All of Severance's open secrets

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers through episode 2 of Severance season 2. Read on only if you’re fine with one of your severed selves knowing that.]

On the way to the second season, Severance pay is in a hot phase. Picking up right where the season 1 finale left off – give or take a few months of outie time; Mark (Adam Scott) is informed that it has been about five months since the finale – Severance pay Season 2 gets going almost immediately. This equipment is the one we know from the show: methodical and full of clues.

Episode 1 of the second season, “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” reveals nothing muchbut it certainly gets everyone back to work, which brings us closer to finding answers to the many unanswered questions. Episode 2 certainly provides some more answers (and a clearer sense of the timeline) outside of Lumon, and yet Despite it Questions remain. For this purpose, we have put together a working document of all open questions Severance pay is teeing off. We'll update it as the series progresses, incorporating everything from the evidence presented in the series to wild guesses. In the spirit of Dylan (Zach Cherry), let's marvel aloud.

To that end, what is Lumon working on?

Lumon is a deeply mysterious organization. When Helly (Britt Lower) asks in season 1 how many departments there are, the MDR team's guesses differ completely – “probably 30”, “about five”, “no one is quite sure” are the answers – and the group don't even know what it is they are work on it. Other departments don't know what the others are doing and seem to have strange superstitions about the humanity of their supposed colleagues.

From our glimpses from the outside, it's clear that Lumon is a… much influence around the world. And as Cobel (Patricia Arquette) puts it when someone asks what Lumon does, “Whatever people can imagine, they can usually create.” But Season 2 at least seems to hint at that one how they make their money: In episode 2, when Helena makes a video cover up Addressing Helly's OTC outburst, she says she mixed alcohol with a “non-Lumon drug.” So Lumon is, in some ways, part of Big Pharma (and definitely not the kind of drug that would cause a public outburst about how innies are “tortured”; no Father Bob).

Adding to the general craziness is the strange corporate legacy they're all indoctrinated with: They're owned by the Egan Company, founded by Kier Egan, who still looms over the company like a cult leader. Its core principles and employee handbook are detailed. They have their hands in a lot of pots, considering their underground (or possibly just windowless, borderline) office includes goats, “optics and design,” art conservation, MDR, and more.

So what are they planning to do and what will the separate process actually do for them? On paper, the answer lies in the application: people no longer need to be “aware” that they are working or having painful experiences such as childbirth. It's not hard to see how this could have an impact on soldiers (or even something more nefarious). But the bigger goal… still to be seen. Are they doing anything? Exit Thing where the severance process is just a way to transfer consciousness, extend life, and maybe even bring Kier Egan back to life? Perhaps! Why else would a man's house in the office be perfectly preserved? And why else would Helena's father, Egan's CEO, say that she would “sit with him” on his “revolving”?

But these questions bring us to…

What is the Macrodata Refinement department working on?

Technically speaking, we don’t know either! (Though it's pretty clear to us that they aren't, as the rumors suggest, “everyone has larval offspring that will jump off and attack if we get too close.”)

To us it looks like numbers are moving on the screen. But for Mark and his colleagues, it's work – some of which are numbers that provoke a strange fear response (or even visions like the one Mark gets from Ms. Casey/his wife at the end of the Season 2 premiere). And for Lumon's bosses, it seems pretty compelling, given the way they're willing to bow to Mark's demands at the start of season two. Episode 2 of the second season seems to reinforce this idea: Whatever MDR does – and Innie-Mark in particular is so important that Helena is told she has to go back in because He I asked about it.

There is a popular fan theory that MDR is a sensitive and high-level bitwork that has something to do with refining/perfecting the severance process (or even perfecting one consciousness taking over another), and the numbers represent memories and personality that will be swept away.

One thing seems important to note: there is a technology behind it. “When you see us, we’re really refining the numbers,” says Adam Scott, who plays Mark. said The Verge. “There’s actually a way to do it.”

What are they doing with Mark's wife?

When we meet Outie-Mark, he leads a meager, isolated life because he lost his wife a few years before the series. In the season one finale, Innie-Mark discovers (and screams) that she is alive. So… where did she go? Episode 1 doesn't give much detail: we know she takes the elevator that Outie-Irv (John Turturro) keeps painting, and we don't know where it goes or why she was taken.

