Apple TV+Severance Season 2 has been dropping lots of hints and glimpses of the ominous Exports Hall, and it may just be the place where Lumon’s long-buried secrets finally come to light.
One thing we know for sure: Season 2 won’t hold all the answers. Work has already started on the third chapter of the Apple TV+ series, and director Ben Stiller has teased more to come in the future.
But there have been plenty of new reveals in the latest run, one of which arrived in Season 2 Episode 3, where O&D department’s Felicia explained to Irving that the Testing Floor is actually called the Exports Hall.
However, Season 2 Episode 7 has delivered some big answers about the world beneath the severed floor. Warning: spoilers ahead!
What is the Exports Hall?
Apple TV+The Exports Hall leads to the elevator to the Testing Floor, and it’s located on the Severed Floor.
Before Episode 7, it was implied this is where certain employees are sent for some sort of recalibration. In Season 1, Ms Casey is sent down there by Ms Cobel, who tells Milchick, “Take her back down to the Testing Floor, please.” We see Ms Casey walking through a long, dark corridor to arrive at an elevator, which has a red arrow pointing down.
This is the same corridor Irving’s Outie paints repeatedly, which some have interpreted as a memory that bled over from his Innie to his Outie. Perhaps he keeps painting it so he doesn’t forget.
In Season 2 Episode 3, Irving’s Innie reveals that he does the same for Burt. While visiting Felicia at the O&D department, he shows her a notebook containing dozens of the same drawing of Burt.
“I draw one every day I couldn’t see him,” he says. Felicia flicks through the pictures, until she gets to a page that doesn’t have Burt. Instead, it’s a drawing of the Testing Floor, having seen his Outie’s paintings during the Overtime Contingency Protocol.
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This causes her to pause for a moment, before asking, “How do you know about the Exports Hall?… We send a lot of shipments there. Used to go ourselves but now they send a guy.” Irving asks her, “Do you remember where it is?”
Apple TV+Although the scene changes before she can answer, it seems she did spill the beans after all.
You see, we get another glimpse of the Exports Hall entrance in Severance Season 2 Episode 5, which opens with the “guy” Felicia mentioned, walking along the white Severed Floor corridors, wheeling a trolley while whistling.
He gets to the O&D department, where Felicia and the young woman we saw in Season 1 are waiting. He walks through the office, with a well-placed shelving unit covering his face.
“Do you have it?” he asks the employees, and they hand over a tray containing what looks like a range of dentists’ tools. He thanks them and transports the tray over to the corridor before heading down into the Exports Hall.
Later on in the episode, Dylan finds a map behind the ‘Hang in There’ poster in the Break Room, as Irving’s final words to him in Episode 4 were, “Just remember, hang in there.”
The map is the same sketch of the Exports Hall, alongside a series of directions on how to get there.
What Severance Episode 7 tells us about the Exports Hall
Apple TV+Episode 7 changes everything. We find out that Gemma is being held on the Testing Floor, and the only way to access it is via the Exports Hall on the severed floor.
While Milchick manages the severed floor, Dr Mauer is responsible for what comes into (and leaves) the Testing Floor via the Exports Hall (as well as the “evil” nurse) – including the dentistry equipment we saw earlier in the season, and Ms Casey herself.
This appears to be the only pathway between the two floors; at the end of Episode 7, Gemma tries to escape, but when she steps into the elevator, she switches to Ms Casey.
It’s also clear why O&D are so knowledgeable about the Exports Hall: they produce all of the things (decorations, paintings, ideographic cards, and much more) in the rooms on the floor, like Wellington and Allentown, all of which put Gemma under tremendous strain (and even psychological torment).
Exports Hall theories
Apple TV+Of course, there are still theories, with many continuing the idea that Lumon is attempting to clone people. As said by one fan on X/Twitter, “The severed employees are building a clone of Kier Egan so he can be immortal.
“MDR is handling his memory/brain. The goats are clones. Miss Casey/Gemma is a clone from the ‘testing floor’, and Optics builds scientific equipment (Exports Hall).”
There’s just one problem with this: Adam Scott and the cast debunked the clone theory before Season 2 had even debuted.
Others believe it could be where Innies are taken for a full personality “reset”, while some have suggested O&D know far more than they’re letting on.
Taking to Reddit, one wrote, “Sorry if this has already been said, but I instantly thought this when watching Season 2 Episode 3.
“I think that O&D is more sinister than we thought, and they know it. I think O&D is ‘directly’ (Ben Stiller reference) involved with the testing floor, Ms. Casey, and the people who ‘might live here’ on Petey’s map.
Apple TV+“I still haven’t pieced everything together yet, but I think the guy they send now is Milchick because he is the one who sends Ms Casey to the testing floor.”
However, as Episode 5 demonstrates, it definitely isn’t Milchick delivering the goods. One thing’s certain: the Exports Hall is a gateway to the truth about Lumon, and the Innies may be on the verge of breaking through.
You can find out when the next episode drops with our guide to the Severance Season 2 release schedule. You can also check out our guides on Cold Harbor, Glasgow Block, and the theory that Helly is pregnant.