A love hexagon, a bloody murder, and an innie rebellion. In the Severance finale, Mark (Adam Scott) proves that when it comes to Lumon and matters of the heart, all is fair in love and war—especially when you’ve got an innie, an outie, and a bloody elevator ride thrown into the mix.
Cold Harbor, the finale for the second season of Severance just dropped, and with it, a shocking conclusion that left fans scrambling to process the emotional whiplash.
The season finale follows innie Mark as he navigates the final phase of a high-stakes plan to rescue his outie’s wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman), who has been revealed as Ms. Casey, Lumon’s wellness director. To set the rescue in motion, Mark completes the Cold Harbor file, a key component of Lumon’s secret project that creates multiple innies of Gemma. Once the file is finished, Mark becomes his outie and prepares for the risky task of breaking Gemma out of Lumon.
To escape, Mark and Gemma must return to the severed floor, taking the elevator that triggers their innies. When the doors open, Mark’s innie leads Gemma to the exit, where she safely crosses to the other side, triggering her outie. However, instead of following her out, Mark’s innie makes a shocking decision: He turns back and heads toward Helly (Britt Lower), who watches from a distance. Despite Gemma’s frantic cries for him to join her, Mark’s innie chooses to be with the woman he loves, taking her hand before running down the hall toward freedom.
Viewers' reaction to this scene has been nothing short of apoplectic, with fans on X melting down faster than Mark ditched Gemma at the door.
“MY GODDD,” one stunned viewer wrote, sharing gifs of Mark leaving Gemma for Helly.
“I can’t believe this was literally the plot of the Severance finale #Severance,” another user posted.
Others voiced their sympathy for Gemma.
Meanwhile, some couldn’t resist poking fun at the moment Helly watches Mark make his choice.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lachman and Lower sat down to talk about the finale, giving readers insight into their takes on the moment when Gemma and Helly lock eyes in the hallway.
“Helly R. seeing Gemma, Britt seeing Dichen’s performance on the other side of the door, was really affecting. That last moment where she’s seeing this heartbreaking thing happening across the hallway, my eyes were just drawn to Dichen. That was just something that happened on the day. I remember just being like, ‘I can’t take my eyes off her, even if I’m being pulled away,’” Lower said.
“There’s a connection there. There’s this moment where I think Helly R. is seeing an outie, having empathy for an outie, maybe for the first time, and seeing this other woman who loves the outie version of the same person that she loves on the inside,” she continued. “That has an effect, even as they’re running away like wild horses. That lingering image, that heartbreaking image stays with her as they’re both, like, ‘What are we doing? What’s next?’ And yet she’s free.”
Whether innie Mark and Helly find true freedom remains uncertain, but at least they’ll have each other—more than can be said for Gemma.
