The wait for Severance Season 2 is nearly over, and not a moment too soon. Fans’ heads are in danger of exploding from myriad old and new theories that have amassed in the nearly three-year wait since Season 1’s chilling finale. Such speculation ranges from intriguingly realistic to surreally far-flung, and I’m eager to finally learn which ideas had merit and which were devoid. Thankfully, the show’s cast came together to shed both light and darkness on certain fan theories.
I Rewatched Severance Season 1, And I Have A New Theory About Mrs. Cobel's Obsession With Mark
To promote the already lauded-by-critics Season 2 being available to stream soon for fans with Apple TV+ subscriptions, stars John Turturro, Patricia Arquette, Zach Cherry, Adam Scott, and Britt Lower were given a variety of viewer-based theories for a video put together by EW. Several were more or less put to bed, such as the lurking idea that the numbers being tracked by the MDR team are completely meaningless. (Arquette called that one out as being B.S.)
Honestly, though, I was more intrigued by two of the theories that the show's stars didn't quickly shoot down as being illogical or mistaken. The first, because it matches squarely with something I already believe, and the second, because I want to spend more time thinking about what it all means. Let's step through the elevator doors.
THEORY: Irv's Testing Door Paintings Are Connected To Hidden Past With Burt
From the very start of their regular interactions, Turturro's tight-knit Irving and Christopher Walken's O&D charmer Burt seemed to be building on a pre-existing kinship, if not something more heartfelt. That idea was perhaps strengthened by Innie Burt being forced into retirement once Irving's visits became more frequent and disruptive.
Separately, we have the mostly confirmed idea that Outie Irving's paintings are of the Testing Floor hallway and elevator doors that are located below the offices where severed employees work. Those ideas match up via the theory that both Irving and Burt were sent to the Testing Floor in the past to "reset" them, as it were, by severing each's more amorous feelings for the other.
In response to the theory that connects Irving's paintings to a potentially erased relationship with Burt, John Turturro tiptoed around confirming that detail by saying:
I think your theory and my theories, we diverge.
Obviously that answer sparks intrigue simply for offering credence to the theory in the first place, but Turturro's specific method of agreement offers more threading to get all knotted up in. In that he refers to his own "theories," which implies that even he's not 100% in the loop on what it all means.
Or perhaps Turturro is indicating that the idea lines up with what his own theories about Irving's story were, before he got wind of whatever the real answer is that creator Dan Erickson and EP Ben Stiller concocted. But that doesn't even necessarily mean the theory is wrong, just that the Emmy-winning actor excels at caginess. I'm still feeling good about this one.
THEORY: Colors Mean Everything In Severance
Okay, so there are technically a bunch of theories focused on Severance's use of colors, but not anything so overarchingly simplistic as "good" characters wear white and "evil" characters wear black. The idea goes beyond the assumption that Erickson & Co. are hyper-intentional with set design and costuming choices, and digs into how the Egan family and Lumon itself utilizes colors to dictate the Innies' world.
Patricia Arquette was the one to shed a thin line of fluorescent light on this matter by more or less agreeing that fans should be paying attention to color schemes, particularly within Lumon's walls. As she put it:
I will give you one thing, that there has been definitely conversations about different color schemes in different divisions of Lumon and what colors upper management is allowed to wear compared to others. So your color theory, am I an autumn? Who knows?
Regardless of what colors Harmony Cobel (or her faux personality Mrs. Selvig) has on, I would find it very hard to consider the character herself as warm and earthy as one might expect from an "Autumn." I guess Selvig could be considered in such a way, given her motherly vibes with Devon and Ricken's baby, but given that was all an artifice, it doesn't count.
In any case, I'm going spend more time ahead of Season 2 doing down obsessive rabbit holes focused on the blue-and-green balance on the Severed Floor, among other thought trains.
But first, I have to give Zach Cherry some credit for leaning into one of the most wonderfully outlandish theories about the conversation-driving goats comprising Lumon's Board, even if his jokey response was kneecapped by Turturro.
- ZACH CHERRY: I'm not going to debunk this. It's possible the goats could be the Board.
- JOHN TURTURRO: I'm debunking it.
It's unclear when or if the above theories will either be proven true or false, but the only way to start arriving at an answer is to watch Season 2 when it debuts on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 17.
