Severance’s Season 2 Finale Changes Everything We Know About Lumon
The revolution will be televised.
Severance’s mysterious company Lumon has always been shown as on the cutting edge of science. After all, they developed the Severance procedure, and as we recently learned in Season 2, they are also behind blood donation and fertility treatments.
But that doesn’t mean that Lumon is ignoring the humanities. The severed MDR employees have been treated to multiple artistic incentives, from small keepsakes to Defiant Jazz in a Music Dance Experience. In the Season 2 finale, we saw just how far this multi-disciplinary interest goes — and it might just tease what’s ahead in Season 3.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Severance Season 2, Episode 10, “Cold Harbor.”
Mark and Helly finish the Cold Harbor file together before plotting Gemma’s escape.
In the Season 2 finale, “Cold Harbor,” Mark makes a shaky alliance with his outie, agreeing to help rescue Gemma from the testing floor and get her out of Lumon altogether. But before he can do that, he has to finish the Cold Harbor file, a process that is celebrated with a visit from the Choreography and Merriment department: a full marching band, complete with Mr. Milchick as a staff-toting drum major.
It’s a moment of levity that allows Mark and Helly to sneak out during the hubbub, but the existence of a whole band of presumably severed employees completely changes what we know of Lumon. Are these employees just on retainer and called in, or is the Choreography and Merriment Department just constantly rehearsing on a different floor? It certainly explains the modern dance element from Dylan’s Waffle Party back in Season 1: Lumon has an entire performing arts department that can entertain at a moment’s notice.
Mr. Milchick leads the Lumon Marching Band in a performance of “The Ballad of Ambrose and Gunnel.”
Now we know that Season 3 is on the way, this seemingly small aspect could have big implications. When Mark S. is off on his rescue mission of Gemma, Helly and Dylan enlist the help of the Choreography and Merriment Department to keep Mr. Milchick at bay — and they succeed in radicalizing the group with Helly’s plea: “They give us half a life, and think we won’t fight for it!” But could this newfound brotherhood of innies lead to something greater?
At the end of the season finale, Mark S. manages to get Gemma out, but chooses to stay in with Helly instead of leaving and reverting back to his outie form. It’s a risky choice because at this point Mark and Helly are in direct opposition to Lumon itself. Even though Jame expressed how he senses Kier in Helly and not Helena, Mark S. has murdered a Lumon executive and finished his MDR work — staying in Lumon seems impossible.
Unless, of course, he’s able to organize an innie revolution — something that seems much more feasible now that we know there are far more innies than we ever thought, enough to fill a college football stadium. This season we also learned there are severed floors across the world, and Miss Huang was sent to another Lumon facility only last episode. Season 3 could show us how every severed employee, from the tuba players to the goatherds, could have a place in overthrowing Lumon.
