Warning! SPOILERS ahead for Severance’s season 2 finale!After three years of speculation,the true purpose of the goat department at Lumon is finally confirmedinSeverance’s season 2 finale, and it’s darker than expected. One of the weirdest reveals about Lumon back inSeveranceseason 1 was that the severed floor had a department dedicated to raising goats. The reason forLumon’s goat departmentwas kept a mystery to viewers and the MDR department alike, simply leaving off with an employee’s nervous insistence that the goat wasn’t “ready yet” when Mark and Helly wandered there – until season 2 gradually peeled back the cover on the strange room.
InSeveranceseason 2, episode 3, it was confirmed that the “goat department” is actually called “Mammalians Nurturable,” and Ms. Casey was brought there for sessions in their “husbandry tanks.” Still, the exact purpose of the goats wasn’t clarified during their visit with Lorne (Gwendoline Christie). That moment wouldn’t come untilSeverance’s season 2 finale, whenLorne had to wheel a goat in a cart to a mysterious room where Mr. Drummond was waiting. While most severed departments have secretly nefarious purposes at Lumon, Mammalians Nurturable and MDR’s Innies are in the running for having the most twisted jobs.
The Goats Are Raised To Be Sacrificed Alongside Other Lumon Individuals' Deaths
The Goats Guide The Spirits Of Sacrified People To “Kier’s Door”
It turns out that Lumon’s goats are raised to be used as sacrifices. When Lumon prepares to kill someone in contribution to furthering Kier’s mission,they inter these people with one of their sacrificed goats, whose spirits the goats must “guide to Kier’s door.”When a goat is deemed ready for sacrifice, exhibiting both “verve” and “wiles,” they’re brought to a room across from the hallway to the Testing Floor elevator and placed inside a chamber. At that point, the Mammalians Nurturable department chief shoots them with a gun.
If You Thought Severance’s Goat People Were Strange, Wait Until You Meet Lumon’s C&M Department
Severance season 2’s finale introduces another odd department known as Choreography & Merriment, raising more questions about Lumon’s operations.
It’s unclear exactly how many goats have been sacrificed alongside Lumon’s prisoners, but it’s implied that Gemma was far from the first person whose death was ordered by the company after completing their “purpose.” In this case, however, both Gemma and the goat, who Lorne names “Emile,” survive their death sentences inSeverance’s season 2 finale. Furthermore, it hasn’t been revealed where Lumon is burying the bodies of the sacrificed goats and people, but it has to be somewhere that the authorities can’t access.
Why The Sacrificed Baby Goats Need To Have “Verve” & “Wiles”
The Goats Must Have 2 Of Kier’s Nine Core Principles
When Lorne brings Emile to the room to be sacrificed, she confirms to Drummond that the goat has “verve” and “wiles.” These are two ofKier’s Nine Core Principles, with“verve” being a principle indicating vigor, spirit, and enthusiasm, while “wiles” is a value comprised of being able to deviously convince someone to do what they want. If the goats have those two principles, then they’re deemed ready to be interred withSeverance’s sacrificed Lumon individual, seemingly to represent the “verve” of dying for Kier’s mission and Lumon’s “wiles” of cunningly getting the corresponding sacrificed person to serve Kier’s mission.
