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They could just put the Glasglow block

What reason would there be to turn Mark back into his outie? If anything, it's in the company's best interest that he stays down there so he doesn't blow the whistle on the company.

The characters don’t know where they’re going either, that’s the point. The only other option is leaving the severed floor and more than likely never being let back (death)

Jame likes Helly more than Helena, so he might offer to keep her in innie form and let her help run Lumon as Helly R. Helly wants freedom from the severed floor, so she’d agree … on the condition that Mark gets to stay an innie, too.

That could allow season 3 to switch the playing field - maybe they allow outie Mark and Helena to live on the severed floor, and they now get to experience what their innies constantly went through.

And this could also lead to more political drama outside of the Lumon building. Is it legal for Lumon to keep Mark in innie form permamently? If Devon and Gemma demand Lumon to bring back outie Mark, but innie Mark doesn’t consent, what would the law say about that? How might that flip our entire perspective from seasons 1 and 2?

I think this route could lead to some compelling drama and deep thoughts about ethics and morals.

Not knowing where it will go is the cliffhanger.

They have a lot more innies on their side now for the revolution. The marching band, mammalian nurturables, possibly optics & design. It could be a full revolution.

This is exactly why a team of writers handles the story plot for the show and not any of us on Reddit.

I think that’s part of what makes it interesting. We know the story doesn’t end here, but what on earth happens next? How are they gonna move on from this situation?

IMO Jame wants to keep Helly awake, not Helena.

In the scene where he confronts Helly R on the severed floor, he remarks that he "sees Kier in her".

He will be willing to let Mark S stay alive if it means Helly R join him.

There's no cliffhanger, this is a character beat not a plot beat: what matters is iMark would rather spend 5 minutes running hand-in-hand with Helly than risk trusting oMark and probably die forever.

He's chosing himself, for as long as there is a Himself to chose.

Irving gonna play important role ig

My guess is:

-The Glasgow block either doesn't work or has to be activated internally while they are on the Innie floor.

-The Innies sieze control of the floor using their outies as hostages via the threat of suicide.

-Mark and Helly have to work to keep a coalition of different severed departments united in resistance in the short term while struggling with how hopeless their situation looks in the long term. Maybe some fun metaphors for Unions and Union-Busting strategies in real life.

I think you're right that the situation as it currently stands can't survive more than 15m into S3x1. And I agree we're not looking at a season of drawn out innie hostage negotiations and foraging for snack machines on the severed floor.

My gut feeling is S3 will open with a jarring context change similar to the opening of S2. IMark and Helly will last as long as Mark and Gemma did fleeing the testing floor in a sort of reciprocal "escape in vain". Then fresh reset in a new context.

Will IMark attempt to flee the floor via a non-severed staff stairway or elevator and take his chances on the outside?

Will we suddenly go into flashback or sideflash mode? Will we open with Cobel/Devon? Will Gemma actually make it off the floor? Will things open onto an entirely new Lumon locale?

EDIT: What if we open in the darkened silence of the floor under MDR - just the watchers and maybe even the dopplegangers - and someone else familiar but in a totaly new context. And what they are doing makes us rethink the consequences of what is going on upstairs...

All to say an abrupt refocus may be in the cards.

Also, Gemma hasn't escaped the enormous Lumon campus yet, she's literally still inside the main building.

Does anyone really understand any of it? It’s why I am in this sub. I am constantly confused

That’s what people said after the S1 cliffhanger, where can they go from here? They can never return to work! They’ll all be fired or killed.

If I had said ”don’t worry, when season 2 starts they’ll all be back at work as usual, watching a Keanu Reeves-narrated claymation film that Lumon made in honor of the MDR uprising”, men in white coats would’ve put me in a strait jacket, but that’s what happened. So don’t worry.

Lumon won’t go in guns blazing because Helly is down there, and she has shown before that she is perfectly willing to use herself as a “hostage” to get her way.

I do think at least the “innie” plot is going to be a full blown innie mutiny (since we already have a mutiny amongst MCR, Choreography and Merriment, and Mamalians Nuturable.  I suspect the rest of the innies will revolt as well.

