Full spoilers follow for Severance season 2 episode 10.
After 10 weeks of teases, never-ending fan theories, and shocking in-universe moments, Severance season 2 has ended.
And, boy oh boy, what a finale it was. The hit Apple TV show has been the talk of the town since its return in mid-January, and I don’t expect discussions to end any time soon, especially after this episode.
As the dust settles, let’s dissect what happened in Severance‘s season 2 finale, titled ‘Cold Harbor’. Major spoilers immediately follow, so make sure you’ve watched it before reading on.
Is Gemma rescued by Mark in the Severance season 2 finale?
In short: yes! But, there’s a large lead-up to that. So, strap in, folks, because this explanation is going to be a long one.
Picking up immediately after Severance season 2 episode 9, Mark’s innie – Mark S – informs Harmony Cobel that he hasn’t completed Project Cold Harbor (more on this later) yet.
Good, that means Gemma, i.e., the wife of Mark’s outie (aka Mark Scout) is still alive and can be rescued! Not so fast, Mark S says. While Harmony, Mark Scout, and Mark’s sister Devon have a plan to save Gemma, Mark S is extremely hesitant to play his part. If Gemma escapes and the world learns of Lumon’s nefarious operations, the evil biotech corporation will be shut down.
That includes the severed floor, so the innies, Mark S included, won’t exist anymore. Understandably, Mark S doesn’t want to give his life and the lives of his fellow innies for a woman his outie loves, but he doesn’t.
To convince Mark S that this is the right thing to do, Devon gives him a handheld camcorder, tells him to watch the video recording, and then record his response to it.
The message has been left by Mark Scout, who apologizes for using severance as an escape from Gemma’s apparent death before asking Mark S to help break her out. The interaction is cordial at first, but things get intense as each persona becomes suspicious of the other’s true motives.
Mark Scout makes the grave error of bringing up Helly R and calling her Heleny; a similar slip-up to one Helena made when she got Gemma’s name wrong in Severance season 2 episode 6. That, alongside other issues, eventually leads Mark S to tell Mark Scout that he doesn’t trust him and won’t help save Gemma.
Cue Harmony Cobel’s intervention. Dropping some deep Severance lore by way of story exposition, she tells Mark S that the numbers he and the rest of the Macro Data Refinement (MDR) team have been working on are actually Gemma.
According to Harmony, they are a doorway into Gemma’s mind, with each cluster correlating to one of the Four Tempers that Lumon founder Kier Eagan is said to have tamed decades earlier.
Anyway, Project Cold Harbor is the 25th and final file Mark S must finish to help Lumon complete their severance-based work. Oh, and once that’s done, Lumon will dispose of the innies.
This particular revelation infuriates Mark S who, before storming out of the birthing cabin that he, Harmony, and Devon have been hiding at, informs the pair that, unless Mark Scout returns to Lumon, he won’t see Gemma again.
Next thing we know, Mark S is standing in the elevator leading to Lumon’s severed floor. Exiting the elevator, Mark S is greeted by a giant, creepy mural of him completing Cold Harbor as numerous Lumon employees past and present, plus the Eagan family, watch on.
But Mark S doesn’t have time to take it all in as he’s quickly reunited with Helly. The duo head to MDR and, after reading a card from their manager Seth Milchick – held by a creepy-looking statue of Kier Eagan – Mark S restarts his work on Cold Harbor. He’s incredibly reluctant to do so because he knows it’ll mean the death of the innies but, after a tear-jerking heart-to-heart with Helly, he begins to process the final few number clusters.
Meanwhile, Dylan G is revealed to be alive. Remember, he tried to resign from Lumon after Gretchen, his outie’s wife, rejected his marriage proposal. Episode 9 ended on something of a cliffhanger for Dylan G, with the implication that, by resigning, he was effectively committing suicide.
As I predicted, though, Dylan G can’t simply walk away. Milchick meets him at the severed floor’s elevator with his outie’s response to his resignation. The pair clearly don’t get on, but the heartfelt reply from Dylan’s outie reignites the fire within Dylan G, who heads back to MDR to find his friends.
But, back to Mark S and Helly R. As Mark completes the final file, Helly hands him Irving’s note – i.e., the one that contains directions to the black hallway that leads to the testing floor, where Gemma is being held captive.
Before their rescue mission can begin, though, an amusingly surreal sequence distracts them. Milchick converses with the previously mentioned Kier statue (it’s actually an animatronic) and then leads Lumon’s Choreography and Merriment (C&M) division in a dance number that puts season 1 episode 7’s Music Dance Sequence to shame. Hey, the Apple TV+ show was originally billed as a dark comedy, so absurd, laugh-out-loud moments like this are bound to happen intermittently!
To help Mark S slip away, Helly creates her own distraction by stealing Milchick’s walkie-talkie and heading to the bathroom. He follows her but she manages to evade him and temporarily lock him in it. Milchick almost escapes, but Helly, with help from Dylan G and a vending machine, blocks the entrance, trapping him.
