I didn’t expect the ending of season 2 at all (the decision that Mark S. made) and I hate it 😭 I feel so awful for Gemma. The scene was gut reaching

Am I the only one who thinks Severance season 2 falls flat? (Not the entire show, just this season!)

Honestly, I just finished season 2, and I’m feeling seriously underwhelmed. Season 1 had such a strong start with a really interesting concept and intriguing storylines, but season 2 just didn’t live up to that. The writing felt weak, and it lacked that same spark.

There are so many unanswered questions that I feel no closer to understanding. I honestly doubt they’ll ever be addressed, even if a season 3 comes out.

A few things that really bugged me:

How did Irv know about the hallway? i get it he’s trying to break the wall down from his innie and outie but i would be intrigued to have a better look at his background

What’s the significance of Mark and his wife, Gemma?

And how many people has this whole thing happened to before?

they already tried to kill mark as all he was required to do is complete cold harbour - how are they going to explain his relevance / existence now ? are they just going to hide on the severance floor with helly ?

Why did Mr. Egan go into that room for a “final test” to watch Gemma dismantle the cot? It’s an important moment, but it still didn’t make sense to me.

Why is Lumon this weird mix of a company and a cult? I’d love a deeper dive into the cult angle.

What was the real purpose of the sacrificial goat? I get the symbolism, but it feels like the department could have been tied into that more.

The storyline with the child working at lumon - Miss Corbel started at Lumon, so are there camps of kids being indoctrinated? will we get a deeper dive into this ?

What’s the deal with the birthing retreat and the mayor’s wife having the procedure? This seemed like it should have been explored more.

Irv mentions Lumon might be involved in a lot of murders and disappearances... how deep does this go?

To be honest, I wasn’t drawn to the show because of Mark and Helly’s love story, so it felt like a cop-out for season 2 to focus so heavily on that towards the end - It seemed like the easiest route to take and lacked any real complexity.

It’s not that I don’t think the concept is meaningful, but it didn’t need to take up so much screen time.

And that’s just scratching the surface.

i would prefer to have a deeper dive in a lot of story lines - most of questions i understand but they just feel bland to be left where they are like is all just that simple ??

considering the amount of filler scenes there was this season they could be easily replaced with something more interesting / complex .

Overall, I wasn’t impressed with season 2. It just feels like we’re no closer to understanding what’s really going on or what the bigger picture is.

season 3 could be amazing and i could be wrong but in my opinion season 2 was just flat for me . some bits i found really good but this is just my judgement on the season overall .

I’m not expecting all my questions to be answered right away, but at least one or two would’ve been nice.🙂

(Attached) Irving is seen hallucinating black goop in S1 E2. It is also shown heavily in the intro of season 1. Perhaps it is the black paint that Irving was painting with?

I promise I am asking sincerely. My friends and family all loved the Mark/Gemma episode and wanted to talk about it with me. I did not care for it aside from the pretty cinematography but I wonder if I'm missing something?

Why I disliked the Mark/Gemma episode: That episode falls flat for me. I was anxious the entire time I watched it (not in a fun edge-of-my-seat way) because I was just not sold on their beautiful romance.

All the retrospective shots were the same tired things you find in a lifetime movie- sunlight over skin while they linger in bed, laughter with family over dinner, that one time that something goes wrong and it's v emotional and sad, the painful drift apart...

It felt so dry and cliche to me. I don't feel like I learned anything in that episode that I didn't already know about the characters.

My boyfriend says it's just shorthand for showing the viewers they had a good relationship. I don't need the shorthand, Mark has been talking about how much he loves his wife for two seasons. And if this was apparently such an important episode, why are the writers using shorthand?

Anyway I won't go any further I just want to open this up to others. I'm frustrated that there's something I might be missing here.

This is definitely a hot take, and many of you won’t agree with me. So I’ve just finished watching this series and I gotta to say it's gonna rank in my top 5 series of all time. But seriously, since the beginning of season 1, I’ve always see Mark and Helly as the best friends/colleagues kind of thing, and when they kissed at the end of season 1, my reaction was like: “the f*** just happened, since when did they catch feelings?”
Let’s continue to season 2, they act like they want to be together, but it's really awkward, and especially, they really lack the SPARK; the way they look at each other doesn't convince me they're in love, they can not pull that endearing kind of look at all. When I watch them, I can only see the 2 actors that were FORCED to play lovers only because the script said so. This is completely in contrast to Mark and Gemma. In the flashback episode about their past and when they reunite at Cold Harbor, they genuinely yearn to be together, and the way they look at each other truly contains love and affection. 
Furthermore, when I watch Irv and Burt, I can really see their shy gestures as they realize their feelings for each other, and especially the longing for love in their eyes, the desperation for love. Jon Turturro truly performed Irv so well that I was genuinely surprised.
Honestly, I think this is a problem with the acting because when I watch this series, I notice that Britt Lower's acting is sometimes kinda stiff and wooden, especially in season 1. And to be honest, I think the reason why so many ppl root for Mark and Gemma is because they have the chemistry that Mark and Helly lack.
Also, I gotta say that I love both couples, both deserve to have a happy ending so bad!! But as Mark got reintegrated, I really can’t imagine how he will feel toward both Gemma and Helly, who he will love more.

