Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Severance” Season 2 Episode 2.
Despite everything Mark S. (Adam Scott) put Lumon through at the end of “Severance” Season 1, the powers that be desperately need him to get back to work on his current assignment – the Cold Harbor file.
The second episode of Season 2, titled “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” unpacks what the fallout looked like in the outside world after the MDR team activated the overtime contingency. Lumon activated Milchick (Tramell Tillman) to make the rounds and fire Irving (John Turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry) but bring Mark back. Mark spent much of the episode trying to convince his sister (and himself) that him screaming “she’s alive!” was in reference to his niece and not Gemma (Dichen Lachman).
Back at Lumon HQ, Helena (Britt Lower) plans to bring in a stringer team to replace Mark’s crew because they’re bent on him finishing the Cold Harbor file — which was about 68% done. Helena says they don’t need to have chemistry with Mark S., they just need to be around so he can focus on work.
But if the company was fine firing Irving and Dylan after the overtime contingency was activated, what’s so important about the Cold Harbor file, and Mark, to get him back to work?
Here’s what we know about the Cold Harbor file and what it could actually be.
Where is Ms. Casey?
Toward the end of Season 1 it was revealed that Outie Mark’s dead wife — whose death precipitated him agreeing to the severance protocol — wasn’t dead at all. In fact, dead wife Gemma was alive and well (to some extent at least) serving as the counselor Ms. Casey on the severed floor at Lumon.
Our last shot of Ms. Casey in the Season 1 finale shows her being let go from her post as wellness counselor and being sent to someplace ominously called the “testing floor.”
What is known about Cold Harbor?
Cold Harbor was the name of the encrypted file Mark S. was working on when all the craziness of Season 1’s finale went down. The Season 2 premiere also gave viewers a glimpse of Ms. Casey surrounded by readings.
What do the Cold Harbor readings on Ms. Casey mean?
There is a lot to parse from the brief image of Ms. Casey and her Cold Harbor readings. To start simply, one seems to be a heart rate monitor and other stats keeping track of her vitals.
At the bottom are five percentage bars lined up much like the sorting boxes that the MDR team place their encrypted data in once it makes them “feel something.” There are a four acronyms featured beneath each of Ms. Casey’s percentage bars as well: WO, DR, FC, and MA. Eagle-eyed fans drew a connection in Season 1 between these acronyms and the Four Tempers Lumon’s cult-like founder Kier Eagan claimed every soul possessed — Woe, Dread, Frolic and Malice. It’s likely these four emotions are close to the ones the MDR team “feels” when refining their data at work.
One of the more mysterious and possibly terrifying bits of the reading is the label ITNO: 25.00. This could be an acronym for Iteration Number 25 meaning this is the 25th attempt at creating/recreating Ms. Casey/Gemma.
What Could Cold Harbor be?
We’re in full-blown theory territory here but one thing seems relatively ironclad. Mark’s work on the Cold Harbor filed is directly tied to whatever is happening on the testing floor. Based on the fact that the Season 2 premiere ended with Mark dropping data into his Cold Harbor file and the percentages increasing both for him and on Ms. Casey’s readings, it’s clear their tie could relate to many assumptions it has to do with reintegration of people — possibly clones.
The file — like most of the others seen on the show — references a place in the real world. Cold Harbor is located in Virginia, near Mechanicsville. It is not clear where Lumon is based — maps and glimpses state the company town Kier is in a state labeled PE, which could be near Virginia. One theory wonders if the file name could correspond to the place Gemma “died” which later prompted Mark to go through the severance process.
Another possible — but long-reaching — connection is the file’s name in relation to a battle in the Civil War. The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought in 1864 and saw the Confederacy earn a decisive win against the Union. In the show’s lore, Kier Eagan founded Lumon in 1865 when he was 24 years old. Throwaway dialogue in Season 1 also mentions he was a military doctor before he founded Lumon. All this lends some ground to the theory that the South might have won the Civil War as questions about the state of the larger world mount.
A fun note that doesn’t say much about what Cold Harbor could be, but does point to the clear importance of it to the show – “Cold Harbor” was the working title for the show while they shot Season 2.
Why does Mark need to be working on Cold Harbor?
Season 1 revealed that Mark S. has a unique aptitude for refining the encrypted data assigned to MDR. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) has obviously taken a shining to him as he’s had one success after another — it’s become an obsession to the point that she’s inserted herself into his outie’s life — and it’s implied that some of the projects he’s worked on helped keep her in Lumon’s good graces.
Toward the end of Episode 2, Helena and Milchick discuss Mark’s plea to the board from the premiere, and it’s revealed that despite choosing to fire Irv and Dylan, they’re going to bring them back because they need Mark working on Cold Harbor.
“We need Mark S. back to work long enough to complete Cold Harbor,” Helena says.
It might just be that they need Mark working on Cold Harbor because he’s particularly talented at refining data, but the fact that the file is directly connected to Gemma/Ms. Casey points to how Mark’s proximity to them both inside Lumon and out might play a larger factor in their plans.
“Severance” airs new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.
The post ‘Severance’ Season 2 Episode 2 Ending Explained: What Is Cold Harbor? appeared first on TheWrap.
