There are few shows currently on TV that are more mind-bending than Apple TV+'s Severance. The series follows Mark, a Severed employee of Lumon Industries, who has had his consciousness divided so that he doesn't remember his workday, and his working self doesn't remember his life outside of work. The sci-fi workplace psycho-drama from Apple TV+ is ready to begin shooting its second season very soon, and fans are anxiously awaiting answers to the show's most pressing questions.
As with any series that is founded upon one (or several) core mysteries, the downtime between seasons has brought fans of Severance together to brainstorm theories about possible solutions to those mysteries. Here are some of the best ideas they have dreamed up.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
8 The "Inter-Departmental Coup" Was Actually An Uprising
Several times throughout the show there is mention of an interdepartmental coup that took place years ago, with Burt even making a (horrifying) painting that depicts the event. Both MDR and Optics and Design believe that the other department was the coup's perpetrator.
Reddit user greenisthefutureAMA suggests that the coup may not have been the departments turning on each other, but was instead a union of severed employees across departments rising up against their bosses. It would explain why the departments are now kept so small and far apart. The higher-ups at Lumon simply crafted the "coup" story and spread it among the ranks to prevent the departments from banding together again.
7 Dylan Is A Workaholic
Out of all the MDR employees, the only one whose motivations for undergoing the severance procedure are unclear is Dylan. Redditor kitastropheb proposed a theory that would explain his reasoning, as well as some of his Innie's mannerisms.
Dylan is very clearly obsessed with personal success in his workplace, and perfectly-cast actor Zach Cherry portrays this with a deft and subtle performance. He frequently boasts about meeting his quotas and keeps a collection of his rewards - finger traps, erasers, and caricatures - on his desk as proof of his good work. These are all tendencies of a workaholic, and this theory proposes that Dylan went through severance to separate himself from those tendencies, so they wouldn't interfere with his spending time with his young son.
6 Helly's Chip Is Malfunctioning
Of all the members of MDR, Helly has the most challenging time adapting to her life as an Innie. While Mark admits that he also freaked out a bit at first, Helly's multiple and escalating escape attempts seem to suggest that she's far less complacent with her new life than the others. This could just be the result of a strong personality, but it could also mean something else.
Eagle-eye Reddit user scubascratch spotted a blink-and-you'll-miss-it detail in Episode 2 during Helly's surgery scene. On the monitor displaying the surgery's progress, there is a small warning that reads "The selected tool is too short for trajectory." This could explain why Helly has so much difficulty adapting to being at Lumon, especially since her Outtie is so eager to keep her there. There may be an issue with Helly's chip that is causing her to resist its influence.
5 The Citizens Of Kier Are All Severed
This theory is a bit of a trip, suggested by Twitter user freshwaterlady who noticed that even average citizens in the town of Kier seem to behave strangely. It's already known that the Senator's wife went through severance to avoid dealing with her pregnancy, and the Innie version Devon met at her maternity retreat behaved very strangely at the time. What if it doesn't end there, and everyone living in Kier uses severance to avoid doing things they dislike?
There are several examples of this: the weird bird-lady at Ricken's book reading, the foodless dinners (perhaps necessitated because none of the Innies have been "alive" long enough to learn how to cook), the ignorant WWI conversation in Episode 1, all of it is people behaving abnormally while acting like they're fitting in. We know Helena's father said that Lumon's plan is to eventually put a chip in everyone. Perhaps that process is further along than expected.
4 Irving Has Been "Reset" Multiple Times
The Season 1 finale opens with Irving at home, painting what appears to be the elevator that leads to the Testing floor. The camera pans to reveal that he has painted this same image over and over. It's also revealed while Dylan is in the Control Room that each employee can be set to one of five departments within Lumon, seemingly at any time.
Reddit user Manannan_Vannin suggests that Burt and Irving have fallen in love and been reset repeatedly, and yet they keep finding each other and falling in love again. Fraternization between severed employees is discouraged, so Lumon resets them both each time, and it's happened often enough that Lumon decided to just retire Burt. Yet Irving's Outtie has seemingly developed a traumatic memory of the elevator. He is clearly a talented painter, a skill set arguably best suited for Optics and Design, and yet for some reason, Irving finds himself placed in MDR.
3 Ms. Cobel Isn't A Villain
Patricia Arquette's Ms. Cobel is one of Severance's most enigmatic characters. As the head of Lumon's Severed Department, she oversees everything involving the Innies of the show's main characters, yet she herself is not severed. She has also inserted herself into Outtie Mark's life as his hapless neighbor Mrs. Selvig. While all outward appearances seem to suggest she is manipulating events in service of Lumon, Redditor AintLongButItsSkinny suggests her motivations may be more altruistic.
In short, the theory stems from the fact that Ms. Cobel doesn't report her discovery to the Board regarding Petey's successful re-integration of his Innie and Outtie consciousnesses. Instead, she keeps that information between herself and Graner, the Head of Security. When she sees a security video of Mark and Helly wandering the halls without permission, Graner bursts into her office and asks if she sees what's happening. She deflects and pretends not to know what he means. The user suggests that Ms. Cobel may actually be trying to encourage Mark's reintegration, turning Mark into her pet project and hoping to make him more like her: un-severed and still serving Kier's interests.
2 Irving Is Brainwashing Himself
Following up on the previous Irving-related theory, another Redditor suggested that Irving's repetitive painting of the Testing floor elevator, as well as his listening to Motorhead's "Ace Of Spades" on repeat while doing so, are brainwashing techniques and that Irving may be trying to bridge the gap between his Innie and Outtie consciousnesses through pattern recognition.
It's made clear when Irving's Innie is woken up on the outside that his Outtie has been digging into severed Lumon employees and has made lists of the ones he's identified. He also appears to be drinking large amounts of coffee, depriving himself of sleep to further the brainwashing process. It's clearly affecting his Innie, who often falls asleep at work, and the dreams he has of black goo (now known to be black paint) confirm that his consciousnesses are starting to bleed together in their dreams.
1 Lumon Is Creating Artificial Life
This one is a doozy from Redditor ybneyk, who has found no shortage of evidence to imply that Lumon is attempting to create artificial life in order to grow their own severed employees. It all centers around the Four Tempers in Kier's writings, which are represented by four colors in MDR's computers: Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green. These colors are repeated everywhere in the show: on department keycards, on Petey's map, on the office furniture, and in the lighting during the "Music Dance Experience."
Essentially, MDR is using Kier's Four Tempers to categorize brain activity, hence why the numbers elicit a "feeling" in the employee categorizing them. Lumon's goal is to create a fully artificial human worker, with no Outtie to be concerned with. Lumon has already had some success in this, with the baby goats being their version of Dolly the Sheep. It's also suggested that Ms. Casey may be another recreation and that Gemma really did die in a car accident. The real question is, how does Ricken know about it? After all, he signs Mark's copy of his book "To Mark: Intrepid Cartographer Of The Mind."
Best of all, this may have been revealed in the show's very first scene. When newly-severed Helly asks Mark during her interview if she is livestock, Mark responds: "You think we grew a full human, gave you consciousness...?" Yes Mark, yes indeed.