One of the hundreds of mysteries at the core of Severance is just what the hell the O&D department is up to. Season 2 Episode 7 provided us with some clarity, and it’s even darker than we thought.
Optics and Design is another department of the severed floor at Lumon, and just like Macrodata Refinement, the work is “mysterious and important.” Burt G used to head up O&D before his “retirement” in Season 1 (which we recently found out was actually a firing… or something much darker).
Initially, it seemed like their division was responsible for the artwork you see on display at the offices, but later, Mark and co. discover their team is much larger. When they head out back, they see the O&D staff handling various objects – from hatchets to watering cans.
In Severance Season 2, Irving visits O&D, where Felicia reveals that they used to deliver their items to the Exports Hall, the gateway to the Testing Floor. This only raised more questions, but Episode 7 provides the answers. Warning: spoilers ahead!
Terrifying truth behind O&D and its Ideographic Cards
It turns out, the O&D department is unknowingly creating and circulating items used by Lumon to test its victims, including Mark’s wife Gemma. Its materials aren’t limited to the Exports Hall, either, as Gemma is sent a set of Ideographic Cards from a fertility clinic long before her fake death.
The Optics and Design team don’t even know what their products are being used for, either. Although they used to send their shipments to the Exports Hall, now they “send a guy.”
That “guy” is Dr Mauer, a new antagonist of the Apple TV+ series. In Severance Season 2 Episode 7, ‘Chikhai Bardo’, we find out why he collected those dental instruments from O&D in the previous chapter.
You see, Gemma is being kept at the Testing Floor against her will, and is made to undergo various experiments in different testing rooms.
Every room she heads into transforms her into a different Innie. The first room is called ‘Wellington’, where her Innie is made to undergo painful dental treatments – that’s it. Her entire life is just a bad day at the dentists.
When she comes out, Gemma reveals that her jaw’s aching. In another room, a different Innie of Gemma’s is made to perpetually write thank you notes for Christmas presents, leaving her hand aching.
In this room, the “presents” are clearly provided by the O&D department, just as the dental supplies were. But the most sinister reveal of all has to be the meaning behind the Ideographic Cards.
Cast your mind back to Season 1, and you’ll remember Dylan swiped one of the cards from O&D, and they are downright bizarre, showing what look to be various physical forms of movement.
The only thing we knew up until now is that they are important. So much so that Milchick activated the Overtime Contingency Protocol to get it back from Dylan.
However, in seeing the backstory of Mark and Gemma, we find out that they experienced fertility issues after Gemma had a miscarriage. The pair decided to undergo IVF, but their struggle caused friction in their relationship.
When Mark came home from work one day, he found Gemma with the Ideographic Cards making notes. She explained that the fertility clinic sent them.
Now, this was months before Lumon faked her death and Mark got severed, meaning the organization is targeting victims, rather than simply hiring employees when they apply.
Without realizing it, O&D is manufacturing these tools of control, pain, and psychological torment. The same applies to MDR, Mammalians Nurturables, and likely every other department on the severed floor.
Each group is carrying out its own “mysterious and important” task, but the horrifying truth is that they are all complicit in Lumon’s twisted experiments, and they’re doing so without ever realizing it.
Find out when the next episode drops with our guide to the Severance Season 2 release schedule. If you want to refresh your memory, we have recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, and Episode 5. You can also read our guides to Asal Reghabi, whether Helly’s pregnant, and Cold Harbor.
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