SPOILER ALERT: This story incorporates spoilers for Season 2, Episode 10 of “Severance,” streaming now on Apple TV+.
After teasing out a season of each Innie Mark and Outie Mark’s hopes of saving his spouse Gemma, the “Severance” Season 2 finale concluded with a serious twist: Mark rescuing Gemma from the Testing Floor, solely to desert her as soon as he received her to security in favor of fairly actually operating off with Helly. Of course, this alternative was made by Innie Mark, not Outie Mark, each of whom earlier within the episode had a back-and-forth video message dialog so as to come to phrases with how they may workforce as much as get Gemma out.
Now, in a shot paying homage to Mark’s panicked dash down the halls of Lumon within the season premiere to search out Gemma, Helly and Mark are dashing down the hall whereas the emergency sirens blare to alert safety of their malfeasance.
Gemma is left stranded and confused about Mark’s alternative, Milchick is flustered after dropping management of MDR amid his large showstopping marching band quantity (meant to congratulate Mark on ending the Cold Harbor file), Dylan is the only MDR worker left in Lumon’s grasp after the others have run off (together with Irving) and Cobel and Devon are someplace on the skin ready to listen to how Mark’s plan to rescue Gemma unfolded.
The episode revealed that the mysterious Cold Harbor room was one by which one more severed model of Gemma was tasked with taking aside a crib she and Mark had supposed to make use of for his or her never-born child as Jame Eagan watched on a video monitor, so as to verify she had no emotional response to the occasion. While that query was answered, together with some others — we lastly discovered the goats are used as animal sacrifices — “Severance” viewers have been left with so many extra.
Here are the largest burning questions we now have on the finish of “Severance” Season 2.
What is Helly and Mark’s plan?
The finish of Season 2 locations the characters (and the present) in an fascinating conundrum. After serving to save Gemma from Lumon, Innie Mark decides to not observe her outdoors the constructing (which might flip him again into Outie Mark), as an alternative selecting to remain inside and go towards Helly. If he went with Gemma, his outie might reunite along with his spouse within the outdoors world. But Innie Mark is aware of that after he leaves Lumon, his outie won’t ever return, that means Outie Mark’s reunion with Gemma would lead to Innie Mark’s nonexistence. Helly is in an analogous predicament. If she have been to go away, she’d snap again into Helena Eagan, who has no conceivable purpose to return to the Severed Floor. So, Helly and Mark resolve that life inside Lumon is healthier than no life in any respect. They don’t appear to have a plan as to the place they’re going or how they’ll survive. After he sabotages the Cold Harbor mission, what’s going to Lumon do with Mark? And received’t the Eagan household need to retrieve their heiress in ready? It’s arduous to think about this love and adrenaline-filled fantasy received’t come crashing down shortly.
So, what does this imply for Gemma?
The remaining moments of the finale depart Gemma desperately banging on the skin of the Severed Floor door, as she watches the innie model of her husband run away along with his innie love, Helly. She’s devastated and alone, however she is technically free. However, so as to really get to security, she has to search out her method outdoors of the constructing and again residence or to Devon’s. And even then, what’s to maintain Lumon from discovering her once more?
Gemma additionally is aware of subsequent to nothing about Innie Mark, and it’s attainable she might acknowledge the lady he’s selecting over her as Helena, if she had ever crossed paths together with her throughout her time at Lumon. Devon, and doubtlessly Cobel, could possibly be instrumental in serving to Gemma get to security and explaining her husband’s innie’s betrayal.
Will Mark totally reintegrate?
When Mark started the reintegration course of with Reghabi on the finish of this season’s third episode, it appeared just like the present had crossed a serious Rubicon. When the fourth episode flung the refiners right into a lethal winter retreat, many viewers anticipated Mark’s innie and outie to be just about merged into one particular person. But the black-market surgical process turned out to not be so consequential (no less than not but). Aside from some scattered glimpses, and an extended interval of Outie Mark’s unconscious “journeying,” Mark Scout and Mark S. have but to cross into one another’s worlds. That’s seen most starkly within the dialog between Mark’s innie and outie by way of camcorder on the birthing retreat heart: Innie Mark and Outie Mark are two totally different individuals with opposing objectives. (See: the ultimate moments of Season 2.) Mark’s outie assures his innie that he’ll “finish the process” of reintegration as soon as Gemma is free. “This life belongs to both of us,” he says. But he doesn’t imply it, and Innie Mark is sensible sufficient to see by means of the bullshit. This begs the query, although: What extra does Mark have to do to “finish the process”? Are there extra surgical procedures? Can the reintegration work he already did be undone? If he have been to go on along with his life as is, would this merging by no means occur? Given that reintegration has by no means efficiently been completed (keep in mind Petey?), it’s probably that Mark himself doesn’t know the solutions to those questions. It’s but to be seen whether or not his (and the present’s) promise of reintegration can be fulfilled.
