We’ll Never Be Okay After Severance’s Epic Season 2 Finale

The season two finale of Severance was more than just an episode of television. It was an epic mini-movie that felt bigger and more impactful than everything we’ve seen this entire season combined. After episode upon episode of teases and questions, the episode, appropriately called “Cold Harbor,” finally sat us down and said, “Here’s what this means, here’s what that means, and how do you like it?” We got answers to big questions, endings to major stories, and, of course, so many additional mysteries we barely know where to start. But start we must. Full spoilers below.

Things start where last week’s episode left off, with innie Mark confused about his whereabouts and staring down his old boss, Harmony Cobel. She jumps right into the Gemma stuff and when she mentions the exports hall, Mark brings up Irving’s drawings. This throws Harmony—Irving was drawing the exports hall? How did he know about it?—but that quickly gets glossed over for more pressing things. Even so, we imagine that could be an important piece of info later on, especially since Irving’s story is at a crossroads.

After another brief scene with Helly and Jame back at MDR, where Jame confesses he doesn’t love his daughter Helena but sees Kier in her innie (a very startled Helly), things really get cooking. Cobel and Devon explain to innie Mark their plan to hopefully extract Gemma from Lumon. The thought is that if they break her out, it proves Lumon kidnapped her, faked her death, and it would be the end of the company. Which is a great plan for Devon and Cobel but not necessarily Mark’s innie. He sees that as sacrificing his life for someone he doesn’t know but before he can think too much more about it, they tell him someone else wants to chime in.

It’s outie Mark, who has recorded a message for innie Mark. This is something we’ve wanted from basically day one, for both versions of Mark to talk to and understand each other. And while things start relatively innocent and even heartfelt, things slowly take a turn. Innie Mark questions how this plan benefits him and the other innies. Outie Mark tells him about reintegration and that they can be one, to which the innie asks for an explanation. Mark doesn’t have one. Eventually, outie Mark brings up his innie’s relationship with Helly, but he mistakenly calls her “Heleny”—and that’s the moment Mark’s innie flips on his outie and begins to defy and challenge him. We realize that while these are two different versions of Mark, it’s still just Mark. Each one wants what he wants and is unwilling to compromise for it. What a Severance viewer is left to wonder is, is one more right than the other? And which do we side with?

The conversation has gone to shit so Cobel steps in and gives us maybe the most direct and clear exposition dump in Severance history. She explains that the numbers he deals with at work each day represent the mind and tempers of Gemma. And, for each file Mark has completed, he’s allowed Lumon to create a new innie for her. Once the 25th and final one, Cold Harbor, is done, the project will be complete and they’ll have no more need for Mark, Gemma, or the rest of the MDR employees. She says it’s over for them. Innie Mark isn’t sure if he can believe her so he storms out and tells Devon to tell his outie that the next thing he sees better be the severed floor or else he’s not going to help.

Which is, of course, where things immediately go. But before continuing on with the rest of the episode, I almost want to rise up in front of my Apple TV+ app and give Adam Scott a standing ovation for those scenes. The way you can clearly see differentiations between both his outie and innie, and also how they each go on a full journey from excited, appreciated wonder, to pure venom and confusion, was remarkable. A tour de force if ever there was one.

Back at Lumon, it’s the day all the creeps have been waiting for. Mark S. is going to finish Cold Harbor and, to mark Mark’s achievement, he and Helly are greeted with a brand new painting outside the elevator (“The Exalted Victory of Cold Harbor,” it’s called. It’s amazing and I need it) as well as an eerie wax statue of Kier in the middle of MDR. The statue holds a note from Mr. Milchick letting Mark know that Kier wanted to watch the work and that when he finishes, “goodly splendors” will await. And, as you probably already know, those “goodly splendors” did not disappoint.

