CONTENT WARNING: This article has SPOILERS.
Just like the opening sequence, Apple TV’s series Severance is a sometimes confusing maze of storyline possibilities. As an audience, we’re constantly wondering what the fuck is going on — and god, I mean that in the best way possible.
Despite the series being a complete mystery, it’s a compelling television marvel that has fans all across the globe. But there is still one question haunting Severance enthusiasts well into the second season — what the fuck is happening with the goats?
If that’s confusing to you, I’m so sorry. To give you a smidge of context, Severance is a workplace drama-thriller. It stars Adam Scott as Mark S, a man who consents to undergo a medical procedure to separate his work self completely from his outside self to get a reprieve from the grief he feels after the passing of his wife.
As a result of the procedure, he is made up of two halves: his “innie” self, who only exists when he is at work, and his “outie” self who controls every other aspect of his life with no contact or connection in between.
Mark and his fellow severed employees work at a mysterious company named Lumon. Each day, they spend hours sorting numbers into groups but have no idea why. Nor do we as an audience truly understand what Lumon is or what it does.
“But what does this have to do with goats?!”, I hear you ask.
Well, in season one, Mark and his colleague Helly R (Britt Lower) go on a walk. As they wander the bland, non-descript hallways they stumble across a room filled with baby goats. In the centre is a man bottle-feeding a goat, who tells them that they “weren’t ready yet”.
That scene, combined with goats being depicted in bloody scenes in oil paintings throughout the Lumon building, has sparked the internet’s curiosity.
During an interview with one of Severance‘s directors Ben Stiller and Adam Scott ahead of season two, I tried my best to get to the bottom of the goat mystery.
“Is there anything you can tell me and the audience about the goat room?” I queried.
“No,” Stiller said after a comically long pause.
“There is not. I mean there are apparently goats in this room and I do think Gwendolyn Christie, the actress is in there.
“She lives there,” Scott chimed in.
“We don’t know that,” Stiller said, giving him a warning look.
“No, Gwendolyn Christie the actress. She lives there,” Scott joked.
“But yeah, but we’ve gotta keep it. Suffice to say, the goats are a thing.”
See, I promise I tried!!!
You can watch the curious moment below.
So, what theories about Severance‘s goats are there?
Thankfully, some very clever fans of the show have taken to social media to share their theories of what the goats are there for, or what they mean. Here are some of the best ones.
1. The goats are the Lumon board of directors
Throughout the show, we’ve seen Mark’s boss, Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette), contact a board of directors through a telecom. So far, they have not been shown on screen nor do we know anything about the board. The mystery of the board has caused some fans to hypothesize that the goats were actually the board.
The cast was presented with this theory in an Entertainment Weekly video to mixed reviews. While John Turturro (who plays Irving) didn’t believe the theory at all, his co-star Zach Cherry (who plays Dylan) was all for it.
“I’m not going to debunk this because it’s possible. The goats could be the board,” he said.
I mean, sure.
2. The series has a connection to Arthur Machen’s novel The Great God Pan
On Reddit, one fan drew connections between the series and Arthur Machen‘s novel The Great Pan.
“I think it’s possible that it acted as inspiration for some of the plot,” the Redditor wrote.
The Great God Pan is a 1894 horror novel in which a strange experiment is undertaken on the mind of a young woman named Mary so she would be able to see the supernatural world. However, after the surgery, she is raped by the great god Pan — who in Greek mythology resembles a goat — and gives birth to a daughter named Helen.
Helen wreaks havoc on the small town they live in and inspires many to commit suicide by hanging. In the end, Helen dissolves into a jelly-like substance.
The Redditor believes there are some parallels between this story and Severance, including Helly’s similar name, how she attempted to hang herself and the jelly-like substance that we see in the opening credits.
For the full theory, click HERE.
3. The goats are used for severance technology experiments
Another obvious theory is that the goats are the first test subjects for the world-first severance technology that allows the severed employees to lead two separate lives.
You see, goats have a remarkably good memory. What if they were a much better testing option than lab rats when it came to brain technology for humans?
And that brings me to my next theory…
4. Lumon is trying to clone people
Adding on to the test subject theories is the hot take that Lumon is really in the cloning business. Although we know Lumon is a technology company, we don’t really know the specifics — and neither do the employees. One theory is that they’re attempting to learn how to clone things effectively and the goats were the first test subjects.
One Redditor believes that Miss Casey (Dichen Lachman) is a clone of Mark’s dead wife Gemma.
“Gemma died in a car accident having burned. It wouldn’t make sense that they would “remake” Gemma. Rather, it makes sense that she was cloned,” the Redditor theorised.
“This is why she is so important. Why ‘Cold Storage’ is important. Gemma is a new type of production — that with cloning, Lumon can implant, customise and reanimate people from the past.”
They claim that if Gemma is a blank slate that Lumon has created for the sole purpose of being a therapist, it means that the company can create slave-like workers from the dead.
And, after the latest episode, I think this theory is onto something.
5.The goats aren’t actually goats
Nothing in this goddamn show is as it seems. So, naturally, fans have theorised that the goats aren’t really goats — it’s just what the innies have been programmed to see. After all, if they’ve been programmed to essentially switch on when they enter the building, what else can Lumon control?
“The innies have perception filters on,” wrote one clever Redditor.
“For example, the numbers they’re seeing aren’t actually numbers, but something like video or images. The numbers feel scary or happy because the pictures are. The goats aren’t really goats, but actually human children, possibly clones.”
Well, there you have it.
It really is a compelling yet confusing plotline, isn’t it?
Hopefully by the time Apple TV+ drops the rest of season two (we’re being drip-fed, much like the goats!) we’ll have some more answers.
You can watch season one of Severance and the first few episodes of season two on Apple TV+.
