The latest episode of Severance, "Chikhai Bardo," was the trippiest, wildest episode of the show yet . It also answered a lot of questions fans have been obsessing over. We spent most of the episode with Mark's wife Gemma, whom Mark had thought dead for years. But really, Lumon Industries faked her death and has been holding her in the bowels of the Lumon building, using severance technology on her many, many times and performing experiments on her.
The exact nature of those experiments remains mysterious; Gemma has to go into a variety of rooms. In each room, a different one of her many severed personalities — or Innies — takes over. Pretty much all the rooms involve her doing something unpleasant, like going to the dentist or writing thank-you notes. Star Dichen Lachman thinks that Lumon is testing the severance technology as a way for people to free themselves from unpleasant experiences; imagine a world where you could simply switch over to another personality, let them endure the pain, and you'd come back later none the wiser.
"I think it’s leaning into something that’s happening within our culture, which is that we don’t want to experience anything unpleasant," Lachman told Vulture. "To some degree, I totally understand. In season one, you have the birthing center. That’s one of the most painful things you could experience in your whole life — I would know. What if you could delegate that experience to someone so you didn’t have to go through the pain? Even though, as a human being, there’s some ownership of that. Going through it and having a connection to the child is so beautiful. But we kind of want to get on a prescription of not having to suffer. If you think of it from a pharmaceutical point of view, it’s like, 'We’re just taking it up a notch. You hate going to the dentist? We’ve got you. We’ll send somebody else, but you’ll still be going to the dentist.' Or having the fear of flying. I know [showrunner Dan Erickson] loathes writing thank-you notes — not because he’s ungrateful but because sometimes it’s so hard to figure out what to say to express your gratitude. I’ve done this before when I’ve worked on a movie: I’ve written 80 thank-you notes to all the crew members and they all start sounding the same. You lose your creativity, and you’re struggling to figure out a way to say “thank you” in a different way so that if someone reads someone else’s card, they’re not like, Oh, this isn’t personal. It says the same thing."
So in a way, Lumon may have noble intentions for the severance technology: to free human beings from pain and inconvenience. Although obviously there are problems. For one, what would cutting all inconvenience out of your life do to you? And second, you're just creating a slave who experiences that inconvenience for you. Who doesn't pity Gemma's Innie, whose entire existence consists of going to the dentist?
"That’s the thing with technology: The intention is always to make someone’s life a little bit easier. Then it becomes integrated into our life," Lachman continued. "Everything is a double-edged sword. It’s our job as human beings to try and find the balance. We’re in a world where we have AI and robots. We’re creating a world where we don’t even need to exist, in a way. What’s really cool about the show is it gets people to ask themselves about their relationship to technology or their relationship to having contrast in their life. You don’t get to experience pleasure, joy, or something that tastes really amazing if you don’t get the sad moments, too. When you’re severed, you don’t have contrast. The weekend isn’t as good because you’re perpetually experiencing only the good things. Those good feelings just become feelings and are not special anymore."
How did Lumon fake Gemma's death?
Mind you, these are Lachman's theories; like us, she doesn't have all the answers, although her theories sound pretty plausible. She also explained why Lumon decided to target Gemma in the first place. In the flashback where Mark and Gemma visit a fertility clinic, we see a glimpse of Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson), the same man who supervises Gemma during Lumon's experiments.
"They’ve definitely been watching them for a long time," Lachman told Variety. "The whole world is Lumon. Even [the restaurant] Pip’s is owned by Lumon. My theory is that they picked something up with Gemma’s blood work when she went to the fertility clinic, and that’s got something to do with why they picked Mark and Gemma. I noticed that the Christmas tree tinsel in the Christmas room [on Lumon’s Testing Floor] is the same as Mark and Gemma’s Christmas tree in their living room. I mentioned that to the writers, and they didn’t confirm or deny anything."
Dr. Mauer also seems to have a bit of an obsession with Gemma, so that could be part of it too. He is often in the room with her Innies, but she doesn't remember that after she returns to herself. "She loathes him, obviously," Lachman said. "His relationship with her is totally different because he gets to experience being in all these different rooms with her. He’s infantilizing her in a way. I think maybe she understands that they have time together that she’s not aware of, which is super creepy. That could go into some really dark places."
Near the end of the episode, Gemma knocks Dr. Mauer out and tries to escape the building, getting onto an elevator and emerging on the severed floor, the same one where Mark and his coworkers toil But the moment that happens, she turns back into Ms. Casey — her Innie we met in the first season — and Mr. Milchick talks her back onto the elevator. She's trapped.
Lachman doesn't think this was Gemma's first escape attempt: "Gemma has been on the Testing Floor for so long that she is numb. Finally she breaks, especially when he revs her up with that horrible lie about Mark. I don’t think it’s the first time she’s tried to make it out, because Drummond asks Mauer, 'Didn’t she break your fingers?' So, she’s had these moments where she’s lost all tolerance and makes a break for it. It’s heartbreaking, she’s trapped by her own mind."
But how did Gemma end up here in the first place? Mark was told she died in a car accident; he even says he ID-ed her body. Obviously Lumon arranged things in a way we don't know yet. "My theory is that they gave her some Shakespearean potion, that Lumon has made salves and balms and stuff," Lachman said. "Maybe it’s something that stops your heartbeat and breathing for enough time to fake her death."
Is Miss Huang the daughter of Mark and Gemma?
As you can tell, while Lachman knows more than the fans, she hasn't been told everything. To that end, she keeps her eyes on some of the fan theories bubbling up online, and is very impressed. For instance, a lot of fans think that Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), the weirdly young manager on the severed floor, is somehow Mark and Gemma's daughter. Is there anything to that?
"I have seen that. I don’t blame people for having that theory, because when Mark looks at her in the first episode [of Season 2], there is some sort of flash, isn’t there?" Lachman said. "Initially, I even wondered if she had something to do with Gemma. I wasn’t 100% sure. I didn’t ever get to ask, but I don’t know whether I like or dislike that theory. I can see why people might think there is a link."
"The time frame would be off, because of her age. But it is interesting: why would a young teenager be in this place? Why isn’t she in school? It does raise a lot of questions. Sarah is an extraordinary actress. She did such a wonderful job, and the ambiguity there is really intense."
That's the kind of show Severance is; when it finally answers a question, it usually poses a couple more. "What I want to know as a fan is who is behind it all, and why are they doing it?" Lachman said. "Why did they pick the people they picked? Obviously, Lumon has some volunteers, and they’re global — we had that wonderful Italian guy in Episode 1. What is their mission, and how much do they control? But I do feel like we get a lot of answers this season. It’s not all left as a mystery for the sake of a mystery. They are answering questions and asking even more."
The mystery continues Fridays on Apple TV+.
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