Severance Season 2 Finale: EXPLAINED
Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re unpacking the wild ride that was the finale of season two of Severance. Please make the necessary preparations for key plot information to be revealed imminently. (BN: “shorter” or whatever Drummond says to Milcheck) Sorry, spoilers ahead!
Now, let’s get into it!
The Background
Whether you’ve been watching each episode on Thursday night with your clipboard out – Sidebar, why is Apple TV+ telling us it airs on Fridays? Have we not been patient enough? – Or, if you’re just trying to figure out what the hell this show is about so you can talk about it with your weird coworker on Monday, we’ve got you covered.
A quick recap for context: “Severance” follows Mark Scout, a recently widowed man, who works at the mysterious Lumon corporation as a severed employee. Meaning: when he walks into work each morning, his consciousness flips a switch, and he becomes “innie” Mark, who has no memory of his outside self, and vice versa. We know that much, right? Alright– let’s fast forward.
So, Mark works in the Macrodata Refinement department, more colloquially known as MDR, and up until right now, we had absolutely no idea what that meant or what his job even was. But we’ll get there! Mark works in MDR with Irving B., Dylan G., and Helly R., the latter of whom, by the end of season one, becomes romantically entangled with Mark. Ooh la la! But uh, not really, because we also learn that Helly R’s outtie is Helena Eagan, the daughter of the CEO of Lumon. Love triangle… uh, square? Again, we’ll get there.
Over the course of season one, we learn what is arguably the most shocking and important piece of information of all. Mark’s outtie’s allegedly deceased wife Gemma is alive at Lumon, and has been working on the severed floor with her husband– but they have no memory of one another. In the season one finale, our four MDR legends manage to override their severance chips and come to while on the outside as a way to communicate the woes of innie life to the world. At this point, Mark realizes what we as the audience have already known to be true. (BN : SHE’S ALIVE!!) Aaand that’s a wrap on season one! Cue the three year hiatus!
(some sort of waiting BN)
Season Two
Alright, that wasn’t so bad! Now, we can’t explain this ending without explaining the… before-ing. Oh, beginning– sure, that too. Season two kicks off with Mark returning to work, frantically searching for Gemma– whom he knows as Ms. Casey. His three friends have been fired and replaced, but Mark pleads to the Lumon board to bring them back, and they oblige. We come to learn that the file he’s currently completing, Cold Harbor, is of the utmost importance to the company… and the world, apparently! So, Lumon wants Mark happy. Once the core four is reunited, they share their stories from the outside with one another. But with a notable exception: Helly withholds that she is an Eagan, instead telling a fictional story about a night gardener. Surely this does not have dubious implications!
On the outside, Mark decides he’s willing to go to any lengths necessary to bring Gemma back. He reunites with alleged former Lumon surgeon Reghabi – (she stalks him) – and agrees to let her reintegrate him, which would fuse his innie and outtie self into one. Reintegration? You mean the thing that killed my very good friend Petey? What the hell, sure.
During a calamitous ORTBO– or, Outdoor Retreat and Team-Building Occurrence– Irving clocks Helly as being Helena– gasp!– and threatens to drown her unless Mr. Milchick brings her back. He does, but immediately kills Irving in retribution. Rest in peace to a real one, a moment of silence. But before he bites the dust, he gives Dylan a clue to a map he hid on the severed floor– a map that leads to the same mysterious hallway we see Ms. Casey disappear into in season one. Oh and, Helly and Mark uh, shared vessels, but it was actually Helena, which is all kinds of yucky. Don’t worry, real Helly and Mark have their own… vessel sharing experience.
In what is likely the most talked about episode of the season– “Chikhai Bardo”– we see both Gemma and Mark’s backstory, as well as witness Gemma living on the testing floor of Lumon. The testing floor exists beneath the severed floor, where we see Gemma enter an array of rooms that are labelled with the names of Mark’s previous MDR files. See what’s happening? …Don’t worry, that’s what we’re here for. Each time Gemma enters a room, a different severed self is activated. She’s forced to complete mundane tasks, or endure painful experiences, without her outtie Gemma having any recollection of what took place behind the door. We learn that Cold Harbor is the final room she has yet to experience.
…Yadda yadda yadda, Dylan’s wife cheats on him with his innie, Burt and Irving meet as outties but can’t be together, former floor manager Ms. Cobel invented severance– alright, we should probably back up a little. But we have too much to get to! This train doesn’t stop! (BN: irving on the train) Nope, not even that one!
In the penultimate episode, Cobel unites with Mark to help him rescue Gemma– as we presume her vendetta against Lumon for stealing her invention has finally come to a head. She explains to him that once the Cold Harbor file is complete, Gemma will be dead.
The Finale
Now that we’ve addressed the broad– or should we say, macro– strokes of the story, let’s finally get into this season finale, shall we?
