‘Severance’ Season 2: 5 Thoughts-Bending Questions We Want Answered ASAP

Severance, Apple’s twisty sci-fi thriller, is again. With two episodes down and eight remaining (the season finale will hit the streamer on March 21), expectations are by means of the roof that the sequence can nonetheless ship the products. To this point, it has — even when we’re nonetheless questioning every part.

The primary season of the Apple TV Plus drama ended with a wallop of a cliffhanger, which has left the web abuzz about every part from impromptu musical dance numbers to child goats. (What is the take care of the newborn goats??) This thriller field wants some unwrapping, so — within the identify of Kier Eagan — CNET ventured to do exactly that.

Throughout the present’s official press day in December, I spoke with sequence star Adam Scott, director and government producer Ben Stiller, and sequence creator and showrunner Dan Erickson over Zoom. Their solutions hinted at what’s to return within the the rest of season 2. 

Spoiler warning: cease studying if you happen to’re not caught up on Severance season 1. Main spoilers are beneath.
Learn extra: Apple TV Plus Assessment: Small Library however the High quality Is Prime Notch

Why did the Macrodata Refinery workforce resolve to get severed?

We all know that Mark (Scott) selected severance as a result of he was grieving the lack of his spouse, and Helly (Britt Decrease) joined due to her household reference to Lumon, however what about Irving (John Turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry)? 

We have seen little or no of Dylan’s life, however we all know he lives together with his three children, they usually appear to have a good relationship. Irving is obsessive about the elevator to the testing ground and lives a cloistered life with a canine named Radar.

When Severance first premiered, audiences have been left questioning what it might take to sever their very own minds if such a expertise existed. What kind of trauma or poisonous dwelling scenario would inspire such a alternative? 

Every character absolutely has their very own heartbreaking story behind their determination to be severed, and it is nearly sure that we’ll get solutions to this query in season 2.

Is Gemma actually alive? 

One of many largest reveals of season 1 got here on the finish of episode 7, Defiant Jazz, after we be taught that Ms. Casey — Lumon’s wellness director — seems to be precisely like Outie Mark’s spouse Gemma (Dichen Lachman), whom everybody on the skin world believes died in a automobile crash.

How on earth did Lumon pull that one off? Was lifeless Gemma a faux or a lookalike? Is Lumon within the follow of cloning people?

Forged members debunked that final idea within the aforementioned YouTube video, but it surely’s clear that Ms. Casey (whose innie has solely been alive for 108 hours) is far completely different from the opposite severed staff. 

One fan idea means that Gemma is in a coma from the automobile accident and her innie model is just capable of awaken often. However she reveals no bodily indications of a severe accident. 

The the Gemma/Ms. Casey thriller — and the concepts it has sparked — looks as if one of many largest writing challenges for the present. This thriller will most definitely be addressed in season 2. In accordance with Scott, it is a plot level that fuels his character’s storyline this season and provokes a wrestle between Mark’s two selves. 

“He looks like he has to assist his outie and get Gemma in some way out the door,” the actor mentioned. “However is that the place his emotional ties and his emotional pursuits are? The actually fascinating factor in regards to the Innie and the Outie Mark this season is how aligned their pursuits are. At what level are they both going to return collectively or transfer additional aside?”

Why is Concord Cobel so obsessive about Lumon Industries?

Because the supervisor of Lumon’s severed ground, Concord Cobel (Patricia Arquette) takes her job extraordinarily severely. She is cult-like in her devotion to Lumon’s founder, Kier Eagan, and the 9 core ideas. Her residence basement features a shrine to Kier and private artifacts from her mom, Charlotte. 

Concord is unsevered, like Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) and Doug Graner. Nonetheless, in contrast to the 2 of them, she maintains a separate persona within the outdoors world — Mark’s neighbor, “Mrs. Selvig,” who makes atrocious lavender cookies and consistently screws up Mark’s recycling and trash bins.

One of many working themes of the present’s first season is Concord’s battle with the Lumon board about “reintegration,” the controversial follow of fusing staff’ personalities again collectively after eradicating the mind chip. The board insists reintegration is unattainable, whereas Concord has firsthand proof that Petey Kilmer achieved it (earlier than it killed him).

After maintaining Helly’s suicide try a secret, the board fires Concord, who responds by trashing her basement and collapsing in dejection at her shrine, which we now see holds a ventilator tube and a medical bracelet that reads, “Charlotte Cobel” with a start date of March 17, 1944.

Concord and Mrs. Selvig costume in a approach that covers their necks, that are by no means seen. Might Concord be Charlotte, who has scars from a tracheotomy or different neck surgical procedure? Does she have a private funding in reintegration? 

We might go on, however you get the purpose. The questions surrounding Concord Cobel abound, and it is nearly sure that we’ll be taught far more of her backstory in season 2.

Why is Irving portray that hallway and elevator?

Once we see Outie Irving, we be taught he likes to take heed to Motorhead and repeatedly paints the elevator right down to Lumon’s testing ground. Dominated by thick black, these work fill Outie Irving’s residence and clarify why Innie Irving’s nails are stuffed with darkish gunk.

However what’s Innie Irving’s connection to that desolate hallway and elevator? Has he been to the testing ground or misplaced somebody to it? We by no means see him in that elevator space at Lumon. Actually, the one particular person we do see utilizing that elevator is Ms. Casey.

One fan idea claims Innie Irving has visited the testing ground and been “reset” by Lumon a number of instances, which might clarify why he says he is been there three years, however his badge signifies 9. 

Irving’s John Turturro has personally “debunked” that idea in a Severance solid promo video. Maybe Innie Irving’s trauma from the testing ground has leaked into his outdoors persona. Or is Outie Irving making an attempt to ship a message by means of his unconscious to Innie Irving?

How a lot of a sociopath is Helena Eagan, anyway?

As her story arc in season 1 made clear, Helly wished nothing to do with Lumon. Actually, she threatened self-harm to flee. Issues did not go her approach. In one of many extra brutal scenes of season 1, Outie Helly sends a video message to Innie Helly, saying, “I’m an individual. You aren’t. I make the choices.”

Throughout the season finale, we uncover that Outie Helly is Helena Eagan, the daughter of present Lumon Industries CEO Jame Eagan, and has undergone severance as a PR marketing campaign to make sure the severing follow stays authorized. Throughout our Zoom chat with Erickson, it was teased that possibly Outie Helly has drunk an excessive amount of of the Lumon Kool-Assist. 

“The Innies really feel nearer to the true, genuine model of the self for every of the characters, partially, as a result of they get up as a little bit little bit of a clean slate,” Erickson mentioned. “In a approach, she [Helly] represents a more true model of that particular person than her outie most likely would.”

As a substitute of solely specializing in the stuff inside Lumon, which is how season 1 principally performed out, it feels like Severance season 2 will broaden its scope and discover the properties and private lives of the MDR outies. 

As for the innies, they’re going to be grappling with a collective identification disaster. 

“How divided they’re can also be a query,” Stiller mentioned. “How a lot does this severance barrier actually divide their feelings, their emotions and their wishes? If you see an innie that is a lot extra harmless than the outie, the concept for me generally is of your childhood self, your internal little one.”

Contemplating that our MDR heroes function with a childlike mindset, their journey can really feel far more precarious. In accordance with Erickson, it can all get darker and scarier.

Now that the innies have seen a chunk of the skin world, what kind of repercussions are on the horizon? “There isn’t a victory with out pushback and with out ache,” Erickson teased. 

“We wished to see what would occur to the characters as soon as that they had form of poked the bear,” he added. “What occurs when the bear pokes again?”