14 Questions We Need Severance to Answer in Season 3
The second season of Severance answered many of viewers’ most burning questions: We now know what Mark S. has been doing with those numbers in Macrodata Refinement for the past two years, and what was inside that 25th severed room that awaited Gemma, Cold Harbor. We know what the goats are used for, lived to see Dylan G.’s innie once more, and got more meme-able Milchick dance moves. But Season 2’s finale still ended on a cliffhanger—with Mark’s innie choosing Helly R. over escaping the Lumon offices with Gemma—leaving us with many pressing questions for the show’s next season.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Here’s what we’ll be thinking about between now and whenever Season 3 arrives.
Is getting out that door enough for Gemma to escape? Will Season 3 be about Gemma trying to save Mark now that she’s out and he’s still inside?
It’s hard to imagine that Lumon doesn’t have some security outside the severed floor given the sensitivity of their unethical experiments. But it would really stymie the momentum of this show if we find Gemma captured again at the beginning of Season 3.
Gemma would surely try to contact outie Mark as soon as he leaves the Lumon building, at which point he would have little incentive to go back inside the office of the company that faked his wife’s death and tortured her. So I think the question becomes: Will innie Mark ever leave the severed floor, knowing that his outie would likely never return, or will he try to camp out there with Helly? Can Lumon somehow use the conflict between innie Mark and outie Mark to their advantage? Will Lumon deploy every acolyte it has to track down Gemma in the outside world before she runs to the closest TV news station?—Eliana Dockterman
Was Lumon planning to just kill Gemma after Cold Harbor?
In addition to Ms. Cobel directly stating that innie Mark completing Cold Harbor would result in Gemma’s death, Mr. Drummond revealed prior to his own demise in the finale that the goat brought over by the Mammalians Nurturable department was intended to be sacrificed and entombed with Gemma in order to guide her spirit “to Kier’s door.” The goats seem to play a role in Lumon’s cultish roots. But that still doesn’t explain why Lumon would want to just kill Gemma off if she was the key to their biggest scientific advancement to date. Perhaps she was simply being used as a test subject in an attempt to to prove the Cold Harbor process could work and was otherwise considered a liability given how much she knew about Lumon’s inner workings.—M.M.
What does Lumon plan to do now that it has possibly perfected the severance process?
It’s not clear to me that Lumon has perfected the severance process. A severed Gemma deciding to follow a complete stranger covered in blood out of a room because he claims he is her husband would suggest she is experiencing some deep, unaltered sense of trust in that man. If she can recognize Mark on a subconscious level, Gemma is not truly severed.
Lumon’s ultimate goal seems to be allowing customers to sever themselves many, many times so that outies can spare themselves any unpleasant experience in their life—going to the dentist, flying on a turbulent airplane, giving birth, etc.—as well as the profoundly upsetting moments in a person’s psyche—taking apart the crib of the child you were never able to bring into the world. There are an infinite number of terrifying applications for this technology.
From a pure plot perspective, the show would be over if Lumon achieved its goal. They would have no reason to keep innie Mark or innie Helly alive, let alone all the other innies associated with Cold Harbor. But it isn’t Severance without severed characters. Lumon will probably need to allow innie Mark to continue to exist to complete its failed mission.—E.D.
Will Mark And Helly’s innies be terminated?
At this point, Mark and Helly seem like far more trouble than they are worth. Unless Mark must do more work on the Cold Harbor project—though it would appear his contribution is complete—the most logical next step for Lumon would be to drag Mark off the severed floor and banish him forever. They may well try to kill him because he knows too much, though Mark has enough connections in the outside world—his wife, his sister, every person who attended Ricken’s book party—that outright disposing of him would raise alarms.—E.D.
What’s the deal with reintegration?
It was an exciting moment this season when outie Mark made the decision to start reintegrating way back in Episode 3. But, seven episodes later, it doesn’t really seem like the process has progressed all that much. Innie and outie Mark are still clearly two completely different people with different hopes, fears, and goals. So was Reghabi doing it wrong? Or does reintegration just take a really long time? We want to know how the procedure actually works. And also how Mark has been running around the past few episodes with a giant hole in his head.—M.M.
How will reintegration impact the Mark-Gemma-Mark-Helly love quadrangle?
If innie Mark’s choice to stay with Helly rather than run away with Gemma in the finale assured the audience that Mark is, in fact, two people, then reintegration is going to wreak havoc on Mark’s love life. As his brain becomes whole again and memories from each half of his bifurcated life return, will he become one man in love with two women? Or will his memories of a full life with Gemma overwhelm his relatively brief, if intense, experience with Helly?—E.D.
What does Jame want with Helly?
