Patricia Arquette is used to friends and family asking her about the many mysteries of “Severance.”
“They always try to get me to tell them what’s happening during the season. But I’ve gotten really good at not telling people anything,” Arquette, 56, exclusively told The Post.
Returning for Season 2 on Friday, Jan. 17 (on AppleTV+), “Severance” is a sci-fi thriller following employees at a mysterious biotech company called Lumon.
Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro) are all “severed,” which means they have chips in their brains separating their “home” selves from their “work” selves. Arquette plays Harmony Cobel, their volatile supervisor.
The Emmy-winning drama has endless mysteries, such as what Harmony’s end goal is, what Lumon is really doing — and why they have a goat department.
Although Harmony’s motivations are a mystery to the audience, Arquette isn’t in the dark, she said.
“I think I know what some of [her motivations] are for sure. Some things the audience doesn’t know, I do know,” the “Boyhood” star revealed.
The Oscar-winning actress added about Harmony, “I enjoy her volatility and I enjoy her thought process, really, because it’s so foreign to me.”
Harmony got fired at the end of Season 1. She also seems to be a true believer in the cult-like teachings of Lumon, which includes worshipping the late first CEO, Kier, like he’s a deity.
“I didn’t grow up in a family with a lot of boundaries, and I didn’t really grow up in a strict religious upbringing per se,” said Arquette, referring to her family, which includes fellow actors David, Rosanna and the late Alexis.
Since Harmony seems to have grown up indoctrinated into the “Kier” cult on the show, Arquette said, “looking at this kind of indoctrination, unraveling it, and also how you can make excuses for things when you’re serving this structure that somebody else made – I think is kind of interesting.”
Scott echoed Arquette’s sentiments that he’s clued in about the show’s mysteries.
For instance, regarding two of the biggest plot questions, “What’s up with the goats? And what is Lumon doing? Yeah, I think I know essentially the answers to those questions,” Scott, 51, told The Post.
Since Scott gets to show off two sides of his character – “innie Mark” who works at Lumon, and “outie” Mark in the outside world – he says he doesn’t have a preference on which version of Mark he’s playing at a given moment.
“I kind of go back and forth on that. I enjoy things about outie Mark… I like that outie Mark is a bit more of a realist. He’s lived this full life, so he has some cynicism and a sense of humor and, and all of that,” the “Parks and Recreation” star said.
“And for innie Mark, it’s nice to feel that like purity and innocence that he has. It’s fun to play, too.”
“Severance” is the type of show that’s full of wild fan theories all over the internet. But, viewers won’t find Scott visiting the Reddit boards.
“I’ve heard some of them,” the actor revealed. “But I don’t jump in and really explore them myself.”