I think part of the plot will be Mark reintegrating in the middle of the revolt and then being torn between staying with Helly and leaving to find Gemma.

The outie plot is probably going to revolve around Gemma trying to hide from Lumen and find a way to blow the whistle on them with aid from Mark’s sister and Irv.

I think reintegration is something that will finally finish next season. Wild guess, but I think Helena will get it too. 

I find that more interesting to understand the ending in terms of the writing and not necessarily in terms of "logic"

They made a selfish choice just like their outies because they express themselves as individuals by having the same behaviors

They're the same (the "i'm her" from Helly)

Good thing somebody else writes the show lmao

"I can't see where it can go, can you?"

Welcome to the entire point of a cliffhanger ending.

And this is why you are not on the writing team. Don’t worry about it just wait till next season.

They could just put the Glasgow block on them

What if Innies take over the Control Room?

I think it’s a Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 situation.

Toy Story 1: Woody rescues Buzz.
Severance S2: Mark rescues Gemma.

Toy Story 2: Buzz rescues Woody.
Severance S3: Gemma rescues Mark?

Mark and Helly do seemed trapped. Assuming Gemma can reconcile that Mark S. is different than her Mark and why he made the decision he did, they have allies on the outside that want to free them.

You're overthinking it. It's just allegory for the fact that some people like to choose their work wife

It could go anywhere. The interesting questions the show is asking and exploring isn't can they beat Lumen. It's a story about identity. Who are you, who would you be with your memories erased? Do the innies deserve the right to live? Love? So the outties have the right to describe l decide what's right? Should their time "alive" be split? What is Lumens end goal? Like there's so much to explore and after l answer I don't even understand your question. It's like asking if you have two apples, how fast can a quark move?

All conjecture, but:

- There's MDR, a marching band, Lorne and probably more of the goat farmers, possibly O&D, and any other unknown department on the Severed floor. Not only is Milchick a hostage, so are the bodies they share with the outies. Every Innie is a hostage taker and hostage. If anything happens to an innie they have to explain it to the outie somehow. They can't just send the army guns blazing, and if a 100 people just don't come home from work even for a day it's gonna raise suspicions to the public.

- Remember, Mark was told that he just had a normal but very confidential office job working in archives. The only outies who have any idea what it's like on the Severed floor already are Mark and Helena. Anyone else getting switched would pretty much immediately find out how strange their severed job is just from the circumstances they woke up in. If they switch only some people, the innies would tell the outies what the deal is and about the torture they go through. If they switch everyone, Mark Scout could at least tell some people that his wife was kidnapped and that's why they're down there now. Switching Helena when there's innies or Mark Scout around is potentially dangerous for her. If Lumon wants this to happen quietly and without scandal, it needs to be handled delicately.

- Even if the stand off is really short, Mark's chip is still flooded. There's a good chance he's started something that he can't stop or is stuck only part way through, and is going to have to deal with memories of what it was like to be Mark S with his friends from MDR popping into his head. This is just spitballing based off of a few details, but Helena's position is also questionable: Jame told Helly that he likes her better. Helly could find herself on the outside as the replacement of the failed daughter, with her freedom controlled by the Glasgow block getting turned off, and missing Mark S. Dylan's family is kind of attached to his innie now, and could be upset if he's just gone. Irving is off doing whatever, and probably wants to either reintegrate or try to contact his innie somehow.

Who knows what's going to happen, it's definitely super uncertain, or if the writers will pull it off, but it's not as clear cut as just "they switch everyone off and send in the army" if they don't want it to be.

1. A battle for the severed floor sounds epic!

2. Jame Eagan doesn’t love Helena and sees Kier in Helly R. So, it doesn’t matter if Helena doesn’t trust Helly.

3. I think it will be a war between Lumon and the Severed floor with Kier closely monitoring Helly the entire time.

4. Gemma and Devon will think Mark is captured and work to infiltrate as well.

They’ve established there are way more innies than outties on the Severed floor and they have two high profile captives: Jame and Helena Eagan. They can stay down there for long long time.

They’re dumb teenagers in love. They don’t think about the future or consequences only what they want right now.

