How Season 2 Sets Up Season 3 

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 10 of “Severance,” streaming now on Apple TV+.

After teasing out a season of both Innie Mark and Outie Mark’s hopes of saving his wife Gemma, the “Severance” Season 2 finale concluded with a major twist: Mark rescuing Gemma from the Testing Floor, only to abandon her once he got her to safety in favor of quite literally running off with Helly. Of course, this choice was made by Innie Mark, not Outie Mark, both of whom earlier in the episode had a back-and-forth video message conversation in order to come to terms with how they might team up to get Gemma out.

Now, in a shot reminiscent of Mark’s panicked sprint down the halls of Lumon in the season premiere to find Gemma, Helly and Mark are dashing down the corridor while the emergency sirens blare to alert security of their malfeasance.

Gemma is left stranded and confused about Mark’s choice, Milchick is flustered after losing control of MDR amid his big showstopping marching band number (meant to congratulate Mark on finishing the Cold Harbor file), Dylan is the sole MDR employee left in Lumon’s grasp after the others have run off (including Irving) and Cobel and Devon are somewhere on the outside waiting to hear how Mark’s plan to rescue Gemma unfolded.

The episode revealed that the mysterious Cold Harbor room was one in which yet another severed version of Gemma was tasked with taking apart a crib she and Mark had intended to use for their never-born baby as Jame Eagan watched on a video monitor, in order to confirm she had no emotional reaction to the event. While that question was answered, along with some others — we finally learned the goats are used as animal sacrifices — “Severance” viewers were left with so many more.

Here are the biggest burning questions we have at the end of “Severance” Season 2.

What is Helly and Mark’s plan?

The end of Season 2 places the characters (and the show) in an interesting conundrum. After helping save Gemma from Lumon, Innie Mark decides not to follow her outside the building (which would turn him back into Outie Mark), instead choosing to stay inside and go toward Helly. If he went with Gemma, his outie could reunite with his wife in the outside world. But Innie Mark knows that once he leaves Lumon, his outie will never return, meaning Outie Mark’s reunion with Gemma would result in Innie Mark’s nonexistence. Helly is in a similar predicament. If she were to leave, she’d snap back into Helena Eagan, who has no conceivable reason to return to the Severed Floor. So, Helly and Mark decide that life inside Lumon is better than no life at all. They don’t seem to have a plan as to where they’re going or how they’ll survive. After he sabotages the Cold Harbor mission, what will Lumon do with Mark? And won’t the Eagan family want to retrieve their heiress in waiting? It’s hard to imagine this love and adrenaline-filled fantasy won’t come crashing down quickly.

So, what does this mean for Gemma?

The final moments of the finale leave Gemma desperately banging on the outside of the Severed Floor door, as she watches the innie version of her husband run away with his innie love, Helly. She’s devastated and alone, but she is technically free. However, in order to actually get to safety, she has to find her way outside of the building and back home or to Devon’s. And even then, what’s to keep Lumon from finding her again?

Gemma also knows next to nothing about Innie Mark, and it’s possible she could recognize the woman he’s choosing over her as Helena, if she had ever crossed paths with her during her time at Lumon. Devon, and potentially Cobel, could be instrumental in helping Gemma get to safety and explaining her husband’s innie’s betrayal.

Will Mark fully reintegrate?

When Mark began the reintegration process with Reghabi at the end of this season’s third episode, it seemed like the show had crossed a major Rubicon. When the fourth episode flung the refiners into a deadly winter retreat, many viewers expected Mark’s innie and outie to be pretty much merged into one person. But the black-market surgical procedure turned out not to be so consequential (at least not yet). Aside from some scattered glimpses, and a long period of Outie Mark’s unconscious “journeying,” Mark Scout and Mark S. have yet to cross into each other’s worlds. That’s seen most starkly in the conversation between Mark’s innie and outie via camcorder at the birthing retreat center: Innie Mark and Outie Mark are two different people with opposing goals. (See: the final moments of Season 2.) Mark’s outie assures his innie that he will “finish the process” of reintegration once Gemma is free. “This life belongs to both of us,” he says. But he doesn’t mean it, and Innie Mark is smart enough to see through the bullshit. This begs the question, though: What more does Mark need to do to “finish the process”? Are there more surgical procedures? Can the reintegration work he already did be undone? If he were to go on with his life as is, would this merging never happen? Given that reintegration has never successfully been accomplished (remember Petey?), it’s likely that Mark himself doesn’t know the answers to these questions. It’s yet to be seen whether his (and the show’s) promise of reintegration will be fulfilled.