In an interview surrounding the season 1 finale, creator Dan Erickson only vaguely hinted at what might be going on:

There are many questions. Most of them we had answered in our heads when we wrote them, but some of them we didn't. We discussed some of these later. But yes, is it separated? Does she know – is she there? Is she a victim? Will she be kidnapped? How did she go from that loving marriage to Mark to Ms. Casey on the seventh floor? And that's a big, big question mark at this point. […] We saw that there was some kind of experiment or something happening [Mark] and his wife and kind of watched them.

What did Harmony Cobel want with Mark?

There's a lot of weird stuff Severance paybut among the strangest (or at least coldest) is Harmony Cobel's intrusion into Mark's life both on and off work hours. Although Milchick (Tramell Tillman) would dismiss this as a bizarre psychosexual “crime thriller,” her acting seemed much more thoughtful.

It's possible she's keeping an eye on (in her own way) a larger project surrounding the laid-off employees. Cobel was more concerned than the board that Petey's tattered memories might be leaky; She later asked Mark's sister if he ever thought he would see his wife around. She seemed to take some pleasure in introducing Ms. Casey to the MDR room to watch Helly R., and when she found out that Ms. Casey was too friendly with Mark, she sent her “back in.” the test floor”.

But it does seem to be a bit more personal than just observing lab rats. When Helena Egan thanks her for her loyalty in reporting the OTC measure, Harmony says that it has become “very expensive.” She says this with a strange expression full of wistfulness, even with her own frightening affection. It could simply be Arquette's performance, but it's all very strange. Especially since she rejects the new position on the “Severance Advisory Council”.

All in all, this question is now compounded by a more pressing question: Where has she gone? go?

What is the test area?

Oh, great question; No idea, really. But it's scary and threatening – poor Ms. Casey has to walk down a long, dark hallway that leads to an elevator with only an imposing red downward arrow – and for some reason Irv's outie has visions of it and paints it, just like we see in the season finale . Petey alluded to a particular level of the Lumon building as “a place you can't leave,” which certainly gives the impression that it could be the testing floor.

There are some theories that this has to do with the deeper nature of Lumon and may involve cloning (hence the goats). At the very least, the fact that Irv and Ms. Casey appear to have a connection to the Plenum would suggest that they may both have undergone the same tests. Especially because Innie-Irv keeps having strange visions of black, shadowy mud.

Why is Ms. Huang a child?

Is this a paid internship? Is Lumon violating child labor laws? Is she also part of the examination group/woman? Casey craziness? Until now, Ms. Huang – not a friend, it should be noted – was clear: This is because of her date of birth. Hope this helps!

What is the connection between Lumon and water?

Lumon's logo is a water drop. There is a water tower in the parking lot (and this becomes a character in its own right in the claymation introductory video shown to the innkeepers in the season two premiere). There are many names that go back to a type of body of water – MDR filesHousing estates where the characters live, even technically Names of refineries. Ms. Casey tells Innie-Irv that his outie “appreciates water.” There's a painting by Egan Lakes shaped like the Great Lakes.

What does it all mean? It's not clear yet, although some think it's a reference to the alternate universe of Severance pay It exists in a time where there is a war over water and it is considered a more precious (or endangered) resource.

Who was that guy in the hallway?

At the start of season two, Innie-Mark is running through the halls, desperately trying to find Ms. Casey's office. When he appears briefly, there's… a guy standing behind him? I just peek through the doorway behind him.

The only clue we have is that this man is referred to as “Man in Hallway” and is played by Adam Jepsen. He is said to have a recurring role in the series.

Seriously, what's wrong with the goats?

Among the stranger things we saw in Season 1: A herd of goats being… kept? in the halls of Lumon Industries. All Mark and Helly really know is that the caretaker hasn't deemed them “ready” yet.

Like so much of life in Lumon, the goats don't immediately make sense and are clearly baffled as to what they actually are possible Usage could be. The good news? It seems so We will have an answer at the end of season two.