Mark’s Gemma Decision & What It Means For Helly

Warning! This article contains major spoilers for Severance season 2.

Severance season 2’s finale is jampacked with many twists and turns, but its ending tops every plot development by showing how Mark makes one crucial decision. Given how Severance season 1’s ending is often touted as one of the most gripping story beats in modern television, season 2 carried the immense pressure of topping it with its final arc. While it is debatable whether Severance season 2’s ending is as compelling as season 1’s, it undoubtedly brings a powerful conclusion to the Apple TV+ sci-fi show’s second run while paving the way for future installments.

In its first half, Severance season 2’s episode 10 primarily unfolds in the outside world, where Mark, Cobel, and Devon try to convince Mark’s innie to help them rescue Gemma. However, what initially seems like a simple mission later turns into an argument between Mark’s innie and outie about who deserves to live more. The episode’s final arc shows how Mark’s innie eventually manages to complete Cold Harbor but struggles to decide whether he should help his outie. When he finally commits to saving Gemma, a series of chaotic events unfold, leaving one with more questions than answers.

Mark’s Innie’s Decision In Severance Season 2’s Ending Explained: What It Means For Helly & Gemma

Mark’s Innie Saves Gemma But Chooses To Stay Behind With Helly

When Mark tells Helly about his interaction with his outie moments before he completes refining the Cold Harbor file, Helly surprisingly asks him to comply with his outie. She encourages him to save Gemma and leave instead of trying to preserve himself and their relationship. While some might argue that this seems out of character for Helly, Helly finally seems to understand the weight of being Helena’s innie. She previously hated it when the innies even considered the well-being of their outies.

However, by the end of season 2, she seems to realize that Cobel was right during the Overtime Contingency incident when she warned her that the other innies would suffer if she did something to harm Lumon’s reputation. After Helly’s encouragement, Mark heads to the Testing Floor to save Gemma. He faces many challenges but finally manages to get her (Ms. Casey) to the door to the stairwell and asks her to leave. With this, she transitions into her outie, Gemma, but Mark does not leave Lumon.

While Gemma watches him from outside, Mark chooses to stay with Helly because that is his idea of freedom. He believes he has his own sense of identity and is not willing to risk losing himself just so his outie can live in peace for the rest of his life. Helly and Mark seem to run deeper into the Lumon building, seemingly having no clue where they are heading. However, it will not be long before authorities from the company will catch them. Gemma, on the other hand, will have to escape the Lumon building and find Devon to be able to get Mark out of Lumon.

If Gemma manages to leave, she will likely understand why Mark left her outside to be with Helly. However, it is hard not to empathize with her after season 1’s ending and wonder how heartbreaking it might have been for her to watch Mark leave with another woman. She craved being with Mark throughout her stay on the Testing Floor and even refused to believe Dr. Mauer when he told her Mark had moved on. However, to her dismay, her biggest fear turned out to be true when she watched Mark choose Helly over her.

The Testing Floor’s Cold Harbor Room Explained & Why Lumon Plans To Kill Gemma After The Test

Lumon Seemingly Wishes To Eliminate All Pain In The World

After Mark finishes refining his Cold Harbor file, Gemma is sent to the final Cold Harbor room. Severance season 2’s episode 7 revealed that each Testing Floor room’s name corresponded with a file Mark had previously completed refining in the MDR department. This suggested that Mark was unknowingly creating Gemma’s innies, who were later experimented on by Lumon. With each room, Lumon exposed one of Gemma’s innies to a traumatic event to test whether she retained her innies’ memories after stepping out of the rooms.

Gemma has 25 innies, and the names of the following rooms have been revealed so far:

• Allentown
• Dranesville
• Siena
• Lucknow
• Loveland
• Wellington
• St. Pierre
• Zurich
• Sopchoppy
• Cold Harbor

In the final Cold Harbor test, Gemma finds herself in a room with nothing but the crib she and Mark had purchased when they were expecting a child. Gemma had strong memories of the crib because, as one flashback previously revealed, Mark had frustratingly dismantled the crib after learning that they may never be able to have a child. Since the crib was associated with Gemma’s strongest and most traumatic memory, Lumon wanted to test whether her new “Cold Harbor” innie would retain her memories associated with the crib.

