After a three-year period that felt twice that length, Severance has finally returned. Last Friday saw the season premiere arrive, and it proved an appropriately trippy and darkly funny return (on top of featuring a welcome uncredited cameo from Keanu Reeves). While it mostly functioned as an extended reintroduction after years away, it also promised a number of tantalizing mysteries that we’re eagerly awaiting to see where they lead.
If the buzz from critics is any indication, we’re in for an exciting ride this year. The cast and crew are promising to shed more light on the series’ biggest mysteries and thus reveal more of their larger vision for the story. Whether that involves explaining Dr. Casey’s past as outie Mark’s wife or simply unveiling Lumon’s ultimate endgame from their employees’ labor remains to be seen. But we’re hoping that Severance’s sophomore outing answers one of our biggest questions of all: where does the outside world actually take place, and is it even in the real world?
The Outside World in ‘Severance’ Feels Off
Revisiting the first season, it’s clear that something about Severance’s world outside the Lumon offices feels fundamentally off. To begin with, Mark’s neighborhood, in particular, feels barren and devoid of people; it seems too perfect to be a coincidence that Harmony Cobel/Mrs. Selvig just happens to be his next-door neighbor. In the first season finale, when Helly spoke at a company presentation (from which the Season 2 premiere delivers a surprising development), there seemed to be shockingly few people in attendance.
This is all before we get into the minor details of the world, like the fact that the roads are regularly empty, or how the only cars we see are driven by the main characters, or how it’s almost always snowing. Of course, the small population of the outside world could be a coincidence, as the bulk of the first season was shot in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic when social distancing and quarantining were still mandated.
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But Severance still gives its world plenty more quirks that prove much harder to ignore. Minor Season 1 player Dr. Reghabi, the former Lumon surgeon who helped Petey reintegrate into society, was also the one who installed Mark’s severance chip. It’s clear that she knows a lot about his backstory that’s yet to be revealed, and her debut on the show when she saved Mark from the head of security hinted that she could return down the road.
Most bizarrely of all is the fact that the town that the “outie” characters reside in is named Kier, after Lumon’s founder, Kier Eagan. Both in and outside Lumon, Eagan’s followers worship his life teachings with an almost cult-like devotion, to the point where temples of worship exist in his honor. Lumon even secretly hosts a note-for-note replica of his house inside the Perpetuity Wing. Considering how much the show has built up his importance, it’s hard not to imagine the character or his legacy playing a big part going forward, even though Eagan is said to have died years before.
Is the Outside World in ‘Severance’ Another Prison?
It’s been a popular theory among Severance fans that Eagan is actually still alive, even if the specifics as to how are a point of contention. And if he is indeed still in the picture and, by extension, the mastermind behind the work done at Lumon, who’s to say his control only extends to his company, considering the near-religious following he seems to have? Doesn’t it seem likely that he’d also see fit to hold power over the outside world?
To begin with, the fact that the town is named directly after him is a red flag, as is the fact that the town’s population is near-barren. Additionally, it’s clear that Kier as a city gets most, if not all, of its income from the work done at Lumon, and every restaurant we’ve seen is named after a different member of his family. Mark and the other outies live in Lumon-subsidized housing in a neighborhood that visually parallels the uniform and conformist appearance of the offices inside the company.
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Also, if we look at the science-fiction genre conventions that Severance runs on, a common thread is the concept of a simulated reality. The Matrix, arguably the quintessential work of cyberpunk film, similarly targeted the numbing psychological effect of corporate culture, as the characters realized the world around them was designed specifically as a means of control. Considering the shared thematic territory that Severance explores, is it really that much of a stretch to believe the outside world is just as much a simulation as the offices of Lumon?
‘Severance’ Season 2 Promises to Peel Back the Curtain
Of course, this is all still speculation. But now that Severance is finally back, there’s a chance it might not be for much longer, especially since the creative team has openly stated that we’ll start getting answers this year. We can’t wait to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Severance Season 2 is streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes every Friday.
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