Severance Season 2 Adds More Fuel To Fan Theories About The Goat Mystery

Praise Kier. This article contains major spoilers for the latest episode of “Severance.”

When an episode starts with a line reading as dryly hilarious as Mark S. (Adam Scott) announcing that he and Helly R. (Britt Lower) “will find the goat man and other possible goat people,” you just know some much-needed answers are finally on the way. A lot has been made of “Severance” as the closest equivalent we’ve had to “Lost” since the series about castaways came to a close in 2010, striking the perfect balance between character and mystery box storytelling. That’s no small feat, of course, considering the countless imitators that have tried and only occasionally succeeded in the years since. But where season 1 of the Apple TV+ original built its reputation by throwing several mysteries in the air with very little in the way of actual resolutions, the second season (which I reviewed quite positively for /Film here) is already hinting at the idea of rewarding our patience.

Episode 3, titled “Who Is Alive?”, might very well be the most “Lost”-like installment yet. There are creepy conspiracies slowly unraveling out in the real world, villains are turning into something closer to morally grey characters (poor Mr. Milchick, stuck with that horrific artwork putting blackface on company founder Kier Eagen), and, most importantly, animals are once again popping up in places where they absolutely shouldn’t be. Yes, like that bizarre polar bear on the tropical island, it appears that “Severance” doesn’t want us to forget that mystery regarding the goats that Mark S. and Helly R. stumbled upon in the hallways of Lumon the last time around.

By following up on this piece of lore and expanding the world-building details even further, not to mention introducing a new employee played by “Game of Thrones” alum Gwendoline Christie, this episode of “Severance” is certain to fire up those fan theories once again.

If life already seemed dystopian enough back at Macrodata Refinement, the Bizarro World of Mammalians Nurturable easily has it beat. In place of the harshly lit rooms and the endless maze of hallways that make up the home base for Mark S. and his innie friends, this hidden wing of Lumon instead features rolling hills of grass, a motley crew of scruffy-looking caretakers (one of whom is actually dressed up in black with a giant goat head), and, oh yeah, a bunch of actual goats frolicking around. If you remember from season 1, we’ve seen how suspicions of rival departments can influence our main characters, like that fleeting moment when it actually seemed as if Optics & Design had instigated a bloody uprising. But that’s nothing compared to the welcoming party that greets Mark and Helly. Gwendoline Christie’s character, looking as disheveled as Brienne of Tarth ever did and brandishing shears as her weapon of choice, only has to utter a single line of dialogue that tells us everything: “Are you here to kill me?”

What on Earth could be going on in Mammalians Nurturable? The episode cruelly stops short of providing any actual answers, of course, but the devil is certainly in the details. We finally get an expanded look at where those goats came from, plus the reveal that there are herds (actually, Google informs me they’re referred to as “trips”) of them just waiting around for some unknown — but almost certainly sinister — purpose. Considering how rough and standoffish this department is, they’ve clearly seen things. Of course, they initially pretend to have no knowledge of the missing Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), but Mark’s impassioned speech finally convinces Christie’s character to admit the truth. Ms. Casey was also their own Wellness Director until she was inexplicably “retired,” but the Mammalians Nurturable leader vows not to impede Mark and Helly’s search … though not before checking them for pouches first, calling back to one of the first season’s funniest gags.

Something disturbing is afoot (a-hoof?) in the deepest recesses of Lumon Industries, and those pesky goats might very well be a piece of that puzzle. For years, fans have speculated over the appearance of those animals and wondered when (or if) we would ever get any closer to the truth. In a recent interview with /Film, creator and showrunner Dan Erickson strongly implied that the fan reaction to season 1 helped convince the production to revisit this subplot rather than leave it by the wayside. And while episode 3 sheds further light on this, we’re still not quite at the finish line just yet. Whether the next few episodes of the season somehow find a way to wrap this up in a satisfying way, however, remains to be seen.

So what are the leading theories thus far? It’s worth keeping in mind that “Severance” has dabbled in goat imagery before, even going back to the first season. Beyond the startling scene of an employee quietly nursing goats in a random room and refusing to hand them over to Mark or Helly because they “aren’t ready yet,” we see goats peppered all throughout the season. (Rickon Hale, the faux-intellectual author of the self-help book “The You You Are” and Mark S.’s brother in law, has a giant goat statue just chilling in his house.) In a later episode when Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) wins the waffle party and is subjected to the weirdest erotic dance you’ve ever seen, one of the dancers is wearing a goat mask. And, to put the cherry on top, the new opening credits sequence for season 2 deftly incorporates the goats into the mix, as well. One popular post on the “Severance” subreddit drew several compelling connections between the goats and Greek mythology, adding even more fuel to the fire.

Fan theories are the name of the game when it comes to unraveling “Severance,” but something tells us the creative team has a killer twist just waiting to be unleashed. New episodes of “Severance” stream on Apple TV+ every Friday.