“Chikhai Bardo,” episode 7 of Severance Season 2, is nothing wanting jaw-dropping.
The episode intertwines Mark’s (Adam Scott) reminiscences of his and Gemma’s (Dichen Lachman) relationship with our first-ever have a look at Gemma’s expertise on Lumon’s testing ground. The previous provides us a deeper understanding of their marriage, in all its highs and lows, whereas the latter provides terrifying perception into Lumon’s higher challenge.
Gemma’s storyline specifically provides up bombshell after bombshell. However maybe most intriguing is the reveal that the recordsdata that the MDR group has been refining, like Allentown and Chilly Harbor, correspond to numerous rooms Gemma is pressured to enter each day. There, a brand new Severed id undergoes an disagreeable expertise, together with a visit to the dentist, a turbulent flight, or a protracted afternoon writing mundane thank-you notes for Christmas presents.
In traditional Severance vogue, every reply “Chikhai Bardo” supplies prompts much more questions. Mashable spoke to Severance creator and showrunner Dan Erickson to be taught extra about this game-changing episode, from Gemma’s first actual introduction to the testing ground to room concepts that did not make it into the present.
Mashable: This episode is our first time actually assembly Gemma and attending to know her past Mark’s reminiscences of her. What a part of her introduction was most vital to get proper?
Dan Erickson, Severance creator and showrunner: We have seen her in such a diminished capability at Lumon, the place we have gotten to know her as Ms. Casey. And I’ve all the time considered Ms. Casey as a company automaton with a human being someplace deep down inside her that’s attempting to get out, and that is why she requested questions. She’s curious, she’s compassionate, she worries in regards to the individuals round her — like in Season 1, when Mark and Helly go off to see the goats, she says, “I was scared.” All of those traits are in there, they’re simply very muted.
With all of the characters, if you see their Outie, the query is all the time, to what diploma are their Innies completely different? But additionally, to what diploma are they primarily the identical? So Ms. Casey’s traits of being intellectually curious and type and compassionate and worrying about others had been a foundation to begin on for locating out who Gemma is.
We additionally needed to see on Mark’s aspect that that is the model of him that he was earlier than his loss. That includes pleasure, and that includes humor, and that includes heat. We needed these to be traits that they shared with one another. We needed to make sure that they as a pair felt lived-in. They’d jokes that had been theirs they usually may mess with one another, however on the finish of the day, they had been a really loving couple.
I might love to listen to extra in regards to the reminiscences, as a result of right here we get the interaction of Mark’s reminiscences of his and Gemma’s marriage alongside Gemma’s time at Lumon. Inform me in regards to the choice to place these components in parallel. How do they communicate to 1 one other?
I actually preferred this as an thought, conceptually, that on this episode, each Mark and Gemma try to get to one another. We see Gemma is actually attempting to get to him, to interrupt out of the testing ground, solely to make it as much as the Severed Ground the place she turns again into Ms. Casey and turns round of her personal accord. I discovered that one second actually heartbreaking.
Each Mark and Gemma try to get to one another.
Then Mark is unconscious, however in his thoughts, he is looking for his spouse and sifting by these completely different reminiscences and attempting to determine what’s actual. The reminiscence that Mark has of their marriage, which he had form of introduced as this excellent factor, reveals that it won’t have been. He could also be remembering it the way in which that he must, versus the way in which it really occurred. Reminiscence might be imperfect, however on the identical time, the story that will get patch-worked collectively by your reminiscences finally ends up creating your id, or at the least the way in which that you consider your self.
On this episode, we lastly get all the way down to the testing ground, and we get some massive solutions. We now know the recordsdata Mark was engaged on correspond to the completely different rooms that Gemma goes by, the place she encounters completely different eventualities, like a visit to the dentist or a bumpy aircraft trip. How did you select which eventualities she encountered in every room?
That was a giant dialog, and I can not totally get into it but as a result of there’s nonetheless some query of why they’re doing this to her.