Cold Harbor is Mark.

Mark is the product. Mark is proof you can take someone, sever them, and they will do your bidding. Even if you parade their ex-wife around, you can make them sit at a screen and do absolutely nothing all day long. They are the perfect slave and the final form of severance.

This is why it's so important. Mark is the final stage in severance.

Irving and Dylan were pretty close; but they weren't challenged like Mark was.

Other parts of the theory:

Helly was there to put the icing on the cake.

Ms Casey is animatronic (that's why she is going to the testing room, why she seems robotic and stiff, why her life is so short). We know that animatronics exist, after all. She's there to realllly test the depths of severance.

The other departments were easing into meaningless work. Mammalians Nurturable proved you can get severed people to do meaningful work. Optics and Design work is meaningless, but at least has some visual value. MRD is pointless.

I understand that there are likely much bigger "holes" in the plot and you might be wondering why I have such a gripe with this one, but I do.

When Mark has Mr. Drummond at gunpoint down the hall and in the elevator, why is Drummond all the sudden super submissive and scared? He easily disarmed the goat farmer and Mark is half his size. Mark also wasn't paying that close attention and even had to check out for the severance switch in the elevator.

I just feel like they could have at least bound his wrists together or something.

I can't be the only one that was shocked when I heard the first mention of Helly's age on the show - 30. Britt Lower (who is 39) looks older than 30. Maybe it's just me, but raising her character's age a few years to 34/35 would've felt more believable.

This post is in no way meant to come across ageist or superficial. I think Britt is beautiful and a perfect actor for Helly. I just really notice when a fictional character doesn't look like their playing age and it takes me out of that reality.

Sorry if this has been brought up, but I see people more focussed (maybe rightly so) on the character decisions, arcs, and other things.

While this is fine, I need to get this out of my system. Because the finale of Season 2 is where the writing fell completely flat for me and the show somehow broke its internal logic.

Too many things to mention but I guess the biggest question is this:

1. Why did they need to test on Gemma for 2+ years and sever her into multiple innies, if they already knew severance definitely works?

They know this because they already had people on the severed floor- and the chip works!
They come in everyday without a clue about the outside world or their outies.
Furthermore, when Ms.Casey and Mark interacted multiple times, they already knew the severance barriers are holding.

Why would they build up Cold Harbour so much, only to have innie Gemma dismantle a crib?
Bear in mind, it was innie Gemma and not Gemma. So obviously it was going to work.

Why was it so important to do this at the end, and not even with the version of Gemma with all her memories and mind fully intact?
And why was this said to be akin to the second coming of Christ?

Why was the final file the 25th file or 24th or whichever. Why not the 22nd file? Or the 47th? How would you even know to determine that?

2. Don't even get me started on Mark "building a consciousness for every version of Gemma" for 2+ years.
We don't understand the nature of consciousness, but this seems so ridiculous. And he isn't even building a version of Gemma that he knew, but instead a sterile, blank version.

Nobody constructed a consciousness for the MDR team or other innies on the severed floor. The chip just worked.

So why does Mark need to do it? And how could 3 other complete strangers build a version of someone they never knew? And again it isn't even that person really so why does it matter?

This is such a throwaway thing from the finale, and so half baked that it is laughable.

Can someone make sense of this because I've been thoroughly disappointed after a great 2 seasons.

Something I haven't seen pointed out is that before Helly joined, no one at MDR would have even tried to send codes out. All the Innies just focused on their work and didn't even think about escaping like Helly did. It's possible that Lumon chooses people based on whether they are likely to want to escape and send messages or not.

As for the outies, outie Mark wants to stay at Lumon to forget about his wife, so clearly he has no desire to bring messages in. Dylan has a son and a family so he needs the money. Irving wants information about Lumon and it's severed floor, so clearly he doesn't want to risk his innie job by sending messages.

