“Severance” season 2, episode 7 defined: Right here’s the reality about Ms. Casey (and the way Gemma’s destiny could match into Lumon’s cryptic plans)

Warning: This text incorporates spoilers for Severance season 2, episode 7, "Chikhai Bardo."

Severance, the cerebral sci-fi sequence on Apple TV+, can typically flirt with the worst qualities of post-Misplaced "thriller field" reveals, seeming to introduce extra mysteries than it may probably reply. However you then get a powerhouse episode like "Chikhai Bardo," which reassured viewers that creator Dan Erickson and government producer Ben Stiller know precisely the place this story goes.

The seventh episode of Severance season 2, "Chikhai Bardo" lastly provides some concrete solutions about Gemma (Dichen Lachman), also referred to as the severed ground counselor Ms. Casey. Within the course of, episode 7 shed a bit of sunshine on Lumon's targets for its severed expertise, the oldsters pulling the strings, and Gemma's pre-severed life with Mark (Adam Scott).

Learn on for an in-depth have a look at Severance season 2, episode 7 defined, plus some evaluation on its main revelations.

What occurs in Severance season 2, episode 7?

In Severance season 2, episode 7, we study the reality about Gemma, Mark's spouse who he (and we) beforehand thought was useless. Although she supposedly died in a automobile accident, it seems that she's alive inside Lumon.

We already knew that, in fact — it was the large reveal of the season 1 finale — however what we knew then was that Gemma was Ms. Casey, a counselor on the severed ground who seemingly has haven’t any recollection of Mark or their life collectively. What we all know now is that Ms. Casey is only one of many severed Gemmas and that Gemma herself — the one who married Mark on this planet exterior of Lumon — is alive on the testing ground.

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On this episode, a captive Gemma is pressured to enter a sequence of various rooms. She's severed anew in each room, with every of her severed personalities pressured to endure an disagreeable expertise. A few of them are really horrifying (a aircraft in excessive turbulence). Others are painful however obligatory (a visit to the dentist). And a few are simply annoying (writing Christmas playing cards).

These experiences are intercut with flashbacks to Mark and Gemma's first assembly, their struggles conceiving a toddler, and the evening she supposedly died.

In the long run, Gemma fights again towards Lumon's docs and escapes the testing ground by stealing a key card and taking an elevator to the severed ground. In fact, she's severed once more, rising from the elevator as Ms. Casey. She's met by Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman), who tells her she arrived by mistake. "Your Outie got here in for a public artwork exhibition and located herself within the flawed elevator," he says. He sends her again to the testing ground. The episode ends along with her collapsing and whispering Mark's title.

Who’re the docs in Severance season 2, episode 7?

We see two completely different Lumon staffers interacting with Gemma in episode 7. The primary is Cecily, who's performed by actress and stand-up comedy legend Sandra Bernhard. She appears to function extra as a nurse than a health care provider, conducting routine assessments, blood work, and inquiring as as to if Gemma has accomplished her studying and calisthenics. She additionally asks her unusual questions: "When you had been caught in a mudslide, would you be extra afraid of suffocating or drowning?" Gemma solutions drowning.

The opposite is Dr. Mauer, a malevolent and shapeshifting man performed by actor Robby Benson, who's maybe finest identified for voicing the Beast in Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast. We first caught an obstructed glimpse of him in season 2, episode 5, when he whistled Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" with dental provides in tow. He whistles the identical track once we see him as Gemma's dentist in one of many rooms.

However he's greater than only a dentist to one in every of Gemma's many severed personalities. In different rooms, Dr. Mauer seems as a flight attendant and, fairly tellingly, as her husband throughout Christmas time. (Anybody else getting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vibes?)

On the testing ground, he proves himself a liar, telling Gemma's present-day self that Mark has "moved on" and had a toddler with one other girl. And in a scene with Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), he claims Gemma is "fond" of him, which is clearly unfaithful.

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Curiously, Mauer even seems through flashback within the fertility clinic that Mark and Gemma go to.

