What is The Lexington Letter? Lumon doc makes Severance Season 2 more sinister
Apple TV+The Lexington Letter was a serious breach of Lumon security… and its contents make Severance Season 2 all the more sinister.
Severance Season 2 Episode 1 finally landed on Apple TV+ on January 17, putting an end to the agonizing three-year-long wait.
As always, there’s a treasure trove of clues and hints, from Helly’s strange behavior to Milchick’s lies, not to mention new characters like Mark’s MDR team and Severed Floor’s new supervisor Miss Huang.
Although we’re still no closer to finding out what Lumon does (Season 3 is currently in production), the Lexington Letter provides further context on the company’s power and reach.
What is The Lexington Letter?
Apple TV+The Lexington Letter is an e-book written by the creators of Severance. It was originally made available as a free download through Apple Books in March 2022, while Season 1 was airing.
The first part of the document shows a series of fictional email exchanges and letters between characters we haven’t met in the Apple TV+ series.
The interaction is between reporter Daria Thorne of The Topeka Star and her editor Jim Milchick (yes, that surname can’t be a coincidence, but more on that shortly).
As she explains, Daria has received an odd letter from a former Severed employee named Peg Kincaid, who is worried about her safety but wanting to tell the world about the strange goings on at Lumon.
Daria also attaches The Macrodata Refiner’s Orientation Booklet, a document that was sent to her by Peggy. You can see the full booklet in The Lexington Letter file.
Back in 2022, creator Dan Erickson took to a Reddit AMA to confirm that the “Lexington Letter is canon! Same universe!” So, although it doesn’t discuss Mark and co., it gives crucial context to the show and illuminates the power Lumon has.
How to read it
You can read The Lexington Letter for free on Apple Books here. It really is that easy.
Apple TV+As per the official description: “From the minds behind the series, this is the story of Lumon Industries employee Margaret ‘Peg’ Kincaid.
“When Peg gets hired at Lumon, she undergoes Severance, a surgical procedure pitched by the company as an effortless way to separate her personal and work lives.
“Everyone has their reasons for wanting the easy solution Severance promises, but when Peg realizes that not all is as it seems at the company, she uncovers a reality that’s far worse than the problems she wanted to escape.”
The Lexington Letter’s most shocking reveals
Apple TV+The most shocking reveal in The Lexington Letter has to be the power Lumon has, adding to the mystery of what its end goal is.
Severance has already alluded to the company’s size and reach, having thousands of employees and numerous offices all over the world. But the document only adds to this.
In Peg’s letter, she reveals that before joining Lumon, she had been working as a bus driver for school runs. One day, she hit black ice and the bus went into a ditch.
Luckily, none of the children were hurt and they were transported away while Peg waited for services to show up. At this moment in time, as she waited in the freezing cold, she remembers thinking “f**k this job,” and says she “may have said it out loud.”
Right at that moment, a recruitment ad for severed employees came on the radio. It was “as if it had heard me.” But that’s not all.
Peg – who’s in her 50s at the time of writing the letter – already knew about Lumon as she had been “using their deodorant since puberty.”
In Severance Season 2 Episode 1, a claymation video is played to Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan in which an animated Lumon building says, “Lumon is listening.” Of course, it’s meant to mean the company is listening to the Innies’ needs, but we know better by now.
Could the company really have been listening in to Peg, and if so, why? Then there’s the fact that they have been producing well-known household products across the country for decades, demonstrating how far their tentacles reach.
Another worrying feature of The Lexington Letter is the newspaper’s editor Jim Milchick. This seems like no accident – could he be related to Seth, aka Mr. Milchick?
Perhaps Jim and other Lumon agents have infiltrated the media to ensure whistleblowers are silenced. What we know for certain is that he’s not keen on Daria Thorne following up on the story, telling her that Peg’s letter “seems more like a disgruntled employee making stuff up.”
Even more worrying is that he follows this by saying, “I called over to a source I trust implicitly at Lumon and it sounds like she was let go because of too many absences.” Sure does sound like Lumon propaganda, right?
What it means for Severance Season 2
But the most chilling reveal of all unfolds after this comment. Daria pushes back and asks if maybe she could file it in case anything else comes up, but Jim replies to say that it’s “too late” – Peg has died in a car accident.
Apple TV+Anyone who’s watched Severance will realize that this is all very suspicious. She just happens to die in the same way Gemma “died” a day after sharing her letter and the handbook.
Alongside the obituary (which doesn’t mention Lumon at all), Jim wrote, “Not to sound too harsh here, but all this might be for the best… her whole letter felt really loose and it’s not like we want to get into a libel suit with Lumon.”
He points out that another newspaper, the Nashville Tribune, published an expose on Lumon’s feeding tube devices (wtf), and got sued “into oblivion and folded six months later.”
Although this seemingly takes place in a different location to the employees in Severance, it spells trouble for Season 2.
Apple TV+The company’s reach extends far beyond the Severed Floor, with tentacles in media, consumer goods, and who knows what else.
More chillingly, The Lexington Letter suggests that Innies and Outies who rebel or expose Lumon’s secrets face deadly consequences. Peg’s “accident” mirrors what we know of Gemma’s fate, hinting that Lumon eliminates threats without hesitation.
Coupled with their history of suing whistleblowers into oblivion, this makes Season 2 all the more terrifying – fighting Lumon isn’t just a battle for truth, it’s a fight for survival.
Severance Season 2 Episode 1 is streaming on Apple TV+ now. You can find out when the next episode drops with our guide to the release schedule, read our Severance Season 2 review, and check out the secret reason you find Severance so disturbing.