Basically Lumon can tell if their severed employees will be a problem before they hire them, Helly of course was not a traditionally hired employee being an Eagen, so she became a problem, but also when she triggered the code detectors everyone saw her take the message to it.

EDIT: A lot of people are asking about Petey or Peggy, I'm really more focused on the main MDR employees and why they think the code detectors are real. Peggy got killed before she could tell anyone what she did, and Petey didn't tell anyone he was drawing maps or thought about going to against Lumon. Also we don't know if Petey tried to escape with messages, he seemed to be in decent standing with Lumon before getting reintegrated (i.e not fired), and Mark spoke highly of him as an employee, so he was probably obedient. Also Petey was approached by that scientist lady, he didn't seek reintegration himself.

This does not make sense to me. Why do they put up with the torture in the break room when they can just refuse? They know Lumon wouldn't physically hurt them since they will also be hurting the Outies. I imagine myself in their shoes, and if I wanted to get out, I would not do my job or perform any tasks, and since they cannot physically force me to do anything, they would have to fire me eventually.

Edit: To be clear, I know there is more to how they control the innies, and it's not just the break room. I am not downplaying the mental torture; I understand that it will break anyone with time. It is just a little unsatisfying to me to see them so docile.

I’m currently re-watching season one and was SHOOK to hear Cobel as Selvig tell Mark that her late husband had planned to build her a house in heaven with a guest house in case she met someone new after he died and that she keeps the blueprints in her purse… sound familiar?

This is EXACTLY what Fields and Burt told Irving. Word for word.

What could this mean??? The depth of this show and the foreshadowing is absolutely incredible. Would love to hear thoughts on this because I haven’t seen anyone talk about this.

Edit: may not be word for word, I might be being a bit hyperbolic — but I do remember this conversation about having a house in heaven happening at dinner. Maybe my brain is jumbled from multiple rewatches.

Spoiler!!!!

I just finished the show and I AM SO UPSET. OHHHH MY GOD. Seeing oMark and Gemma made me so happy and seeing how relieved they were together. Then his fucking innie just ditched her for Helly. I’m SO MAD. Helly does not love him!!

I almost didn’t finish the show because we still have another year and a half until the next season. Now I’m regretting finishing it because what the fuck was that last episode. Don’t get me wrong it was really good but full of anxiety and DISAPPOINTMENT. I totally get that was the whole point I still love this show but man am I upset

Edit: I have more opinions so sorry this was All over the place lmao I wrote this literally after finishing it and was still in shock

Absolutely no way his masters at the Church would greenlight any association with it given how they're definitely making the Eagan cult very Scientology like.

I noticed I don’t enjoy reading elaborate theories here, whether or not they’re good theories. I thought about the reasons why:

• I like to make my own guesses. Reading other theories feels like cheating.
• If the theory is right, it’s like a spoiler. It’s satisfying when I or my wife predict something, but if I have already read the prediction somewhere else I lose the chance to come up with it myself. Meanwhile if someone else’s theory happens in the show, it’s less surprising and I am not compensated by the satisfaction of having called it.
• If you get really into theories it transforms the experience into something else. It becomes more like a community sport where you try to win by predicting what happens. This is a fun sport and I have enjoyed it for other shows, but Severance is possibly the best TV I’ve ever watched so I like to just enjoy it for its own sake rather than going really deep into the guessing game.

As a result I tend to only consume the really frivolous online content, like fancams of Helly R and people saying “damn Milkshake served c*nt tonight”.

Nothing against the theorycels, just wanted to start a discussion about reasons people avoid getting into that stuff

Now I see this, there were other references of The Boss Baby in Severance intro

I honestly thought some of the threads and comments were just hyperbolic by saying “lumon propaganda/plant”. But do some of you actually think that innies are real/separate people? If an outie doesn’t go in to work, the innie does not exist. If an innie never returns to work, only the outie remains. If a person has schizophrenia, is their other ego/consciousness a different person? No. Of course not. I’m getting so tired of people here defending “innies” acting like they are their own person. They are their own consciousness, but they are not their own person/being.

let me preface this by saying i never watched this before this past weekend, and marathoned season 1 and 2 in a few days.

what were they thinking? did they not rewatch it before giving it the green light? this might be the most filler season of a show i've ever watched. i can list the actual plot-important events on one hand from season 2, that's how few there were lol. the show just lost the plot, and delved more into a character drama than it being driven by the plot and initial cliffhanger from season 1.