This notably intrigued Lachman, who shared her personal (unconfirmed) concept about what it means with Selection. "They’ve undoubtedly been watching [Mark and Gemma] for a very long time," she mentioned. "My principle is that they picked one thing up with Gemma’s blood work when she went to the fertility clinic, and that’s acquired one thing to do with why they picked Mark and Gemma."

What are the rooms Gemma is pressured to enter?

Every of the rooms Gemma is pressured to enter have a special title: Allentown, Cairns, Dranesville, Loveland, and Wellington. Observant viewers will acknowledge these because the names of the information accomplished by Mark and the Macrodata Refinement crew.

That connection between these rooms — every of which represents a special sort of painful or disagreeable expertise — and MDR's work present some readability to what, precisely, Lumon is as much as.

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It appears believable that Lumon desires to develop its severance expertise so it may be utilized to sever oneself from any scenario they'd somewhat not expertise, whether or not it's a painful dental process, a protracted flight, or a tedious process. Consider it as "Sever On Demand."

How is MDR concerned? Effectively, that's nonetheless unclear, however once we go to the "management room," as Severance cinematographer and episode 7 director Jessica Lee Gagné referred to it in a current interview, we see that Lumon is monitoring stay feeds of each Gemma and the MDR crew concurrently.

All of this means that MDR's "refinement" is straight associated to Gemma's experiences in every room.

Why Gemma and Mark are so necessary to this venture stays a thriller, although the flashbacks to Gemma and Mark's previous (and the reality of their incapability to conceive) could present some clues.

What occurred to Mark and Gemma?

For the reason that starting of Severance, Mark and Gemma's relationship has been the thriller behind his ongoing grief over her passing. It's been simple to miss, although, since we've been invested within the romance blooming between Mark and Helly's Innies.

In season 2, episode 7, we get a superb chunk of backstory. Mark and Gemma met throughout a blood drive (sponsored by Lumon, in fact), bonding over papers written by their college students at Ganz School, the place she teaches literature and he teaches historical past.

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After a montage of their idyllic courtship, we study that Gemma is pregnant. Sadly, she suffers a miscarriage, main them to strive IVF. Discovering no success, their relationship begins to undergo, with Mark particularly radiating anger. One evening, she leaves however by no means comes house. As a substitute, Mark is met on his doorstep by cops who inform him that Gemma has died.

Since we all know she's alive, the query is: Did Lumon kidnap Gemma, or did she willingly select to partake of their experiment?

So, what's the cope with Ms. Casey?

We've but to obtain an specific reply as to why Gemma was directed to work together with Mark and the MDR workforce as Ms. Casey. This probably has to do with Lumon's curiosity in what administration calls the "severance barrier."

A key a part of Lumon's experiment appears to concern whether or not or not emotions or sensations switch between a severed particular person's Innies and Outies. Erickson touched on this subject when speaking with Mashable. "I’ll say what's attention-grabbing right here is that she's going by these painful or disagreeable experiences after which she's leaving, and the query that's being requested all through the episode by Dr. Mauer is, to what diploma is something leaking by? Is she strolling out of that room with any emotional echo of what she was going by in that room? To date plainly she's not, in order that's the throughline that I feel is going on with what's occurring in these rooms."

Ms. Casey, it might appear, was a means for Lumon's administration to see if there could be any recognition between Gemma and Mark in the event that they interacted on the severed ground.

What’s Chilly Harbor?

"Chilly Harbor" is a phrase that's come up usually this season. It's the file Mark is at present engaged on, and it's one Lumon considers fairly necessary to its work. However it's additionally the one room that Gemma has but to enter.

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In response to her queries in regards to the room, Gemma is instructed she "will see the world once more and the world will see" her as soon as she goes in. And as for whether or not she'll ever see Mark once more, she's instructed, "Mark will profit from the world you’re siring. Kier will take away all his ache simply as Kier has taken away yours."

All of this appears to be pointing in the direction of how Lumon's expertise could possibly be used to sever one's expertise with demise, thus the ominous responses to Gemma's questions. That's simply hypothesis, although — we assume extra solutions will arrive within the coming weeks.

The place can I watch Severance?

Each seasons of Severance are streaming on Apple TV+.

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