Spoiler alert! This story contains major spoilers for “Cold Harbor,” the Season 2 finale of Severance. If you’re not caught up, stream the series with an Apple TV+ subscription and then continue reading.
One of the biggest questions that Severance left us with after Season 1 was, “What’s up with the goats?” It felt unlikely that Season 2 would tell us why there were goats on Lumon’s severed floor, no less provide a satisfying explanation. However, not only did we meet Gwendoline Christie’s Lorne, the head of Mammalians Nurturable, and her herd on the episodes that aired on the 2025 TV schedule, but the finale disclosed their purpose. It was a scary and emotional reveal, and Christie sat down with CinemaBlend to talk it out.
Gwendoline Christie was one of several big names to join one of the biggest shows on Apple TV+’s schedule this year. Her role was pretty significant, too, as Lorne was in charge of raising the goats (like Emile, full of verve and wiles) to be sacrificed to usher human spirits (like Gemma’s) to Kier’s door. Before Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) could take Emile’s life, however, Lorne wearily asked how many more of her kids she would lose, and Christie told our own Riley Utley why it seemed Lorne had reached her breaking point:
I think that people can take so much before they break. And I think that working in organizations and often, that idea of corporate hell, that people can tolerate so much and they undergo a sort of defamation of character, where they become their job, but there is a point where their inner humanity kicks in and they can absolutely take no more, and they break. And the behavior is uncharacteristic, but in that moment, it has a sort of purity of source to it, and they’re in total free flow. And I think that if you’re being forced to repeatedly end life, that will destroy someone and also prompt them into radical action.
Radical action was, indeed, taken. Mark S. unwittingly interrupted the ceremony, and a brutal fight broke out between the Lumon exec and the Macrodat. Gwendoline Christie’s character ultimately went full Brienne of Tarth on Drummond’s ass, saving Mark and, of course, Emile.
I am blown away by Gwendoline Christie’s take on this revelatory moment, and why she finally felt compelled (or broken enough) to stand up against Lumon’s cruelty. We asked Gwendoline Christie if Lorne was concerned that she might face consequences for the rebellion, to which she replied:
No, not in the slightest. I don’t think Lorne could have cared less about what the repercussions would be. She just wanted Emile to stay alive.
Gosh, the innies may have just half a life, but there’s no question their hearts operate at full capacity.
There were a lot of beautiful and heartbreaking moments on the Severance Season 2 finale, including Milchick’s A-MAZ-ING performance with the marching band of Choreography & Merriment and when Gemma watched Mark choose Helly R. over her in those gut-wrenching final moments. However, we’d be quite the fetid moppet to let Gwendoline Christie’s performance be forgotten in all of it.
The actress showcased Lorne’s grief for her lost goats in a way that made her uprising against Mr. Drummond make so much sense. We may have only learned the reason behind the goats, but Lorne’s face showed us that the ritualistic killings were nothing new for her.
Hopefully we haven’t seen the end of Lorne, as Severance is returning for a third season, albeit with some exciting creative changes. Stay tuned.