Trying to catch all the hidden gems in Severance is basically a second job, which is exactly what Ms. Cobel wants, I fear. I’m far from a gamer girlie (I mean, I’m a little better than Danielle on Traitors though that’s not saying much) but I do enjoy deep-diving all of the expert-level nerd sleuthing that happens online in relation to this show. I mean, I really could’ve used some of you overachieving thinkers when I was trying to write an essay on the symbolism in The Matrix back in 2013, but whatevs, better late than never. When you take literal years between seasons you gain a lot of time to plant seeds for your die-hard fans, and thus, I’ve gathered up the best easter eggs from Severance season 2 to obsess over.

Severance Season 2 Easter Eggs

The Opening Credits

A new season of Severance means new opening credits, yay!! Youtuber MovieFiles points out a few potential secrets hidden in the sequence.

First, a cartoon version of outie Mark sits on a bed in a room somewhere, but he has a work badge on, soooo maybe he’s not home? Then the sequence shows the cartoon Mark walking down these long creepy stairs flanked by the balloons Mr. Milchik gave Mark’s innie, implying he’s on Lumon property. Is it possible that outie Mark is going to get trapped on some kind of secret testing floor at Lumon?!

Later on, cartoon Mark is walking around his own brain (gross) and he sees two reflections flash underneath his feet. One is of Helly R. and one is of Harmony Cobel. This could suggest a huge conflict will arise between innie Mark’s love for Helly and outie Mark’s quest to take down Lumon. Will Mark have to choose?

Now, onto my favorite part of the opening credits: the goat sitting in the office wearing a suit because it’s freaking adorable. But this goat wearing business casual supports my own wild theory that the animals on the test floor are actually humans or perhaps are going to become humans.

The innies’ lockers reference Lost

If you’ve seen Lost then you’ll be familiar with the fact that the famous mystery drama was of course loaded with clues. One running motif in the show was a series of reoccurring numbers: 23, 4, 16, 8, 15, 42. One Redditor (who def deserves the “attention to detail” skill I hope is listed on their resume) noticed that in season 2 episode 2 of Severance, Dylan, Irving, and Helly’s locker numbers are three of the magic Lost numbers (23, 4, and 16, respectively). Unfortunately, when the cameras cut to Mark’s locker, it was still number 14 as established in season 1, which doesn’t fit the pattern. But these fans speculate since the Severance writers probably thought of the Lost easter egg while writing season 2, and they couldn’t change Mark’s locker number from season 1, the shoutout still counts.

Dylan pays homage to Severance creator Dan Erickson’s past career

As all real fans of the Apple hit know, the inspiration for Severance started with the dread writer and creator Dan Erickson experienced in his former life in Corporate America. In episode 2 of Severance, before Dylan returns to Lumon, the show follows him flunking an interview for a new job. The interviewer asks Dylan if he could be any type of a door, what kind would he be, and Dylan replies “Pocket.” Well, turns out one of the soul-sucking capitalist machines Dan worked for was a door factory, which he gives a wink-wink, nod-nod to with Dylan’s cheeky answer.