Innies vs. outies, Choreography and Merriment, and Cold Harbor: ‘Severance’ Season 2 finale explained
Warning: This post contains spoilers about Severance Season 2.
Severance, Apple TV+’s hit sci-fi thriller, ended its second season Thursday night with a tense finale that answered one of the show’s biggest questions — what exactly is Cold Harbor? — and found innie Mark S. choosing his autonomy over sacrificing himself for Mark Scout. (For this article, we will refer to innie Mark as Mark S. and outie Mark as Mark. They are both played by Adam Scott.) Here’s what happened in the Severance Season 2 finale, “Cold Harbor,” and some speculation about what might happen going into Season 3.
The truth about Cold Harbor
“Cold Harbor” picks up where “The After Hours” left off, with Mark S., Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), and Devon Scout-Hale (Jenn Tullock) meeting in a severed room at the birthing center to discuss getting Gemma (Dichen Lachman) out of Lumon before the company kills her because her use to them is finished. The plan is for Mark S. to finish the Cold Harbor project file and rush down to the Testing Floor where Gemma is being held, where Mark will save her. Then, they will return to the Severed Floor, where Mark S. will guide her to the exit. The stakes of this mission are very high. “If we can prove that they f--king kidnapped her, it will end them,” Devon says. But Mark S. is concerned that the innies will cease to exist if Lumon is shut down, and he’s insulted by the request that he should sacrifice his life and the lives of all the innies on the Severed Floor for Gemma. This kicks off a lengthy (and brilliantly acted and filmed) negotiation between the Marks conducted via video messages where Mark tries to persuade Mark S. that they will share a consciousness on the outside when they “reintegrate.” Mark fails when he mistakenly refers to Helly R. (Britt Lower), whom Mark S. loves, as “Helanie,” which angers Mark S. Mark S. accuses Mark of being a selfish liar who doesn’t care about him.
“We are in this together,” Mark says inaccurately. It’s now fully clear that Mark and Mark S. have different goals. “Can’t you just trust me?”
“No,” Mark S. replies. And he can’t. There’s no proof that what Mark is saying about reintegration is true. So Harmony asks to speak with Mark S. privately and tells him the truth about Cold Harbor. The numbers he’s processing in Macrodata Refinement are the building blocks of Gemma’s mind to create new severed identities. His job is to identify the “four tempers” proposed by Lumon founder Kier Eagan — woe, frolic, malice, and dread — and process them into a new consciousness for Gemma. She’s been split into 24 different consciousnesses, each testing a different element of the severance process for Lumon scientists to study. Cold Harbor is the 25th and last one, which Mark S. is scheduled to complete the next day. “Tomorrow is your final day at Lumon,” Harmony says. “You will have served your purpose, and so will she.” She seems to refer to both Gemma and Helly. So, Mark S.’s only chance at survival is to try to reintegrate.
The escape
After leaving the birthing center, Mark S. returns to Lumon for his final day. Mark S. and Helly have a quiet moment where Helly says that if Mark S. reintegrates, at least he’ll have a chance of living, the implication being that she knows she will not survive because her outie is Helena Eagan, heir to Lumon, who is too powerful to allow Helly to live. “But I want to live with you,” he says. “But I’m her, Mark,” she says. “I’m her.” There’s no future for Helly R. Or is there? More on that later.
As Mark finishes Cold Harbor, Helly slips him Irving’s (John Turturro) written directions to the Testing Floor. After a weirdly standoffish back and forth between Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) and a possibly sentient animatronic Kier Eagan while they introduce the Choreography and Merriment department, a marching band that enters the room to celebrate Cold Harbor’s completion. In the hubbub, Helly steals Milchick’s walkie-talkie and runs into the bathroom, allowing Mark to get to the Testing Floor. Dylan (Zach Cherry), whose outie left his resignation request up to his innie, arrives and helps Helly trap Milchick in the bathroom. She gives a speech convincing C&M to help her keep Milchick trapped. “If he gets out, we’re dead,” she says, referring to the MDR team. “They’re gonna turn us off like f--king machines.” And oblivion could happen to any severed employee. “They give us half a life and think we won’t fight for it,” she says. She’s become a rebel leader.
As Mark S. runs through the labyrinthine hallways, Gemma prepares to enter the Cold Harbor testing room, and menacing Lumon executive Mr. Drummond (Darri Olafsson) comes down to meet Lorne (Gwendoline Christie) in what turns out to be a ceremonial goat sacrificing room.
Cold Harbor is a particularly sadistic test. Gemma is disassembling a crib so Lumon can see if this innie has any buried or sense memory of Gemma’s pain from having a miscarriage, which seems to be what brought her to Lumon in the first place.
As Drummond and Cecily prepare to sacrifice the goat, which “will be entombed with a cherished woman, whose spirit it must guide to Kier’s door,” they hear Mark S. trying to break down a door across the hall. Mark S. and Drummond fight. As Drummond is choking Mark S. out, Lorne stops Drummond and demands “no more killing.” They fight, and she overpowers him. The goat's life is saved, prompting Lorne to deliver the instantly meme-able line to a perplexed Mark S., "Emile thanks you ... Emile is the name of the goat." Then, Mark S. takes Drummond hostage as they go down to the Testing Floor, pressing a captive bolt pistol into Drummond’s neck. As Mark S. changes into Mark in the elevator, he inadvertently pulls the trigger, killing Drummond.
He finds Cold Harbor, bypassing the room’s blood test bio-scan by using Drummond’s blood on his tie. Mark persuades innie Gemma to leave the room with him, and she turns back into herself in the hallway, reuniting Mark and Gemma for the first time since she “died.” They have a moment of tearful embrace, then must try to escape the building before Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson) and Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry) catch them. They enter an elevator to the Severed Floor, turning back into Mark S. and Ms. Casey. They reach the exit door, and Ms. Casey goes through and turns back into Gemma. She pleads with Mark S. to come through and escape with her, but he doesn’t do it. Helly arrives at the end of the hallway, and Mark S. turns away from Gemma and walks back to Helly. He chooses his own life, whatever it may be, over Mark Scout’s.
As Helly and Mark S. run through the halls hand-in-hand, they at first look exhilarated, but then the season ends on a freeze frame, where they look frightened and uncertain. It’s a Graduate ending, where they choose love, and then the reality of what that means and how much more complicated things will get sinks in for them.
This being Severance, though, while the finale answers some critical questions, it sets up many more. Here are 10 lingering head-scratchers for Season 3.