If you haven’t seen Severance already, it is almost guaranteed that you’ve heard about it through some sort of cryptic TikTok, or maybe you’ve seen the compelling pop-up promotion in the middle of New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. Regardless, the Apple TV Plus show, which first premiered in February 2022, is quickly making its way to the top, with millions of viewers drawn in by its intensely engaging narrative and lovable characters.
However, this show is not one that you can throw on in the background while folding your laundry or doing homework. A huge part of the appeal of the show is its uncertainty and the multitude of empty conclusions that leave viewers to form their own perceptions of the plot. This season especially prevails as a very non-coincidental and detail-oriented narrative, which has set off an influx of intriguing fan theories about the true intentions of Lumon — the severed company which the characters work for — the world-building of the town in which they reside, and the true roles of the characters. Today I will dive into some of the most prevailing and supported fan theories as we wait for the season finale to air! SPOILERS AHEAD!
- LUMON’S RELATION TO THE outer-world
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The world-building in the entirety of Severance so far has been overall pretty bleak. Of course, we have been able to see a lot of Lumon and its inner workings, and some of the external world through the “outies” lives, but there is nothing definitive about the world outside of the office. This lack of detail has sparked many fans of Severance to conclude that the entire world is Lumon, or controlled by it in some way. It has been made clear that ‘Severance’ is not taking place in our current world, as the Lumon introduction video tells viewers that the company has branches in all 206 countries around the world, but our current world only has 195 countries. A similar detail reveals that the Lumon branch is located in a state abbreviated as “PE,” despite there being no U.S. state abbreviated this way.
So what exactly does this mean? Unfortunately, along with everything else in the show, we don’t know quite yet. But like I’ve said, the fan theories provide us with some well-supported projections. With the evidence that the world of Severance is different from our own, we can conclude that there is still a concept of power and the dynamic that plays out in regard to Lumon and its workers.
One of the most evident theories is that Lumon is in control of the water in the town that the characters live in. Aside from the Lumon logo being a literal drop of water, there are recurring themes of water throughout the show, including the file names that Macrodata Refinement (MDR) sorts through, which are named after different water sources throughout the real world. Fans conclude that before he died, Keir Eagan was actively seeking out the control of water in order to gain eventual control of the people, noting that water is fairly easy to contaminate, which could lead to further medical procedures or some type of brainwashing to occur among the people of the town.
- Kier’s four tempers
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Woe, frolic, dread, and malice. These are the sorting bins at the bottom of Mark’s MDR computer screen, and they are also Kier Eagan’s four tempers, as mentioned in season one. Many of the fans have caught onto these tempers and have been able to connect them with some of the characters. For example, a lot of the early depictions of the four MDR employees resemble these tempers. Helly R. was representative of sadness and distress in her early days, as she struggled to leave the office repeatedly claiming she did not want to be there. Mark S. represented frolic, as he was encouraging Helly to stay by being joyful and outwardly kind towards her, with a happy-go-lucky attitude toward the company. Dread was shown early on in Irving B’s character, as he would frequently enter trance-like episodes in which his desk would be engulfed in black ink, and would typically end by him yelling in fear. Lastly, Dylan G. has come to represent malice, as he grew increasingly furious and violent towards Lumon and their policies.
So what does this have to do with the bigger picture? Well, once again, I’m not completely sure, but I do think this detail may be one of the most straightforward parts of the show so far. It is assumable that the tempers are emotions that, in Kier’s eye, need to be tamed or removed in order to be able to serve his philosophy, as said by Cobel, “tame in me the tempers four, that I may serve thee evermore.” These tempers also likely have something to do with the MDR and their number sorting, as each number is said to inflict one of these four emotions.
Beyond this, there isn’t a whole lot to prove what the number sorting means in the grand scheme of everything, but many fans suspect it likely has something to do with Gemma. We see her going in and out of rooms, experiencing different emotions in each, and maybe the work being done in MDR is directly translating to her feelings in each of the rooms. As one of the first concepts viewers are introduced to in the show, I think MDR will inevitably have a huge effect on the trajectory of the show.
- is gemma actually real?
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This speculation is something that has existed among fans throughout the second half of season 2 but was definitely catalyzed after episode nine, “The After Hours,” which likely has a direct correlation to the 1960s show The Twilight Zone, which shares an identical episode title. Upon Severance fans tuning into the episode of The Twilight Zone, many were surprised to find out that it follows the story of Marsha White, a seemingly ordinary woman who ended up being an animated mannequin without realizing it. A lot of the fans concluded similarities between Marsha and Gemma, insinuating a number of theories including the idea that Gemma may not even be human, she may be a resurrected version of herself, or that she severed twice, once as Miss Casey and once as Gemma without knowing.
This would bring a new level to Mark and Gemma’s completely heartbreaking narrative and may flush away the idea that their relationship will never go back to normal. Their relationship also could be the “key” to Cold Harbor, and there is definitely more to uncover which will hopefully be addressed in the finale. Although, knowing the writers, I’m sure we’ll be left on a cliffhanger for three years while they film the next season.
Regardless, this opens up a bunch of doors to other theories including the unexplored notion of being able to sever twice, and although the producers of the show have confirmed that its plot has no relation to cloning, I personally don’t think it’s that far-fetched to believe that the tests Gemma is participating in may relate to a resurrected or coma-induced version of herself.
- what is cold harbor?
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So, what actually is Cold Harbor? This term is one of the most mysterious yet frequently referred to parts of the show. Luckily, season 2 has provided fans with a conclusive amount of information to decipher what it means, and ultimately what it may mean for the characters. Episode seven of season 2 revealed Cold Harbor as one of the rooms that Gemma will inevitably visit, although she has not gotten to it quite yet. This is likely because Mark has not completed the MDR file labeled “Cold Harbor,” and has been stuck at 96% for what seems to be a while. Because these rooms that Gemma visits appear to be tests that she has to pass, we can expect that Cold Harbor will be another, although this one seems to be a bit more important than the rest of the rooms as episode eight describes Mark finishing the file as “what was to be Lumon’s finest day.”
Lumon’s finest day could mean a lot of things, and a lot of fans are suspecting that once Cold Harbor is completed, Gemma — or some form of her — will die. A lot of details in this season, including Gemma mentioning her preferability to suffocate rather than drowning, insinuate that she may end up dying by drowning in the end. It may be true that her outie self will die, leaving a new recreation of Gemma constituted only by the various tests she has gone through during her time at Lumon. A lot of fans suggest that this version of her will be the first version of an employee who is completely submissive to Lumon and Kier’s practices, eliminating the side of an outie that may want to rebel against them.
Either way, the season finale has a promising title of “Cold Harbor,” which very well may confirm or deny a lot of these theories.
Well, here you have it, my recap of some of the most interesting and detail-oriented theories I have come across for Severance season 2. I hope the finale lives up to these extremely tedious expectations and happy watching!