum” making a world with out ache?

Nonetheless, Severance being Severance, we may solely be getting a part of the story. There could also be a a lot bigger image we’re lacking out on. For now, although, the thought of constructing (and certain mass-marketing) a method to completely rid individuals’s lives of any unpleasantness is sinister sufficient. Particularly since doing so would pressure Innies to dwell in loops of nonstop ache. Does not that defeat the aim of a painless world?

6. What was it about Gemma that made Lumon research her?

Primarily based on episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo,” it is clear that Gemma has been in Lumon’s sights for some time. Dr. Mauer was on the fertility clinic she and Mark went to, which led to Lumon sending her the ideographic playing cards from Optics and Design. Even earlier than that, Lumon manufactured the medical tools on the blood drive the place Mark and Gemma met, so they might have had tabs on her beginning then. So, what was it about her that made her the best check topic? One thing in her blood? In her ideas concerning the ideographic playing cards? A secret third factor?

7. How did Lumon know concerning the crib?

Certainly one of Severance‘s most heartbreaking scenes but was Mark taking aside the crib he and Gemma constructed for the kid they might by no means have, the very scene that Lumon recreates within the Chilly Harbor room. Clearly, they surveilled Gemma for a very long time, so it is smart they know a lot about her. However how did they arrive to learn about this particular, personal second? Did they arrange cameras within the Scout family? Did Gemma open up to somebody with secret ties to Lumon? Or did it come up in one in every of her periods with Dr. Mauer or nurse Cecily (Sandra Bernhard)? Nonetheless it occurred, I am certain it was extremely moral and completely aboveboard.

8. What have been the opposite MDR Innies engaged on?

As Cobel informs Mark within the Season 2 finale, the numbers he’s refining correspond to Kier Eagan’s 4 Tempers and function the constructing blocks of Gemma’s thoughts. Every new file builds a brand new Innie for her, so his 24 accomplished information (25 with Chilly Harbor) map onto 24 new consciousnesses.

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However whereas Mark was engaged on Gemma’s Innies, what have been Dylan, Helly, and Irving (John Turturro) engaged on? A few of their file names — like Dylan’s Tumwater file or Helly’s Siena file — seem on the Testing Ground, so they might all have been engaged on Gemma, and she or he might have properly over 25 Innies. Nonetheless, the remainder of MDR could not have been engaged on different rooms whereas Mark was ending Chilly Harbor, because it was the final room for Gemma to undergo. So, have been they engaged on refining consciousnesses for different check topics? Simply doing busywork to maintain up the phantasm of labor? Or does Lumon have extra nefarious initiatives afoot that MDR has an unknowing hand in? (Lumon? Have nefarious initiatives? By no means.)

9. What is going on on with Ricken and the Lumon version of The You You Are?

Oh, Ricken (Michael Chernus), you unbearable mental. We barely noticed you this season, and dare I say that distance made the guts develop fonder? Fond sufficient for me to surprise, “Now where the heck is Ricken?” on the finish of every episode, anyway.

The largest improvement with Ricken in Season 2 was the truth that Lumon approached him about making a model of The You You Are particularly for Innies. (You understand, by censoring it.) Maybe that guide will come into play extra in Season 3, identical to the Damona Birthing Retreat, a small a part of Season 1 that ended up enjoying a serious function ultimately of Season 2. And bear in mind, if Ricken now owes allegiance to Lumon, how do you suppose he’ll react to Devon collaborating in opposition to them with Mark? Will he have a good time Gemma’s return or tattle to Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander) about it? Regardless of the reply, we are able to at the very least have a good time Ricken by studying The You You Are, which is splendidly actual.

10. What is the take care of the shadow selves and the watchers?

Severance Season 2 launched two unusual types of twins for the Innies. In “Woe’s Hollow,” the MDR Innies have been guided via the forest by uncanny “shadow” selves. (Shadow Mark, performed by Adam Jepsen, can be the determine who seems briefly behind him within the Season 2 premiere.) In “Chikhai Bardo,” we discovered their work was being monitored by “watchers,” every of whom are styled to look pretty near the Innie they’re watching.

By Season 2’s finish, we nonetheless do not know who these completely different units of twins are, what their function is, or how they have been made. The watchers appear to be actual individuals, however the shadows appear extra synthetic — not clones, however not completely human both. What infernal Lumon know-how is at play right here, and why am I having twice the existential disaster fascinated with it?

11. Who’s on the Lumon Board?

This query carries over from Season 1, however it stays as pertinent as ever, particularly as Severance spends extra time within the conferences between Lumon higher-ups like Helena, Mr. Drummond, and Mr. Milchick. Season 2 gave us treasured few clues as to the faceless board members who lurk behind the trademark blue board speaker (or in Natalie’s earpiece). However after the catastrophic Chilly Harbor check, may they step out of the shadows and present their faces?

12. What’s the revolving?

That is one other query that got here up in Season 1, however given Jame Eagan’s (Michael Siberry) elevated appearances on the finish of Season 2, it bears repeating.

Within the Season 1 finale, Jame advised Helena, “One day you will sit with me at my revolving,” suggesting that the revolving is a few type of ritual each Lumon CEO should undergo. Fan theories abound: Is it only a euphemism for dying? Some type of cloning or switch of consciousness to maintain the Lumon CEO line alive? Provided that these are the Eagans we’re speaking about, I am certain will probably be even creepier than our wildest nightmares.

