It took two full seasons, but Severance finally explained the “mysterious and important” work of macrodata refinement. What exactly have those severed MDR employees been doing all this time? What do “the numbers” on their computer screen actually mean? And what do we still not know about those files? Unless you can sever yourself from spoilers make sure to watch the show’s season two finale before we conquer these questions.
What We Know About Macrodata Refinement, the “Numbers,” and “Cold Harbor” on Severance
“The numbers are your wife.” With that line “Mrs. Selvig” finally revealed to Mark S. just what it is he’s been doing on Lumon’s severed floor for two years.
When an MDR employee works on a file like, “Tumwater” or “Minsk,” they are creating a room. We know from earlier in season two those rooms are physical places, each with their own distinct experience. They are also severed rooms. The completion of that file creates a whole new distinct Innie consciousness for a person, which fully forms when they complete an efficacy test within the room.
A refiner completes a room when they finish putting number clusters into digital buckets. Those seemingly bunches have always elicited emotional responses in the refiners. Now we know it’s because they are “a doorway into the mind” of a subject. In Mark S.’s cases the numbers were a doorway into his Outie’s wife, Gemma Scout. Clusters evoke feelings in refiners because they represent the Four Tempers Kier Eagan identified as making up the human soul: Woe, Frolic, Malice, and Dread.
Mark S. had completed 24 files before the season two finale. Those file then created 24 distinct Innie identities for Gemma. “Cold Harbor,” which also gave the episode its name, was meant to be his last. It was also meant to be a “momentous day” for Lumon, an achievement they said would be among the greatest in the history of humanity.
That final file was the ultimate test to see if Lumon could create an unbreakable barrier between a human and their severed identities. “Cold Harbor” saw Gemma face the most painful experience of her life, her miscarriage, but not even taking apart a baby crib could hurt her. The “barriers” of her special experimental chip held. Her Outie consciousness, and all of the trauma she had experienced, did not impact her “Cold Harbor” Innie. As she dismantled that baby crib without emotion she was fulfilling Kier Eagan’s “ultimate grand agendum,” which Mr. Drummond said was a quest to eliminate pain entirely.
If she had finished her efficacy test Lumon was going to remove the chip with 25 Innies from Gemma’s brain, killing her. The company, which also wouldn’t need Mark Scout anymore, then would have entombed her with a sacrificial goat full of “verve” and “wiles.” That goat would have then guided her spirit to “sit” with Kier Eagan in the afterlife. Fortunately Mark Scout stopped her from finishing “Cold Harbor” and helped his wife escape. Dr. Mauer said he was killing “all” of her Innies in doing so. (Who cares what he says, though. That creepy monster can go to Hell.
So we now know what MDR files are, what the numbers represent, the “mysterious and important” work MDR refiners do, what “Cold Harbor” was all about, what made Gemma and her new severance chip unique, what Lumon had planned for her, and what all of this has to do with Kier Eagan and his dream.
And yet, even with all that knowledge, there’s still so much we don’t know about MDR and Gemma Scout’s role for Lumon’s unknown grand plan.
What We Still Don’t Know About Macrodata Refinement on Severance
The short-lived replacement refinement team Seth Milchick put together in season two’s premiere revealed that Lumon has MDR employees around the world. Mark’s long-term colleagues like Dylan G. and Irv B. also worked on and completed their own files. Who were they creating rooms for? How many people did Lumon kill developing the technology for Gemma’s chip? Lorne has had to sacrifice a lot of goats.
We also don’t know if there was a reason Gemma’s own husband had to work on her files specifically. And even if we accept the premise the Four Tempers are the “building blocks” of a human mind, how did Lumon digitize emotions into numbers? How does “refining” them (whatever that even means!) then create a physical room that can then create a new Innie? What’s the actual science behind any of this?
And why 25 Innies? Why that specific number? Is that the limit Lumon has identified is possible for one mind to hold? What was the company going to do with Gemma’s special barrier severance chip? Study it? Use it in someone else? Create 25 Gemma Innies in other bodies?
Most importantly, though—even after everything we learned about “Cold Harbor,” Gemma, and even Kier Eagan’s dream for a pain free world, where Innies don’t have to worry about their Outie’s heartbreak or suffering—we don’t know why Jame Eagan is doing any of this. Or why he believes this technology will change the world.
What was Lumon planning to do with Gemma’s chip that they considered its eventual completion one of the greatest moments in mankind’s history? We have no idea, just theories. And based on what we do know so far all of them scare us.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He hopes all his Innies gets along. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.