Full spoilers comply with for Severance season 2 episode 1.
After a three-year wait, Severance season 2 has lastly landed on Apple TV Plus – and, shock shock, its first episode – titled ‘Hello, Ms. Cobel’ – has already sparked some massive new fan theories about what’s actually happening at Lumon and the place the story goes from right here.
Like everybody else, I’ve bought ideas and hypotheses on Severance‘s newest chapter and the way it units up occasions to come back within the highly-rated Apple TV Original’s second season. So, be part of me as I talk about seven speaking factors from the season 2 premiere. Let the theorizing start!
1. Helena Egan is impersonating Helly R to infiltrate the MDR workforce
This is the primary massive idea I’ve had since I watched episode 1 for my Severance season 2 evaluation. Judging by the feedback I’ve seen on-line after ‘Hello, Ms. Cobel’ was launched, loads of different individuals consider Helena Egan (i.e. the daughter of present Lumon CEO Jame Egan), not her ‘innie’ Helly R, is who we see on the Severed Floor.
Now, I do know what a few of you’re questioning: Helena should not have the ability to entry the Severed Floor. After all, if she makes use of its elevator, she’d move by means of the severance barrier and get replaced by Helly R. To that, I say this: Lumon, or Helena herself, may merely flip off the barrier, use the elevator to journey to the Severed Floor, and infiltrate the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) workforce by posing as Helly R.
There’s proof to recommend that that is the case. For one, she’s the final particular person to return to the Severed Floor – Mark S, Dylan G, and Irving B all arrive earlier than her in that precise order. Upon exiting the elevator and being hugged by Mark S, Helena appears confused and considerably greatly surprised by his heat greeting.
That’s not all. She’s the primary to note that the Severed Floor’s safety cameras have been eliminated. She additionally asks questions that Helly R would not. She’s very evasive when requested what she – or, quite, her ‘innie’ – noticed in the actual world throughout the season 1 finale, too. Sure, this might simply be Helly R mendacity to the remainder of the workforce about who her ‘outie’ is, however her response and responses to follow-up queries are extra akin to how Helena would react than Helly.
Her basic demeanor simply appears… off as effectively. She’s means too calm when Mark S talks about the necessity to discover and rescue Ms. Casey (i.e. Gemma, the spouse of his ‘outie’ Mark Scout), and even agrees to assist him. If this was actually Helly R, she’d be extra upset that Mark S needs to help his ‘outie’ in finding Ms. Casey/Gemma as a result of Mark S and Helly are falling head over heels for each other.
Lastly – don’t be concerned, I’m practically carried out with this idea – there are two further clues in episode 1’s ultimate sequence. First, Helena struggles to seek out the ‘on change’ on the again of her laptop. Then, because the display masses up, a file studying ‘Santa Mira’ pops up on Helena’s monitor (see the picture above, as noticed by one Reddit consumer) for affirmation of this. For the uninitiated, Santa Mira is a fictional city that is recurrently appeared in varied sci-fi and/or horror movies, together with 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers film. Why is that this vital? Because Helena has invaded Helly R’s life and, effectively, ‘snatched’ her physique to spy on Helly’s MDR colleagues and pay attention of their conversations. I’m onto you, Helena…
2. Sarah Bock’s Ms. Huang is the newest graduate from Myrtle Eagan School for Girls
The solely season 2 newcomer who’s joined as a collection common (learn my Severance season 2 hub for extra particulars on this season’s forged), Sarah Bock’s Ms. Huang is an interesting addition to the present’s roster. Indeed, not solely is she the Severed Floor’s new deputy supervisor, however she’s additionally a baby.
So, why has Lumon employed a child? And what possessed the nefarious biotechnology company to put in her as new Severed Floor supervisor Seth Milchick’s underling? My finest guess is she’s the newest child to graduate from Myrtle Eagan School for Girls. That’s the identical establishment that Harmony Cobel was educated at and the identical place that prepares future non-Severed Lumon staff for a profession on the clandestine megacorporation.
After Cobel’s firing, Ms. Huang might be getting lined up as Milchick’s eventual substitute. After all, he is confirmed to be fallible as the ground’s head and deputy head, so perhaps he is only a stop-gap rent earlier than Lumon ousts him in favor of Ms. Huang. Well, so long as she would not show to be as error-prone as Milchick is…
3. The Macrodat Uprising report and Severance Reform aren’t actual
Plenty of season 2 episode 1 is devoted to the notion that Lumon has turned over a brand new leaf relating to to its working practices. After the so-called Macrodat Uprising – aka the occasion that noticed the MDR workforce’s ‘innies’ escape into the actual world – Mark S and firm have been reportedly hailed as heroes for blowing the whistle on Lumon’s horrific working circumstances. As Milchick and an amusing felt puppet animation later tells MDR (and viewers by proxy), that is led to a course of often called ‘Severance Reform’, which supposedly places Lumon’s severed staff’ wellbeing above every little thing else.
I do not purchase this in any respect. For one, the newspaper that Milchick offers to Mark S, which exhibits the MDR workforce being hailed as heroes, is not actual. The Kier Chronicle, i.e. the print newspaper, would not exist. The picture that adorns its entrance web page is a closely doctored {photograph} of a real-life occasion – former US President Dwight Eisenhower’s go to to Rio de Janeiro within the Sixties, for these questioning – too. Oh, and let’s not overlook that Lumon’s wellness division, which Ms. Casey led, has been shut down. You cannot prioritize worker happiness by doing that, are you able to?
