WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Severance season 2, episode 4!Expanding upon the many mysteries of Severance’s season 1 finale, Mark, Dylan, Irving, and Helly’s Innies are brought by Milchick and Miss Huang to a place called Woe’s Hollow, the location where Kier Eagan conquered the temper Woe after his twin brother’s death. However, on their way to find Milchick, the Innies wander through the woods and find a terrifying animal corpse.

Severance season 2, episode 4 doesn’t linger upon the dead animal’s body or show the gory details, but Mark states that it “looks like a seal.” In response to this, Helly asks why the seal looks “so messed up.” Reminding audiences how naive the Innies are to the outside world, Mark speculates that this is what all dead things look like, with Irving then suggesting they eat the seal because he worries Lumon might let them starve. Shortly after, Milchick reveals they’ll be fed marshmallows and grilled meat they brought, but doesn’t elaborate on the dead seal from the trail.

The Dead Seal At Woe's Hollow Likely Connects To Lumon's Experiments With Wildlife

Are The Goats & Seal Experiments Connected?

The cause of the seal’s death is still unknown, but it’s likely related to Lumon’s experiments on wildlife, such as Severance’s mysterious goat department, Mammalians Nurturable. While the department works with goats on the severed floor at Lumon, it’s not out of the question for the company to also have a department working on other types of mammals, such as seals, in different habitats. Additionally, this would explain why the seal “looks so messed up,” as its biology and DNA might have been manipulated in Lumon experiments.

Still, it’s unclear why Lumon would just leave a dead seal around for Severance’s main characters to find on the trail. The strangeness of the dead seal’s appearance is exacerbated by the idea that Woe’s Hollow seems to be in a landlocked location with just a small lake around. Seals can thrive in a variety of aquatic environments, but it’s odd that a malformed one would wind up alone near a small, potentially man-made lake in Severance. The most plausible explanation would be that the seal was brought to Woe’s Hollow and experimented on or bred at Lumon.

The Dead Seal Might Reveal More About Lumon's Strange Relationship With Water

Water Seems To Take On A Greater Importance In Severance's Society

While this aspect of the company has yet to be explained, Severance has hinted on several occasions that water is important to Lumon Industries’ work. For instance, the “O” in Lumon is styled with a drop of water, the employee handbook makes note of washing hands with Lumon soap and water at least 10 times a day, Ms. Casey told Irving his Outie “values water,” and many of MDR’s files are named after locations heavily associated with water.

The droplet in Lumon's logo could also be a drop of oil, as the company originally made topical salves.

A common theory speculates there’s a global water shortage in Severance and Lumon has substantial control over it, which could link to the seal. If Lumon is already conducting water experiments and potentially modifying and tampering with it, then they also might be trying to control what inhabits the water. Perhaps they’re trying to make seals that can survive in their waters, or seeing if real seals can survive under manipulated aquatic conditions. Given the state of the dead seal in Severance season 2, episode 4, it seems at least the Lumon-controled waters at Woe’s Hollow are far from safe.

New episodes of Severance season 2 release Fridays on Apple TV+.