The test is proven successful when, despite seeing the crib and dismantling it to a song that she and Mark used to listen to, Gemma’s “Cold Harbor” innie seems unbothered. She shows no signs of retaining her outie’s memories, proving that Lumon has successfully eradicated her most painful memory. While Lumon’s overarching purpose remains unknown, the company seemingly intends to use the technology to help humans remove all pain from their lives.

Before that, however, as Cobel reveals, Lumon wanted to kill Gemma, likely by removing the chip from her brain. Since Gemma was merely a test subject, her purpose in the company had been fulfilled. Lumon could not risk releasing her to the outside world because she knew a little too much about their secret operations. They could not even keep her because their work with her was done. Therefore, the company’s authorities planned to kill her, believing that she had achieved her life’s true purpose by serving Kier.

The Meaning Of The MDR Numbers In Severance Explained

They Are A Doorway To Gemma’s Mind

In Severance season 2’s finale, Cobel reveals that the numbers serve as doorways to Gemma’s mind, revealing that they are the building blocks of her innies’ existence. As “The Macrodata Refiner’s Orientation Booklet” in The Lexington Letter reveals, the MDR workers are exposed to a sea of numbers, which are classified into four categories: WO (Woe), FC (Frolic), DR (Dread), and MA (Malice). Based on how certain clusters in the sea of numbers make them feel, the workers are expected to evenly fill the four bins at the bottom of their screens with the four number clusters till the file’s progress bar reaches 100%.

Here are the four categories of emotions the number clusters are expected to elicit in the MDR workers:

Lumon never tells Mark what he is actually achieving with the number-refining process because the mere awareness of their purpose could inhibit his natural intuition. Mark also primarily gets to work on Gemma’s files because his outie “understands” her brain better than anyone else. Lumon knows that subconscious memory leaks from Mark’s outie’s brain into his innie’s will help him “refine” Gemma more effectively. Since Mark has always been working on his outie’s wife’s brain, it makes sense that he got his “freshman fluke” right after he started working at Lumon.

The Purpose Of The Goats In Lumon Explained

Lumon Has A Tradition Of Sacrificing Them

Severance season 2’s ending finally reveals the truth about the goats and their purpose in Lumon, which seems to dismiss all existing theories around them. As the finale discloses, Lumon seemingly follows a tradition of sacrificing a goat before they kill a test subject once their purpose in the company has been fulfilled. Drummond says they do this because they believe the goat’s spirit will eventually carry the dead subject’s soul into Kier’s arms. This belief shows how Lumon functions more as a cult, where Kier is almost considered a godly being.

A goat named Emile, from Mammalians Nurturable, is chosen as Lumon’s sacrificial lamb. Based on the ritual, it is believed it will carry Gemma’s soul to Kier after being sacrificed. Lorne, however, struggles to kill the goat because she and the people from her department grow attached to the goats they raise. Given how the Mammalians Nurturable department raises many goats, it is hard not to wonder how many of them Lumon has sacrificed in the past before experimenting on and killing several test subjects.

Why Jame Eagan Sees Kier In Helly, Not Helena

There Was A Time When He Saw Kier In Helen As Well

Jame Eagan watches his daughter, Helena, with disgust in Severance season 2’s episode 9 as she eats boiled eggs. He hisses at her, claiming she should have taken them raw like Kier. When he later sees Helly in the Lumon building, he notes that he sees Kier in her. He recalls how he once saw him in Helena, but she seems to have changed significantly over time. He seemingly says this because as much as Helena might have tried to harm Lumon’s legacy, she stands for herself instead of merely following orders and succumbing to the controlling influence of the higher-ups.