The Exports Hall is hiding answers to Severance’s biggest questions

Severance Season 2 Episode 5, ‘Trojan’s Horse’, gives us another glimpse at 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. 

Following the disastrous ORTBO last week, Episode 5 kicks off with a glimpse at the “guy” who’s now responsible for taking goods to the floor below. Warning: spoilers ahead!

What is the Exports Hall?

Apple TV+

The Exports Hall is also known as the Testing Floor, and is situated in Lumon Industries’ Kier-based headquarters, below the Severed Floor. It’s implied that this is where certain employees are sent down for some sort of recalibration, but this hasn’t been confirmed just yet. 

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. 

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. So, while we don’t know what goes on down there, it seems the Innies are closer than ever to finding out the truth. 

Exports Hall theories

Apple TV+

Of course, there are 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. If you want to refresh your memory, we also have recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, and you can check out our guides on Cold Harbor and the Glasgow Block. 

Make sure you check out what’s dropping during Dexerto’s We LOVE TV & Movies week too.