With no one to stop him, all Mark S has to do is follow Irving’s directions, take the testing floor elevator, find Gemma, and help her escape, right? Well…
Who dies in Severance season 2 episode 10?
Don’t worry, Mark S, Gemma, and the rest of MDR survive. In fact, only one person dies in ‘Cold Harbor’ and that’s Mister Drummond.
Taking the testing floor elevator up to the severed floor after Mark S completes Project Cold Harbor, Drummond opens a secret room located behind the wall opposite the testing floor elevator hallway. There, he meets Mammalian Nurturables division chief Lorne and one of her goats (I’ll explain what the goats are used for later).
Drummond and Lorne are interrupted by Mark S’ attempts to break down the door to the testing floor elevator. His key card doesn’t grant him access to it, you see.
Drummond investigates and, realizing what Mark S is trying to do, tries to stop him. A scuffle ensues and, after overpowering Mark S, Drummond starts strangling him to death.
He would’ve succeeded, too, if not for Lorne’s intervention. Remember, Mark S and Helly left a lasting impression on Lorne and her crew in Severance season 2 episode 3, so it feels right that she’d save Mark S’ life.
A fight breaks out between Drummond and Lorne, which Lorne wins. Before she can kill Drummond, though, Mark S stops her because he can use Drummond as leverage to get to Gemma.
Or so Mark S thinks. After using Drummond’s all-access key card on the hallway door, he holds Drummond at gunpoint as a hostage. As they travel down in the elevator, Mark S starts to explain what’s going to happen when they reach the testing floor.
However, when the elevator passes through its severance barrier, Mark’s outie re-emerges, causing him to pull the trigger on the gun, and the bullet *ahem* severs the artery in Drummond’s neck. Long story short: Mark accidentally kills him.
Does Mark choose Gemma or Helly in the Severance season 2 finale?
Above all others, this is the moment that’s going to divide Severance fans. Why? Because Mark chooses Helly over Gemma.
Stepping out of the testing floor elevator, Mark’s bloodied outie makes his way to the Cold Harbor testing room where he’s confronted by Cecily, the nurse who keeps tabs on Gemma. Cecily refuses to open the door and runs away when Mark brandishes his gun.
How’s he going to get in now? With Drummond’s blood, of course. Like Cecily, Drummond’s blood signature grants him access to all the test rooms and it just so happens that Mark is covered in it. So, he uses some blood from his tie to gain entry to the Cold Harbor test room.
There, he finds a terrified Gemma, who doesn’t recognize Mark because her 25th (!) innie persona is active in this room. Despite Doctor Mauer’s attempts to convince her to stay away from him, Mark manages to get her to leave with him. Passing through the test room’s severance barrier, Gemma’s outie re-emerges. Cue a soul-stirring reunion between the couple that won’t leave a dry eye in the house.
Severance doesn’t let us have happy things, though, so you know a gut-punch event is moments away.
Traveling back to the severed floor, Mark and Gemma pass through the testing floor’s severance barrier, which causes Mark S and Ms Casey to take over. Mark S is still aware of the plan to get Gemma out, though, so he leads her to the severed floor’s exit stairwell. Its doorway contains another severance barrier that, once crossed, will allow their outies to emerge again and finally be rid of Lumon.
And here comes the kicker. Mark S convinces Ms Casey to leave, which she does and then turns back into Gemma. However, when Gemma tries to get Mark S to follow her, he hesitates. That lets Helly R – after leaving Dylan and the C&M team to deal with Milchick – find Mark S and Gemma at the exit stairwell.
Helly’s arrival reminds Mark S that he wants to be with her – after all, they love each other. As a confused and devastated Gemma watches, Mark S and Helly flee back through Lumon’s labyrinthine halls to locations unknown.
What is Project Cold Harbor, exactly?
One of the sci-fi mystery-thriller’s most talked-about mysteries, Project Cold Harbor is finally solved in this episode.
After Gemma passes through the test room’s severance barrier, Doctor Mauer tells her to walk into the room. There, she’s greeted by a crib that’s either the exact same one that Mark and Gemma were going to use for their baby or a near-identical replica of it. Either way, considering Gemma lost her and Mark’s baby years earlier, it’s disturbing and sinister that Lumon would make Gemma go through that again, albeit via her latest innie persona.
Mauer instructs Gemma’s newest innie to take the crib apart with a screwdriver. She duly obliges and, as she does so, Mauer watches her progress from the secret monitoring room we first saw in season 2 episode 7. Jame Eagen, Lumon’s current CEO, also watches from his own monitoring room.
Later, Mauer asks if Gemma knows who she is, to which she replies “I don’t know”. That confirms Lumon’s latest test is a success, but Mark’s arrival puts paid to the final stage of whatever evil scheme they’d concocted.
