20 Questions We Have After Severance Season 2

Everyone has now had a few days to sit with “Cold Harbor,” the hugely consequential season two finale of Apple TV+’s Severance. And that break is necessary because, wow. On a show known for blowing our minds the finale kind of did that, then reconstructed it, then blew it again. That goes double when you start to ponder some of the many, many questions left dangling as the credits rolled.

What follows are 20 questions we still have after the end of Severance season two. Some are serious, some are not. Some have answers, and some do not. But all should help fill that void since there are no new episodes on the immediate horizon. In fact, let’s start there and of course, beware of spoilers.

When, oh when, is season 3?

Here’s the good news. On the heels of the season two finale, Apple officially announced season three is happening. Here’s the bad news: it might take a while. No official date is set but we imagine a mid to late 2026 release is as soon as it could be considering how long it takes to make the show. Which, despite being just an educated guess, is still better than the three years between seasons one and two.

What’s going to happen to Gemma?

Season two was about a lot of things but ultimately it was about fulfilling that cliffhanger of season one, when innie Mark realized his outie’s wife is alive and at Lumon. Well, she’s out now, as long as she can make her way up the staircase without Lumon security grabbing her. If she gets free, we’re wondering if Devon and Cobel are waiting, if they’ll go to the press, how she will get her life back since the world thinks she’s dead, if that’s even possible, if she’ll return to Lumon as Ms. Casey or one of her other 24 innies, if Lumon will come after her because she’s been exposed to Cold Harbor, etc. There are so many possibilities.

Are Mark and Helly basically stuck on the severed floor?

If either of them gets on the other side of that unmistakable “ding,” their respective outies will be back in control, which will most likely mean death for both of their severed personas. Mark is going to immediately pivot back to picking up his life with Gemma; all promises to his innie aside, why would he ever go back to Lumon once he left?

As for Helly R.—Helena Eagan loathed the idea of her in the first place. She’d basically already killed her off after the end of season one, only allowing her to live again once Irving figured out her ruse, and in the interest of inspiring Mark S. to finish Cold Harbor. There’s no way she’s going to become an MDR worker bee ever again.

That doesn’t mean they both won’t be forced off the severed floor, though. You have to assume Devon and Gemma will be hellbent on getting Mark out, and Jame Eagen still has need of his heir apparent daughter (even if he doesn’t love her).

What will their outies do when they find out?

Assuming they do get out. There is a chance the innies figure out some way to endure. But, just in case, let’s say they don’t and eventually, Mark Scout and Helena Eagan get back in control. They’d likely have the knowledge that their innies are in love and basically blew up Lumon. Mark will want to see Gemma. Helena will probably want to run very, very far away from her father. And at least Mark will probably feel very guilty about it. Or maybe he won’t. He could continue with reintegration as promised, or get a better idea of what that means. Helena could kill her innie forever. Whatever the case, for our money, this is one of the most enticing things to think about moving ahead, exploring these relationships

Was Cobel being honest about the fate of the severed floor?

Cobel tells Mark that once Cold Harbor is done, he and his severed team are done too. It’s part of the reason he chooses Helly at the end, because he thinks their time is running out. But is it? Drummond certainly thought so when he was trying to kill Mark but Dylan’s outie sure still thought he had a job moving ahead. Helena Eagan clearly doesn’t want to return but there are lots of other people down there. We think Cobel was being honest about most of the things in this episode, but that MDR would be done after Cold Harbor is only partially true.

Was no one else working at Lumon?

That Lumon office building is awfully large—as its accompanying parking lot. It feels very odd then that we never really met any other employees besides the ones on the severed floor and the testing floor, and the managers and bigwigs keeping tabs on them.

At the very least, you’d think there would be more of a beefed-up presence for security guards, especially on Cold Harbor day. Mr. Drummond was a big dude, but as “Cold Harbor” clearly showed, he wasn’t big enough to prevent all kinds of chaos from erupting, or survive it.

What will Mark’s actions mean for Lumon and its employees?

Lumon is a massive company. It’s more than just “Cold Harbor” and macrodata refining. If Gemma’s story does become public, you have to assume it would be enough for law enforcement to shut down Lumon. Only, we don’t know what relationship Lumon has with most of the outside world. There are also many other employees working there in various mysterious and likely unsevered capacities. They’d probably prefer to not lose their jobs because one department did something so evil. It will be interesting to see the fallout of Gemma’s escape.

Are the goats safe now?

Adorable Emile survived being sacrificed. But Mammalians Nurturable had an entire room of those little guys, seemingly being bred for the purpose of accompanying Lumon-adjacent victims into the afterlife. What’s going to happen to them now—especially if their heroic keeper, played by Gwendoline Christie, decides she’s through being the team leader in the most slaughter-prone department on the severed floor?

Will innie Dylan quit or will he stay?

Dylan’s outie made a pretty flattering and compelling argument for his innie to stay at Lumon so we think he’ll stay. It’s his only job as far as we know. The problem is everything that happened with Mark, Helly, Mr. Milchick, and the rest. If Dylan’s innie does stay, it’ll likely be in a new role.

How will Irving return?

