Is Salt’s Neck a real place? Severance Season 2 location explained

In Severance Season 2 Episode 3, we’re introduced to the first town outside of the Apple TV+ show’s reclusive location: Salt’s Neck. 

The world in which Severance is set bears eerie similarities to North Korea or Soviet Russia. It’s cold, cut off from the outside world, and at every corner you’ll find homages to its great leader, Kier Eagan (the town is even named after the late Lumon founder). 

They drive outdated cars, and their turn of phrase is unique: Jame calls Helena a “fetid moppet” in Season 2 Episode 2, while “remedium hominibus” is on all of their license plates. 

This is no accident. Creator Dan Erickson previously said he wanted the town of Kier to feel like an insular world. As such, the introduction of Salt’s Neck feels like a significant development. Warning: spoilers ahead!

Is Salt’s Neck a real place?

In the real world, there are no locations named Salt’s Neck, making it a fictional town invented for Severance. 

Apple TV+

We’re first introduced to it in Season 2 Episode 3, ‘Who’s Alive?’, after Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) was told that Milchick (Tramell Tillman) is now heading up the severed floor alongside Miss Huang (Sarah Bock). 

She takes off in her car and is seen on a remote, snow-covered highway, with her mother Charlotte Cobel’s breathing tube and hospital bracelet in the passenger’s seat. 

Cobel slows down as she reaches a road sign saying Salt’s Neck is 238 miles away. As her car comes to a halt, she looks at the remnants of her mother, which if you remember were previously part of her Eagan shrine, the one she destroyed back in Severance Season 1 after getting fired. 

Clearly, Salt’s Neck is a significant place for her, but before we get to find out why, Cobel makes a u-turn and heads back to confront Helena and demand her position back as head of the MDR department. 

“Mark S is so close to completing Cold Harbor,” she says. “I intend to finish the work that I started.” However, when Helena shuts her down, Cobel does another runner, perhaps heading back to Salt’s Neck. 

Salt’s Neck gives clue to Severance setting

Although Salt’s Neck remains a mystery, it certainly gives us more clues about Kier, PE, where Severance takes place. Given the closest town is still hundreds of miles away, Mark S (Adam Scott) and co. are undoubtedly living in a remote area. 

Apple TV+

As said by one Redditor, “Where tf are we that we’re that many miles away from Salt’s Neck? Questions on questions coming out of Kier, PE.” Another asked, “Where is she driving that’s so desolate the next town on your sign is 238 miles away?”

Others have suggested Salt’s Neck might be home for Cobel, especially as she’s got her mother’s hospital apparatus with her. 

“If your whole life was turned upside down and you lost everything important to you, as Cobel has, where would you go?” said one. “She was going home. Where she and Charlotte were at one time.”

But there’s another interesting detail, too. When Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) starts the reintegration procedure on Mark, she appears to use salt crystals to measure the process. 

This could just be a coincidence, or it could hold a deeper connection between the town and the process of healing, or even a hidden institution related to Lumon’s work on the severed mind. For now, we can only speculate.

Find out when the next episode drops with our guide to the Severance Season 2 release schedule. You can also read our recaps of Episode 1 and Episode 2, and find out exactly what Mammalians Nurturable means, and why Episode 4 will “blow your mind.”