Severance subtly revealed Lumon’s “grand agendum” and it’s nothing to do with clones

In Severance Season 2 Episode 10, we learn more about Lumon’s “grand agendum”, and it’s the final nail in the coffin for the long-running clone theory.

Even before Severance Season 2 started, Mark star Adam Scott debunked the theory that Lumon’s ultimate goal is to clone humans. In his words, it’s what the company would be doing in a “super boring version” of the Apple TV+ series.

As the story progresses, it’s clear he wasn’t bluffing, either. Season 2 Episode 7 reveals the truth about Gemma. She’s not dead, but rather she’s being held on the Testing Floor, where her various Innies are activated in rooms unwittingly coded by Mark.

The last file on the list is Cold Harbor, with Cobel ominously warning Mark, “If you’ve completed it, well… she’s already dead.” Warning: spoilers ahead!

What does “grand agendum” mean?

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Mark’s Innie does finish Cold Harbor in the Severance Season 2 finale, with a wax-covered Kier Eagan robot congratulating him on drawing “my grand agendum nearer to fulfilment.”

In true Severance fashion, the phrasing is unnecessarily grandiose – because why say “plan” when you can say “grand agendum”? Essentially, it’s just a more elaborate way of referring to Kier’s overarching mission or ultimate objective.

Much like “fetid moppet”, agendum is borrowed from Medieval Latin, and means a list of matters to be dealt with, or something to be done.

For the full context, the rather sinister Kier robot descends on the MDR office after Mark finishes the Cold Harbor file.

Mark and Helly watch on in bewilderment as he (it?) announces, “In completing your 25th Macrodata file, you have drawn my grand agendum nearer to fulfilment, thus making you one of the most important people in history.”

“Revel now in the fruit of your labors,” it adds, before inviting Milchick to take over. 

Kier Eagan’s “eternal war against pain” 

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Based on what we’ve seen in Severance Season 2, including the finale, it appears Kier’s “grand agendum” has nothing to do with clones. Instead, it involves removing an individual’s pain and trauma. 

While this might sound like a noble goal, the truth of it is far more sinister. Lumon isn’t just severing work-life balance anymore; it’s creating a whole new existence that eradicates what makes a person them. 

As said, Cobel warned Mark that finishing Cold Harbor means Gemma – as he knows her – is dead. When he does, Gemma heads into the final room and another Innie is activated, one who appears to be a version of her but without pain.

Her outfit for Cold Harbor is exactly the same as what she wore the day she “died” (got swiped by Lumon), and she’s made to pull apart the crib Mark bought her (called “col d’Arbor”) before she suffered a miscarriage – her biggest trauma. 

She remembers nothing and has no emotional attachment to the scene. Jame Eagan, who watches on from his own booth, asks her over the intercom, “Who are you?” Gemma responds, “I don’t know.”

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Billie Holiday’s ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ is played into the room. If you remember, this is the song that Mark hears as he’s piecing together the photo of him and Gemma in Season 1, and it plays again in Season 2 as Gemma remembers Mark disassembling the crib.

Clearly, this is a test to see if any of the pain is retained. But according to their tests, it’s not. Dr Mauer says to Jame, “The barrier is holding. She feels nothing… it’s beautiful.” 

There’s another clue in the Severance Season 2 finale that this is the goal: Drummond describes Kier’s “eternal war against pain.” And if that weren’t enough, the phrase “remedium hominibus” is on all of the license plates in Kier, PE, the town in which Severance is set. 

Remedium is the Latin word for cure or remedy, while hominibus is Latin for the phrase to men or mankind. Put them together and you’ve got “a cure for mankind.” The cure being the ability to end all pain. 

But at what cost? Presumably, eradicating the person they once were.

Mark is the chosen one

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Before the test phase is complete, Mark bursts into the Cold Harbor room and snatches Gemma away, allowing her to escape. This leaves a major question wide open for Season 3: what exactly would have happened next?

Perhaps she’d be permanently severed into an Innie with no trauma, or would they have simply killed her and used her chip to promote a new severance procedure for the whole world, promising to end people’s pain and suffering?

What’s more, we still don’t fully understand why Mark is the only one to have achieved this. We know the severance procedure has been around for about 15-20 years, and Lumon has offices around the world. 

Additionally, Mark had been on the severed floor for two years, working alongside Irving, Dylan, and Helly. What has everyone been up to if Mark is the only capable employee?

Maybe he was the only one able to code so accurately because he knew Gemma better than any other employee knew their loved ones. After all, he did pull off the “freshman fluke”. 

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The freshman fluke refers to his first task at Lumon, which he finished in a single day – an unprecedented time frame, and one that led to a shift in the MDR department’s methods.

It could be argued that Mark, whether by fate or design, may be the key to making Kier’s “grand agendum” a reality. 

Tragically, Lumon wants to use his love for his wife to essentially kill her (although their plan never gets to be fully realized, as Mark breaks Gemma out at the last moment). 

The late Kier may see pain as the disease, but as Severance keeps reminding us, the “cure” might be even worse.

For more on the world of Severance, read about the Lexington Letter, the Glasgow Block, and the Nine Core Principles. You can also read our list of the best TV shows of 2025 so far.