‘Severance’ Season 2 Simply Referenced a Actual-World Conspiracy, and You Most likely Missed It

Spoiler Alert: Spoilers for Severance by means of Season 2, Episode 4

Season 2 of Severance has already kicked into excessive gear. Even by the requirements of the present’s stellar sophomore go-around, the most recent installment, “Woe’s Hole,” was one thing particular. On prime of elevating much more mysteries about Lumon Industries’ historical past, the episode answered questions we didn’t even know we had and gave a stellar appearing showcase for Britt Decrease and particularly John Turturro (we definitely hope this isn’t the final we see of Irving). Whereas Lumon’s final endgame remains to be shrouded in thriller, it fortunately by no means feels just like the present has been intentionally withholding solutions or spinning its wheels.

But this week would possibly’ve already given us a obscure trace about the place issues might go, and most viewers most likely didn’t even discover. Within the midst of the MDR workforce’s company retreat, the more and more paranoid Irving begins to unravel and wanders into the woods as a present of insurrection towards Milchick. He will get misplaced and falls asleep, having a dream stuffed with the form of nightmarish imagery that might’ve made David Lynch proud. However for essentially the most eagle-eyed viewers, essentially the most fascinating Easter egg in that sequence was a textual content pop-up on a pc monitor, which learn “Montauk: 3% Full.”

What Is the Montauk Mission in ‘Severance’?

All through its run, Severance has been no stranger to incorporating conspiracies into its plot. Whereas we nonetheless don’t know the complete particulars, it’s clear that Lumon’s intentions for the MDR workforce are half of a bigger plan. As well as, Mark is vital to an almost-completed venture recognized solely as “Chilly Harbor,” which, intriguingly, is known as after a real-world occasion, particularly a battle within the Civil Struggle that occurred in 1864, one 12 months earlier than Lumon was based within the present’s historical past.

So the shoutout to Montauk can’t have been an accident. It seemingly refers back to the Montauk Mission, a conspiracy idea that originated within the Nineteen Eighties-90s, primarily based on the idea that the US authorities performed a collection of tasks at a secret Air Power base in Montauk, New York. Believers within the conspiracy have alleged that these particular tasks included however weren’t restricted to psychological warfare, thoughts management, teleportation, time journey, and aliens.

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Whereas rumblings of the conspiracy occurred through the ‘80s, it wasn’t till the next decade that they made their method into the general public consciousness when creator Preston Nichols started publishing his Montauk Mission e book collection. Nichols claimed to have recovered repressed reminiscences of being kidnapped and experimented on at a younger age, and whereas he left it open to interpretation whether or not his books had been supposed to be fictional, they’d a big following amongst conspiracy theorists.

Whereas most have nearly unanimously agreed that Nichols’ books had been meant as fiction at the beginning, his concepts have nonetheless had a shocking impression on fashionable tradition. The 1984 movie The Philadelphia Experiment was primarily based on an alleged experiment that Montauk followers imagine was an early second within the venture’s historical past. Most famously, Stranger Issues was closely impressed by the Montauk Mission, although it by no means included it immediately, to the purpose the place the present’s authentic working title was “Montauk.”

What Does The Montauk Mission Imply for ‘Severance’?

Assuming this shoutout is certainly meant as foreshadowing, what does this imply about the place Severance goes? There are many potentialities. Firstly, if we take a look at the reference to Montauk within the context of the scene (the place it appeared on an MDR laptop monitor), it appears most evident that “Montauk” is one other of Lumon’s secret tasks. It might even be doable that it’s one other title for “Chilly Harbor,” the venture that the MDR workforce has been assigned to finish.

However what little foreshadowing we’ve seen about “Chilly Harbor” has signified that it largely entails Ms. Casey/Gemma. The Montauk Mission, as a idea, instructed a way more world and far-reaching scope, so it appears secure to imagine that “Montauk” in Severance could be considered one of Lumon’s biggest-scale tasks, if not its largest. Whether or not this additionally entails precise abduction and experimentation or severance on a a lot larger canvas stays to be seen.

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An early second in “Woe’s Hole” could have given extra foreshadowing. In possibly the episode’s strangest scene, the MDR workforce encounters a rotting seal carcass, and in a match of starvation, Irving means that they eat it. The sequence has eerie similarities to an occasion in 2008, the place an unidentified animal physique (most believed it was a seal) was unearthed in Montauk, close to the Air Power base. Believers within the Montauk Mission have usually pointed to this as proof of a conspiracy, and the creature was dubbed the “Montauk Monster.”

After all, there’s all the time the likelihood that these shoutouts could be coincidental. Ben Stiller, who’s directed most Severance episodes, has spoken of Everlasting Sunshine of the Spotless Thoughts as an affect on the present, and thus, the references to Montauk might merely simply be a shoutout to that film’s devastating climax. Even nonetheless, the repeated references to the Montauk Mission itself really feel too express to dismiss as coincidence, and whereas we don’t know the place they’ll ultimately lead (if anyplace), Severance has us utterly hooked. Wherever it goes, we’re there instantly. Severance Season 2 is streaming on Apple TV, with new episodes each Friday.