Lumon has by no means cared about its severed workforce, so why would it not make a sudden U-turn and accomplish that now? To get the MDR workforce again to work, in fact! Without them, Lumon cannot full… effectively, no matter sinister work it is finishing up. As lengthy because it will get Mark S and firm again on-side with these supposed guarantees to enhance issues, the corporate’s fabricated plan has labored.
4. Mark S’ fellow macrodata refiners weren’t requested to return
Early on in among the finest Apple TV Plus exhibits’ newest episode, Mark S is instructed by Milchick that Dylan G, Irving B, and Helly R did not need to return to Lumon.
I consider that is one other lie concocted by Lumon. I’m satisfied that Dylan and Irving have been fired for the roles they performed within the Macrodat Uprising. Helly, in the meantime, wasn’t allowed to return as a result of Helena’s father Jame did not need her to. It’s that, or Jame and Helena started to formulate a plan that may see Helena infiltrate MDR by masquerading as Helly, which ties into the primary idea I wrote about on this article.
So, why wasn’t Mark S’ contract terminated as effectively? He’s too necessary for Lumon to let go, therefore why he was introduced again and given a brand new workforce to handle to finish regardless of the Severed Floor is engaged on. Speaking of which…
5. Cold Harbor is the mission that Mark S wants to finish – and it is bought one thing to do with Gemma
Just just like the ‘Santa Mira’ file we see on Helena/Helly’s laptop monitor, Mark’s display drops a giant tease in regards to the mission he is been engaged on at Lumon: a mission referred to as Cold Harbor.
How do I do know this? Its title seems within the prime left nook of the display (see the picture above) throughout episode 1’s ultimate scene. It’s additionally two-thirds full, as evidenced by the progress bar that creeps up from 67% to 68% after Mark S dumps some extra information into field 03 on his monitor.
Okay, however what’s this bought to do with Gemma/Ms. Casey? Her face flashes up on the monitor earlier than the episode ends, so clearly Cold Harbor has some connection to her. We know Gemma ‘died’ in a automotive accident (learn: she was kidnapped by Lumon), however we do not really know what occurred. Sure, Mark’s ‘outie’ was instructed Gemma’s automotive careered off the street and smashed right into a tree – we see him go to the scene of Gemma’s dying in season 1 – however that does not imply that is the place she really ‘died’.
Was Gemma really kidnapped on an ice-cold night time by a port, therefore the title Cold Harbor? Or does it relate in a roundabout way to The Battle of Cold Harbor, a brutal a part of the American Civil War, that occured between May and June 1864 (i.e. lower than a yr earlier than Kier Eagan based Lumon) Okay, I’m reaching for a solution that is not there with that duo. Nevertheless, Gemma is in some methods related to Cold Harbor.
6. Irving is aware of in regards to the black hallway as a result of he is been there earlier than
Among the myriad issues that season 1’s ultimate episode revealed and/or teased, the work of an unsettling, black hallway that Irving’s ‘outie’ saved making was one of the vital fascinating features (and there have been numerous them!) of Severance‘s first season.
As we study in season 2’s premiere by means of Irving’s dialog with Dylan, the hall results in an elevator that goes down, quite than up. Clearly, there’s one other secret division or flooring that Lumon would not need anybody to learn about.
But, how does Irving learn about it? My idea is that his ‘innie’ has discovered it earlier than and, after Lumon realizes he is been snooping round locations he should not be, he is had his thoughts wiped. However, as a result of his ‘innie’ is the one persona whose reminiscences have been erased, his ‘outie’ can nonetheless (albeit subtly) keep in mind what his ‘innie’ noticed, which is why he retains portray the identical factor again and again. I additionally consider that, no matter that hallway and elevator results in, it has ties to the duties that the MDR workforce are finishing up and, by proxy, Gemma. It’s all interconnected!
7. Dylan G goes to mess up the lifetime of his ‘outie’ by way of the Outie Family Visitation Suite
Ever since Milchick used Lumon’s Overtime Contingency program on Dylan G in season 1 episode 7, the latter has been determined to study extra in regards to the lifetime of his ‘outie’, together with his household.
It appears he’ll get the possibility to really meet them someday this season. Midway by means of ‘Hello, Ms. Cobel’, Milchick secretly reveals that Lumon plans to make the Outie Family Visitation Suite – a brand new space that’ll enable ‘innies’ to fulfill the family of their ‘outie’ in a secure, safe, and strictly managed surroundings.
Evidently, that is one other means for Lumon to maintain Dylan G on-side, however I’m satisfied that one thing will go horribly incorrect with its use. Will Dylan G fall in love with Gretchen, aka the spouse of his ‘outie’? Would that trigger issues within the lifetime of his ‘outie’, particularly at house? If Dylan G feels he is been betrayed by Lumon in a roundabout way, may he lash out and maintain the household of his ‘outie’ hostage?
Furthermore, what’s going to his MDR cohorts say in the event that they discover out Dylan G has been given an additional reward as a part of Severance Reform? Could it trigger ructions between Dylan and his work colleagues? Time will inform on all of these questions however, no matter occurs, I can not see the Outie Family Visitation Suite being good for Dylan G.