Before all the Cold Harbor madness got underway, we got a little more insight into Lumon CEO Jame Eagan’s perturbing relationship with his daughter Helena—and by extension, her innie Helly. While paying Helly a visit on the severed floor, Jame revealed that he not only doesn’t love Helena, but he also no longer “sees Kier” in her. However, he apparently does see Kier in Helly. Does that mean he’s going to try to turn Helly into the main version of Helena? Is Helena going to be subjected to what’s been done to Gemma for that to happen? Or is Lumon going to try to manipulate Helly into doing what they want by other means? If we know anything about Helly, it’s that she’s not one to be easily pushed around—unless, perhaps, she’s called to do something to protect the man she loves.—M.M.
What is Ms. Cobel’s endgame?
Despite getting a bunch of new information about Harmony Cobel’s traumatic upbringing in Episode 8, we still don’t really know what she ultimately wants to happen. We know she was the one who really invented the severance procedure and, at this point in time, seems to have turned against Lumon. In her own way, she also seems to genuinely care about Mark. But if her life’s work has been severance, where does she go from here?—M.M.
What was going on with Milchick in the bathroom…and this whole season, for that matter?
Tramell Tillman was the breakout actor of Season 1, and I got the impression the creators didn’t really know what to do with his character in Season 2 besides wrapping him up in Lumon red tape. He had a few interesting moments, like when he was given the racist paintings and when he tried to establish a mutual understanding with Natalie about the bizarre gift. (Also that time he told Mr. Drummond to “eat sh-t.”) But otherwise he’s largely left to chase, and never quite catch, Mark. There’s clearly a lot of tension between Mr. Milchick and the Eagans, as demonstrated in the final episode by his decision to spar with an animatronic Kier. But what are we supposed to take away from his moment in the bathroom—did he decide to double down on the Lumon cult, using this unmatched opportunity to prove his loyalty? Is he doubting his position? I couldn’t figure it out.—E.D.
How do Devon and Ricken fit into all this?
There are a lot of theories out there about Devon potentially being evil—seems unlikely—and Ricken potentially being connected to the Lumon goats—somehow, seems less unlikely. But this episode certainly didn’t give us much on either of those fronts. Judging by the finale, Devon just appears to be a concerned, if somewhat naive, sister who’s trying to look out for Mark. Ricken, on the other hand, is still in the process of writing a book that will function, for all intents and purposes, as straight Lumon propaganda. If anything, Devon and Ricken seem like they’ll probably need to catch each other up on what’s been happening and get on the same page at some point if they want their marriage to remain functional.—M.M.
What happened to all the goat people to make them that way?
Why, in the name of Kier, would Lumon program these innies to care so deeply about baby goats that they would inevitably be required to sacrifice? Doesn’t that seem like an obvious way to breed resentment and, ahem, rebellion? Especially when you then hand one of those resentful people a gun? Lumon is making a lot of risky choices here. But, yes, we would love more information on what the heck is going on with these feral goat herders.—E.D.
Will we ever see Ms. Huang again?
One of the stranger—and more disturbing—revelations of this season was the fact that a child was working on the severed floor of Lumon. Who was she? Why was she there? Who are her parents? We still don’t know! Obviously, the writers were taking aim at issues like child labor and unpaid internships for young folks, but in a very literal sense, Miss Huang seemed like a distraction for Reddit theorizers rather than a real character. Perhaps she was just there to help viewers empathize with Miss Cobel, whose backstory as a child indoctrinated in the ways of Kier is not dissimilar to Miss Huang’s. Practically speaking, given how long of a gap there was between Season 1 and Season 2, it’s hard to imagine we’ll see Miss Huang in Season 3 unless there is a major time jump. She’ll simply age too much.—E.D.
What’s going to happen to Dylan?
Although outie Dylan wasn’t too happy about the whole getting cheated on by his wife with his innie situation, in his response to innie Dylan’s resignation request, he was begrudgingly able to admit that he respected his innie’s confidence and initiative. Innie Dylan then proceeded to quickly prove he was in fact a “self-assured badass” by jumping into the fray with Helly to keep Mr. Milchick locked in the bathroom while Mark went on his rescue mission. The last we saw of Dylan in the finale was him joining forces with the Choreography and Merriment department in what looked like it was about to be a full-on revolt against Milchick’s tenure of the severed floor. Innie Dylan seems locked back in to helping his MDR pals by any means necessary. But we have to imagine Lumon won’t be too keen on keeping any employees around who helped incite a rebellion.—M.M.
Will Irving come back?
We didn’t see or hear any more about Irving this week after he boarded a train heading out of Kier at Burt’s insistence in Episode 9. But does that mean he’s gone for good? Personally, we’re still somehow hoping for all of our favorite MDR innies to be reunited at some point. And to find out what outie Irv’s whole deal was.—M.M.