Severance's Hidden Parallels With Another Hit Apple TV+ Sci-Fi Might Explain Lumon's True Purpose

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Severance season 2.

Severance seems to secretly share some intriguing parallels with another hit Apple TV+ sci-fi show, which might explain some of the biggest questions surrounding Lumon’s purpose in the series. On the surface, Severance follows a simple sci-fi concept that revolves around the employees of a company whose lives, quite literally, have been split between their work and personal selves. However, using this core idea, the Apple TV+ sci-fi show explores many complex ideas surrounding identity, grief, religion, and the unreliable nature of memory.

The show avoids delving too deep into the neuroscience of its ideas and presents story developments and twists that are easy to follow for most viewers. At the same time, Severance also masterfully ensures that it keeps a veil over many of its biggest revelations to keep viewers hooked throughout its runtime. One of the biggest mysteries in the show revolves around Lumon’s purpose. Severance may have hardly provided any answers surrounding Lumon’s work and overarching motives, but its parallels with another acclaimed Apple TV+ sci-fi show raise some fascinating possibilities.

Gemma’s Mysterious Fate Makes Her Both Dead & Alive At The Same Time

The Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment was initially meant to be a criticism of the uncertainty principle and observation theory in quantum mechanics. However, in “pop science” and science fiction, it is often cited as a visual metaphor to understand quantum superposition and the observer’s effect. Since this article explores the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics and the speculative theories surrounding quantum consciousness to explain and explore the themes in Severance, it will also resort to using simple ideas, like Schrödinger’s cat, to examine story beats from the show.

In shows like Apple TV+’s Dark Matter and Constellation, the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment is used to explain the many-worlds interpretation and the duality of one’s existence. Both shows highlight how, just like Schrödinger’s cat is both dead and alive after being enclosed in a box, a character exists in alternate states at the same time. Much like the cat, Severance‘s Gemma seems to be both dead and alive at the same time.

Mark and everyone else in the outside world are led to believe that Gemma died in a car accident. However, when Mark’s outie learns about the possibility of Gemma’s existence in the Lumon office, he faces a paradox where she could be both dead and alive until he learns the truth about her existence. Even if Gemma exists in the flesh at Lumon, Mark’s outie does not know if she is the Gemma he once knew. This, again, from a philosophical standpoint, raises many questions about Gemma’s identity and whether she even deserves to be associated with the memories Mark has of her.

The Severance Procedure Can Be Seen As A Representation Of Quantum Superposition

The Lumon Chip Collapses The Innie-Outie Superposition Into One State

From a metaphorical standpoint, the Schrödinger’s cat experiment explains how a particle can exist in two alternate states at the same time, or rather, in a state of quantum superposition. The superposition only collapses when the box is opened, and the cat (or particle) is observed. Dark Matter and Constellation visually represent quantum superposition by showing how alternate versions of the same characters exist in parallel, each living out different possible outcomes. Severance is not about parallel universes, but its titular procedure seems to adopt a similar concept.

The titular severance procedure can be seen as a metaphor for quantum superposition, allowing a severed worker to exist in two alternate states simultaneously. The observer’s effect determining the cat’s fate in the experiment and the state of a particle in a quantum system also applies to the characters in Severance.

Just like the observer’s effect makes the superposition in the cat experiement and the quantum system collapse into one definite state, the characters in Severance are similarly “collapsed” into one of their two personas when they cross the boundary between their work and personal lives. To put it simply, the Lumon chip collapses the innie/outie superposition and ensures the severed workers do not experience the alternate realities of their innies and outies at the same time.

Quantum Entanglement Explains The Crossovers Between The Innies & Outies

The Innies & Outies’ Are Affected By Each Other’s Actions

In quantum mechanics, quantum entanglement is a phenomenon where two particles become interconnected with each other in such a way that any changes in the state of one particle directly impact the other. Entanglement can be seen as a representation of how, despite being separated by the severance chip, the innies and outies end up experiencing several memory overlaps and crossovers. For instance, as Petey reveals in Severance season 1, Mark’s innie, too, seems to carry his outie’s grief but just does not remember its true source.

Irving’s outie, too, gets “entangled” with his innie by breaking into his consciousness with his paintings of the “Exports Hall.” Helena and Helly’s shared romantic feelings for Mark can also be interpreted as a form of entanglement. Mark’s innie and outie experience a similar sense of entanglement after Mark gets reintegrated, creating several memory and visual overlaps between the two characters’ perceptions. The final goal of the reintegration process is to achieve a kind of quantum coherence that creates a unified reality for a severed person’s innie and outie.

Lumon Could Be Trying To Achieve Quantum Immortality In Severance

The Company Is Struggling To Overcome The Philosophical Challenges Surrounding Quantum Immortality

Quantum Immortality, a speculative philosophical concept with no scientific backing, explores the idea of how an individual could live eternally. Even after their death in one world, their existence would persist in many alternate universes where they survive, allowing them to live forever. Dark Matter captures the idea of quantum immortality by showing how even after a character meets a grim fate in one universe, they remain unscathed in another world because their parallel states live through a distinct set of circumstances and experiences.

Lumon might be trying to achieve a similar sense of immortality by ensuring that even after someone dies in the real world, they can continue existing as an innie. On the surface, they have seemingly achieved this by bringing back dead people like Gemma. Time and again, the show has confirmed that she died in the outside world, and Mark even saw her body after her accident. However, it seems like Lumon found a way to immortalize her by bringing her back as an “innie,” an alternate version of her that exists solely in the company’s building.

Despite finding a way to create alternate versions of individuals through the severance procedure, Lumon seems to be struggling with philosophical problems associated with identity and its persistence across alternate states. The company has yet to figure out how “alternate” innie individuals like Gemma can retain or completely eradicate the deeply ingrained traits of their outies. This is probably where the MDR’s work with the mysterious numbers comes in. The MDR department in Severance must be helping Lumon overcome these challenges by ensuring the innies achieve complete quantum immortality.

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Severance

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Release Date

February 18, 2022