Severance scrapped season 2 ending that would have infuriated fans beyond belief

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After a three-year wait and a reported $200,000,000 (£155,100,000) budget, Severance season 2 has concluded with the ‘best finale of all time.’

But in the Apple TV Plus sci-fi drama’s fashion, the critically acclaimed show has created more questions than it answered.

In an attempt to illuminate some of Severance’s mysteries, Metro spoke to Dichen Lachman, who plays outie Mark’s (Adam Scott) wife Gemma and Lumon lab rat Ms Casey.

Here are the 43-year-old’s own theories on the best show on TV, including everything from whether Gemma’s car accident was faked to why she was singled out by Lumon.

First of all, what was your response when you read the ending in the script in which innie Mark chooses Helly R (Britt Lower) over Gemma?

Initially, season two was going to end a little earlier when Mark was looking at both Gemma and Helly. Then it changed to him actually making a choice between them.

Dichen said the ending of Severance season 2 leaves the audience in a ‘very difficult place’ (Picture: Apple TV Plus)

All I knew when I read the script was that the fans were gonna have a moment once he made that decision, because you have been rooting for Helly and Mark S, but also you’ve been rooting for [outie] Mark, who has been grieving his wife. It’s a very difficult place to be as an audience member, having fallen in love with these characters.

Let’s take it right back to the car crash; did it actually happen? Or was it a rouse? Some fans believe Gemma approached Lumon and was the first person to be severed to remove the pain of losing a child.

It’s a mystery. I will say, though, just as a fan or an actor, the moment when she says goodbye because she’s leaving for a dinner party to play charades, I feel like I believe that she’s going to play charades.

I don’t know if Gemma would lie about where she is going and head to Lumon – but I could be completely wrong. I didn’t play it like that, and I didn’t have that intention when I was doing the scene.

Mark S chooses Helly over Gemma in the finale of Severance season 2 (Picture: Apple TV Plus)

In that moment when I said goodbye to Mark, I was just trying to get the relationship back to normal because they had just been through so much [after the loss of their child].

Why, out of all the inhabitants of Severance’s fictional town Kier in the fictional state PE, did Lumon choose Gemma?

I don’t know why they chose Gemma. Another journalist mentioned that maybe it was her blood, like how people can have a genetic thing that makes them a good candidate for [testing].

At the end of Severance season 2, it was implied that once Mark S completed Cold Harbor, Gemma would be killed. Why?

On the show, death can mean different things, because they had a funeral forIrving’s [John Turturro] innie [even though he is alive on the outside. And when Gemma and Mark are running away after escaping from the Cold Harbor room, Dr Mauer [Robby Benson] says, “You’ll kill them all.” So death can mean different things, I think.

Dichen said she had ‘no idea’ why Gemma was chosen by Lumon (Picture: Apple TV Plus)

But I mean why would they [kill Gemma], maybe they’re going to take her chip out? I have no idea. Either way, I knew that when they implied that they were going to kill her, that maybe Gemma would be dead. But who knows about the other innings? Maybe there are multiple chips in her mind?

The widely accepted theory about Lumon is that their modus operandi is to end human suffering and abolish pain. Do you agree?

Yes, I think so, because it’s so consistent with our society at large. We do everything we can to try and avoid anything unpleasant, and so it seems that a big company would do a lot of research into being like, you don’t have to feel the pain of childbirth, you don’t have to feel the pain of going to the dentist or the long airplane rides. Why would anyone ever pay for a business class ticket if they could just make their innie fly? They just wake up in another country. And so I think fans are absolutely spot on. I could be wrong, but that’s what would make the most sense to me.

What is the wildest fan theory you’ve stumbled across?

I think we’ve all picked the same one. So a few days ago, someone started circulating this idea that Ricken [Michael Chernus] is a goat and was finding little things in the show to try and back up that claim. Tere’s something so fun about that one that all of us as the cast have latched onto.

What are your own theories for Severance season 3 and will Helly, Mark and Gemma actually be able to escape Lumon?

I’m not sure what’s possible around the technology because, remember, Mark has tried to go through the reintegration process, and he’s having these flashes, so I actually have no idea what’s going to happen to his brain. The last person who did that, it didn’t end up so well for them.

What they come up with in the writers’ room, I will not have anticipated. I can tell you this: I hope I get to participate more in season three.

Severance is available to stream on Apple TV Plus.

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