Did SEVERANCE Just Reveal the Horrifying Truth About Macrodata Refinement?

Mark S. smiling at work on Severance

What do severed macrodata refiners actually do at Lumon? That was one of Severance season one’s biggest questions. All those employees know is that their “work is mysterious and important.” It’s also weird. It involves fencing off seemingly random numbers, that somehow evoke real emotions, from nondescript, time-sensitive documents into one of five digital buckets. Now we might know something they don’t: what they are actually doing. And it’s as horrifying as we imagined. Severance‘s season two premiere showed Mark’s current file is directly connected to his “dead” wife Gemma.

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The final sequence from “Goodbye, Ms. Cobel” showed Mark working on his latest file. Named “Cold Harbor,” it is seemingly Ms. Casey herself. He placed a batch of random numbers that made him feel good—he smiled as he moved them—into one of the five buckets below. We still don’t know what those different buckets represent, just that each has something to do with Kier Eagan’s Four Tempers.

When Mark deposited the number group into the file it went from 67% completed to 68%. Then, unknown to him, a matching file on a different computer showing Gemma’s photo increased the exact same amount. Only, her side of the document had far more information. The statistics on her screen included her current body temperature and heart rate.

A computer file with stats and a photo of Ms. Casey on Severance
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Macrodata refiners appear to be working on actual humans. At least they are in some cases, though it seems likely they always are. That would explain why those “random” numbers generate real feelings. They’re the real feelings of real people, just as many theorized during season one. But why are human emotions popping up in a digital document? Considering whose file confirmed this possibility and the file’s name the possible answers are chilling. Maybe literally.

Previously we’ve seen macrodata files with names like “Tumwater,” “Culpepper,” “Dranesville,” and “Cairns.” Without context they were essentially meaningless to us even though we know on Severance they all mean a great deal. But “Cold Harbor” in relation to a presumed dead woman who reappeared as the weirdest severed human alive certainly says a lot.

Did SEVERANCE Just Reveal the Horrifying Truth About Macrodata Refinement?_1
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Is Ms. Casey/Gemma, last seen going to the mysterious Testing Floor, currently in stasis? Possibly on literal ice? Is that why her screen listed “PCKT” rate and time, because she’s “in pocket?” If she’s not in some kind of stasis why monitor her vital signs? If she’s just walking around living an Outie life why is anyone keeping track of her health? And does this file prove Gemma really did die and is being kept alive via some unknown digital process?

If that’s true it means others might also be alive this way, even if they don’t possess bodies the way Ms. Casey does. (It would also explain why Ms. Casey was only alive for 107 hours and is so strange when other Innies are not.) What if Lumon is connecting not just human bodies but brains to computers and having macrodata refiners compartmentalize the emotions they experience? Is that why we never see Lumon’s board? Because they’re all “alive” without being alive?

A blue computer screen with random numbers on Severance
Apple TV+

There’s still so much we don’t know about the work of severed macrodata refiners. Even if many of our assumptions are true, we don’t know what those digital buckets represent. We don’t know why most never get completed and disappear. Neither do we know how any of this actually works. And yet this single revelation about Mark’s work file makes the possibility that the Founder himself, Kier Eagan is alive in some capacity and is still running Lumon. That would explain why this one department’s work is “mysterious and important.” No one can know they’re doing, but it’s the only thing Lumon cares about.

It’s probably not what Mark S. cares about, though. He begged to go back to work at Lumon. Why? Why would he want to go work for a company that has his supposedly dead wife in its deepest basement? For that exact reason. Mark Scout might have begged to go back specifically because he wants to keep his wife alive. Macrodata refinement might be the only way to do that.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who isn’t sure what his Outie does. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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