They’ll probably try to hide down in the depths of Lumon and get detained eventually.

Maybe they’ll be let back up/outside and their innies will be enraged or maybe they’ll keep them down there detained for a bit.

Lots of things to work through in season 3.

I like to think that Helly R is escorting Mark S to a door severed ones can go out. Remember Helly R kept trying the door into the garage but couldn’t leave. Kinda like the Hotel California where you can always check out but never leave.

I agree that cliffhanger painted them in a corner, and Ben Stiller considered cutting right where Helly R shows up so they could have more options, but eventually decided the problem could be solved by the next writers.

I think it's gonna be a Waco situation, yes. iMark can NEVER leave, now.

What did you want them to do instead?

It’s not about where they are going. It’s about choosing to be with each other even if it’s just 10 more minutes. It’s about love. That is the message. There’s nothing confusing about it.

What happens next and the consequences of it will be shown on s3.

Mark and Helen will believe they are on the run within the severence floor. Lumen will pursue them for appearances sake. The floor never seems to end, as lumen is actively building more onto the floor to keep new areas available for their "escape".

It isnt until a few episodes in that mark realizes they are living in a fabricated pursuit to keep them in while eagen attempts to find a way to keep the version of Helen he likes in control.

Best i can come up with. Presumably mark will eventually realize he just needs to commit suicide, in a sense, as he can not live a fulfilling life under the thumb of lumen.

For me personally the second season completely dropped the ball on pacing and escalation, it went too fast to the point of it reaching this point of the story that they would either retcon in the beginning of season three or tone it down by making the characters make an irrational choice between x or y, that being maing mark some kind of executive or something. Either way I am not that thrilled that it ended up focusing so much on relationships rather than split of two selves experiencing different realities.

Also how will Gemma be able to escape the building undetected?

I was pretty sure there would be some kind of upset nobody would like for season 2 as well. Like the new refiners would stay the new cast alongside Mark. If it's so easy to do chip stuff they could literally reset them.

You need to think beyond the obvious to consume fiction.

have may similar questions, particularly the apparent short-sightedness of Mark choosing Helly. Eventually, the innies have to exit the severed floor, no? and when they do, why would outie Mark ever decide to return to Lumon. Maybe he would honor his commitment to his outie?
What is Gemma going to think either way?
there is an apparent revolt on the severed floor but what will Milchick do? he seems poised to rebel against Lumon.

You’re not supposed to understand a cliffhanger.

We forget that Helly is pregnant. There’s gotta be a story line that keeps it all going.

I’ve got a feeling Lumon secretly wanted something like this to happen. They didn’t replace the head of security when Graner is killed, they keep the departments separate only by making the floor a maze rather than actually blocking them off from each other. They even keep Gemma and Mark close to each other when they probably could have had him working on the data from a more remote location. I know it could just be the result of it being a tv show that needs a way for the plot to progress, but it really seems like they (or someone) were nudging things along this kind of route.

I agree with this take. My first thought was "where are they gonna go?" I think you're right that they won't last long running away. It will be interesting to see where they take the story. 

Watch The Graduate, then get back to us.

To me the biggest plot hole in the entire show is that this global, incredibly powerful company had only one security guard who was also never replaced once he was murdered, so the one middle manager for the entire floor has to double as security too. So the fact that they were allowed to operate freely on the floor at the end of Season 1 and especially Season 2 is just ridiculous.

The cliffhanger isn’t just a cliffhanger, it’s also a possible show ending.

The cliffhanger has a lot in common with The Graduate. In the end, the protagonist saves his girl, but you realize they have no real place to go.

There are multiple directions the series can take. We have lots of threads:

• Mark is reintegrating his innie and outie are merging. Innie Mark might develop feelings for Gemma.
• Helly has been offered the keys to the kingdom. It’s a tempting offer. Will she take it?
• Mark and Gemma will have to work out their lives. They have an extremely difficult road ahead.
• Lumon still wants that chip in Gemma’s brain. They don’t need Gemma. Will they pursue?
• There’s a lot of spaces opening up at the top. Drummond is gone and I doubt Helly will be back in the leadership. Time for another promotion for Milchick?