Why isn’t there more Lumon security on the Testing Floor?

One could argue that Sandra Bernhard’s nurse character barely attempted to prevent Mark from reaching Gemma by screaming “Fuck you!” and then running off. She did, understandably, have a gun pointed at her by a crazed outie. We know a lot was going on at the time of Mark’s infiltration, and Milchick was trapped in the bathroom, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of security patrolling the halls that house Lumon’s most valuable asset: Gemma. Is it hubris or a lack of resources that keeps Lumon from worrying too much about the security levels? Or is it something else?

How did Lumon kidnap Gemma and fake her death?

So, we don’t exactly know. Despite everything revealed in Episode 7 about Mark and Gemma’s past and how she ended up at Lumon – we don’t have a clear understanding of what happened the night of Gemma’s alleged car crash that left her “dead.” Outie Mark angily reminds Devon early in Season 2 that he identified Gemma’s body at the morgue, one of the main points that led him to believe there was no way she could be alive at Lumon. It appears Mark and Gemma were already being watched closely by Lumon before her kidnapping, as they went to a Lumon-run blood drive and fertility clinic. Plus, Gemma was interested in Lumon’s literature and, in one scene, reviewed cards that are made by Optics and Design. But how did Lumon cover-up her kidnapping and make it look like a fatal car crash?

Why did Lumon choose Mark and Gemma for this experience in the first place?

Speaking of which, why did they kidnap Gemma to begin with? Mark is just as important to Lumon’s experiment as Gemma (the files he “refines” help code her various severed identities), but what made them candidates for this trial in the first place? The two college professors first met at a Lumon-run blood drive — did Lumon orchestrate their relationship from the start?

Is Milchick a Lumon loyalist?

Based on how Milchick has been disciplined for using too many big words this season, it seems that he was raised by people who encouraged him to pursue knowledge — in other words, not the Eagans. As far as his loyalties go, he came off as ambitious and power-hungry in Season 1, but Season 2 began to complicate that image. When the Lumon board rewards him with a painting of Kier Eagan depicted as a Black man upon his promotion in Episode 3, he feels an uneasiness that he seems willing to move past except for the fact that Natalie, the board liaison, shuts down his attempt to discuss the weird gift in Episode 5 despite also being Black. Milchick seems increasingly unhappy at Lumon from that point forward, peaking when Mr. Drummond admonishes him for Mark’s absence from work and brings up his extensive vocabulary again, asking him to apologize three times for using the word “remonstration.” The first two times, Milchick complies, but the third time, he says, “Devour feculence. It means ‘eat shit,’ Mr. Drummond.”

Still, Milchick shows some level of loyalty to his job, imploring Mark to give him his word that he’ll show up the next day, and then fighting with all of his might in the finale to bust out of the bathroom in which Helly and Dylan have trapped him. He’s intent on stopping Mark from saving Gemma, even though he’s just been berated by an animatronic Kier in the elaborate performance that begins after Mark completes the Cold Harbor file. That said, his investment in helping the Cold Harbor plan go smoothly could still come from his careerism and personal aspirations, rather than genuine allegiance to Lumon and the Eagans.

Where does Ms. Cobel stand? Will she try to overthrow Lumon from the outside?

While remaining incredibly cryptic about Lumon’s broader purpose in experimenting with Gemma, Cobel gave Mark invaluable information about the inner workings of the company in order to help him rescue her. After all we’ve learned about Cobel’s role at Lumon (she was a child laborer at the company and later invented the severance technology, never getting credit for it), can we expect her to keep down the rebellious path? Or is there something Lumon could offer her to bring her back into the fold at this point?

What is the broader purpose of severance?

The existence of a severed birthing cabin, first mentioned in Season 1, may have the first big hint about Lumon’s overall mission. In the cabin, pregnant women who have undergone severance force their innies to give birth for them, allowing the outies to avoid the pain of the experience — though this process seems to be a luxury available only to the wealthy, as it was a senator’s wife whom Devon saw using the cabin.

