Severance season two is almost upon us after a three (!) year wait. The sci-fi hit is in our best Apple TV Plus shows list for a reason, and after that nail-biting finale, there’s plenty we want answered. Though billed as a sci-fi thriller, there is plenty of mystery and it’s kept fans, including myself, busy speculating during the agonizing wait between seasons.
Honestly, it’s been a very long time since a TV series has had me as gripped as Severance, which is a real testament to the quality of Apple TV Plus Originals (there’s a reason we named it one of our best streaming services). Apple’s Original programming may not have been featured in the company’s latest Apple Glowtime event, but I’m still keen to chat about one of the best shows in recent years.
While we count down the days until its January release, here are five burning questions I have for the series, as the first season alone has set up plenty of head-scratching scenarios. Don’t leave us hanging, Apple.
Full spoilers follow for Severance.
What is Macrodata Refinement doing?
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Let’s be real, I want to know what the entire company is up to. Lumon Industries is perhaps one of the most intriguing fictional companies I’ve seen, but since we spend most of our time with Mark and the other MDR employees, starting here would be great.
Recently, I found a very compelling theory on Reddit that suggests that they’re actually trying to build an AI version of Kier Eagan as a way of resurrecting him. Here’s just a bit of this very comprehensive theory that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I read it:
“Kier believed all people to be derived from the Four Tempers. His data would therefore be derived of the Four Tempers. Therefore, refiners must bin (separate) the numbers (code) underlying the Kier AI into the Four Tempers… Employees are severed so they do not inject their own personalities selves into Eagan.”
Mind blown, right?
What they do at Lumon, and why severance is a requirement from r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus
What’s up with Harmony Cobel?
Patricia Arquette consistently delivers a compelling performance and her role as Harmony Cobel aka Mrs. Selvig is no exception. When we first met Mark’s boss, and one of the senior members of Lumon, she was cold, mysterious, and focused on results. Since then, she’s had a bit of a breakdown after being fired from Lumon, and she is definitely one of the characters I want to know more about.
She’s very close (literally) to Mark in particular, living next door to him and pretending to be his neighbor, with his outie having no idea she’s his boss. Not only that but she’s gotten close to Mark’s sister and new baby too. Why is she so vigilant of Mark in particular, and not the others? We know she graduated from Myrtle Eagan’s School for Girls, thanks to one Redditor sharing close-ups of her altar, which features little clues about Harmony’s past, but little else is known about her. Interestingly, she is one of the few unsevered employees at Lumon, able to retain her memories both in and out of the company.
With plenty left unanswered, Harmony is a character I will be keeping a close eye on during the season two premiere.
Altar’s closeups: Harmony, the daughter of Charlotte Cobel, graduated from Myrtle Eagan school for girls. from r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus
How does Helly’s outie actually feel about the severance procedure?
As we saw in the gripping season one finale, Helly’s outie is actually Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan. When Helly was briefly woken up thanks to the override procedure, she finds herself at a gala where she is celebrating severance and appears to be a case study. While we don’t know much about Helena, she did deliver a very cold resignation rejection to Helly, telling her “she was a person, and Helly was not”. But perhaps she has merely been conditioned to behave this way, after all, her dad is the CEO of the place.
There’s an interesting Reddit theory to support this one too. People seem to believe that Helena Eagan is actually very lonely, perhaps sheltered, and we do see her reciting a lot of rehearsed lines like “We’re all Kier’s children”. If Helena secretly doesn’t agree with severance and/or wants to rebel against her father, this could be an excellent catalyst to provide the downfall of Lumon, which, honestly, we all want to see.
Helly’s outie is lonely and has no friends whatsoever: A THEORY from r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus
Did Burt and Irving connect on the outside?
I still haven’t quite forgiven Severance for the Burt and Irving heartbreak. John Turturro and Christopher Walken are glorious in these roles as two men from different departments, who connect and begin to fall in love, only to be ripped away from each other when Burt’s outie retires. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lumon forced him to do it, considering any sort of office romance is forbidden, and inter-departmental socializing seems to be a gray area too. For the most part, everyone just stays in their lane until home time. Even then, exits are staggered so they don’t accidentally meet each other. It’s all very cruel.
Burt’s retirement did seem to give the once bootlicking Irving a spine though, when he lashes out at Milchick and concludes he wants to “burn the place to the ground” (go Irving!). In equally heartbreaking scenes, he’s seen knocking on the door of Burt’s home in the outside world, but we don’t know what happened before the override was disengaged. Did they get a chance to speak? Will they? Justice for Burt and Irving!
Will Dylan find out more about his family?
While I have a whole host of other questions (like Ms. Casey… hello what’s going on there?!) it’s Dylan that’s really breaking my heart. Much like Irving and his Burt heartbreak, he does go through a complete personality shift when he accidentally learns he has a son. This has caused his innie to go into an existential crisis, and the once comic relief character who was obsessed with winning things and cracking jokes is now a shell of his former self. It’s one of the many, many ways Lumon can break a person.
Milchick has weaponized Dylan’s family too, even going as far as to tell him he has two others to try and make him shut off the override procedure to stop Mark, Irving, and Helly from running riot. This isn’t something Dylan is going to forget, and he is now on a crusade to find out more about his outie and his family. Whether or not Milchick is being honest or if he’s just trying to manipulate Dylan is another matter entirely.