Why isn’t there extra Lumon safety on the Testing Floor?
One might argue that Sandra Bernhard’s nurse character barely tried to stop Mark from reaching Gemma by screaming “Fuck you!” after which operating off. She did, understandably, have a gun pointed at her by a crazed outie. We know lots was occurring on the time of Mark’s infiltration, and Milchick was trapped within the rest room, however that doesn’t excuse the shortage of safety patrolling the halls that home Lumon’s Most worthy asset: Gemma. Is it hubris or an absence of sources that retains Lumon from worrying an excessive amount of in regards to the safety ranges? Or is it one thing else?
How did Lumon kidnap Gemma and pretend her loss of life?
So, we don’t precisely know. Despite every thing revealed in Episode 7 about Mark and Gemma’s previous and the way she ended up at Lumon – we don’t have a transparent understanding of what occurred the night time of Gemma’s alleged automotive crash that left her “dead.” Outie Mark angily reminds Devon early in Season 2 that he recognized Gemma’s physique on the morgue, one of many details that led him to consider there was no method she could possibly be alive at Lumon. It seems Mark and Gemma have been already being watched carefully by Lumon earlier than her kidnapping, as they went to a Lumon-run blood drive and fertility clinic. Plus, Gemma was fascinated by Lumon’s literature and, in a single scene, reviewed playing cards which are made by Optics and Design. But how did Lumon cover-up her kidnapping and make it appear like a deadly automotive crash?
Why did Lumon select Mark and Gemma for this expertise within the first place?
Speaking of which, why did they kidnap Gemma to start with? Mark is simply as vital to Lumon’s experiment as Gemma (the information he “refines” assist code her numerous severed identities), however what made them candidates for this trial within the first place? The two faculty professors first met at a Lumon-run blood drive — did Lumon orchestrate their relationship from the beginning?
Is Milchick a Lumon loyalist?
Based on how Milchick has been disciplined for utilizing too many large phrases this season, it appears that evidently he was raised by individuals who inspired him to pursue data — in different phrases, not the Eagans. As far as his loyalties go, he got here off as bold and power-hungry in Season 1, however Season 2 started to complicate that picture. When the Lumon board rewards him with a portray of Kier Eagan depicted as a Black man upon his promotion in Episode 3, he feels an uneasiness that he appears keen to maneuver previous aside from the truth that Natalie, the board liaison, shuts down his try to debate the bizarre reward in Episode 5 regardless of additionally being Black. Milchick appears more and more sad at Lumon from that time ahead, peaking when Mr. Drummond admonishes him for Mark’s absence from work and brings up his in depth vocabulary once more, asking him to apologize thrice for utilizing the phrase “remonstration.” The first two instances, Milchick complies, however the third time, he says, “Devour feculence. It means ‘eat shit,’ Mr. Drummond.”
Still, Milchick reveals some degree of loyalty to his job, imploring Mark to offer him his phrase that he’ll present up the subsequent day, after which preventing with all of his would possibly within the finale to bust out of the lavatory by which Helly and Dylan have trapped him. He’s intent on stopping Mark from saving Gemma, despite the fact that he’s simply been berated by an animatronic Kier within the elaborate efficiency that begins after Mark completes the Cold Harbor file. That mentioned, his funding in serving to the Cold Harbor plan go easily might nonetheless come from his careerism and private aspirations, relatively than real allegiance to Lumon and the Eagans.
Where does Ms. Cobel stand? Will she attempt to overthrow Lumon from the skin?
While remaining extremely cryptic about Lumon’s broader objective in experimenting with Gemma, Cobel gave Mark invaluable details about the inside workings of the corporate so as to assist him rescue her. After all we’ve discovered about Cobel’s position at Lumon (she was a baby laborer on the firm and later invented the severance know-how, by no means getting credit score for it), can we anticipate her to maintain down the rebellious path? Or is there one thing Lumon might provide her to convey her again into the fold at this level?
What is the broader objective of severance?
The existence of a severed birthing cabin, first talked about in Season 1, could have the primary large trace about Lumon’s general mission. In the cabin, pregnant ladies who’ve undergone severance power their innies to offer beginning for them, permitting the outies to keep away from the ache of the expertise — although this course of appears to be a luxurious accessible solely to the rich, because it was a senator’s spouse whom Devon noticed utilizing the cabin.