We really have no idea what story twist might bring back the fan-favorite character, sent into train-bound exile with Radar at his side. But John Turturro himself thinks there’s more of Irving’s story left to explore. We hope it might reveal who Irv, whose outie was clearly digging into Lumon’s secrets, was talking to on those clandestine pay-phone calls. We’d also like to know why Irv was having such vivid visions of the exports hall. A reunion with Burt would also be nice!

Is Mr. Milchick going to rebel?

io9 put this very question to Severance writer and showrunner Dan Erickson, and he agreed that Milchick’s big scene in “The After Party” standing up to Mr. Drummond signals there’s dissatisfaction brewing beneath that meticulous composure. But the day after “devour feculence,” Milchick put all that aside and was back to doing Lumon’s evil bidding. We’d love to see him really have a change of heart and realize he’s been fighting for the wrong side all this time… if he escapes that face-off with Dylan and the suddenly hostile marching band.

Will we see Miss Huang again?

Mr. Milchick let her graduate from the Wintertide Fellowship, but her next assignment took her to far-flung Svalbard, which is practically the North Pole. Will Eustace Huang turn into an angry adult with Lumon-focused revenge on her mind? It took decades for Harmony Cobel to get there, and she had much bigger reasons to be angry. At the very least, we can hope Miss Huang gets to play her theremin in peace now.

Will Harmony Cobel continue to fight Lumon and to get her credit for severance?

There was a reduced portion of Cobel throughout season two until “Sweet Vitriol” brought her back into the story in a big way, and revealed an important secret about her past that explains a lot about her peculiar relationship with Lumon. She described herself as an “ally” to Mark and Devon as they planned their Gemma jailbreak. Will that still be the case in light of everything that happened in “Cold Harbor,” or will she try to take control of her invention for less than benevolent purposes?

Why were Mark and Gemma chosen for Cold Harbor?

Think about it. Lumon kidnapped Gemma, faked her death, somehow ensured her grieving husband would be forced to take a job at their company—and not just any job, a severed job—so that he could work on macrodata refining her mind, all in service of this one purpose. Their link is the key to everything, so while there were some clues about their previous links with the creepy Dr. Bauer in the flashback episode, we imagine there is more to this story. And, when we asked Erickson about it, he refused to answer. Always a good sign.

What the hell is up with Jame Eagan?

Seriously. He’s a creepy old man from a line of creepy, creepy people, so some of it might just be Eagan genetics. But the breadcrumbs that were dropped about him this season were both shiver-inducing and nightmare-inspiring—including his implied use of the birthing cabins to hide the existence of his secret spawn, his musing that his daughter (who he doesn’t love) should eat her breakfast eggs raw (while he watches), and the fact that he’s only slightly more animated than the Kier Eagan wax dummy. His reaction to Cold Harbor’s spectacular implosion was a season-two comedic highlight, however.

What are other MDR departments doing?

The finale revealed specifically what Mark was doing with the MDR numbers. He was using emotions to explore the building blocks of Gemma’s mind, creating multiple different innie personalities for her. Great. But it’s not clear if that’s what everyone in MDR is doing. And we mean both in the room with Mark, as well as other rooms. This season revealed there are severed MDR employees all over and they weren’t all working on Gemma. Are there other Gemma-type captive test subjects not just in this building, but others? Is each refiner working on a specific person? Or are the other employees literally doing nothing just to trick one important one? It’s unclear but very interesting to think about. We asked Erickson about it and he didn’t want to say.

What were Lumon’s plans with Cold Harbor?

Here’s what we think we know about Cold Harbor. One, everyone at Lumon thought it was going to change the world. Two, it allowed a severed chip to render a human completely obedient. Putting those two things together, we can assume Lumon was going to—and may still—sell this to not just corporations but armies, countries, who knows? Who wouldn’t want the ability to, basically, control human beings to behave like lemmings? If you think about it, the very, very evil potential is endless, hence why it was such a big deal. That’s how we see it at least. The show could always flip things.

What the hell is up with Woe’s Hollow?

The fourth episode of season two has the severed employees take a trip to an outdoor park owned by Lumon where histories about Kier’s family are hidden in caves and doppelgangers of each of them appear out of nowhere to help on the journey. There were also marshmallows. It’s unclear whether any of this is at all important to the overall story of Severance, or if it’s just a way to show the broad scope of Lumon’s reach. Basically, we have no idea.

How does the department of Choreography and Merriment work?

So, Lumon hires people, puts them through intensive musical training, teaches them dance moves, outfits them in band uniforms, and just keeps them around for whenever a great big celebration is needed? Is this a full-time job? Do they hang out eight hours a day somewhere on the severed floor, maybe in a practice room we haven’t yet seen on the show?

Do all the Lumon buildings have their own departments of C&M, or is there some kind of severance-equipped motor coach that brings them from office to office as needed? Does Lumon also train non-severed marching bands to celebrate at public events? (This is another one of those questions that doesn’t really impact the plot of the show at all, but is still way too fun not to think about.)

What are the limits of severance?

We know about the overtime contingency. We’ve seen the Glasgow block. We’ve seen, thanks to Gemma, that a person’s severance chip can activate different and entirely separate innie personas. What else can this technology do—or rather, is there anything it can’t do?—and what are Lumon’s ultimate plans for deploying it?

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