The Newest ‘Severance’ Episode Has a Major Clue About What ‘Severance’ Actually Means

With one episode left in Severance season 2 on Apple TV+, there’s a lot we superfans are hoping to have answered: Where is Irving going? Is Cold Harbor an attempt to create an artificial soul? Will Cobel (and an increasingly aggrieved Milchick) lead a revolt? What is going on with Mark’s hair and can we get a link to his styling mouse?

And there’s also a lot we now have answered in this week’s episode, “After Hours,” in which we get confirmation of Burt’s long-tenured career as a Lumon goon and surprising evidence that an innie actually can request their own resignation.

But for me, the most interesting clue about what it all means comes in the episode’s first three minutes, when we watch Helena go for a winter-time swim, then eat a meager breakfast of hardboiled eggs cut into quarters in front of her father.

As you’ll note in the clip above (the episode promo, I might add), she places the, ahem, severed egg on a little plate with a painting of two women (witches?) clad in pointy hats and red and blue dresses either fighting over or restraining a child or young man.

There are a couple ways to read this. 1. This could speak to the two Hellys fighting over Mark. 2. The severed egg could be a literal reference to the type of eugenics Lumon is experimenting with; Was Gemma pregnant when she was abducted, and what happened to that fetus? 3. The term ‘severance’ could mean something different from what we’ve always thought—the severance or termination of parental rights.