Spoilers: Idle Speculation About the 'Severance' Finale As The Series Heads Into Its Second Season

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 8, 2022 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 8, 2022 |

The Severance finale airs today on Apple TV+ and, yes, the show has been renewed for a second season. If you’ve seen the finale, you’ll know why the failure to renew would have been catastrophic. I’d have thrown my iPhone to the ground and crushed it beneath my boots and ripped my Macbook in half with my bare hands.

Here’s a short post speculating on a few of the unresolved questions remaining after the first season finale (sPoileRS), but it’s mostly designed to give those who have seen the finale a place to vent their frustrations, or to tell me how very wrong I am about my theories.

What is up with Helly? Helly finds out that she’s an Eagan, a descendent of Kier, and it appears as though control of the company is passed down from generation to generation. Her father is the current CEO, and Helly is next-in-line, which is why she severed herself — her outie wouldn’t do anything to Lumon’s employees that she wouldn’t do to herself. Helly’s innie — who tried to take her life — is completely surprised to learn that she’s basically the example case for the entire program.

It’s unclear exactly what the deal is with her father. He seems weird and distant — he cries in his bed? — and he looks forward to Helly being at his “revolving.” It’s not entirely clear what that is, but the first thing I thought of was Apple TV’s other show, Foundation. In that show, control passes from one clone of the same man to another clone — they are all clones of one ancestor. My guess is that Kier’s consciousness somehow passes from one CEO to the next. Different bodies, same consciousness. This may have been an idea that Kier conjured in the 19th century, and the family has been working toward it for over 100 years.

When Helly’s Dad suggests someday that all of the severed will be “Kier’s children,” you have to wonder if he means that clones of Kier’s consciousness will be passed along to all of them. The innies of all the severed will operate as a sort of Kier hive mind but are still allowed to be themselves outside of Lumon’s offices.

What’s up with Gemma? The big revelation here is that Mark figures out what we learned last week: That his dead wife, Gemma, is alive in Lumon, where her name is Ms. Casey. How is this possible? Is she actually alive, or is that her consciousness in the body of an android? Or someone else’s consciousness in the body of Gemma? There has to be something left of Gemma in there, because she and Mark seem to have, at the very least, a faint connection. Maybe the reset protocol is designed to erase that connection.

Will this man get a cookie? Someone really should give him the cookie he so desperately wants for shoving Mark aside and taking credit for finding Devon’s child. “I found her. Devon. I found your child! I’m the one who found her!”

What’s up with Irving? — It’s frustrating that Irving’s innie would use what little time he has in the world to find Burt because it appears that Irving’s outie has already compiled a lot of information about Lumon, which he had hidden away in a trunk that innie Irving found awfully quick. In addition to painting a variation of the same picture over and over, Irving has been investigating Lumon. I wish Irving’s innie would have written a note to his outie so that the two could compare knowledge. The heartbreaking revelation here, however, is that Burt is involved with another man.

What’s going on with Milchick and Mrs. Cobel? — There was some thought earlier in the season that perhaps Mrs. Cobel was secretly working on behalf of the workers. That’s not the case. She’s clearly bought into the cult of Eagan because even after she’s fired, she rushes back to the Lumon offices to try and stop Helly from blowing up the operation.

Milchick, on the other hand? He may have busted open the door to stop Dylan from giving the other innies more overtime outside of Lumon, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s not working for Regabhi, the woman who creates the severance chips, unsevered Petey, and killed Mr. Graner. Reghabi said herself that her mission was delicate and had to be precise. Milchick gave Dylan the knowledge of the overtime protocol, but maybe they weren’t yet prepared for them to use it. I expect that someone on the inside is working on behalf of the workers, and if I had to guess, it would be Milchick.

Dylan’s glasses? I know he wasn’t happy to see Milchick, but how relieved must he feel to finally be able to push up his glasses?

What does Lumon do? I think the short answer is: Lumon creates these severance chips. I think Lumon is also one of many pilot programs for the severed. If it works in Lumon’s offices, they roll out the program worldwide. I have no idea, however, what that has to do with the numbers the Lumon employees collate or the goats. Is that busy work? Does it help the company figure out how to pass one consciousness into someone else’s body? Do all the goats have the same consciousness? Are they additional test subjects?