Unnoticed Details from ‘Severance’ Season 2, Episode 3: Highlights include Cobel’s Breathing Tube and Salt’s Neck Injury

Praise Kier! Severance Season 2, Episode 3 is here!

Apple TV+’s workplace thriller’s second season starts by updating viewers on what happened after the Season 1 finale, both on the Severed Floor and in the outside world. The introduction of intriguing new characters like Miss Huang and Mr. Drummond, the revelation of the meaning of “fetid moppet,” and the puzzling significance of pineapples sets the stage for the continued search for Ms. Casey and the mysterious black hallway from Outie Irving’s paintings.

In Episode 3 of Season 2 titled “Who Is Alive?”, Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan delve deeper into their search for answers.

Major Severance Season 2, Episode 3 spoilers ahead.

The third episode of this season of Severance packs a lot into its 53-minute runtime. Mark’s attempts to reach out to his innie fail, leading him to reconnect with Reghabi, discover Gemma’s existence in Lumon, and undertake a risky Reintegration process. Cobel and Milchick begin to question their allegiance to the company. Innie Mark and Helly revisit the Goat Department, while Irving returns to O&D after the loss of Burt. Natalie proposes an unexpected idea to Ricken, and the audience is finally introduced to characters played by Gwendoline Christie and Merritt Wever.

Since Severance is such a meticulously crafted show, every Friday until the March 21 finale, Decider will be taking a closer look at each episode and highlighting five moments that deserve to be put under the microscope. Whether they’re blink-and-miss-it details or major scenes that need to be talked through in greater depth, we’re here to obsess, hypothesize, and dissect the series alongside you.

From the return of Ms. Cobel’s breathing tube, Salt’s Neck, Milchick’s paintings, and more, here are five things you may have missed from Severance Season 2, Episode 3.

1. After Season 2, Episode 2 ended with Cobel screaming at Mark and speeding away in her car, Episode 3 opens with her waking up in the driver’s seat on the side of a snowy road. She blasts some music, starts driving again, and the next time we see her she slows her car to a stop right before a “Salt’s Neck” sign. She stares at the sign as though the location is of great significance to her, sighs, and looks down at a familiar-looking breathing tube on her passenger seat.

   For those who need a refresher, we first saw this breathing tube on Cobelvig’s Eagan shine in Season 1. In addition to a framed photo of Kier, the candle-lit shrine featured a photo of a young girl in front of Myrtle Eagan School for Girls, a ticket to the 7th Annual “Kiernival,” several diplomas, a mask that’s begging to be worn at a waffle party, and various other company-related keepsakes. The most meaningful items were the breathing tube and hospital bracelet, which read “Charlotte Cobel.” Based on the birthdate, fans suspected the items belonged to Harmony’s mother, who may be connected to Lumon and have played a role in Cobel’s deep devotion to the company. As for Salt’s Neck, perhaps it holds additional insight into Cobel’s past. If so, those answers will have to wait, because Cobel turns her car around and speeds back to Lumon.

   When unpacking Cobel and Mark’s intense confrontation at the end of Season 2, Episode 2, Patricia Arquette told Decider, “There is something going on that [Cobel] doesn’t really want to not have access to anymore. And there’s a thread of her own personal story that she’s projecting onto [Mark’s] experience, and wanting it to turn out a certain way for her own closure of her own unfinished business.” So perhaps this is confirmation that Season 2 will give us a deeper look in Cobel’s history.

2. One of many burning questions Severance still needs to answer is what’s the deal with The Board? Who is it comprised of? What’s with the speaker? Why is Natalie their go-between? And now, what’s up with these paintings!?

   When Milchick enters his office in Season 2, Episode 3, a chipper Natalie is waiting for him with The Board on the line and a gift on his desk. “The Board is jubilant at your ascendence. It wants you to feel appreciated and asks if you do,” Natalie tells Milchick. “The Board austerely desires for you to feel connected to Lumon’s history. To that end, please accept from The Board these inclusively re-canonicalized paintings intended to help you see yourself in Kier, our founder.”

   When Milchick opens the gift, he finds “the whole Kier cycle” recreated with a jaw-dropping twist: Kier was painted as a Black man. “Oh…oh my,” Milchick says, visibly taken aback by the gesture. Perhaps clocking his lack of enthusiasm, Natalie adds, “The Board wishes to express that I received the same gift upon receipt of my current position and found it extremely moving.” Unsure how to proceed, Milchick replies, “I’m grateful. It’s meaningful to see myself…reflected in —” Before he can continue, The Board concludes the call and Natalie shoots him a perplexing smile. Before he leaves for the day, Milchick reexamines the paintings, packs them away, and puts the box on the highest shelf in his office’s closet — out of sight.

