Severance: The Lexington Letter, or simply The Lexington Letter, is a free companion e-book written by the creators of Severance. It was originally made available as a free download through Apple Books. While the events it describes are not confirmed to be concurrent with the events of the series, it does serve to flesh out the world of Severance and to provide more details on several elements of the show. It is considered canonical.

The books is written in the style of an epistolary novel, meaning the story is told through a series of letters or other media instead of a traditional narrative. The book contains three different media sources: first, an email chain between Topeka Star reporter Daria Thorne and her editor, Jim Milchick; second, a letter written to Thorne by Margaret “Peg” Kincaid, a former Severed employee who's now trying to become a whistleblower; and third, a copy of The Macrodata Refiner’s Orientation Booklet, an official Lumon Industries training document. All are presented without context or comment, leaving the reader free to draw their own conclusions.

In an email dated November 12th, Topeka Star reporter Daria Thorne corresponds with her editor, Jim Milchick. Thorne has received a very strange letter from Peg Kincaid, a former Severed employee, and wants to know Jim's opinion. She attaches scanned copies of the letter, as well as something called The Macrodata Refiner's Orientation Booklet.

After the entirety of Peg's letter, Jim replies to Daria on November 13th, saying he doesn't think Peg's story is one worth pursuing. He gives a few reasons; the newspaper doesn't have the resources for this kind of story, and Jim contacted a “trusted source” at Lumon who has confirmed that Peg is a disgruntled former employee who was fired after too many absences. Her story is most likely made up, an effort to discredit Lumon. Why doesn't Daria focus on the local high school basketball playoffs instead?

Daria tries to press the subject, explaining that she's willing to do both articles, and really wants to follow up on Peg's story. But then Jim replies with Peg's obituary, which lists her day of death as November 11th, before Daria even received her letter. Now that Peg is dead, her story is, too. Maybe it's for the best.

Peg's letter to Daria Thorne is dated November 10th, one day before she died. It's long and a bit rambling, backtracking several times to add important information and context. But it's also self-deprecating, funny, and insightful. It really gives you a sense of who Peg is; a kind, brave person who got in over her head, and is just trying to make things right.

Peg is a 54-year old divorced woman living in Topeka, KS. Up until November 9th, she was a Severed employee at Lumon's Topeka Branch, working in Macrodata Refinement. Peg first recounts the events that led her to taking a Severed job. She was a little skeptical and nervous about being Severed at first. But after learning the position was a simple office job with reasonable hours, great benefits, and four times the pay of her old job as an elementary school bus driver, Peg is more than happy to accept. She works at Lumon for two years without incident, enjoying not having to remember anything about work once she's off the clock.

Until one day Peg comes up the Severed elevator with a piece of paper in her pocket. It's a note, written in a coded language that she recognizes. It's called “Puglish”, a made-up symbol alphabet created by Peg and her older sister, Meryl, so they could send secret messages to each other as children. Peg hasn't thought about Puglish in decades, but here it is, neatly printed in black and white. She takes the note home and translates it. It's a letter from her Innie, Peggy K.

Peg and Peggy spend the next several weeks writing back and forth in Puglish. Communication between Innies and Outies is heavily controlled by Lumon, and usually forbidden. But Puglish is different enough from normal language to evade Lumon's code detectors, so no one's the wiser.

The book presents an email exchange between a woman named Peg Kincaid and a reporter for The Topeka Star newspaper named Daria Thorne.

Margaret “Peg” Kincaid has composed a long and detailed account of her time as an employee of Lumon Industries working as a Macrodata Refiner on the Severed Floor of the Topeka, Kansas branch of the company. In this account, she describes her decision to undergo the Severance Procedure, her curiosity about her Innie, and how she ultimately devised a method of communicating with her severed self inside of Lumon via coded writing she calls “Puglish.”

She reveals that she believes the work she is doing is being used for nefarious ends by the company, after making connections between some tragic news on the outside world and the nature of the file that her Innie was working on.

Innie Peg, also known as Peggy K., manages to smuggle out a training booklet on a day that the elevator’s Code Detector was disabled for maintenance. Peg quits the job and goes into hiding. She shares the manual with the newspaper reporter in hopes that it will add credibility to her story. Ultimately, the newspaper’s editor, Jim Milchick, declines picking up the story, as he finds it absurd and believes Peg Kincaid is not a credible source. Not long afterward, Peg Kincaid is reported to have died.

The booklet is a publication by Lumon, subtitled “Instruction Handbook for Newly-Severed Employees.”

A cartoon mascot called Sevy is used throughout the book.

In the book, Macrodata Refinement is detailed in a multi-step process. It also includes workplace rules on dress, hygiene, fraternization, and communicating with one’s Outie. On the last page, the Core Principles of Lumon are listed and described.

• The Lexington Letter transcript
• The Lexington Letter at Apple Books
• The Lexington Letter on Imgur (illicit copy, shhh)
• The Lexington Letter PDF