Analyzing Severance: Clues that I haven't seen mentioned yet

UPDATED JUNE 22, 2025 -- Severance is the most fascinating, enjoyable mystery of a TV series that I think I’ve ever seen. Here are some clues to the mystery that I haven't seen anyone mention yet.

Jun 04, 2025

“Nothing in this film is accidental.”
—Director Fritz Lang, remarking on his masterpiece, Siegfried

The Severance TV series is a phenomenon for a reason: It’s deep, mysterious, relevant, thought-provoking, and compelling. And that’s on top of being superbly written, directed, plotted, and acted.

Part of the fascination of Severance is figuring out the deeper meaning of the enormous amounts of symbolism contained in it. Many viewers flock to the numerous analyses of the series to hear about clues they might have missed and their possible meanings, etc.

After watching a number of these analyses of the show, I wanted to point out some clues that I haven’t heard mentioned yet.

Spoiler Crossing

Some of what I say below will spoil bits and pieces of the show for those who haven’t watched yet. I recommend watching seasons one and two of Severance before reading what comes next.

Here are some of the thoughts I had while pondering the symbolism in Severance:

1. Mrs. Selvig’s car.

I heard someone wonder aloud what car Mrs. Selvig is driving — he couldn’t make it out. I don’t think they don’t make ‘em anymore, but it’s a Volkswagen Rabbit. A white Rabbit. Definitely not just a coincidence. Look to the Matrix and Alice in Wonderland as well as other places where the concept of “the white rabbit” has been incorporated. Articles and analyses of its meaning abound. Here are a few links and excerpts. (All boldfacing is done by me.)

From: Hopping into Symbolism: Decoding the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland

You might notice that the White Rabbit symbolizes curiosity. His unexpected appearance piques Alice’s interest and drives her to follow him down the rabbit hole. This action reflects a broader human inclination to explore the unknown. As you accompany Alice, you discover that each encounter draws deeper questions about identity and existence.
Throughout the story, the White Rabbit also represents the journey of self-discovery. He introduces Alice to various characters and bizarre situations, allowing her to confront her own perceptions and beliefs. His guidance is erratic, yet essential, demonstrating that the path to understanding oneself often involves navigating chaos.

From: What Does the Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland Symbolize? A Look Into Lewis Carroll’s Iconic Character

Another way to view the White Rabbit is as a stand-in for authority figures. He is upright, well-dressed, and punctual, all traits associated with those in positions of power. Yet he also appears to be in a state of constant chaos and disarray, much like the powerful people Alice encounters later on in her journey.

From Looper: Why The White Rabbit In The Matrix Means More Than You Think

Another thing that both Neo and Alice share is how their journeys begin: by following a white rabbit. For Neo, it's a tattoo of the white rabbit, while for Alice, it's a bit more literal. Either way, it's a testament to both characters' innate sense of curiosity, which the white rabbit metaphorically represents, that properly starts their journey and changes their lives forever. For Neo, this would come to define and mold his character arc throughout the entire original "Matrix" trilogy, as he taps into his powers and embraces his role as The One. [Boldfaced italics added by me.]

2. Helly’s interesting body position.

This didn’t occur to me at first, but as I rewatched the scene, I realized that there’s something a little bit curiously interesting about the position of Helly R.’s body when she awakens on the conference room table. In real life, if she had been carried to and placed there by someone, she would have been carried, lifted, and placed carefully on her back rather than with her face down onto the table. Not only is she face down, but her arms and legs are in the kind of disarray that you expect to see after someone has fallen from some height. Do you remember, for one example, the approximate body positions of the two high-testosterone, probably steroided super-cops in the comedy movie, The Other Guys, after they chose to catch up to some bad guys by jumping from the roof of a 15-story building? This splayed position is the kind of pose we see Helly in when she wakes up at the beginning of Season 1, Episode 1. Of course, she didn’t physically fall onto the table in the story — there’s no place to fall from in a conference room. It’s symbolic. I’m saying that the posing of her body may be a geniously subtle symbol for another kind of fall; for example, from the sky, or from heaven. I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think I am.

