The Severance Season 2 Finale Finally Explains The Show's Most Popular Mystery

To put this (more or less) monosyllabically, don't read past this point if you have not watched the last hour of "Severance" season 2.

You didn't think the creative minds behind "Severance" would cast as recognizable a name as Gwendoline Christie if they didn't have at least one more payoff up their sleeves, now did you? The same certainly goes for the most popular and enduring mystery in the entire series: those inexplicable goats. After it seemed like the writers would be content with treating both as one-and-done elements earlier in season 2, the finale tied up some nagging loose ends as dramatically as we could've ever expected. By the end of the episode, viewers craving answers finally received an explanation as to why Lumon Industries would have an entire department called Mammalians Nurturable with severed workers tending to flocks of goats. To nobody's surprise, the reveal was just as weird and disturbing as any other world-building details within the world's most nightmarish office.

Our first clue that the goats would be back with a vengeance comes roughly 45 minutes into the finale (although, technically, I suppose it actually was "spoiled" by Apple itself on social media a few days ago). While our focus remains squarely on the daring rescue attempt to free Gemma (Dichen Lachman) from the clutches of Lumon, the writers add one more twist of the knife. Breaking away from the action in Macrodata Refinement, the episode suddenly switches gears as we're taken down one random hallway. Here, the perpetually-disheveled Lorne (Christie) reappears and wheels a helpless baby goat to some sinister location. That turns out to be a hidden room directly opposite of the testing floor elevator, where the Lumon enforcer Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) is waiting to carry out an animal sacrifice straight out of the pages of the Old Testament — all to celebrate the completion of the all-important Cold Harbor file.

You wanted answers to those goat questions? Well, "Severance" has delivered exactly that. And, in all honesty, we're still a little traumatized by it.

Animal lovers, look away! After literally years of keeping audiences guessing as to what exactly Lumon was doing with those goats, "Severance" revealed one of the biggest mysteries that fans couldn't get enough of — and it turned out to be as brutal as it gets. In retrospect, a grisly animal sacrifice as an offering to Kier Eagan was probably the most obvious answer all along. Of course a company as old-fashioned and cult-like as Lumon would see these innocent animals as nothing more than fodder for their deity. What they didn't bank on, however, was the fierce devotion from the leader of Mammalians Nurturable.

Thank the TV gods for Gwendoline Christie. The makeup and costuming crew behind "Severance" went above and beyond to make the actor look as haggard as ever, and we quickly learn why. Once she arrives with the bleating kid, Drummond ominously asks whether this particular goat has "verve" and "wiles." Assured that it's the most fitting choice of the entire flock, he describes what's about to happen in the creepiest terms imaginable: "This beast will be entombed with a cherished woman, whose spirit it must guide to Kier's door." That "cherished woman" is clearly referring to Gemma, as Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) previously explained that finishing the Cold Harbor file would inevitably mean the death of Mark's (Adam Scott) beloved wife. But what we couldn't have known was that this is nothing new for Lumon or for Lorne, whose plaintive question asking, "How many must I give?" confirms our worst fears.

Intriguingly, a twist like this wasn't always in the cards. In a previous interview with /Film, creator Dan Erickson stated that extreme levels of fan interest in the lingering goat mystery helped convince them to address this once and for all. Fans would likely agree that this was the right call ... even if things got a little bleak there for a second.

It's not exactly a hard-and-fast rule in writing that when you have two physically imposing performers in your cast, you simply must stage a show-stopping fight between them at some point down the line ... but it's one we're glad that "Severance" followed anyway. Even though we weren't necessarily anticipating a big showdown between Drummond and Lorne (the latter of whom we still contend would've benefited from an episode all to her own), the circumstances made perfect sense once it all clicked into place. The gnarly fight breaks out once Mark S. bumbles his way right into Mr. Drummond's sights, breaking the rules by attempting to gain access to the darkened hallway leading to the testing floor. It helps that Lorne's decision to help save Mark's life feels like a perfect echo of a famous scene from Gwendoline Christie's other major starring role on television: "Game of Thrones."

Yeah, there's no way we were the only ones getting "Brienne of Tarth vs the Hound" vibes from the "Severance" season 2 finale. Although the stakes are slightly more heightened — rather than a web of conflicting allegiances and loyalties leading to a fight over the safety of Maisie Williams' Arya Stark, Lorne is mostly just mad about the poor treatment of her goats — the end result is eerily similar. There's nothing "cool" or sanitized about this rare burst of outright violence, where the combatants are mostly just untrained employees desperately fighting for their lives by any means necessary. It's bloody, it's brutal, and it fully justifies Christie's casting. Not only does it take full advantage of the actor's obvious physical strength, but it also taps into her inherently likable screen presence. Going to the lengths that Lorne does just to save a single goat (his name is Emile and we love him) and allow Mark to save Gemma is precisely what heroes are made of, folks.

While we await word on when we'll be able to watch "Severance" season 3, you can go back and catch every episode of season 2 on Apple TV+.