Episode three of Severance‘s second season “Marked” a big moment for the department chief of Macrodata Refinement. In “Who Is Alive?” Mark made a major decision that has completely changed the show and his life. What else happened in this unsettling episode? And what new mysteries did the series raise about Lumon, its employees, and its departments? Find out with our recap of Severance season two, episode three “Who Is Alive.” Here are the biggest revelations and questions we learned from the episode.
Revelations From Severance Season 2, Episode 3, “Who Is Alive?”
Mark Underwent Reintegration After Learning Gemma Is Alive in Severance Season 2, Episode 3
Mark and Devon’s plan to burn a message into his retina for his Innie to see was never going to work. Not unless the real plan was to blind him. Dr. Asal Reghabi (who was apparently keeping close tabs on both Mark and Lumon, as she’d heard about the OTC breakout) found him while he was testing his out his “Who is alive” light box. He didn’t need to use it anyway, not after Reghabi told him what he was trying to learn: Gemma is alive. Or at least she was the last time the former Lumon severance surgeon was there.
Finding out his not-actually-dead wife was inside Lumon was all Mark needed to hear to agree to undergo reintegration on season two, episode three of Severance. Despite seeing firsthand what happened to Petey after his own procedure, Mark immediately went with the doctor. The episode ended with Reghabi struggling to do the process right, all while claiming she’s better at it now. But ultimately she was successful, as she combined the two separate brainwaves in Mark’s mind, bringing his severed halves together.
Now, Mark has a real chance to find “Ms. Casey.” He just has to hope he can survive reintegration, something Petey couldn’t.
There Are Lots of Goat Herders in “Mammalians Nurturable”
Lumon doesn’t just have one guy feeding a small room worth of baby goats every day, as we saw in season one of Severance. In season two, episode three, we learned it has a massive department called Mammalians Nurturable where a whole team of severed employees tend to them on a surprisingly large indoor pasture. The weary workers of the department didn’t trust the Marcodata Refiners who crawled into their workspace. They’d heard the same false rumors about them having pouches and wanting to murder people.
What won them over was Mark and Helly’s concern for Ms. Casey, a gentle women who had also done wellness sessions with the goat herders before. They don’t know where she is, but they aren’t going to report the MDR employees for looking for her either.
While we still have no idea what “the goats” are all about after “Who Is Alive?,” they’re obviously even more important to Lumon’s secret plans than we realized. The company has dedicated enormous resources to breeding and raising them in-house. They wouldn’t do that, especially with severed employees who can’t tell the public what’s going on, if there wasn’t something nefarious going on. Lumon could run a normal farm without raising eyebrows. The fact it’s not is a sinister sign of its real intentions.
We Learn O&D Calls the Testing Floor the Exports Hall In Severance Season 2, Episode 3
Irv finally made the difficult trek down to O&D to see if anyone there had seen Ms. Casey. When he arrived, he reconnected with Felicia, and the two reminisced about Burt. When Felicia looked through Irv’s book of drawings of Burt, she saw his sketch of the Testing Floor hallway and door he’s made. Irv had recreated his Outie’s paintings of the ominous Lumon locale.
Felicia knew that place, and it changed her old attitude. She called it the Exports Hall and said, “We send a lot of shipments there. Used to go ourselves, but now they send a guy.” Whatever is going on there Felicia clearly doesn’t like it.
Why did Lumon stop employees from going down there? Which “guy” now makes the deliveries and what is he bringing there? And what might this have to do with Ms. Casey, last seen going to that very floor? This season two, episode three revelation only added more questions about the Testing Floor.
Lumon Sends Black Employees Offensive Paintings That Creep Them Out
No one, both characters and viewers alike, has ever had any reason to question Natalie’s loyalty to Lumon. The Board trusts her so much she serves as its literal mouthpiece. But even she was clearly disturbed by the company’s gift to Seth Milchick in “Who Is Alive?” It’s the same kind she got to celebrate her own promotion. They sent the new severed floor manager its Kier Eagan Cycle of paintings redone with Milchick in his place.
They put a Black man into a white man’s photos and told him it was so he could “see yourself in Kier, our Founder.”
A creepy thing for any person to get, for lots of obvious reasons. Woefully offensive and insensitive for Lumon to give to Milchick and Natalie. Enough that even Natalie can’t hide her contempt for them. Milchick obviously hates them, too. He hid them away in the supply closest, just as Mark had once hidden the group photos that included Petey.