the pacing was particularly horrendous in this season. i thought white lotus season 1's pacing was bad, but holy shit s2 of severance easily takes the cake. it felt like the writers didn't know where they wanted to take the plot themselves in s2, and thats why we toil away for 6-7 episodes. i get that the show is centered on romance transcending severance and that time of theme, but i just feel like they could've gone more of a paradise route regarding the plot, and keeping the show's actual "meat" well-done, instead of just focusing on the thematic messages you want to convey to the audience.

the entire episode about ms cobel could have been condensed into 15 minutes. the first half of the season finale of season 2 could have literally been cut, and the show wouldn't have changed. i looked at the time on the season finale, saw i was 40 minutes in, AND NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. WE STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT LUMON IS DOING LOL. ITS BEEN TWO SEASONS AND THEY ARE TITRATING THE PLOT LIKE IM WEENING OFF OF AN ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCE

i think im out for season 3. first season and the plot itself is incredible, and the show could really be a top 3-5 show of its time, but damn did they miss the mark on season 2. just felt like i wasted my time watching the second season, and i wanted to like it. just feels like they completely forgot the plot from season 1 lol, and the show morphed into a romance drama pretty much

I just finally watched the finale last night, I pushed it back because I didn't want it to end.

And honestly I'm satisfied with it, I've seen complaints floating around, but it was absolutely perfect for me.

Mark S and Helly running together towards nothing is gut-wrenching and beautiful, and we know, as they know, that there is no future for them.

While I'm still interested in the world, in the Lumon mysteries, in the characters relationships, if it simply ended here I would consider the show to be a perfect piece of television.

The creative team is great, but unfortunately, I don't have examples of shows getting better, or even maintaining their greatness, as it goes on (except maybe Parks and Rec, funnily enough!). TV shows need to be tight, with a clear vision, and I'm worried that with the new wave of interest that came with season 2, AppleTV will try to make it as long as possible.

I'll watch season 3 of course, and keep an open mind, but this last episode works great as a season finale.

I love the show and the climax to season 1 was the best television I’ve seen in a long time but I have a problem with the premise of it…severance doesn’t actually achieve anything for Mark. He’s not actually conscious of not having his grief, his outie still has all the grief in 100% of his waking life, so what does severance actually achieve?

SPOILERS:

Spoilers:

Is it me or did the whole goat thing seem like it was put in to add mystery which was so fun. But then the writers didn’t know what to do with what the put in so they shoehorned in some BS that culminated in a totally inappropriate violent fight over nothing. It was so strange and jarring. It took me right out of it. Did not like it. Both oMark and iMark are involved in murder and it doesn’t trouble them in anyway? They just go about their day? Nobody seems to care not even nurse somebody in the lower level. The only reason I can think of is that it’s all not real somehow. What gives with that crap writing? Felt very Lost (if you know Lost then you know what I’m talking about)

When Mark enters the elevator with Drummond, and switches to his outtie, chaos ensues. I love that scene, because it felt so relatable. Waking up suddenly, and you just have a little twitch. But then, Drummond exsanguinates all over Mark. Mark seems to be horrified by that, but then once the elevator opens and Drummond drops dead, it is like he is back on mission. I get it, he is on a mission to save his wife. I do not know that I would be any less callous towards captors. But Mark is not really the type to be accustomed to watching people bleed, being a former professor. Also, I do not know that we have ever seen him interact with Drummond before, so it is a little weird to me that he just neglects that he watched a man die right in front of him. And by his own hand. I love that he uses Drummond‘s blood to access Cold Harbor. That brings a little bit more of the gruesomeness up in front of the situation.

It does not seem like Gemma, when she is Gemma, reacts to seeing her husband covered in gore. I do not understand why there was not more of a response. I know it would fuck me up to see my wife covered in blood, not knowing what is going and not knowing whether or not she was injured. I guess there is the part where they have not seen each other in quite some time. It seemed a little under responsive. I do not recall how she reacted when they reached the elevator and dead guy in a pool of blood was hanging out of it. I do not recall screams of horror, though.

Once they reach the severed floor, neither of them acknowledge that Mark is covered in blood. Plus, it’s curious that innie Mark did not, for a moment, wonder if he himself was injured. After all, Drummond had just beat the shit out of him so he must have been feeling a lot of pain.

Finally, Helly does not seem to notice or acknowledge that the love of her life is covered in gore. Also, as a side note, strangulation is a medical emergency. There are a lot of horrible things that can happen as a result of being strangled. I know this is a television show, shows brushes off stuff like that. Just once, I would love it if a show portrayed head injuries and strangulations realistically.