Well, I can confirm that both my innie and outie are deeply distressed after watching that unhinged Severance season 2 finale. After a season of mysterious goats, unpacking Helly/Helena’s complicated identity, losing Irving at Lumon, continued work on the “Cold Harbor” file, and a whole lot of searching for Gemma, we finally got some answers in the last episode. Were the answers horrifying? For the most part, yes. Ignorance was bliss. I take my “mysterious and important” work here at Betches very seriously, so here’s a thorough recap of the Severance season 2 finale.
What Is The Cold Harbor File And What Did Lumon Do To Gemma?
Mark’s been working on the mysterious Cold Harbor file since season 1, and he finally finishes it at the end of season 2. Turns out, those “scary numbers” are truly as scary as it gets; they represent Gemma’s different moods as she’s being experimented on in the basement of the Lumon office building. Whenever Mark hovers over the distressing numbers, he feels her intense emotions. He instinctively organizes the numbers into Kier Eagan’s “Four Tempers”: woe, frolic, malice, and dread. Cobel describes the clusters as “a doorway into the mind of [his] outie’s wife.”
Every time Mark drags a set of numbers into a one box, a new consciousness for Gemma emerges, so she can do certain tasks without feeling any emotions at all. By the end of season 2, Gemma’s mind has been split into 24 different consciousnesses — and Mark is able to stop the 25th division, which was Lumon’s final goal.
Mark’s innie and outie work together on a plan to rescue Gemma. His outie safely gets her out of the Cold Harbor room where Lumon’s testing to see if they can take stop her from feeling love. She’s being forced to take apart the baby crib she and Mark bought before their painful experience with miscarriage.
The Goats, Explained
We see goats in season 1, and we see a lot more goats in season 2 when innie Mark and outie Helena stumble upon a giant goat room while looking for Gemma. The department is called “Mammalians Nurturable.” As expected, there’s something very dark going on with the goats: After a file’s completed, the innie test subject is murdered, and the goats are offered as sacrifices. The idea is that they “guide” the test subject’s spirt to Kier because, well, this is a creepy, evil cult. A goat named Emile is supposed to be Gemma’s spirit guide, but Mark’s able to save both Gemma and the goat.
The Mark, Gemma, Helly Love Triangle, Explained
When innie and outie Mark have a chat, innie Mark isn’t too pleased when he realizes that outie Mark wants him to give up his life/relationship with Helly, so that outie Mark can end severance and reunite with Gemma. Although outie Mark does get Gemma out of the Cold Harbor room and their outies reunite, they have to go back to the severed floor to get out. There, of course, Gemma and Mark are back to their innies. Mark has to decide whether he’s gonna leave with Gemma or follow his innie heart and choose Helly (even though he and Helly might both die.)
Despite a whole season of searching for Gemma, innie Mark decides to stay at Lumon and choose Helly. At the end of the episode, we see him and Helly holding hands and running through the halls together. Devastatingly, Gemma’s on the other side of the door, crying and begging Mark to come with her.
What Happened To Irving?
Earlier in the season, Irving’s fired from Lumon, so it seems like his innie was killed off. His outie winds up having dinner with Burt, and we discover that Burt’s outie is also working for Lumon. Burt then shows up at Irving’s home, discovers his notes about Lumon, and asks Irving to go on a drive with him. While they’re in the car together, Burt reveals that his outie’s job is taking the killed off Lumon employees for a drive and dropping them off at a certain location.
However, this situation’s different since he knows that he and Irving’s innies had a romance at Lumon. Rather than doing what he usually does, Burt takes Irving to a train station and gets him a ticket to as far away as possible. Irving wants a relationship with Burt, but Burt declines and leaves him there.