Clearly, there are limits to what even Lumon’s most dedicated employees can take. They might love Lumon, but the company is either too arrogant or too stupid to understand why a Black person would loathe such a “gift.” That “ego” Kier warned people about, the very thing Helena mentioned to Cobel in this episode, weakens Lumon. It can make even loyal employees lose faith in the company.
Questions We Have After Severance Season 2, Episode 3, “Who Is Alive?”
Why Did Cobel Flee Lumon After Returning?
Harmony Cobel turned down Lumon’s fake promotion and left town in season two, episode three of Severance. The only thing of note she took with her was the breathing tube her mother used to take her last breath. It had been part of her home’s weird Kier shrine, the one thing she cared about after she destroyed it in anger. After looking at it on her car seat, Ms. Cobel turned around and drove straight back to Lumon to confront Helena Eagen. There, Harmony made some grand, revealing statements while arguing why she alone needed to manage Macrodata Refinement. “I intend to finish the work that I started,” she said about MDR. Cobel also cited how close Mark S. is to completing “Cold Harbor,” the vital Gemma file.
Cobel believed she was indispensable at Lumon because MDR’s “mysterious and important work” is her creation and can’t be completed without her guidance. She said Lumon “didn’t have a choice” about whether or not to give her MDR. But a confident Helena Eagan asked, “Are you sure?”
Was Helena being truthful that Cobel isn’t as important or necessary as she thinks in “Who Is Alive”? Or was this move a power play to keep Harmony in line? We didn’t find out in Severance season two, episode three, because even though Cobel couldn’t see Harmony’s devilish smirk she sensed something was wrong as they walked back into the building to speak to the Board. More than wrong. Cobel reacted like she was in mortal danger and ran back to her car, fleeing the scene.
Why? What scared her? What did she think was going to happen? Why did she instantly lose trust in Helena and Lumon? And what does all of this have to do with her dead mother and her own weird obsession with reintegration?
Harmony Cobel might know what Lumon is up to better than anyone, and in that moment something spooked her. She feared for her life and ran after coming back for obvious personal reasons. What was it exactly that freaked her out? How did she know to run? And will Lumon come after her now that she has?
Did Lumon Doom Dylan’s Marriage in Severance season 2, episode 3?
Dylan’s sweet, loving wife confirmed her husband’s Outie had had trouble keeping a job during her first-ever visit to Lumon’s severed floor. Dylan’s desire to provide for his family is what brought him to the company. Lumon knows that and is now using that to keep him in line.
It needed Innie Dylan back at work to keep Mark S. happy so he can complete “Cold Harbor.” So Lumon also needed a way to keep Dylan from participating in any more uprisings. They are doing that under the guise of “reform.” Dylan—and Dylan alone so he’s isolated from his co-workers—gets to meet with his Outie’s family. And that happens in the very place where he helped his colleagues “break out,” an extra reminder of what he’s risking if he does that again.
It’s gross, emotional manipulation of both Dylan and his wife, who doesn’t even work there. Even more awful is that it could lead to something terrible. Dylan’s wonderful wife was supportive of him when he botched his door interview. She was wonderful on the severed floor. But she was obviously distant with him at home later that night. She didn’t even bring up meeting his Innie until he asked and then she undersold it. Dylan wasn’t exactly killing it as a dad or a husband during that interaction, but it’s doubtful his Outie was any different than normal. She changed.
Was seeing her husband’s Innie like meeting a better, kinder, more caring version of the person she loves most? Did that make her love his Outie less in comparison? If so, did Lumon ruin a marriage because it’s impossibly evil? We hope not, but we’re not optimistic.
What Do Natalie and Lumon Really Want With Ricken in “Who Is Alive”?
No offense to Ricken, but no one wants his book besides Rebeck. Lumon certainly doesn’t. They have their own sacred Kier texts to give them guidance. The last thing they want is the work of a hack who extolls the virtues of enjoying life rather than work. Especially when his latest book helped lead to the Macrodat Uprising. So why was Natalie asking him about altering it for severed employees in Severance season two, episode three?
It might be as simple as they want another way to keep tabs on the “uppity” Devon as Mr. Drummond called her in episode 2. But this is Lumon, and things are never simple there. Natalie, the Board’s mouthpiece and not Milcick, showed up and clearly charmed Ricken. He was quite smitten with her. What is the company’s true reason for coming to his house and feeding his oversized ego? Are they trying to break up multiple marriages? Will they succeed?
Devon is smart. She sees through Lumon’s bullshit but doesn’t let the company know she mistrusts it. She has just as many questions about them as we do.
Too bad naive, needy Ricken doesn’t. Maybe he should read our Severance recaps.
