9 hours Ago By Cameron Frew
In Severance Season 2 Episode 9, Milchick mentions a name we’ve never heard before: Gunnel Eagan. So, here’s where they (may) fit into the Eagan family tree. Every weird thing that exists in Severance – Cold Harbor , the Exports Hall , and the Damona Birthing Retreat , to name a few – is because of the Eagans, the cult-ish family behind Lumon Industries.
We know Lumon was founded in the 19th century as a pharmaceutical company. We know it led the severance revolution (even though Cobel invented it), allowing people to achieve work-life balance like never before. Everything else is a little unclear, discussed in fables and sacred texts (like Dieter Eagan’s fourth appendix).
Their family tree stretches back to the 1800s, as seen in the MDR team’s visit to the Perpetuity Wing in Season 1 – so, where does Gunnel Eagan fit in? Who is Gunnel Eagan? Gunnel Eagan is presumed to be an early descendant of Kier Eagan who lived in Norway. Strictly speaking, we don’t know when they were born, how they’re related to Kier, and where they lived. However, their name and what they inspired are clues in themselves.
As per The Bump, Gunnel is a “feminine name of Old Norse origin...
a variant of Gunhilda, it stands for ‘battle maid’...
imbued with strength and grace, Gunnel is all set to make a fighter out of your little one!” It’s certainly not a typical name – then again, as the Eagan family tree demonstrates, that’s a rare occasion when the Eagans name their children. In Episode 9, Milchick tells Miss Huang she’s being transferred to the Gunnel Eagan Empathy Center in Svalbard. For those unaware, Svalbard is one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas, located between mainland Norway and the North Pole.
Whoever she was, she clearly had ties to Scandinavia. Related Severance fans slam “racist” theory about Ms Casey and Miss Huang Eagan family tree Excluding Gunnel, there are 10 known members of the Eagan family: Kier Eagan Dieter Eagan (brother) Imogene Eagan (wife) Ambrose Eagan (son) Myrtle Eagan (daughter) Baird Eagan (descendant) Gerhardt Eagan (descendant) Phillip Eagan (descendant) Leonora Eagan (descendant) Jame Eagan (descendant) Helena Eagan (descendant) As Lumon says, the “work is mysterious and important”, so their exact contributions to the Eagan legacy haven’t always been clear. However, we’ve rounded up as much information as possible below.
Born: 1841 Died: 1939 Tenure as CEO: 1865-1939 As the founder and first CEO of Lumon, Kier Eagan is the most important figure in the family’s history. He’s more than an ancestor: he’s basically god (to those who follow Lumon and “the Nine”) in Severance. There are paintings and books about him, statues immortalizing him, and his teachings are treated as gospel by Lumon.
For example, he introduced the idea of the Four Tempers. “In my life, I have identified four components, which I call tempers, from which are derived every human soul. Woe.
Frolic. Dread. Malice,” his waxwork figure earlier explained.
“Each man’s character is defined by the precise ratio that resides in him. I walked into the cave of my own mind, and there I tamed them. Should you tame the tempers as I did mine, then the world shall become but your appendage.
It is this great and consecrated power that I hope to pass on to all of you, my children.” Kier also went undercover during his tenure as CEO to hear his employees’ grievances; just like the tale of the Grakappan . Born: Unknown Died: Unknown Tenure as CEO: N/A Imogene Eagan was Kier’s wife, but there’s little we actually know about her.
She didn’t succeed Kier as CEO of Lumon, and it’s unclear when she died. We do know how they met: at an ether mill, as illustrated by The Courtship of Kier and Imogene painting, and they were “bonded by the spirit of industry.” She may not be worshipped to the same extent as Kier, but she’s still a pivotal figure in the family dynasty.
Born: 1841 Died: Unknown Tenure as CEO: N/A Dieter’s existence was revealed during the Innie’s ORTBO in Severance Season 2 Episode 4. As explained in the fourth appendix, Kier was “not born into this world alone. The lodgings of my mother’s womb I shared with another: a twin brother who was called Dieter.
” “In infancy, he was my bosom friend. But as we blossomed into boyhood, he beseeched me to take to the wood with him and live as paupers. My love for my twin unbalancing my judgment, I acceded, and we ventured into the wood towards Woe’s Hollow,” Helly reads.
“He always crept like this at this hour, Once concealed by flora, my brother unfastened himself. The din of his fervor fell strangely into concern with the music of the wood..
. his every thrust found rhythm with the trill of the crickets, and the moaning of the wind, and the snowfall’s yearly thaw. “Deieter became an instrument of nature, and nature played Dieter with elegance.
I had no choice but to listen as he spilt his lineage upon the soil.” Later, Milchick reads another chapter. “Dieter lay unwashed in his bedroll, thought the hollow’s pool was primed for bathing,” he says.
