Severance season 1 was one of the most mind-bending shows I’ve seen recently. The set, the writing, and the story hooked me right from episode 1. Over the course of 9 weeks, as each episode was released, I got a few answers, but the episode gave me more questions to think about.
With the season finale, it was no different. The episode ends on a cliffhanger as we see the arcs of Mark, Dylan, Irving, and Helly come to an abrupt halt.
If you’ve watched the final and are looking for a detailed explanation, I’ve got your back. So let’s get right to it.
The severance season finale ends with Mark realizing that Casey’s alive, Helly partially exposing Lumon, and Irving coming to know that Burt is married.
It all begins with Dylan pulling both the levers to activate the overtime contingency. From that moment onwards, we are sitting upright, waiting for the characters to tell as much about Lumon as possible to the person nearest to them.
It takes a while for Mark, Helly, and Irving to understand this and adapt to the setting. They first absorb where they are, who they are, and the people around them. The biggest reveal here was that Helly R is actually Helena Eagan, daughter of James Eagan, Lumon’s current CEO.
She had gone through the severance process and entered Lumon to prove to the world and the government officials like the senator that it was completely safe. In fact, it should even be allowed because it is the future.
However, when she realizes who she really is, it flips her out. The pressure is mounting because she’s in an event where she’s going to give a speech about her experience and promote the procedure in a significant way.
On the other hand, Irving tries to find Burt, whom he had fallen in love with, inside Lumon. Mark has Ms. Cobel in his house, and he tries to talk to his sister, Devon, about the procedure. Ms. Cobel was just fired from Lumon, and she had come to Devon’s place for the reading by Ricken.
Right after Mark tells her that he’s planning to quit, the overtime contingency gets activated. Ms. Cobel realizes this and trie to fix things by calling Milchick. While all this is happening, Mark talks to Devon and tells her about the suspicious activities at Lumon.
The only problem here is that nobody still doesn’t what exactly is happening at Lumon, including ourselves. By sheer luck, Mark discovers the picture of Casey, who Devon tells him is his wife.
The finale ends with Mark screaming, “She’s alive!” Helly is pulled off the stage by Ms. Cobel, Irving reaches Burt’s place but realizes he’s married, and Milchick tackles Dylan in the control room.
This sets the stage for season 2, which has been announced by Apple TV+. So what exactly will happen next?
From the way the show’s been progressing, they wouldn’t give us the big answer right away. In fact, I don’t think we’ll know what’s happening in Lumon anytime soon. In season 1, we only saw the characters being reprimanded in the break room, but in season 2, the consequences will be much more significant.
Suspending them wouldn’t be an option because there’s a possibility of them completely exposing Lumon. This means that they will be stuck in the office for a long time no matter what happens. In addition, they might face much stricter restrictions which are more severe than what they’ve seen before.
However, those are all the means to an end. Currently, the biggest question that needs answering is what happens within Lumon’s office. We might find out more about Casey/Gemma, and that could give us the answer to the question.
Although season 2 has been announced, we still don’t have any other details from the creators or the studio. It will likely come out only in 2023, which is quite far away. So I’m going to go down a rabbit hole, devouring any fan theory I can find and make sense of it, and you can do it too.
About Severance
Severance is an American science fiction psychological thriller streaming television series created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle. The plot follows Mark (Scott), an employee of Lumon Industries who agrees to a “severance” program in which his non-work memories are separated from his work memories.
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