The episode picks right up where the previous had left off. We see innie Mark in the birthing cabin with his sister Devon and Cobel. The cabin has the ability to activate Mark’s severance chip, as affluent Lumon-adjacent women utilize the procedure to avoid experiencing the pains of childbirth. Yeah… crazy. In an epic scene, Mark has a conversation with himself through a camcorder, but his outtie is unsuccessful at convincing his innie that he’s trustworthy enough to assist him in rescuing Gemma. Innie Mark fears that once he’s helped his outtie, he’s as good as dead. And, he’s not totally wrong! Cobel steps in to tell his innie the details of his work in MDR– finally! As many had inferred, the numbers that Mark “refines” are actually Gemma’s “tempers,” or emotions. And each file completed equals one new innie for Gemma. Again, this tracks with what we’ve learned thus far, but now Mark must decide if he can believe this information or not as he returns to work.
Back at the office, Helly has a bizarre encounter with her father, Jame, who essentially tells her he loves her more than he loves Helena. Umm, okay. We don’t fully see the repercussions of this conversation, so we can only assume season three will further explore this dynamic.
Mark comes back to Lumon, still unsure of how to approach the end of Cold Harbor. Just a quick moment of appreciation for “The Exalted Victory Of Cold Harbor” painting. We want that hung up in our office… wait, nevermind, taking that back immediately. Mark and Helly exchange information, and in a heartbreaking moment, Helly convinces Mark to sacrifice their budding relationship to save Gemma and support his outtie. He tearfully finishes Cold Harbor, and is rewarded with a massive marching band performance. We’re so sorry, we know we’re supposed to explain the finale, but we need to just watch Milchick body roll for a second… maybe a few more seconds. Okay, we can move on now.
Helly manages to trap Milchick in the bathroom with the help of Dylan. Dylan returns to MDR, though having requested to resign in the episode prior after having been rejected by his own wife… ouch. His outtie writes him a sweet letter, expressing that he wants to be more like the man his innie self has become, and gives Dylan the choice to stay or go– bolstering his confidence.
In the midst of the diversion, Mark uses Irving’s map to locate the testing floor elevator. But just behind an opposing door, Lumon grunt Mr. Drummond is about to force Lorne from Mammalians Nurturable to sacrifice one of her goats, Emile. We had been introduced to the goats in season one, and they still remain a bit of a mystery. But during this scene, we learn that there’s a connection between the testing floor and the purpose of the goats. Drummond implies that a chip will be implanted into Emile, which we can infer is Gemma’s, and that he will somehow retain her consciousness.
However, this is interrupted by Mark’s attempt to break into the testing floor elevator, and in an unexpected fight scene Drummond beats the daylights out of him. Lorne emerges, wails on him, and threatens to shoot Drummond. Mark instead convinces her to let him use Drummond to guide him to Gemma, and Lorne obliges and thanks him for saving Emile. Aww, we needed that. We would have killed for that sweet little guy too.
Mark makes his way down, but arrives as his outtie, and accidentally shoots Drummond in the process. He finds his way to Gemma in the Cold Harbor room, who is being tasked with dissembling the crib we see Mark attempt to build in “Chikhai Bardo.” You may be wondering, what is being tested here, and why is this the final room? Based on everything we’ve seen, Cold Harbor is the true test of the entire multi-severance process. The crib represents her most painful experience of losing her child, and “I'll Be Seeing You” is a musical motif that signifies her relationship with Mark. Not to mention, her outfit is identical to that of what she was wearing the night she was kidnapped by Lumon. If these vestiges don’t trigger Gemma, what will?
Mark recovers Gemma– much to the dismay of Jame and the creepo Dr. Mauer. In four scenes of quick succession, we see Mark and Gemma in all different dynamics of their innie and outtie selves. At first, Mark recognizes Gemma, but she has no idea who he is– and trusts him nonetheless. Then– after two seasons of waiting– we witness Mark and Gemma as their outtie selves reuniting once and for all… but, like, they gotta run. Once they make it up the elevator, they’re both innies again. Which is sad, but objectively kind of hilarious, and also we missed Ms. Casey desperately.
In the final moments of the episode, innie Mark sends Gemma out to the hallway, turning her into her outtie self. But right before he escapes with her, Helly calls out for him, while Gemma pleads. He must make the impossible choice between the life he’s lived, and the life he may never get to have. But alas, he chooses Helly, and the two run off together into… the hallway. Where they will go, we suppose only time will tell. Sadly, love may not transcend severance after all.
This ending further investigated the deep disparities that exist between the innie and outtie selves, as both characters develop parallel to and in contrast with one another. The lack of agency that the innies experience has consistently manifested itself in the form of multiple major rebellions, and yet somehow, they still go completely unheard. Mark having to potentially sacrifice himself and all of his memories for the man who selfishly brought him into existence in the first place was ultimately too much to ask. Though we can only imagine the hell our team will be put through in the next season, we can’t help but root for the underdog innies to salvage their existences against all odds.
So, what do you think is next for Helly and Mark, and the MDR team at large? Did Gemma successfully escape, or will she be captured once more? Most importantly, will we ever see Mr. Milchick dance again? Let us know all of your thoughts in the comments!