Mashable High Tales
However I’ll say what’s fascinating right here is that she’s going by these painful or disagreeable experiences after which she’s leaving, and the query that is being requested all through the episode by Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson) 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? Thus far it appears that evidently she’s not, so that is the throughline that I feel is occurring with what is going on on in these rooms. However once more, there’s nonetheless a query of what precisely they’re doing, or what they’re attempting to show or disprove.
Dichen Lachman in “Severance.”
Credit score: Apple TV+
Lots of the rooms really feel like universally hated experiences. Had been there some other eventualities that you simply and the writers’ room considered for different rooms that did not find yourself making it into the present?
There have been lots. At one level I made a listing of about 50, after which we winnowed it means down. You already know, I occur to essentially, actually hate flossing, and I used to be like, “Well, maybe there’s a room where she’s just flossing.” After which another person mentioned, “Well, I like flossing. It’s satisfying.” So we had an argument as to how nightmarish or great that will be.
The tough flight room was one the place I sadly thought to myself, “If I were given the option to sever myself for a flight, I might do it.” Which is terrible, particularly after watching the present and understanding a lot about what Innies undergo! However that relatability looks like a giant a part of Lumon’s challenge. Might you communicate extra to the mundane side of those eventualities?
One of many first issues that some individuals ask after watching the present is, “What would you sever, if you could sever away anything in your life that you don’t like?” It is actually fascinating to listen to the completely different solutions to that for various individuals, after which additionally to think about what the expertise of that poor Innie can be who needed to to try this one activity repetitively.
For instance, the Christmas card room was simply me being catty about having been pressured to put in writing a whole lot of thank-you playing cards as a child and all the time being aggravated by that. I assumed, “It’s not even worth it to get presents now because I have to write these long thank-you cards, and it’s annoying!” So when the writers had been speaking about issues that you simply would not need to should do time and again, that was one which got here to thoughts for me personally.
It is humorous, turbulence has by no means bothered me, though I do know a whole lot of associates who’re actually, actually afraid of that. However I’m a really claustrophobic particular person. I hate elevators; I hate getting in an elevator ever, for any purpose.
This present have to be a nightmare then.
Yeah, I hate elevators and Ben [Stiller] hates eggs, so we’re each working by one thing on this present.
However to me, what’s such a nightmare if you speak about probably severing is that should you had been having that have that Gemma appears to be having within the aircraft, that is your complete life. There’s actually nothing outdoors of this room for you. That was the factor of it that actually felt particularly nightmarish to me.
There’s actually nothing outdoors of this room for you. That was the factor of it that actually felt particularly nightmarish to me.
This episode solutions some questions, however it raises many others. We all know Mark’s recordsdata are tied to Gemma’s rooms, however are Helly, Irving, and Dylan additionally engaged on what is going on on with Gemma? Are they refining for various individuals, or perhaps doing different issues that we do not find out about but?
[pause] That is a extremely good query, a extremely good query.
Then there are the people who find themselves observing MDR’s work by their screens. They give the impression of being very very like the shadow selves from the “Woe’s Hollow” episode. Are these related Lumon creations?
That can be a terrific query that I’d like to reply. It could be enjoyable to have that dialog with you, and sadly I do not imagine I can.
Coming again to the reminiscence portion of the episode, are you able to inform me about Lumon’s involvement in Gemma’s life earlier than her abduction, and why she was focused?
That is positively nonetheless an impressive query on the present. However I feel what does grow to be clear is that there was one thing particular about her. We see the Lumon tear drop on the machine on the blood drive, we see Dr. Mauer on the fertility clinic. The large query we’re asking ourselves now could be, when did she first find yourself on Lumon’s radar? How lengthy had they been watching her, and to what finish? What precisely was it that they had been on the lookout for as they had been watching her?
This dialog has been condensed and edited for readability.
Severance Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with a brand new episode each Friday.
