David Farnor | On 30, Mar 2025

Warning: This contains spoilers for Season 2. Never seen Severance? Read our spoiler-free review of Season 1.

Season 2 of Severance has been an uneven but jaw-dropping ride. The show’s bold sophomore chapter has expanded the universe of the mind-bending sci-fi thriller, sometimes to its detriment as it moves aware from the claustrophobic eeriness of its workplace premise, but often to dazzling effect, as the Innie/Outside split is used to explore its characters with heart-wrenching depth. A conversation between Innie Mark and Outie Mark in a birthing cabin is a standout moment, as the two sides of the same man get the opportunity to hear each other – and, ultimately, discover that they can’t trust themselves.

But the biggest, and most inspired, idea in Season 2 is the final decision from Mark, who finally succeeded in rescuing Gemma from the testing floor – but then chose to abandon her to the outside world and instead run away (literally) with Helly R and stay inside Lumon. As we now face months of uncertainty while scratching our heads over what happened and what will happen, we round up the nine questions we still have for Severance Season 3.

What will happen to Gemma?

After Season 1’s cliffhanger in which Mark discovered that Gemma was still alive, Season 2’s cliffhanger again leaves us wondering what’s next for her – this time, because not only is she alive but she’s out of Lumon. Literally her next steps will be up the staircase outside the fire escape door, but will Devon and Miss Cobel be waiting for her? If they are, will they make it away from Lumon without her being re-kidnapped? And what will Devon and Miss Cobel do? Tell the press and expose what happened to Gemma? Will anyone even listen or believe them? And will Lumon track them down? Part of the mystery surrounding Gemma is why her and Mark were so important to the company – and were her 24 different innie personas being developed by the testing unit intended for a specific purpose? And, of course, did Gemma recognise Helly R as the innie counterpart of Helena?

What is Lumon’s end goal?

Even with Mark getting Gemma out of the testing section of Lumon, there’s still the question of what exactly was going on down in those corridotrs. We know that they were creating multiple innies of her, testing the emotional boundaries between innie and outie – but why? Is it just about further developing the Severance technology? And is Gemma the only person being help captive for testing? Do the others have any connection to the other innies in Macro Data Refinement? Is each one in the department working on a single person’s run of tests? And why was Cold Harbour such a big deal for Lumon?

There are a few potential, logical directions for the company’s plans. First, creating a world in which people use Severance to escape pain and suffering – although whether that would be used by Lumon to better the world or to trick people into being used as innie fodder for Lumon’s own purpose is another matter entirely. Second, using its ability to create obedient, un-feeling and unknowing employees to sell its tech to the military or, you know, just other evil companies. Or third, using its ability to erase memories of pain and its freaky birthing cabins to give rich people to ability to pay for an innie to live through all their trauma on their behalf.

Will Mark finish reintegrating?

Mark began reintegrating all the way back near the start of Season 2 – and, now we’ve reached the finale, he’s still not finished that process. Will it ever happen? His outie tells his innie that he will complete it once Gemma is free – but does he really mean that promise? Innie Mark doubts it, which suggests Outie Mark is lying. Even if does mean it, does he need more surgery? Will it happen automatically now that he’s flipped that switch? Can the process be reversed?

What will happen to Miss Cobel?

We discovered in Season 2 that Miss Cobel was the person who invented the severance technology and procedure. Besides it being an interesting additional piece of her identity puzzle, what does it mean for the wider story? Will she fight Lumon for credit? Will she fight Lumon to take down the invention she regrets? And how will the events of the Season 2 finale change or influence her next steps?

Will Miss Haung or Irving return?

Severance has already said goodbye to several key characters. the sinister Miss Huang graduated from her Wintertide Fellowship, with Mr Milchick sending her off to Svalbard for her next post – but will she ever come back? Will she be a loyal Lumon figure or wind up more rebellious like Miss Cobel? And will Irving ever make a return, after hopping on a train courtesy of Burt? Will their relationship ever be rekindled?

What will Mr Milchick do next?

Mr Milchick is easily our new favourite character – partly because we have no idea what he’s going to do next. He’s come close to rebelling against Lumon fully, but then ended up being loyal in trying to get Cold Harbour completed by Mark and the team. Does that mean he cares about the company, or just about his own career? And, now that he’s managed to break out of the bathroom and is standing atop a vending machine facing off against an army of marching band musicians, what on earth is going to do?

Is MDR over and done with?

Cold Harbour is done. The desks in the MDR office have been cleared away for a marching band. The marching band have been recruited by Dylan to rise up against Mr Milchick. So what does that mean for the department as a whole? Drummond, when fighting Mark, suggests that the group will soon cease to exist, but aren’t there others on the severed floor too? Are there other MDR teams? Dylan’s outie didn’t want to quit her job, which means he seems confident that his role at the company isn’t about to end prematurely. But he’s also in the middle of a battle with Mr Milchick, all on his own. Will Helly and Mark come back to help him? And will he ever achieve his dream of being with his outie’s wife, Gretchen?

What are Mark and Helly doing?

Which brings us to the biggest question of all: what the heck are Mark and Helly R up to? Innie Mark’s decision not to follow Gemma out to the stairwell is the big shocking moment at the end of Season 2 – because Innie Mark realises that he doesn’t love or know Gemma in the way that Outie Mark does, and that if he does step outside, his outie would have no reason to return to Lumon. That would mean Innie Mark stops existing, but it also means that he won’t see Helly R again.

Helly R, meanwhile, is also facing an outie who would have no reason to go back to Lumon, which would mean that she would stop existing too. And so she follows Mark to the stairwell door and calls back to him. And then they start running together, in a surreal, Graduate-style dash for romantic hope, through the corridors of the severed floor.

But where can they run to? Are they stuck on the floor forever, because they can’t ever exist together anywhere else? Will their outies ever have the compassion – or awareness – to let their innies get together again in the future? Will Helena Eagan’s dad admitting that he doesn’t love Helena but does love Helly have any impact on that? Could an innie and an outie ever swap places permanently?

We certainly saw partway through Season 2 that Helena managed to go into Lumon and stay as her outie self. So one possible theory is that Helena was actually the person at the end, running with Mark away from Gemma – as a way for the Eagans to ensure that Mark stays as his innie inside Lumon. Would Severance drop the same twist twice in one season?

What about the goats?

Gwendoline Christie’s unexpected appearance as a watcher of goats has been one of the most surprising delights of the show so far – that and the fact that Emile in the Season 2 did survive being sacrificed. What does that mean for the future of Mammalians Nurturable? Are the goats really being reated just to accompany the souls of Lumon testing victims into the afterlife? And what will Emile do with his newfound freedom?

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