Affectionately-known as the resident "Brain-in-a-jar" by fans and the writers' room alike, showrunner Dan Erickson delivers again on his promise for answers in the new season of Severance. True to form, episode 7 promised to bring us a truly wild ride to finish out the season arc. Just like the "Defiant Jazz" that came before, "Chikhai Bardo" broke our hearts about Gemma all over again.
The two-year break caused fans to despair if we would even get another season, even amidst assurances from Ben Stiller and his team that season 2 was in production. In the meantime, we had plenty of time to theorize. Erickson has been very guarded with the world of Severance, careful not to let key details slip and confirm zany fan theories to throw people off the trail.
So, in light of the first eight episodes of season 2, let's revisit some of our favorite fan theories from season 1, and speculate a bit on where season 2 is headed.
MDR is refining severance chips
As fans in the Severance subreddit were quick to point out, the final scene of season 2 episode 1 all-but-confirmed this long-suspected fan theory. We know now for certain that the data Mark is refining has something to do with Gemma, who is still trapped on the experimental floor. There's still an itch in the back of my mind that this isn't all there is to the refinement process, especially considering the complex psychological warfare waged on Gemma in episode 7. What about the MDR doppelgängers in the sealed-off room being observed by Mr. Drummond?
The goats are the board
Long-touted by Reddit sleuths as Severance's endgame, this theory says that the goats are not only experiments or livestock, but in fact temporary hosts which will house the board's consciousness while severance-chip technology is refined by Lumon, propelled by the quote from Jame Eagan (whose wheeze sounds suspiciously similar to the incorporeal board) in the season 1 finale: "You will sit with me at my revolving." This theory is one of Dan Erickson's favorites, he will reference it at nearly any panel discussion when prompted.
Ricken is an Eagan
This season's companion book gave us a couple of answers about Ricken, but also raised more questions. We learn from the anecdotes within his critically acclaimed book, The You You Are, that he was raised by two moderately-well-off performance artists, and his conception was apparently part of a live performance art act, the first and only one of its kind. This does not come off as the origins of a company heir, even an estranged one. But could he be lying?
Redditors were quick to point out how oddly Ricken's friends behave, almost as though they were severed themselves (obviously they didn't call it World War I, PATTON). Certain eagle-eyed fans also spotted a suspicious piece of goat decor inside Ricken and Devon's home during Cobelvig's first infiltration. Coincidence? It could be. But Stiller and Erickson's use of visual motif's and cues has always come off as very intentional. Time will tell.
Lumon took care of Cobel's mother
Episode 8 gave us a better picture of Cobel's backstory, and what a backstory it is! Until now, we have only known a few scant details about Harmony Cobel, and why she is like that. Throughout season 1, we are given her identity in pieces. She's Mark's boss, a bit of a tyrant, and also his neighbor? When we eventually see the inside of her home, we are greeted with a stark, structured, almost orphanage-like environment, which she has chosen to construct for herself inside Lumon's subsidized housing. She kneels to recite Kier's words at a cardboard altar, appointed with various articles from her childhood inside Lumon's boarding school.
Jump forward to season 2, we learn she was huffing ether out of a washcloth while working twelve-hour days as an eight-year-old. And after all of that, Sissy was still loyal to the Eagans, believing themselves to owe Lumon their fealty. Her mother died in her aunt's care, while Cobel was undergoing her own "wintertide," presumably an older and more brutal version of Ms. Huang's current pseudo-internship.
Irving is working with Reghabi
Irving and Reghabi are two sides of the same lethal coin, conspiracy and madcap science galore. In season 1, Irving undertook efforts to break his own severance chip in order to get a message to his innie by drinking coffee and repeatedly painting what we now know to be the exports hall. The season 1 finale also confirmed that Irving's outie is investigating Lumon's severed employees from the outside. Reghabi is currently trying to crack reintegration, with the alleged goal of helping Mark and infiltrating Lumon. There is nothing concrete to confirm their connection, and with Reghabi taking her leave at the end of episode 7, it's up in the air whether we'll get to see her again this season.
But there's still that mysterious answering machine on the other side of Irving's payphone-calls.
Lumon orchestrated Gemma's death, and may have been watching them from the beginning
The Lexington Letter novella from last season (which took the form of an internal email exchange regarding an ex-employee) confirmed that Lumon is not above getting their hands dirty in order to acquire fresh talent for their MDR offices. In fact, the very incident they manufactured in order to coax Peg (the ex-employee) into applying at Lumon was a car accident.
This is further corroborated by the brief appearance of Gemma's experimental-floor-dentist-flight-attendant-christmas-husband (try reading that out loud to a non-Severance fan) at their first fertility appointment, for literally maybe 5-10 frames. He holds his gaze on Gemma from his corner on the screen, and the episode moves on. The paperwork Gemma fills out on the clipboard also bears a small but unmistakable Lumon logo in the upper left corner, and when she is placed on the mailing list for the clinic, she receives the same ideographic card stolen by Dylan from O&D in season 1.