Severance Eagan family tree

In episode 3 of season 1, “In Perpetuity”, Mark, Irving and Dylan take Helly on a tour of the Perpetuity Wing, a small museum inside the office with statues of Kier and of the family members who followed him as chief executive.³ The tour is how the innies learn the family, and it is how the chart is built.

The order runs from Kier to Ambrose and Myrtle, then to Baird Eagan, chief executive from 1959 to 1976, and Gerhardt Eagan, from 1976 to 1987.² Phillip Eagan, called Pip, held the post from 1987 to 1999, Leonora Eagan from 1999 to 2003, and Jame Eagan, Pip’s son, has run Lumon since 2003.² Jame is played by Michael Siberry.¹

Several of these Eagans have given their names to places in the town of Kier. Baird Creek Manor, the restaurant called Gerhardt’s where Mark goes on a date, Pip’s Bar and Grille and Leonora Lake all carry the family’s names.² The company and the town are hard to separate, and so are the family and the company.

Every chief executive on the chart wears the blue outline and the letter C. Four of them hang from a parent line, Ambrose and Myrtle under Kier and Imogene, and Jame under Pip.

The last generation of the Severance Eagan family tree is the one the plot turns on. In the season 1 finale, “The We We Are”, the outie of Helly R., the new worker in Macrodata Refinement, turns out to be Helena Eagan, the daughter of Jame, who had herself severed as a publicity stunt for the procedure.¹ Britt Lower plays both the innie and the outie.¹ On the chart Helena joins the family at that story point, so the first position gives nothing away.

Season 2 takes the reveal further. At the end of episode 4 the team learns that Helly never came back after the finale, and that it has been Helena on the severed floor all along. Irving holds her under water until Milchick has Helly’s mind restored.^4,5 The chart marks that stretch as a state on Helena.

In the finale, “Cold Harbor”, Jame visits Helly on the severed floor and tells her that he does not love his daughter. He says he once saw Kier in Helena, and that Kier left her as she grew.⁶ The grey dashed arrow from Jame to Helena carries that line from this story point. At the end, Mark’s innie turns back from the exit door and walks to Helly, leaving his wife Gemma behind.⁶

Mark Scout and Gemma Scout stand on the chart because Gemma is held by Lumon. Mark believes his wife is dead, and in the season 1 finale learns that she is Ms. Casey, the wellness counsellor of the severed floor. In season 2 she is shown alive on a testing floor.¹

A good part of the Eagan line is not settled on screen, and the chart does not settle it either. Baird and Gerhardt are descendants of Kier, but the series does not say through whom. Leonora sits between Pip and Jame in the list of chief executives with no stated relation to either.² All three stand on the chart without a parent line.

Gunnel Eagan is a name first heard in episode 9 of season 2, as the namesake of the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center in Svalbard. Coverage presumes she was an early descendant of Kier who lived in Norway, and the series says no more.² She stands alone in the gold outline of the Eagans who never ran the company.

Dieter is the hardest case. Everything about him comes from Kier’s own book, and recaps of “Woe’s Hollow” ask whether Kier killed his brother and how much of the story is true.^4,5 The chart draws the twins as brothers, which the episode states, and draws the line between them as a dotted secret, not as a killing.

Readers also ask about Helena’s mother and about Kier’s grandchildren through Ambrose and Myrtle. The two aired seasons name none of them, so the chart leaves them out, and it will be revised when the third season adds to the family.¹

A square is a man, a circle is a woman and a diamond is a symbol whose sex is not known, here the unnamed parents of Kier and Dieter. A double line is a marriage, and a cross marks a death. The column down the middle of the chart is the line the series confirms, from Kier to Myrtle, then from Pip to Jame and Helena. The gap between Myrtle and Pip is real, since the series has not said how they connect.

Read this way, the Severance Eagan family tree is a list of chief executives with a few family lines through it. The blue outline holds the eight who ran Lumon. The gold outline holds the Eagans who never did, and the green one holds Mark and Gemma of the severed floor. Each coloured line carries words at both ends, so the line between Mark and Helena reads “loves Helly” on one side and, at the last story point, “tells him to go” on the other.

To build a family tree of your own series, open this chart in the editor or start from the story charts. The symbols are set out in the genogram symbols.