When Mark S (Adam Scott) returned to his cubicle at Lumon Industries in the long-awaited Severance season 2 premiere, a new supervisor caught him and almost everyone around him by surprise.
Spoilers ahead for Severance season 2.
Child deputy manager Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) is Severance theory fodder already, and each theory is more upsetting than the last.
No matter who Miss Huang is, it’s pretty bad that Lumon employs child labor. It’s a shock for Mark’s temporary new Micro Data Management team and his old team. To me, that indicates that none of them have ever seen anyone so young at Lumon before–not even in an internship capacity. (In fact, with the exception of Dylan (Zach Cherry), it’s possible that none of these innies have seen a child before.) So what is Miss Huang’s deal?
Is Miss Huang secretly Gemma and Mark Scout’s child?
I’m aware that it’s not a great look to speculate that two Asian characters on a show are biologically related. But we really shouldn’t underestimate the lengths Lumon Industries is willing to go to mess with Mark Scout. It didn’t take long for viewers, and admittedly myself, to hypothesize that Miss Huang is the daughter of Mark and his presumed late wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman). As you may remember, Gemma is or at least looks identical to former Lumon wellness counselor Ms. Casey.
In Severance season 1, Mark says that he and his wife wanted kids but that they were unable to conceive. Is it possible that there’s a child he doesn’t know about? Miss Huang does share Mark’s bordering-on-sass sense of humor. To state the obvious, this would mean that Lumon is holding Mark’s wife and child hostage. Frankly, I wouldn’t put it past them!
Was Gemma pregnant when she was in the car accident?
To be fair: since we don’t know exactly how old Miss Huang is as of the Severance season 2 premiere, we can only speculate about the timeline. According to an interview with Teen Vogue, actress Sarah Bock was 14 when she started filming the series–but young actors are often hired to play even younger. I definitely don’t think that Gemma was pregnant with Miss Huang only two years before the start of Severance season 1. That would mean that Lumon somehow accelerated the baby’s growth.
When Bob Balaban’s character Mark W asks Miss Huang why she’s a child, her response is simply “Because of when I was born.” It’s a great piece of that dry humor I was talking about. More importantly, I think she’s telling the truth. (Also, let’s put a pin in her saying she was a crossing guard for now …)
So, if this theory is true, it means that Gemma got involved with Lumon Industries years before Mark. That’s not outside of the realm of possibility. Maybe the severance procedure had something to do with it. Remember the Senator’s wife who Mark’s sister met at the birthing center? We later learned that she had herself severed so that her innie could give birth for her. Gemma might not even remember her pregnancy.
What if she’s somehow Gemma/Miss Casey 2.0?
The second goats showed up on Severance in season 1, fans started crying “Clone!” If Lumon Industries is cloning, Miss Huang could technically be a clone of Gemma. (Scott “debunked” this theory in an Entertainment Weekly video, but … come on. How many times did Andrew Garfield “debunk” his involvement in Spider-Man: No Way Home? It’s not over until it’s over.)
There are other ways that Miss Huang’s presence in the office could be related to Mark’s wife without cloning. Alternatively, Miss Huang could be Miss Casey’s “innie” personality in a new body and without her memories. We don’t know what happens to the innie personalities once their outie hosts are retired or let go.
Or, you know, she’s just a girl. That might even be preferable. Let’s not mess with Mark’s family any more than we already have.
Published: Jan 22, 2025 10:56 am