“We ate of the hare we’d caught and told each other rhyming jokes till our gullets ached. But at last, the thought tickling my mouth emerged. ‘We must return to Father,’ I said.
‘But I promise to look after you in the ether mill.’ “When at last a sound came from him, it was a bewailing whimper. He believed, I suppose, that we’d be woodland paupers forever.
I was looking at him when his eye came out. It popped from the socket, driven by a sudden torrent of pus from his skull. He reached up to grasp at his hair, which was suddenly moss that tore easily from his bleeding scalp.
“And as the pus from his thickened into sap, I turned from my gargling brother and walked to the pool of the Hollow, where I knew the waterfall would drown out my brother’s cries.” Helly (well, Helena) jokes that Dieter was turned into a tree for masturbating in a sacred forest, and it’s suggested that Kier may have simply murdered his brother. Born: 1885 Died: 1941 Tenure as CEO: 1939-1941 Ambrose Eagan was the first son of Kier and Imogene, and he succeeded his father as Lumon’s CEO in 1939.
However, he only served for two years before his death in 1941. There are two things worth noting: one, while he was raised to be Kier’s successor, his sister Myrtle felt she was a more suitable choice; two, he was unfairly maligned by his family (when Dylan goes to the Perpetuity Wing, one his bingo squares reads, “PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE SHIT-TALKING OF AMBROSE”). Born: 1886 Died: 1960 Tenure as CEO: 1941-1959 Myrtle Eagan was Kier and Imogene’s daughter, and after her brother’s death, she stepped in as Lumon CEO until 1959.
She died a year later. She was Lumon’s first female CEO, and it’s believed she founded the Myrtle Eagan School for Girls (which Harmony Cobel attended). “I think that to be an Eagan, either a true Eagan or anyone working in this Lumon family, what you are is the keeper of an ethos, a compact of values that we have long held as precious, and which I do believe will one day save this world,” her bust in the Perpetuity Wing says.
“That ethos goes all the way back through my blood to where we all started, with Kier. When I was a girl, my father would make me whisper..
. Vision. Verve.
Wit. Cheer. Humility.
Benevolence. Nimbleness. Probity.
Wiles.” Born: 1902 Died: 1976 Tenure as CEO: 1959-1976 Baird Eegan succeeded Myrtle as Lumon’s fourth CEO..
. and that’s pretty much all we know. He is a descendant of Kier, but it’s unclear how they’re related.
Fun fact: the suburban area where Mark lives – Baird Creek Manor – is named after him. Born: 1920 Died: 1991 Tenure as CEO: 1976-1987 Gerhardt Eagan succeeded Baird as the fifth CEO of Lumon. There’s even less information about him, but that’s not to say he’s not remembered: in Season 1, Mark goes on a date to a restaurant called Gerhardt’s.
Born: 1937 Died: 1999 Tenure as CEO: 1987-1999 Philip Eagan succeeded Gerhardt as Lumon’s sixth CEO. He was known to many as Pip – which became the inspiration for Pip’s Bar and Grille, a recurring eatery in Severance. For example, when Innies have a workplace injury, Lumon sends them a gift card for Pip’s.
Born: 1955 Died: 2003 Tenure as CEO: 1999-2003 Leonora is Lumon’s second female CEO, succeeding Pip in 1999. Little is known about her four-year tenure, but her name was lent to Leonora Lake, the Lumon housing state where Irving lives. Born: 1960 Died: Still alive Tenure as CEO: 2003-present Jame Eagan is the eighth CEO of Lumon.
He’s also responsible for introducing the severance procedure to the world (even though Cobel invented it and he took the credit). Unlike other Eagans, he’s not just a descendant: we know his father was Pip Eagan. He’s also strict and a bit of a freak.
I mean, did you hear that little whine he let out when Helena cut into her boiled egg? Nevertheless, he loves his daughter, and he knows she’ll be sitting with him “at [his] revolving” when he ages out of his position. Born: Unknown Died: Still alive Tenure as CEO: N/A Helena Eagan is Jame’s daughter, and notably, she has been severed. Until Episode 4 of the second season, none of her Innies knew (well, maybe except Irving) that she was an Eagan in the outside world.
She’s also much different from her Innie; cold, clinical, and desperate for affection. There are similarities with Helly, but weirdly, her Innie is a more balanced and likable person. Helena may not be Lumon’s CEO, but she holds immense power within the corporation, described as the company’s “leader-in-waiting.
” In the first season, she told Helly she wasn’t a real person, but there are signs she may redeem herself by the time the show ends. Make sure you know when the finale drops with our guide to the Severance Season 2 release schedule , and check out our guides on the Nine , the Glasgow Block , and the Lexington Letter . There’s another big theory you should read up on too: Helly might be pregnant .
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