Severance S2 New Intro Proves This Genius Fan Theory About Kier Is Right
The show's creators keep dropping hints about Lumon's main goal, and many of them point to the same solution.
The second season of Severance on Apple TV+ continues to gain momentum, raising new questions for viewers and providing clues to the answers to old ones.
The biggest mystery of the entire show remains what Lumon, and the Macrodata Refinement Division in particular, do.
Fans have been trying to figure out all the details left by the creators for three years now, but one theory seems to be the most realistic – most likely, Lumon's management is using test samples like Ms. Casey to find a way to resurrect Kier Eagan.
The second episode of Season 2 and the new intro sequence shown in it only confirm this theory.
New Intro We Saw in Episode 2 Hints at Kier's Resurrection
Lumon employees treat Kier not only as the founder of the company, but as a deity of sorts. The Perpetuity Wing looks like a shrine. The most important thing for Lumon's management is to preserve Kier's legacy, but what if this desire is not symbolic but literal?
At the very end of the new intro of Season 2, we see Mark sitting on a bed and at his feet is Kier Eagan with the body of a baby. This seems to be an obvious reference to the reincarnation of the company's creator.
In addition, the intro has many scenes of surreal body-swapping – this can be interpreted as the fact that Kier's consciousness can be transferred to a new body.
Mark's New File, Called Cold Harbor, Is Extremely Important to Lumon
According to the theory, Gemma is one of the subjects being tested for the transfer of consciousness encoded in data – and perhaps she is one of the main such specimens in Lumon's possession.
As we saw in the second episode, it was important for Lumon to keep Mark around, which suggests that the file he is working on, called Cold Harbor, is of particular importance to the experiment.
The Names of All the Files That the MRD Is Working On Have a Hidden Meaning
Also, the file names, including Cold Harbor, are not random. For example, Glasgow, a file from the first season, is the name of the coma scale.
Siena, the file Helly finished in the Season 1 finale, stands for Structural image evaluation using normalization of atrophy – an analysis of the subtle changes in percent brain volume change after brain injury.
Here's how Reddit user churrucator explains the name Cold Harbor:
“Cold Harbor has historical ties to slavery (Battle of Cold Harbor – Confederate victory), which aligns with Lumon's view of its employees as tools – enslaved minds stripped of free will.”
Mark's progress on the Cold Harbor file may be the closest thing to success that Lumon's management has done, due to the fact that Gemma and Mark had a strong emotional connection.
Probably because of this connection, even Mark's innie, who does not remember the woman, successfully processes her data.