Do Severance’s New Credits Hold Clues About Season 2? We Do a Deep Dive

Dave Nemetz and Ryan Schwartz

30 January 2025 at 1:00 pm·6-min read

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Season 2 of Apple TV+’s Severance.

Severance’s main title sequence — much like page 197 of Dr. Ricken Hale’s “The You You Are” — seriously slaps. But what if there’s more to those stunning visuals than meets the eye?

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We were blown away by German animator Oliver Latta’s work in Season 1 — but it wasn’t until Apple TV+’s mind-bending sci-fi series returned for its long-awaited Season 2 premiere that we ascertained that specific frames foreshadowed moments that would come later on, which executive producer/director Ben Stiller confirmed on the most recent episode of the official Severance podcast.

“When you look at [Mark] carrying those balloons in [Episode 1], that came out of this balloon image… that [Latta] did in the credits for Season 1,” he said. So, once it was decided that Season 2 would introduce an updated opening with entirely new illustrations by Latta, Stiller thought, “What could it be for Season 2 that is maybe more specific, and has more Easter eggs and more little nods to the season that people might not even appreciate until the season is over and they look back at it?”

<cite>Apple TV+ screenshot</cite> — Apple TV+ screenshot

The Jan. 17 premiere offered a glimpse of Innie Mark’s computer screen. His ongoing work on the Cold Harbor file produced a glimpse of Outie Mark’s (allegedly) late wife Gemma — or was it Miss Casey? — alongside vital signs, which suggest that the top-secret work being done by Lumon’s macrodata refiners involves something very… human. Or human-like. And that got us thinking about that Season 1 visual again, where Outie Mark is carrying a bouquet of Innies as if they were balloons.

This was top of mind when Episode 2 introduced our new main titles. At one point, Outie Mark is in bed, and he’s surrounded by faceless babies in suits. Later, another infant — this one with an adult head — crawls past Mark’s feet, and he looks an awful lot like Lumon visionary Kier Eagan…

Is it possible that all of these visuals are telling us that the Lumon is working on human cloning?

That is but one of several theories we pose below. Rewatch the credits for yourself, then read on for our second-by-second breakdown, with handy time codes for each. Got your own theories? That’s what the comments are for: Join us below for a waffle party — of ideas!

0:12

The new credits open with an animated Mark S. sitting on the edge of his bed as a balloon shaped like his head comes out of a Lumon-esque elevator. He gets up and walks down a long staircase holding a flashlight while more balloons float by. This feels like Outie Mark having a dream and peering into his subconscious, with the balloons matching the ones Mr. Milchick gave to Mark in the Season 2 premiere.

0:18

As Mark continues his descent, he walks on what looks like green brain folds, covered by a shallow layer of water. At first, we see Mark’s reflection in the water, but the reflection turns into what looks like Helly in her signature blue dress. The Helly reflection runs away and is replaced by what looks like Gemma, in her Ms. Casey work outfit. So the two women in Mark’s life are occupying a lot of space in his subconscious, it seems.

0:25

As Mark continues to look around, he runs into — himself! Well, his Innie self, anyway, dressed in his Lumon work clothes. They both hold flashlights on each other, until we see they’re standing on the chest of a sleeping Outie Mark, who wakes up and grabs them. Oh, and a bunch of faceless babies in suits are crawling around in the bed, too. So Mark is clearly struggling to reconcile his two identities — Innie and Outie. But what’s with the babies? Are they a hint that Lumon’s secret mission is related to human cloning, as many fan theories seem to think?

0:40

After a shot of the severance chip passing through Mark’s brain, the pajama-clad Outie Mark finds himself back at his Lumon workstation. He then jumps down into a painting which transforms from his face into… the head of a goat. Goats have been an ongoing mystery on Severance, with Mark and Helly opening a door at the Lumon office in Season 1 and finding a room full of baby goats. So are the goats like lab rats, helping Lumon perfect whatever technology they’re working on?

0:44

After gazing at the goat portrait, Mark finds himself floating on an iceberg on a frozen tundra, along with Innie Mark and several other figures in business attire, whose heads all turn into balloons. This hops ahead a bit to a scene we haven’t seen yet, but in the Season 2 trailer, we see Mark and his Lumon friends bundled up for some sort of outdoor excursion in a snowy environment. Perhaps this is a hint that the mystery excursion plays a big role in Season 2’s story?

We also spot a wrecked car on the icy tundra. Could that be a reference to the car accident that supposedly killed Mark’s wife Gemma?

1:00

After riding a balloon, Mark is dazed and gets help from his Innie, who carries him under a curtain and out into a grassy pasture, dotted with giant heads (that look like Helly and Gemma) and headless bodies. If the pasture seems familiar, it’s also from the Season 2 trailer, with Mark and Helly walking across a giant indoor pasture with — you guessed it — goats. Let’s hope that scene clues us in about what the Lumon goats actually mean.

1:04

As Mark is carried across the grassy pasture by his Innie, we see they’re being watched from above by a giant, faceless Ms. Cobel, in a strong dose of nightmare fuel. Patricia Arquette’s character has taken a backseat so far this season, since Cobel was fired at Lumon, but this seems to indicate she’ll play a larger part in the episodes to come.

1:07

We peer into Ms. Cobel’s face, which becomes a hallway Mark is exploring with his flashlight. The hallway then turns dark and black — just like the hallway that Outie Irving keeps painting — with an elevator at the end, and as we hurtle towards it, we see flashes of Helly inside it, and then of Gemma/Ms. Casey. Again, Mark seems torn between these two women, just as he’s torn between his Innie and Outie selves.

1:13

We end up where we began, with Mark sitting on the edge of his bed — only now, snow is falling in his bedroom, and what appears to be a baby with an adult head is crawling at his feet. The baby has a distinctive nose and beard… that seem to match those of Lumon’s vaunted founder Kier Eagan. So this brings us back to the cloning theory: Is Lumon’s mission to cheat death, and to ultimately resurrect its great leader?

Oh, and the credits can’t resist adding a bit more nightmare fuel at the end, with a shot of the back of Mark’s head… and another Mark crawling his way out of it from inside. Sweet dreams, everyone!

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