Note, by contrast, the position of Mark S.’s body position when he first awoke on the same table. (It’s shown as a flashback in Season Two, Episode Three.) He’s on his back, neatly arranged with arms and legs straight.

3. What does the droplet icon represent in the Lumon logo?

Think of all the other references to such things as god, religion, altars, goats, and sacrifice. After seeing these throughout both seasons, I seemed apparent to me that the droplet icon in the logo is meant to represent blood, specifically to imply sacrifice, which I think is a fundamental part of (the Kiers’) religion.

4. Why does the Board never speak?

It’s curious that when the Board initiates a meeting with an employee, it nonetheless refuses to say a word and remains inexplicably, confusingly silent, expecting the employee — who doesn’t know the purpose of the meeting — to just guess what the Board wants and begin talking. No introductions or prompting, and no answers in return. How common is it to hear of people in real life whose turn to God in desperation only to hear nothing in return? “I ask God for help, but he never replies.” We talk; god doesn’t. This feels to me like one clue (among many) that The Board represents God, whose perpetual silence turns away many who otherwise would have embraced him.

A little more on this is that this silent Board employs a mediator to speak for them (or perhaps him). Nathalie is the only one who hears the Board and relays the Board’s messages, just as priests are God’s spokesmen on Earth, so we are told.

5. Name meanings.

I haven’t looked too much into names yet, but undoubtedly one must look at them — of characters, of places, of corporations, cars, dogs — whatever. Whether names contain clues coming from explicit etymology, or from connotations or even just from mere associations, names are prime real estate for symbolic meaning. You could consider the meaning of or association implied by “Helly.” And of “Mark” and of “Irving” and all the rest. Are any of them suggestive of anything useful in interpreting the meaning of the series?

Names may not always have significant meaning though, and sometimes they may have none at all other than being appealing in some way to the creator of a story.

Mr. Drummond: At first, I tried to work out a meaning for Mr. Drummond, thinking that “mond” probably meant “world,” and that “dru,” in French, means something like “thick,” (or maybe “dense”) as in “the air was thick with fog” or “The crowd was thick with protest,” etc. I.e., maybe it represented someone very materially of the world, not spiritual or not enlightened.

I realized I was probably on the wrong track when I looked up the actual etymology of the name, which went elsewhere than my hunch. On Wikipedia, I found a long list of historical figures with this name. Maybe the creators of Severance chose “Drummond” in order to connect their character with certain attributes of one of those historical figures by association. For example, maybe one of them was an arrogant tyrant with a small vocabulary and the hidden reference seemed an appropriate one to build in to the character.

Nathalie: Nathalie is interesting. I believe the name comes from the latin word for “birth,” as in our word, “natal.” But in Italian, it has Christian relevance in the phrase, “Buon Natale,” which is how Italians wish someone a happy Christmas. (A phrase one hears in the film, Under the Tuscan Sun.) In fact, here’s what etymonline.com says:

fem. proper name, from French Natalie, from Church Latin Natalia, from Latin (dies) natalis "birthday," in Church Latin, "Christmas Day," from natalis "pertaining to birth or origin," from natus, past participle of nasci "to be born" (Old Latin gnasci), from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget." Probably originally a name for one born on Christmas. A top-20 name for girls born in the U.S. from 2005 to 2012.

6. “Three to get out.”

In Season 1, Episode 1, shortly after Helly had “fallen” into the severed world for the first time, she was confused and upset and wanted to get out of there. Interestingly, Irving tells Mark that if she asks to leave three times, they have to let her out.

This reminds me of The Wizard of Oz, in which the good witch Glynda tells Dorothy that she can return home if she will click her heels together and say “There’s no place like home” three times.

So we’ve seen some mildly suggestive links to Alice in Wonderland, The Matrix, and The Wizard of Oz — perhaps purposeful or perhaps incidental, but in any case interesting. And maybe consideration of these and/or other books or films may help figure out more about the fundamental meaning of Severance. For example, at some level, there may be a common theme.