Once Gemma’s Cold Harbor innie is created, Dr. Mauer marvels at the fact that she doesn’t emote as she takes apart a baby’s crib with a screwdriver. “The barrier is holding,” he says, meaning that the innie has no connection to Gemma’s experiences with infertility. Coupled with the contempt that the Eagans and other Lumon higher-ups have for the innies, it seems possible that Lumon’s larger goal is make billions of dollars by using severance to create a class of less-than-citizens who experience rich people’s traumas in 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 train ticket to an undetermined destination. It’s seen as an act of redemption for the former “Lumon goon,” as he helps his innie’s lover get to safety from the company, which is presumably going after Irving due to highly sensitive information he may have. Will Irving ever return to the town of Kier? Will we ever find out why he kept painting the Exports Hall, and whether he himself ever went down to the Testing Floor? Ben Stiller told Variety that Irving’s storyline is complete “for now,” but actor John Turturro has said he would not feel satisfied if this is the end for his character.

Where does this leave Dylan?

Poor Dylan. With Irving’s innie gone and Helly and Mark running the halls of the severed floor in the final moments of the finale, it’s hard to see where Dylan fits into the future of MDR. For now, he’s on his own after standing up to Milchick, and likely will remain that way for a while if Helly and Mark don’t come up with a quick plan for protecting themselves and their remaining co-worker. Meanwhile, we know Dylan’s true priority remains finding some way he could ever be with his outie’s wife, Gretchen.

What’s with the baby goats? How many were previously sacrificed, and for what?

The goats were first introduced in Season 1, when Mark and Helly happen upon one in a secret room on the Severed Floor. Cryptically, the man holding the goat tells them that it’s “not ready” and can’t be taken yet. But we get a closer look at the animals in Episode 3 of Season 2, when the search for Gemma/Ms. Casey leads Mark and Helly (who’s actually the undercover Helena) further into the goat room toward a strange and secluded department called Mammalians Nurturable, which has even more goats in it. The innies there have a vaguely medieval vibe to them, especially in the way that they speak, which calls into question whether they’re ever allowed to leave Lumon — Mark, Helly, Irving and Dylan’s innies all speak with more or less the same vernacular as their outies, and it’s hard to imagine anyone speaking like the Mammalians employees in the non-severed world.

At least one goat, brought by Mammalians head Lorne, is intended to be a sacrifice that will “guide” Gemma’s spirit to Kier upon her completion of the Cold Harbor test. Of course, as seen in the finale, Mark and Lorne beat up Mr. Drummond as he’s about to make Lorne shoot the goat in the head, freeing the animal — named Emile, as it turns out — right before Mark saves Gemma. It seems, though, that the goats are a way of controlling people and keeping them subsumed by the cult of the Eagans, similar to the child labor Cobel and perhaps Miss Huang have been subjected to. Before Mark helps Lorne save Emile, Lorne and her coworkers seem quite invested in the process of raising sacrificial animals, reacting badly when Mark and Helly first show up in their department looking to shake things up. Emile was apparently chosen as Gemma’s spirit guide for having more “wiles” and “verve” than the rest of the flock, implying that all the other goats were contenders for sacrifice too. Maybe Lumon manipulates the severed shepherds’ emotional ties to the goats to keep them loyal. But since Gemma appears to be one of Lumon’s most important test subjects in history, it’s hard to say how many goats have previously been killed to “guide” other spirits.

What’s next for Miss Huang?

In the penultimate episode of Season 2, Miss Huang graduates from the Severed Floor — perhaps prematurely. Milchick tells her that her “Wintertide Fellowship” is over, and sends her off with a creepy ritual: She must make a “material sacrifice” by bashing her ring toss game with a bust of Kier Eagan. Huang is off to better and brighter things. Her bed will be moved from her parents’ home to the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center in Svalbard, Norway, where she’ll “work to steward global reforms” — whatever that means. It’s unclear what the future holds for the young deputy manager, but consider what we know about Ms. Cobel: She was a child worker at a Lumon ether factory, then became a Wintertide Fellow before ascending to a managerial role. Might Miss Huang be on a similar path?