   On an episode of The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott, Tramell Tillman spoke a bit on race at Lumon and the corporate politics that start to get to Milchick in Season 2. “I remember the conversation that I had with you, Ben, and Dan Erickson, when we discussed Milchick’s ethnicity, the fact that he’s Black. And the question I asked is, ‘Does he know he’s Black?’ So for me, it was really important for this character and as an actor to know if this character understood that he is different from this culture that they built at Lumon,” Tillman said. “When we look at the perpetuity wing, you know, they’re all homogeneous for the most part. They’re all white. And so we don’t see a lot of images of Black people or brown people represented through Lumon. So what does it mean to be in a world that you are not represented in? And how does Milchick buy into that?”

   While we’ll have to wait and see how the storyline progresses, the scenes in Season 2, Episode 3 mark some of Milchick’s most visible concerns with the company yet. Whether the gesture was well-intended or not, the paintings don’t accurately represent Lumon’s history, which is something Milchick may begin to reflect on as the season continues.

3. In hopes of finding Ms. Casey, Helly and Mark head back to the baby goat department, only to discover the room they stumbled on in Season 1 is empty. Though the baby goats and mysterious man they encountered are missing, they find a crawlspace that leads them to another room full of green grass, hills, and grazing goats. What the heck is it? Mammalian’s Nurturable, according to the department head, played by Gwendoline Christie.

   Though Christie’s character initially denies knowledge of Ms. Casey and threatens to report their search to Milchick, after Mark stresses the importance of standing up for fellow innies and potentially saving Ms. Casey’s life, she admits Ms. Casey used to hold Wellness sessions with them. She also summons her team of at least 24 people and asks Mark and Helly to show everyone their bellies to disprove the rumor that they have pouches, which Burt shared in Season 1.

   While we’re happy we got a better look at the goat department, Severance still has some serious explaining to do. What are the goats for? What exactly does this team do? Where do the other doors in the room lead? And have we seen the last of Christie’s initially chilling character? We waited three years for Season 2, so fingers crossed some real goat answers lie ahead.

4. When Irving made his return to O&D in Season 2, Episode 3, Felicia (Claudia Robinson) warmly greeted him with a smile, a hug, and fond memories of Burt. The two reminisced about their old pal, and Felicia adorably revealed that in the six years she worked with Burt, she only saw him scared once — when he spent two hours on his hair before going to visit Irving the first time. While Felicia was flipping through Irv’s drawings of Burt, she accidentally saw his sketch of the mysterious black hallway from his outie’s paintings. Rather than ask him what it was, Felicia simply said, “How do you know about the Exports Hall?” *Gasp* She explained that O&D “sends a lot of shipments there” and while they used to deliver the shipments themselves, “now they send a guy.” Irving asked if she remembers where the hallway is, so we’re one step closer to finding it. But what exactly are “shipments”? What does O&D have that the lower floor needs? Was Burt aware of the Exports Hall? How the heck does Irving’s outie know about it? And who’s this guy they’re sending to make the deliveries?! With every Severance answer comes a slew of new questions.

5. Cobel abandoned her Salt’s Neck road trip to drive back home to Lumon, where she had a showdown with Helena in the parking lot and demanded that her needs be accommodated before she return. What needs? First (and non-negotiable) was control of MDR. “Mark S. is so close to completing Cold Harbor. I intend to finish the work that I started,” she said. Her second request was that Milchick be fired as “he’s not equipped for the task” of floor manager. Ouch. After Helena reminded Cobel that ego wasn’t Kier-approved, Cobel essentially called her a nepo baby, which inspired a more scathing comment about Cobel overestimating her contributions and underestimating her blessings.

   Cobel then claimed the company “didn’t have a choice” in asking her back, which implied that The Board had reason to be scared of letting her go. In response, Helena whipped out her phone, called Natalie to ask if The Board was available to speak to her and Cobel, and encouraged Cobel to join her for a “reset.” At first, Cobel accepted the offer and followed Helena back to the building, but when they reached the stairs and Cobel noticed Helena’s driver at the ready, she got a bad feeling and fled. She hopped back in her car and sped away, proving that her trust in Helena — and perhaps Lumon at large — was severed. Whether or not that trust is irrevocably lost, we can’t shake the feeling that Cobel is about to go rogue.

As the season progresses, we can guarantee it’ll get increasingly difficult to narrow this list down to just five things you may have missed, so every so often you’ll get a BONUS as a fun Decider perk! As Milchick said when he delivered a fruit basket to Mark’s door in Season 2, Episode 2, consider it “compliments of the company.” In Episode 3, Dylan finally meets his outie’s wife Gretchen, played by the great Merritt Wever. During their 18-minute “visitation event” we learn more about their kids and Outie Dylan, and later in the episode we get a glimpse at their home life, where we see what looks like a Kier toy on the floor and a uniform that suggests Gretchen works as an a first responder of some sort. Will that be relevant down the line? We need more!

New episodes of Severance Season 2 premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.