13. Does Jame Eagan need Helly to be his new successor?

Whereas we’re on the subject of Jame Eagan, what on the earth was he speaking about when he went to the Severed Ground to go to Helly? He began out by trashing Helena — “I do not love my daughter” — as a result of he now not sees Kier in her. He then drops the bombshell that he does see Kier in Helly: the exact same factor he mentioned about Cobel when he offered her with the Wintertide Fellowship. Jame appears to admire Helly’s fiery, religious resemblance to Kier. Might that admiration translate to him eager to groom her as successor as an alternative? May he pressure reintegration on Helena/Helly so he will get an inheritor who’s loyal to Lumon however nonetheless has Kier inside her? Or perhaps he simply desires to present Helly a Wintertide Fellowship. Now that Miss Huang’s (Sarah Bock) out of the image, the Severed Ground does want somebody to step up on theremin-playing duties.

14. Will Jame Eagan’s illegitimate kids make an look?

Another Jame query, as a result of that man retains popping up! In his dialog with Helly, he reveals he has a number of illegitimate kids, telling her, “I sired others in the shadows.” In episode 9, Severance additionally implies that the moms of those kids are taken to present beginning at Damona.

So, who’re these child Eagans, and can they arrive into play in Season 3? Helena and Jame are already two Eagans too many, however I would not essentially say no to a Succession-style wrestle to be Lumon CEO. Alternatively, I hope for these illegitimate children’ sake that they do not know who their dad is or who the Eagans are. They deserve an opportunity to be regular and never Kier-pilled.

15. Will we see Miss Huang once more?

Severance Season 2 bade farewell to Miss Huang in episode 9, with Mr. Milchick sending her off to the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Middle in Svalbard, Norway. That is thus far faraway from the remainder of the world that it is almost inconceivable to suppose we’ll see her once more. A lady can dream although! Justice for Eustice!

16. Will we see Mark W., Gwendolyn Y., and Dario R. once more?

Launched and promptly fired within the Season 2 premiere, Mark W. (Bob Balaban), Gwendolyn Y. (Alia Shawkat), and Dario R. (Stefano Carannante) have been fascinating home windows into severed life at different Lumon branches. It is uncertain Lumon would convey them again after the entire Innie revolt of the finale, however I am going to by no means say by no means — particularly when Mr. Drummond’s skeptical episode 2 response to Mark W. and Gwendolyn Y. coming from Department 5X was so intriguing. What occurred at Department 5X to get it shut down? And extra importantly, did Mark W.’s Outie get well after breaking his lease in Grand Rapids?

17. The place is Irving going? And can he be again?

If I’ve one grievance concerning the Severance Season 2 finale, it is that it suffered from a grim lack of Irving. It is unhealthy sufficient we have been lacking Innie Irving since his retirement in “Woe’s Hollow.” Why should you deprive me of Outie Irving too?

In fact, Irving’s absence comes right down to the truth that Burt (Christopher Walken) despatched him on a practice far-off from the city of Kier for his security. However the place is he going? And absolutely we’ll see him once more, proper? Proper? The individuals yearn for Irv!

18. Who was Irving calling?

One other Irving query that also has no reply: Who’s the thriller particular person he was calling on the payphone? And the way do they hyperlink as much as Irving’s inspecting of Lumon staff and the hyperlinks between accidents, settlements, and severance? Severance has hinted at Irving’s investigation since late in Season 1, so perhaps we’ll be taught extra about his detective work in Season 3. Who is aware of, he might even be headed to satisfy up along with his unknown ally as he departs Kier!

19. Will Dylan retire?

If the Innies make it out of their huge stand alive, and if Dylan is even given a selection about whether or not to retire completely or simply preserve working, what’s going to he select? He appeared fairly useless set on retiring in episode 9, however maybe his Outie’s plea for him to remain received via to him, particularly since he headed to the MDR workplace to assist Helly as an alternative of going again to the elevator to retire. Between that and his mic drop-worthy “Fuck you, Mr. Milchick,” it looks like Innie Dylan has an entire lot of battle left in him.

20. What number of goats has Lumon killed, and for what?

The Season 2 finale lastly revealed what Lumon does with its child goats. It sacrifices them in an effort to “entomb” them with useless individuals — like Gemma, if all had gone to plan — after which the goat is supposed to information them to Kier’s door. I am glad we have now that reply, however like all issues involving Severance, it solely opens up extra questions: What impressed this custom inside the cult of Kier? Why goats? Might different livestock do in a pinch?

Nonetheless, most urgent of all is the query of what number of occasions Lumon has carried out this sacrifice. Mammalians Nurturable head Lorne (Gwendoline Christie) appears horrified on the prospect of sacrificing her beloved goat Emile, asking, “How many more must I give?”

That query means that she has had to surrender many extra goats in her time — however what else was Lumon killing individuals for, and the way usually? Have been these check topics previous to Gemma, or a part of their different scary initiatives? Both approach, let’s hope future seasons convey us extra of Mammalians Nurturable combating to guard their beloved goats.

21. What new bizarre meals stuff will we get subsequent season?

Season 1 of Severance introduced us such cursed food-based perks because the egg bar, the melon bar, and the waffle occasion. In Season 2, Lumon leveled up its company snacking with new merchandising machine treats, Kier Eagan marshmallows, and a curious reliance on pineapple. For sure, I am guessing Lumon will herald some new unusual meals because the present continues — however what’s going to or not it’s? Will the corporate undergo a berry section? Incorporate extra sweets into their snack choice? Get actually into path combine? Who is aware of! However one factor’s for certain: Pineapple, your days are numbered!

Severance Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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