Severance is a science fiction show on AppleTV that has received stellar reviews from critics and audience members. The show is centered around the idea of workers splitting their memories between work and their personal lives through a surgical implant. The idea is called severance. It perfectly hyperbolizes a corporate call center like hellscape better than any show I’ve ever seen. The show features some absolutely wild scenes and incredibly thought provoking ideas from why someone would choose to be a severed worker to what it would be like if a severed employee got pregnant. Season two is underway now, and, if you haven’t seen season one, stop what you’re doing and go watch it.
SPOILERS for season one from this point on.
One of the strangest, most intriguing scenes in the first season was when Helly R. and Mark S. are running through the halls discussing their future and the philosophical ideas behind severance, and they stumble upon a room full of goats. Undoubtedly, everyone who watched that scene was completely flabbergasted and full of questions.
Why are goats being raised at a company that seemingly specializes in tech? Why is a man feeding them through a bottle? How do the goats tie into literally anything else at all going on in the show? The show’s creator, Dan Erickson, spoke to CinemaBlend to comment on the presence of the goats in the recently started second season of the show.
“I mean, certainly, the goats are an intriguing element. I think a lot of people were wondering about that. I wanted to show more of that department. You know, so far we'd only seen one person. But I had this sort of greater network in my head there. And so, yeah, that was a big one. That was a big, exciting one.”
The comments aren’t very revealing, but it’s clear that the goats do actually serve a purpose at Lumon. In fact, it seems as if the goats are a larger department, not just a singular room with a man feeding goats through a bottle. There are more people in the goat department than just that one man as well. The “greater network” Dan Erickson mentions implies that there are far more severed employees than we know of. There were several scenes in season one in which we see the control room and the vast amount of names in it, but maybe there is more than one control room.
Season two of Severance currently has a monumental ninety eight percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes which very few shows have ever accomplished. The audience score surprisingly sits a bit lower, but still has a solid seventy nine percent. The first episode of season two famously debuted with a one hundred percent critic score.
Light SPOILERS for season two episode one below.
To the surprise of many fans, Keanu Reeves cameoed in episode one as a cartoon version of Lumon building. Lots of viewers, including myself, completely missed the cameo from the John Wick star. It certainly isn’t Keanu Reeves’ usual role, but he acted it so well that many people only recognized it after watching the episode.
What do you think of Severance season two so far? Are you excited to see what in Kier’s name these goats are all about? Let me know!