The start of the day also held another surprise, the return of Dylan. When last we left him, Dylan’s innie had quit Lumon but, it turns out, his outie didn’t agree to it. We, as well as Mr. Milchick, assume the worst of this but in a truly touching moment, innie Dylan is handed a letter from his outie that doesn’t go how anyone expected. The outie basically thanks his innie for being so badass and explains that he’s not particularly confident, so his innie’s existence gives him hope for himself. Outie Dylan writes that if he wants to quit, he can, but that he hopes he doesn’t because he’s so happy to know he’s out there. Seriously, the execution and performances in this scene were both so good, I cried. And that Mr. Milchick was so busy he had to literally sprint out of the room was just the hilarious cherry on top.

Mark is ready to start working on Cold Harbor, but he’s not sure if he should. Helly tells him about Jame Eagan showing up, and Mark tells her everything he learned from Cobel. Basically, if he finishes the file, there’s a good chance they’ll cease to exist. Helly knows that her outie would be fine with that so she pushes Mark to take the leap and rescue Gemma. Whether Cobel is lying or not, Helly says at least there’s a chance Mark can continue on. Mark says he doesn’t want to continue without her and the episode once again hints at what will ultimately be its biggest question. Is it humanly possible for both parts of Mark to share happiness?

Work on Cold Harbor begins, with both Dr. Mauer and Mr. Drummond watching on from the testing floor. As he works on it Mark and Helly talk about places they know of, places they don’t, and joke about what they think “the Equator” is. Episode director Ben Stiller shoots all of this in extreme close-ups that give the conversation an added element of emotion and intimacy. It’s all a nice distraction because, eventually, Mark lands on the last few numbers. They hold hands, get close, and finish the file.

After two long sections filled with tension and emotion, the finale needed a release valve. And a release we got, first from a stirring lights-and-music fueled introduction (akin to the Chicago Bulls in the Michael Jordan days), second from some awkward comedic banter between Mr. Milchick and the animatronic Kier statue (during which both have their feelings hurt and Kier hints Cold Harbor is just the beginning of a larger plan). Finally, we hear Milchick call for the Choreography and Merriment department. Yes, the severed floor at Lumon has an entire department dedicated to dancing and music in the form of a full-on marching band. The reveal, coupled with Mr. Milchick finally getting to do some of the dancing that made him so memorable in season one, is quite possibly the most awkward, absurd, and flat-out hilarious moment in Severance history. A total 180 from everything else we’ve seen up until here.

And yet, it’s wasting time. Mark knows he is on a ticking clock to get to the testing floor before Gemma is killed. “See you at the equator,” he and Helly romantically say, before she steals Milchick’s walkie-talkie, creating the diversion Mark needs to make a run for it. Helly manages to trap Milchick in the MDR bathroom and is able to keep him there until Dylan appears and shoves the vending machine in front of the door for support.

After following the sheet of directions through Lumon’s maze of hallways that Irving left behind, Mark finally finds the entrance to the exports hall. He’s unaware of what’s happening in the secret room adjacent to it, where Mr. Drummond has summoned Lorne from the Mammalians Nurturable department (Gwendoline Christie, making her return), along with a goat. This particular goat, Drummond is assured, has “verve” and “wiles.” It’s here we finally find out what the goats on Severance are for. They’re bred to be sacrificed and put into coffins with dead bodies to guide their spirits to Kier’s door. This particular goat is being killed for a “cherished woman” who is never named—but from everything we know, we can safely assume he means Gemma.

Drummond produces a bolt gun and instructs Lorne to kill the goat, but they’re interrupted by a sound outside the door. It’s Mark trying to get into the exports hall. A massive fight ensues between Drummond and Mark, though it’s not really a contest; Mark’s about to be strangled to death with Lorne emerges and saves him. Drummond then fights Lorne, except this time he’s met his match. Mark takes Drummond hostage and Lorne thanks him for saving Emile (the goat’s name is Emile).

Severance isn’t known for action for violence so seeing a scene like this, with the stakes as high as they are for all involved, was dramatically brash but perfectly warranted. An unexpected, yet welcome, change of pace. One that took an almost Coen brothers twist when, in the elevator down to the testing floor, Mark’s outtie reemerges and mistakenly fires the bolt gun into Drummond’s throat, killing him as blood shoots everywhere. RIP Mr. Drummond, you piece of crap.

