Severance is a show crafted so meticulously that literally any given moment is capable of spawning endless threads of online theorizing, and rare is the detail that goes ignored by speculative viewers. With Severance Season 2 set to finally return after more than two years to spark a plethora of revamped predictions and insights throughout the first months of the 2025 TV schedule, I rewatched Season 1 with a more reflective mind, and certain elements of Ms. Cobel's storyline rang out to me in new ways.
Anyone who somehow hasn't watched Season 1 yet should tread lightly through everything that's below, but it seems unlikely that description applies to many who are still reading, so let's swipe our all-black security cards and dig into what I think Cobel's true motivations are when it comes to her Mrs. Selvig persona getting so close with Mark. (I unfortunately couldn't tie this into our goat-related questions and theories.)
I Think Harmony's Mother Charlotte Was Severed, And Perhaps Died
Possible Clues
- The Lumen breathing tube in Harmony's shrine
- Cobel calling her. mother "athiest," while Selvig called her mother "Catholic"
One of the go-to theories for Patricia Arquette's character is that she herself was previously severed, and that Mrs. Selvig is actually the personality of her mother Charlotte, which Harmony is able to switch to as her own "innie," so to speak. But as interesting and possible as that sounds, it doesn't really explain how anything she'd learn as Mrs. Selvig would be useful if she retained none of it, and nor does it explain how Selvig is able to make connections in the Season 1 finale.
Instead, I think that Charlotte spent most of her life as a Kier Egan devotee, as reflected in Harmony's own devotion and the historical context of her shrine room, and then was severed for one reason or another. I'm not so sure her religious nature would make that severance a choice, so perhaps the breathing tube indicates that Charlotte fell ill at some point, and the chip was implanted inside her head with Lumen's future goals for it in mind before she was put into an induced coma, or possibly cryogenically frozen.
Charlotte's perceived personality split was even hinted at across two moments in the series premiere, when Mrs. Cobel tells Mark S. that her mother was an atheist, while Mrs. Selvig tells Outie Mark that her mother was Catholic. If true, it would imply Charlotte was severed without health issues being a cause, but it's possible Harmony wasn't being so literal with her comments, and only meant to invoke the idea of a duality.
I Think Lumen's Chip Technology Brought Gemma Out Of A Coma, Or Back From The Dead
Possible Clues
- Ms. Casey not having an outie
- Ms. Casey only being awakened for short intermittent periods
- She's the only one we know from the Testing Floor, implying her chip isn't fully developed yet
Severance viewers still don't really know any hardcore details about Gemma and the wreck that supposedly killed her, and obviously facts about Ms. Casey are also all but absent. We don't even know if there really was a wreck; even though Mark visits a specific site to mourn Gemma, we never actually saw what went on. As such, it's unclear if her body and face were damaged beyond whatever Mark was able to recognize when he identified her.
But let's assume Gemma either died or suffered severe coma-inducing injuries in the wreck. I'm inclined to think that Lumen put to use a different kind of chip than the ones being inserted in severed citizens' brains. One that is perhaps able to do more than just cut off memories, but potentially bring someone back from the dead. I. can easily see why they'd need a whole floor for researching and developing such groundbreaking tech.
Even if the theoretical upgraded chip isn't so powerful as to raise the dead, it may be enough to somehow bring a comatose patient back to waking life. Which could explain why Ms. Casey is only allowed to be awakened and on the Severed Floor for minimal amounts of time, with the day she supervised Helly R. being a big test. And could also explain why Ms. Casey doesn't have an "outie" to turn into, so to speak.
I Think Harmony Is Personally Invested In Mark's Project As A Way To Somehow Get Her Mother Back
Combining both of the above sub-theories together creates the macro-idea that Ms. Cobel is personally invested in Mark's team finishing their project with haste, since it's likely tied to whatever is happening with Ms. Casey, and could thus have ramifications on her own life, or at least that of Charlotte's.
At times, Ms. Cobel seems like she's going against Lumen protocols out of pure disobedience, but she's not that kind of person, and her Eagan devotion also makes it difficult to believe she's against Lumen whole cloth. Instead, I think the way she secretly advanced on Outie Mark's life as Mrs. Selvig was movtivated by her personal interest in seeing what she could learn from his life with Gemma that could aid in her efforts with Mark S. and Ms. Casey. If she was just interested in making her employers happy, she probably wouldn't take that big of an extra step.
Or maybe Lumen was somehow responsible for Charlotte's death, which could explain why Harmony would have her breathing tube as a memento instead of a photograph or anything vaguely traditional, and why she's keeping her own ideals in mind over the company's.
Whatever the hyper-specifics may be, I can't help but now go into Season 2 thinking that Harmony Cobel has far larger ulterior motives for keeping Team MDR in line, even if others at Lumen don't see eye to eye with her tactics. Hopefully I won't have to go the entire season without my theory being proven right or wrong.
Severance Season 2 will be avaiable to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription on Friday, January 17.
