As fans of the Apple TV sci-fi thriller Severance, we’ve been holding our collective breath for nearly three years since the thrilling finale of Season 1. Our patience will soon be rewarded on Friday, January 17, when Season 2 returns with the first of 10 new weekly episodes culminating in a season finale on March 21.
On the cutting floor of Lumon Industries, the employees of the Macrodata Refinery team confront the brain chips that have forever separated their work personalities from the rest of their lives. The first season of Severance featured thrilling twists, juicy melon bars, a musical dance experience, a wildly revealing waffle party, and a barrage of questions.
CNET spoke with series star Adam Scott, director and executive producer Ben Stiller, and series creator and showrunner Dan Erickson during the series’ official Zoom press day. Our conversation gave us further insight into what may be next for the MDR crew. Below, we’ve compiled five of our most burning questions about Season 2.
It may go without saying, but stop reading now if you haven’t caught season 1 of Severance. Major spoilers are below.
Read more: Apple TV Plus review: Small library, but the quality is top notch
Why did the Macrodata Refinery team decide to break away?
Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, John Turturro and Adam Scott return to Lumon Industries in Season 2 of Severance, coming to Apple TV Plus on January 17.
We know Mark (Scott) chose to split because he was grieving the loss of his wife and Helly (Britt Lower) joined because of her family connection to Lumo, but what about Irving (John Turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry )?
We’ve seen very little of Dylan’s life, but we do know that he lives with his three children and they seem to have a good relationship. Irving is obsessed with the elevator to the test floor and lives a closed life with a dog named Radar.
When Severance first appeared, audiences were left wondering what it would take to disconnect their minds if such technology really existed. What kind of trauma or toxic life situation would motivate such a choice?
Each character surely has their own heartbreaking story behind their decision to split up, and it’s almost certain that we’ll get the answer to that question in Season 2.
Is Gemma really alive?
Dichen Lachman plays as Mrs. Casey on Severance Season 1 on Apple TV Plus.
One of the biggest revelations of season 1 came at the end of episode 7, Defiant Jazz, when we learn that Mrs. Casey—Lumon’s health director—looks exactly like Gemma (Dichen Lachman), Outie Mark’s wife, whom he the whole outside world believes that he died in a car accident.
How the hell did Lumon pull that off? Was dead Gemma a fake or similar? Is Lumon in the practice of cloning people?
Cast members debunked the latter theory in the aforementioned YouTube video, but it’s clear that Ms. Casey (whose innie has only been alive for 108 hours) is very different from the other detached workers.
One fan theory suggests that Gemma is in a coma from the car accident and her innie version is only able to wake up occasionally. But she shows no physical indications of a serious accident.
The real truth of Gemma/Ms. Casey seems like one of the biggest writing challenges for the show. That mystery is sure to be addressed in season 2. According to Scott, it’s a plot point that drives his character’s story this season and provokes a fight between Mark’s two selves.
“He feels like he has to help his date and get Gemma out the door somehow,” the actor said. “But is that where his emotional connections and his emotional interests are? The really interesting thing about Innie and Outie Mark this season is how intertwined their interests are. At what point will they either come together or drift apart? beyond?”
Why is Harmony Cobel so obsessed with Lumon Industries?
Patricia Arquette plays Harmony Cobel in Season 1 of Severance.
As manager of Lumon’s cutting floor, Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) takes her job extremely seriously. It is cult-like in its devotion to Lumon founder Kier Eagan and nine core principles. The basement of her home includes a shrine to Kier and personal items from her mother, Charlotte.
The harmony is unbroken, as Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) and Doug Graner. Still, unlike those two, she maintains a distinct persona in the outside world — Mark’s neighbor, “Mrs. Selvig,” who makes cruel lavender cookies and constantly screws up Mark’s recycling and trash cans.
One of the main themes of the show’s first season is Harmony’s conflict with the Lumon board over “reintegration,” the controversial practice of merging workers’ personalities after brain chip removal. The board insists that reintegration is impossible, while Harmony has first-hand evidence that Petey Kilmer reached out to her (before killing her).
After keeping Helly’s suicide attempt a secret, the board fires Harmony, who responds by trashing her basement and collapsing in despair at her shrine, which we now see holding a ventilator tube and a medical bracelet that reads “Charlotte Cobel” with a date of birth. on March 17, 1944.
Harmony and Mrs. Selvig dress in a way that covers their necks, which are never seen. Could Harmony be Charlotte, who has scars from a tracheotomy or other neck surgery? Does she have a personal investment in reintegration?
Cobel is really an interesting character. There must be much more to her story. We have a few more unresolved questions we’ve been mulling over: Is Harmony harboring a historical grudge and playing the long game to avenge a mother or sister? Could Lumon be experimenting with life-extending technologies? And does Harmony speak so strangely because she’s actually the reincarnation of Kier Eagan’s wife Imogene?!
We could go on, but you get the point. Questions about Harmony Cobel abound, and it’s almost certain that we’ll learn a lot more of her story in Season 2.
Why is Irving painting that hallway and elevator?
John Turturro as Irving in Season 1 of Severance.
When we see Outie Irving, we learn that he likes to listen to Motorhead and constantly greases the elevator up to Lumon’s test floor. Dominated by thick black, these paintings fill Outie Irving’s house and explain why Innie Irving’s nails are full of dark bumps.
But what is Innie Irving’s connection with that deserted corridor and elevator? Has he been on the test floor or lost someone to him? We never see him in that elevator area in Lumon. In fact, the only person we see using that elevator is Mrs. Casey.
A fan theory claims that Innie Irving has visited the test floor and been “reset” by Lumon several times, which may explain why he says he’s been there three years, but his badge says nine.
Irving’s John Turturro has personally “demonized” this theory in a Severance cast promo video. Perhaps Innie Irving’s trauma from the test floor has seeped into his outward persona. Or is Outie Irving trying to send a message through his subconscious to Innie Irving?
How sociopath is Helena Eagan anyway?
Britt Lower portrays Helly R. and Helena Eagan on the show Severance on Apple TV Plus.
As her season 1 story arc made clear, Helly wanted nothing to do with Lumo. In fact, she threatened self-harm to escape. Things did not go her way. In one of Season 1’s most brutal scenes, Outie Helly sends a video message to Innie Helly, saying, “I’m a person. You’re not. I make the decisions.”
During the season finale, we discover that Outie Helly is Helena Eagan, the daughter of current Lumon Industries CEO Jame Eagan, and has undergone severance as a PR campaign to ensure the practice of severance remains legal. During our Zoom chat with Erickson, it was teased that maybe Outie Helly drank too much of the Lumon Kool-Aid.
“The Innies feel closer to the true, authentic version of themselves for each of the characters, in part, because they wake up as a small empty plane,” Erickson said. “In a way, she [Helly] represents a truer version of that person than what her appearance might be.”
Tramell Tillman plays Mr. Milchick in Season 2 of Severance.
Instead of just focusing on things inside Lumon, which is how Season 1 mostly played out, it looks like Severance Season 2 will expand its scope and explore the homes and personal lives of the MDR outs. According to Erickson, things are about to get darker and scarier.
This begs the question: Now that the inies have seen a part of the outside world, what kind of consequences are on the horizon? “There is no victory without procrastination and pain,” Erickson teased.
“We wanted to see what would happen to the characters after they hit some kind of bear,” he added. “What happens when the bear turns back?”
