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- The “Severance” season two finale ended with another major cliffhanger.
- BI spoke to creator Dan Erickson about the still-unconfirmed season three and what Lumon is really up to.
- “It’s a big floor down there and we haven’t seen all of it,” Erickson told BI.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the “Severance” season two finale.
“Severance” season two has come to an end, leaving Helly R. and Mark S. fans giddy and the show’s thriving subreddit in absolute shambles.
The supersized 76-minute finale, which was released on Apple TV+ on Friday, answered many questions. Namely, we now know that Mark has actually been refining 25 different innies for his wife, Gemma. Since the mysterious Cold Harbor was the final “file” he completed, Gemma is no longer needed on the testing floor and is seemingly about to meet her end via some mysterious goat sacrifice. That is, before she’s rescued by Mark and eventually set free outside Lumon’s doors — only for innie Mark to choose to stay inside in order to continue his relationship with his severed love interest, Helly.
But the finale’s events leave plenty more questions left unanswered: What will Helly and Mark do now? What are those goats about? Why was Cobel interested in Mark in the first place?
Seeking clarity, BI spoke to “Severance” creator Dan Erickson, who gave us some clues as cryptic as Lumon’s complicated lore.
I am already ready for “Severance” season three. Has that been ordered officially yet? Is writing happening now? When is filming expected to start?
I really can’t say anything about that. I wish. I truly wish I could, but yeah, all I can say is it’s something that we’ve been talking about and excited about the idea of it, but that’s about all I got.
Got it. Well, thematically, if season two was kind of about warring with yourself, and how your innie and outie can have totally different objectives and needs, what would you say the theme is for season three?
That’s another one that I would have to kick down the road a little bit, unfortunately.
One of the predominant mysteries is the goats. And then of course Emile the goat has this big moment in the finale, where he’s almost killed. Drummond had that really intriguing line: “This beast will be entombed with the cherished woman whose spirit it must guide to Kier’s door.” Obviously that’s vague, but it seems to imply the woman is Gemma. Is that accurate?
I mean, I don’t want to say too much to expand upon what’s there on the screen, but it certainly seems that it could be. And I think that this idea that this goat is sort of part of this ritualistic moment surrounding the end of somebody’s life, I think that that raises some interesting questions.
Lumon has a lot of lore, and we see it in many murals throughout the season. In the finale, we get a new mural, “The Victory of Cold Harbor,” and we see in one of the closeup shots of the mural that on the top is Jame Eagan, Helena, and a bunch of other folks who I don’t think we’ve met yet. Are we going to meet those people in a potential season three? Are they the Lumon board? Are they related to Kier or the Egan family in some way?
OK, let’s see. I’m not sure what I should say here. I would say I think we have seen some of those people in some form, perhaps not in the flesh, but I will say that that group of people at the top of the waterfall, they all kind of have something in common. And I think I’m going to be weird and cryptic and leave it at that.
That’s fair. I mean, I have my own theory, which is that they’re all siblings or half-siblings of Helena, given the also-cryptic conversation that Jame and Helly have in the finale where he says that there are “others in the shadows,” seeming to imply he has other children.
Mm-hmm.
Does that sound like anything that can be confirmed?
I’m giving you a stone face here.
Fair enough. Moving on to Cobel: Our editor spoke to Patricia Arquette earlier in the season, and she hinted that there is something deeper as to why Harmony is fixated on Mark specifically. Are we going to get more of that teased out in season three? Is the bond between them potentially familial?
All that I’ll say is I think it’s a big question throughout the series how earnest her affection is for Mark. I think that Cobel is somebody who’s had to wear a lot of masks in her life and she has had to sort of spin a certain identity for herself given her place at Lumon. And when we see her in season one as Mrs. Selvig, she is playing a role, but the question is always sort of which “mask” is more real, which mask is more true to who she actually is? And Mrs. Selvig really cares for Mark and Ms. Cobel doesn’t seem to.
And I think that who we care about in life is a big reflection on our identity and who we are. So this question of does she actually care for Mark on a personal level or is it a professional thing, pokes at the question of who she is deep, deep down inside.
One of the biggest apparent confirmations in the finale is when Cobel tells Mark that the numbers that he’s been refining are actually the “building blocks” of Gemma’s mind, and that every file he’s finished is a new Innie-Gemma programmed to a different room we saw in episode seven. This begs the question: Who has everyone else been refining?
That’s another good question, and I apologize that I can’t say more, but most of the things that we left ambiguous this season we’ve done with some intent. And so there’s only so much I can say without spoiling the fun.
But it’s a big floor down there and we haven’t seen all of it.
You’ve said before that the original endpoint for the show that you’ve envisioned hasn’t changed in any sort of significant way, but the path to it has. Is that still the case? Is that still accurate?
Yep, still accurate.
Does anyone besides you know the endpoint of the show — what Lumon’s master plan is, what they’re trying to do?
Yeah, a couple people do. It’s something that we talk about.
I spoke to Tramell Tillman recently and he suggested that he didn’t know what the end goal for Milchick is here. Is that accurate, or was he being cagey with me?
I think that that’s probably accurate if that’s what Tramell said. I think that a lot of the actors intentionally choose not to know things that their characters wouldn’t know until those reveals come to light the character. And so in Mr. Milchick’s case, he doesn’t know where his story ends. And so I think it’s fair to say that Tramell probably doesn’t either.
Do you have a certain number of seasons you’ve mapped out for the show?
I do, but that’s another thing that we’re keeping tight-lipped about at this point.
Do you read fan theories? Do you avoid them? Are there any that you’ve seen that you’re like, this is ridiculous, I can in fact debunk that this is nonsense?
Here’s what I will say. There is a fan theory that — because [Ricken’s friend] Rebeck in season one mentions that she has sores on the back of her head from her bird, and people have taken that to mean that she has a severance scar and that Rebeck is severed.
Now, I am not going to confirm or deny that Rebeck is severed or that that is what those sores are, but I do want to say right here, conclusively, Rebeck’s bird is real. It’s real and it’s an asshole and it’s trying to kill her. And it’s smart enough that it knows that sometimes you have to attack from behind and I will not tolerate the erasure of Rebeck’s bird as a character.
Now again, as to whether that relates to severance or not, I have no comment, but the bird is real and it’s a jerk.
Got it. So the theory about Ricken being the outie of a goat, that one is still TBD?
That one is still TBD. We’re still looking into that.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
The “Severance” season two finale is now streaming on Apple TV+.