7. Getting rid of human imperfection.

On a certain small point, there is a very interesting commonality between the bad guys in Severance and the bad guys in Serenity, the movie based on the Firefly TV series.

In Severance, it becomes evident that Kier is trying, on their testing floor, to find a way to eliminate human emotion, it being considered by Kier as messy or imperfect or — more likely — as an obstacle to their domination of humankind. They successfully excise from Miss Casey all her trauma and sadness over not being able to have a baby and have made her lose all memory of her husband. Her newly programmed emotionlessness seems to have made her better (more controllable) in Kier’s eyes, who now think of her as a “perfected” human. And Kier himself indicates in S1 E9 that he plans to eventually perform this procedure on the entire human race.

In Serenity, a very similar concept comes up. (Spoilers follow.) The crew of the Serenity discovers that a small planet on the outskirts of the system had tried out a new drug created by the Allied government (the bad guy) which was intended to reduce people’s aggressiveness and maintain a perpetual state of calm in the population of that small, new planet. It was pumped into the air compressors and was breathed in on a daily basis by the entire population. But that “cure” — that attempt at “perfecting” man, of moderating or removing his passions — had two unintended consequences. The majority of the population lost all cares and motivations. Not only did they lose the will to fight, but they also lost the will to eat, to work, to move, to live. And in a small percentage of the population, it radically backfired, turning some of the population into manically violent, horrifically sadistic predators of humanity.

When the crew of the Serenity stumbled onto this catastrophe (which had been kept under wraps by the Alliance) their captain, Mal, decided he was going to reveal this truth to all the worlds in the system so it couldn’t happen again anywhere else. His said: “I’m gonna show them a world without sin.” (In other words, I’m going to show everyone what a world without human passions, human “imperfection” looks like.)

I’m not comparing the particulars of each story to the other; only the fundamental fact that in each case, there’s an arrogant and powerful entity that attempts to “perfect” man, to make him more malleable and controllable, to the detriment of man himself. In both cases, there’s a rebellion against this power, including — in the case of Severance — the inquisitive Helly, who is in effect rebelling against her own father.

8. The symbolic meaning of finger traps. A tiny bit of knowledge sets you free.

In Season 1, Episode 2, Dylan talks to Helly about the prizes he’s won for his work, finger traps being one of them. Chinese finger traps are described this way at Wikipedia:

A Chinese finger trap (also known as a Chinese finger puzzle, Chinese thumb cuff, Chinese handcuffs, and similar variants) is a gag toy used to play a practical joke on unsuspecting children and adults. The finger trap is a simple puzzle that traps the victim's fingers (often the index fingers) in both ends of a small cylinder woven from bamboo. The initial reaction of the victim is often to pull their fingers outward, but this only tightens the trap. The key to escape the trap is to push the ends toward the middle, which enlarges the openings and frees the fingers.

There is obviously a relevant meaning intended, and whatever may be the scope of its application, I think the essential metaphor is that the finger trap makes you feel unable to get out of bondage until you figure out the secret of the trap — the “key” in the form of a small bit of knowledge — at which time you’re able to release yourself very easily.

9. Erasers as rewards. Macrodata refinement is a process of erasure.

Referring specifically to the erasers that he’s “won,” Dylan says (and I’m paraphrasing): “You have to know what they represent, the work you put in.” Dylan’s statement has two meanings. One is that the erasers are merely a measure of — a reward for — the work one has put in. The symbolic meaning of them is that the work they are doing is itself a process of erasing. By the end of Season Two, it’s easy to infer that the macrodata refiners are helping to erase the passions from subjects like Miss Casey. The four tempers, I guess. The removal of feelings and cares.

10. Dylan bites Mr. Milchick and draws blood.

I don’t know what this means yet, but I have no doubt whatsoever that it has intended significance. No normal man would actually bite someone like this when hitting and beating is available. The biting and drawing of blood must be a reference to something. Has anyone a clue about this?

More to come as time allows.