What are the goats used for in Severance’s season 2 finale?
Ever since they were first teased in season 1, fans have longed to learn more about what Lumon Industries is doing with its goats. It’s high time we found out, too. The last time we saw Lumon’s goats was in season 2 episode 3 but, even then, we learned next to nothing about what they’ll be used for.
Well, we finally have an answer – and, after a new Apple teaser confirmed they’d return in Severance‘s season 2 finale, it turns out one of the five best Severance goat theories was actually right.
During episode 10’s final act, we learn that Lumon’s Mammalian Nurturables division has hand-reared the goats for sacrificial offerings. Indeed, Lorne says as much after she meets Drummond in the secret room I mentioned earlier.
Drummond asks Lorne if the goat is “full of verve and wiles”, to which Lorne says it has the “most of its entire flock”. Interestingly, verve and wiles are two of the word-based cards we saw in the Cobel household in Severance season 2 episode 8, which signals their importance to the Kier Eagan doctrine.
Anyway, animal sacrifices have played an integral role in many real-world religions, so it’s no great surprise that they do so in Lumon’s religion-like cult. What is a surprise, though, is what purpose the goats appear to play as part of their sacrifice.
Drummond tells Lorne that the goat she’s brought – it’s called Emile, by the way – will be “entombed with a cherished woman whose spirit must be guided to Kier’s door”. The suggestion here is that, once the goat is sacrificed (read: shot in the head), it’ll somehow be imbued with Gemma’s spirit when she’s also bumped off following Project Cold Harbor’s completion.
Thankfully, Emile is spared by Mark S’ inadvertent intervention, and Lorne teams up with Mark S to overpower Drummond. Will we ever see one of Lumon’s goats get the chop? Hopefully not, but never say never.
Does Severance season 2’s final episode have a mid-credits or post credits scene?
End credits stingers have become par for the course for many franchises, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as well as certain shows on the world’s best streaming services, but not here.
Apple TV Originals steer clear of teasing what’s to come next season, and that’s certainly true of the Severance season 2 finale. There’s no mid- or post-credits sequence to stick around for.
You should sit through the end credits to appreciate how many people worked on such a compelling series like this. But, if you’re only hanging around for an end credits stinger, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
Has Apple announced Severance season 3 yet?
Not yet, but it’s a case of when, not if, Apple will renew one of the best Apple TV+ shows for a third season.
For one, Severance has become more successful with each passing week. The three-year gap between seasons 1 and 2 was excruciating, but that allowed more people to check out its debut season and become obsessed with its numerous mysteries.
With more viewers jumping on the bandwagon after the release of its sophomore installment, Severance is now more popular than Ted Lasso. The number of breakout Apple TV+ shows pales in comparison to some of the tech giant’s streaming rivals, including Netflix and Prime Video. So, if Apple really wants to prove it’s a serial entertainment industry contender, greenlighting new seasons for hit shows like Severance should be a foregone conclusion.
For what it’s worth, the series’ next entry is in the works. In February, director/executive producer Ben Stiller confirmed season 3’s scripts are currently being written.
Unfortunately, there’s not as much good news on the filming start date front. Dichen Lachman, who plays Gemma/Ms. Casey, exclusively told me that she doesn’t know when principal photography will begin on Severance season 3.
More details could be revealed at a post-season 2 finale event in LA this Saturday (March 22), though. Speaking on the New Heights podcast, Stiller said: “Hopefully we’ll be announcing what the plan is very soon”. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s sooner rather than later!
How does ‘Cold Harbor’ set up Severance season 3’s story?
We don’t know, but there are plenty of unanswered questions that’ll need, well, answering.
For starters: where have Mark S and Helly gone? They can’t leave Lumon as their outies will take over, but Lumon will be using all of its resources to track down the pair after events that transpired in ‘Cold Harbor’.
Then there’s the wider fallout and implications of what happened in this episode. Lumon should come down hard on Dylan G and C&M following their rebellion. Milchick will have something to say and/or do with them, too, but he’ll also be in the firing line as this all happened under his watch. That’s before we get onto how Lumon proceeds with the severance program and its malicious plans for the technology and those who signed up for the procedure.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Will Gemma seek out Devon and Ricken, and try to enlist their help to rescue Mark? What’s Harmony Cobel’s endgame? What do the season 2 finale events mean for Jame in a leadership capacity? Is Reghabi going to show up again and attempt to help Gemma reintegrate? When will we see Irving and Burt again? And what is the Grand Agendum that Kier Eagan’s animatronic mentions after Mark finishes Project Cold Harbor?
Those questions and many other mysteries need to be solved before Severance‘s end credits roll for the final time. For what it’s worth, creator Dan Erickson “has a sense” of what the show’s final scene will be and how many seasons would be “ideal” to reach it. Whether Severance has one or more seasons of story left to tell, then, is perhaps the biggest mystery of all.