Once Gemma’s Cold Harbor innie is created, Dr. Mauer marvels at the truth that she doesn’t emote as she takes aside a child’s crib with a screwdriver. “The barrier is holding,” he says, that means that the innie has no connection to Gemma’s experiences with infertility. Coupled with the contempt that the Eagans and different Lumon higher-ups have for the innies, it appears attainable that Lumon’s bigger purpose is make billions of {dollars} through the use of severance to create a category of less-than-citizens who expertise wealthy individuals’s traumas of their stead. Cue Helena’s speech to Helly in Season 1: “I am a person. You are not.”
Will Irving return?
Burt sends Irving off with a one-way prepare ticket to an undetermined vacation spot. It’s seen as an act of redemption for the previous “Lumon goon,” as he helps his innie’s lover get to security from the corporate, which is presumably going after Irving as a consequence of extremely delicate info he could have. Will Irving ever return to the city of Kier? Will we ever discover out why he stored portray the Exports Hall, and whether or not he himself ever went all the way down to the Testing Floor? Ben Stiller informed Variety that Irving’s storyline is full “for now,” however actor John Turturro has mentioned he wouldn’t really feel glad if that is the tip for his character.
Where does this depart Dylan?
Poor Dylan. With Irving’s innie gone and Helly and Mark operating the halls of the severed flooring within the remaining moments of the finale, it’s arduous to see the place Dylan suits into the way forward for MDR. For now, he’s on his personal after standing as much as Milchick, and certain will stay that method for some time if Helly and Mark don’t provide you with a fast plan for safeguarding themselves and their remaining co-worker. Meanwhile, we all know Dylan’s true precedence stays discovering a way he might ever be along with his outie’s spouse, Gretchen.
What’s with the child goats? How many have been beforehand sacrificed, and for what?
The goats have been first launched in Season 1, when Mark and Helly occur upon one in a secret room on the Severed Floor. Cryptically, the person holding the goat tells them that it’s “not ready” and may’t be taken but. But we get a more in-depth have a look at the animals in Episode 3 of Season 2, when the seek for Gemma/Ms. Casey leads Mark and Helly (who’s really the undercover Helena) additional into the goat room towards an odd and secluded division known as Mammalians Nurturable, which has much more goats in it. The innies there have a vaguely medieval vibe to them, particularly in the best way that they communicate, which calls into query whether or not they’re ever allowed to go away Lumon — Mark, Helly, Irving and Dylan’s innies all communicate with kind of the identical vernacular as their outies, and it’s arduous to think about anybody talking just like the Mammalians staff within the non-severed world.
At least one goat, introduced by Mammalians head Lorne, is meant to be a sacrifice that may “guide” Gemma’s spirit to Kier upon her completion of the Cold Harbor check. Of course, as seen within the finale, Mark and Lorne beat up Mr. Drummond as he’s about to make Lorne shoot the goat within the head, releasing the animal — named Emile, because it seems — proper earlier than Mark saves Gemma. It appears, although, that the goats are a method of controlling individuals and holding them subsumed by the cult of the Eagans, much like the kid labor Cobel and maybe Miss Huang have been subjected to. Before Mark helps Lorne save Emile, Lorne and her coworkers appear fairly invested within the technique of elevating sacrificial animals, reacting badly when Mark and Helly first present up of their division seeking to shake issues up. Emile was apparently chosen as Gemma’s spirit information for having extra “wiles” and “verve” than the remainder of the flock, implying that each one the opposite goats have been contenders for sacrifice too. Maybe Lumon manipulates the severed shepherds’ emotional ties to the goats to maintain them loyal. But since Gemma seems to be one in every of Lumon’s most vital check topics in historical past, it’s arduous to say what number of goats have beforehand been killed to “guide” different spirits.
What’s subsequent for Miss Huang?
In the penultimate episode of Season 2, Miss Huang graduates from the Severed Floor — maybe prematurely. Milchick tells her that her “Wintertide Fellowship” is over, and sends her off with a creepy ritual: She should make a “material sacrifice” by bashing her ring toss sport with a bust of Kier Eagan. Huang is off to raised and brighter issues. Her mattress can be moved from her dad and mom’ residence to the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center in Svalbard, Norway, the place she’ll “work to steward global reforms” — no matter which means. It’s unclear what the longer term holds for the younger deputy supervisor, however think about what we learn about Ms. Cobel: She was a baby employee at a Lumon ether manufacturing unit, then grew to become a Wintertide Fellow earlier than ascending to a managerial position. Might Miss Huang be on an analogous path?