There’s One Huge Question ‘Severance’ Fans Need To Think About In Season 2

One thing Apple TV’s dystopian sci-fi series Severance does incredibly well is make audiences think. There’s always a new mystery to unravel, some new detail or scrap of Lumon lore to sift through. Every answer births new questions. And if you’ve started pondering how this season might play out, you may have thought of the question I’m about to pose already.

Spoilers follow.

One of the biggest, most shocking revelations of season 1 is the fact that Ms. Casey is actually Gemma Scout, Mark’s not-so-dead wife. Mark’s “Outie” has no idea that she’s alive, and Mark’s “Innie” has no idea who Ms. Casey actually is—until he and his co-workers hatch their Overtime Contingency (OTC) plan and “wake up” on the outside. It’s at Devon and Ricken’s party that Mark S. sees the photo of Mark and Gemma and shouts “She’s alive!” just before Mr. Milchick ends the OTC and Mark Scout wakes back up.

One of the biggest questions so far in Season 2, is what’s going on with Helly R. In the first episode, she lies to Mark S, Irving B and Dylan G about what happened to her during the OTC. Is it because she’s ashamed that she’s actually Helena Egan? Or is she actually—as some have theorized—Helena acting as a mole, sent down to the Severed Floor to spy on the Innies? I’m not sure how she would get around the Severance technology, but if they have a way to wake up Innies off the Severed Floor, it stands to reason that they’d have a way to do the reverse on the Severed Floor.

In any case, all of this is stage-setting for the Big Question I’m going to have you consider. As of right now, the primary “quest” of both Mark Scout and Mark S is to find Gemma / Ms. Casey. Mark has learned that she’s alive and has to find some way to get to her. Mark S has learned that Ms. Casey is his Outie’s wife, but since Lumon has shut down the Wellness room and Ms. Casey is nowhere to be found, he’s left unsure of how to proceed.

The Big Question is this: What happens if and when they find and presumably rescue Ms. Casey / Gemma? I say “presumably” because if Lumon has her, they almost certainly have her 100% of the time. Unless she’s being let out and is purposefully hiding from her husband and letting the whole world think she’s dead, which seems unlikely. But we don’t know for sure.

For Outie Mark, finding Gemma would be amazing. He’d be reunited with his wife, leave Lumon and never look back—or maybe make it his mission to bring down Lumon since Gemma would have all the dirt necessary to do just that. But for Mark’s Innie, the equation is much different. We know that his Innie and Helly R. have become romantically entangled.

Whether or not the Helly R. in Season 2 is, in fact, Helly or Helena doesn’t really change that fact. For Mark S, finding and rescuing Ms. Casey would effectively mean that his life is over—as are his chances at love with Helly R. What counts as a victory and a happy ending for one half of Mark’s consciousness is a tragic end for the other. No matter what happens, it’s hard to see how this results in a happy ending.

So who are you rooting for?

Check out my review of Severance’s second season right here.

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