While much of the above was happening, we saw Gemma put on her outfit for the day—she immediately realizes it’s her own clothing, from the night she left her home with Mark and never returned—and get led to the one room she’d never visited before: Cold Harbor. Inside, the ominous voice of Dr. Mauer tells Gemma to take apart a baby crib, which she does without a word or otherwise reacting in any way. The implication here is that Cold Harbor allows Lumon to make severed individuals without emotion. Without thought. Complete and utter blank slates that will do anything if merely asked. The possibilities of it are staggering and while it’s certainly not the answer most people may have thought of to “What the hell is happening here on Severance?” it’s at least an answer. Mauer and, most importantly, Jame Eagan watch on with frothy delight.

That is, of course, until they realize that plan is about to go to shit. Outie Mark arrives on the testing floor and, after a brief encounter with the nurse, is able to enter Cold Harbor using Mr. Drummond’s blood. Gemma is still taking apart the crib when he enters and as he calmly asks her to leave, the success of Cold Harbor is what aids him. Gemma ignores the cries of Dr. Mauer and she cautiously, but obediently leaves with Mark. Mauer and Jame scream in horror because they know this is very, very bad. Once Gemma leaves the Cold Harbor room, she snaps back to herself and it’s the reunion we’ve been waiting for. Mark and Gemma, the wife he thought to be dead, together once more. But will he be able to break her out?

Upstairs, the Choreography and Merriment department has been playing this entire time (which really added to the overall tension anytime things cut back to loud, boisterous band music). They’re about to leave at Milchick’s request when Helly gets up and makes her Emmy-moment speech. She talks about how this floor is going to close and that everyone has already lost friends. She pleads that severed people are only given half a life and Lumon thinks they won’t fight for it. The speech works and by the time Milchick exits the bathroom, the entire marching band has turned to stare him down. “Fuck you, Mr. Milchick” Dylan defiantly says.

“You’ll kill them all,” Dr. Mauer ominously screams as Gemma and Mark make it to the elevator. There, as expected, they snap back to their innies, Ms. Casey and Mark S. Mark was prepared for that though and they make a break for it. There isn’t much in the way of opposition since it seems everyone from Lumon is either trapped or dead, so they quickly reach the exit stairs. Ms. Casey opens the door and flips back to Gemma, who starts screaming for Mark, the husband she’s finally been reunited with, to follow her. Only, it’s not her Mark. It’s innie Mark. And here’s when that incredible opening to this episode comes back.

Innie Mark has completed his mission for outie Mark. They worked together to get Gemma out. But, we know, he also wants to exist. To be complete. And so, with his outie’s wife on one side and his innie’s love, Helly, on the other, Mark makes his choice. He decides to leave Gemma behind and be with Helly. This is their equator.

As “The Windmills of Your Mind” by Noel Harrison plays, the two make a run for it, certainly aware, but not caring, that they can’t leave this place. They only exist in this place. And if they stay there, changes can’t be made to fix it. But they don’t care, they’re in love. And no one knows what’s next. The season closes on a freeze frame of the two of them running scared, with their luscious locks billowing in the air.

Season two of Severance starts with Mark running to find Gemma and it ends with him and Helly running to stay together because it’s all they can do. After an edge-of-your-seat 76 minutes of tension, it’s an ending that’s probably not quite as maddening as season one’s but is even more tantalizing. Then, you had a clear idea of what had to happen. Here, we have no idea. Mark’s decision to stay with Helly asks so many impossible questions with even more devastating implications. Then there’s the potential fallout from Gemma’s escape and it means for the future of Lumon. But, hopefully, we won’t have to wait three years for answers to any of it.

As we come to the end of the season, I wanted to thank each and every one who sat down and read these each week. Recapping a show this epic is not an easy task and I hope my blood, sweat, and tears helped bring you some enjoyment and or insight. Let’s do it again in season three.

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