Severance season 2 is back with a bang, and in episode 2, fans received a big surprise. While the theme song remains the same (and I’m very thankful for that, because it’s great), the visuals have had a complete revamp. I’ve watched them several times by this point, and I love what designer Oliver Latta has done to refresh the titles. There’s a real body horror feel to this, it’s quite eerie and teases that one of the best Apple TV shows might be trying out a more horror-like approach to the series, something I am definitely here for. The concept of severance is pretty terrifying if I’m honest.
Not only is the intro creepy and cool, but it also has a lot of little clues and hidden things scattered about that could hint at what’s happening this season. There are some surreal, ominous choices going on here so I’ve broken down five things I spotted and I’m excited to learn more about these as the series progresses. The Apple TV Plus series has kept us on the edge of our seats long enough, we need answers!
1. The goat painting
The goats have been a huge talking point since their confusing debut in Severance season 1, and we still don’t know what on earth is going on. It has made for some fun speculation though, leading me to write an entire piece called five of the best Severance season 2 goat theories I’ve seen, from the bizarre to the quite plausible.
Admittedly, there are some solid theories here, and considering they make a very blatant appearance in the opening titles for season 2, I’m really hoping we start to learn more about them. Why is there apparently a department made up of goats? This is something we need answered ASAP and hopefully the decision to include them in the titles means we’ll be getting answers soon.
This one is a little concerning! In season 1, we met Mark’s ex-co worker Petey who had seen better days. He’d undergone a reintegration procedure that was supposed to stitch his memories back together, so he’d return to a single consciousness instead of a severed one. Of course, this was easier said than done, and it messed Petey up to the point it killed him, one of the saddest moments of the season.
Seeing a visual like this suggests Mark might want to seek out a similar procedure, but we’ve already seen how risky it can be. Whether or not reintegration will ever be successful is another debate entirely, and one we might see if Mark does decide to go through with it. That visual is certainly hinting at his desire to undo severance.
3. Cobel ‘monitoring’ Mark
Cobel is one of my favorite Severance characters, and for good reason. Throughout the first season, she managed the severed floor but ended up being fired by Lumon and thrown under the bus, with Milchick making a real effort to paint her as a bad person. In episode 2, we did see Helena Eagan offering her a new role, but she insisted she wanted to be back on the severed floor. Seeing her monitoring Mark so closely in the intro teases she’s going to be a huge part of the season and that second episode cliffhanger has certainly left me with more questions too: does she know what’s going on with Gemma/Ms. Casey?
In a recent interview with TechRadar, star Patricia Arquette teased that “she sees how much she’s done and how pivotal she’s been to the growth and trajectory of that corporation. It’s like a kid who has a parent that will never really acknowledge or love them, so she’s always trying to get that kind of approval”.
4. The figure in the elevator shifting between Helly and Ms. Casey
This is one of those blink and you’ll miss it shots, but it’s interesting to see Ms. Casey and Helly in the exact same spot like this. We all know that the former is actually outie Mark’s wife, who he thought was dead, and that his innie has kissed Helly, so this could allude to some sort of very complicated love triangle. Right now, Ms. Casey/Gemma does remain an enigma so we don’t know what’s going on there, but the fact she appears so often in this opening sequence is a promising sign.
We’re all desperate to know what’s going on, especially since Ms. Casey is linked to this Cold Harbor case that Lumon is insistent Mark works on. You can read more about that in our Severance season 2 epsiode 1 theories piece.
5. Baby Kier Eagan
Okay, this one is weird, right? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what this symbolizes but if I had to guess, it could support this cloning theory that a lot of Severance fans have. If Lumon are making clones or conducting experiments of that nature, Kier Eagan’s genes could be reborn… or something. It’s funny, whenever you discuss this series you sometimes realize just how wild everything sounds.
In the LA Times, the intro’s creator Oliver Latta admitted he also has no idea what this means. An intriguing excerpt from their interview reads: “He’s pretty sure it’s [Ben] Stiller who suggested a version of Lumon founder Kier Eagan as a crawling babe. Latta has no idea what it exactly means. ‘I have my own metaphor, but I don’t know the actual answer,’ he says. ‘We will see when everything is out fully.'”