Severance Season 2, episode 7 cracks the present huge open.
Titled “Chikhai Bardo,” the episode lastly reveals what’s occurring on Lumon’s ominous testing ground. There, Mark’s (Adam Scott) spouse Gemma (Dichen Lachman) is the topic of unusual, severance-related experiments. In true Lumon style, these experiments are a surreal hellscape, however in addition they give us a greater thought of Lumon’s finish aim and reply a few of our most urgent Severance questions.
From the that means of MDR’s file names to the return of the ideographic playing cards from Season 1, let’s break down Gemma’s journey in “Chikhai Bardo.”
What is going on to Gemma on Lumon’s testing ground?
Dichen Lachman in “Severance.”
Credit score: AppleTV+
First, some excellent news: Gemma could also be severed into Ms. Casey, however she stays her Outie on the testing ground, that means she has all her reminiscences of her outdoors life. That features her marriage with Mark. “Chikhai Bardo” treats us to flashbacks of their relationship, from their candy meet-cute to their heartbreaking struggles with fertility. (Since none of those flashbacks present Gemma truly getting in a automobile crash and dying, it is secure to say that Lumon did not resurrect her, and as a substitute opted for good old school kidnapping and death-faking.)
Now for the dangerous information. Gemma is trapped on the testing ground, the place she is monitored by the sinister pairing of Cecily (Sandra Bernhard) and Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson). They draw her blood, ask her unusual questions — “If you were caught in a mudslide, would you be more afraid of suffocating or drowning?” — and information her by means of a collection of rooms, the place a brand new Innie persona undergoes an uncomfortable expertise, like a visit to the dentist or a tough flight. These rooms could be probably the most revelatory a part of “Chikhai Bardo,” beginning with their names.
Every door on the testing ground is called after an MDR file.
Dichen Lachman and Sandra Bernhard in “Severance.”
Credit score: AppleTV+
The doorways to every room on the testing ground bear the names of recordsdata MDR group members have been refining all through the present. These embody Allentown, which Mark labored on; Tumwater, which Dylan (Zach Cherry) labored on; and Siena, which Helly (Britt Decrease) labored on. Mark’s present file, Chilly Harbor, is the one room that Gemma hasn’t been in.
Apparently, Chilly Harbor will mark the tip of Gemma’s torment at Lumon, since Dr. Mauer assures her that when she goes by means of that door, “You will see the world again, and the world will see you.” However can you actually belief something Lumon tells you?
The truth that the MDR recordsdata correspond to totally different rooms on the testing ground solutions one query however opens a number of extra. First, how does the MDR group’s refining contribute to the creation of those rooms? We all know the numbers of their recordsdata correspond to Kier’s 4 Tempers: woe, dread, frolic, and malice. May they be manipulating Gemma’s Innies’ emotional responses to the rooms? Are they constructing the rooms themselves and making an attempt to craft situations that may elicit sure responses? Or are they balancing the Tempers in every of Gemma’s new Innie personas?
One other query: With Chilly Harbor being the one room Gemma has left to undergo, what are the opposite MDR Innies at present refining whereas Mark works on Chilly Harbor? Are there different individuals in Gemma’s scenario at Lumon? Or are they only engaged on pretend recordsdata so as to guarantee Mark has his group round him?
What’s going on within the testing ground rooms? And why is it so terrible?
Dichen Lachman in “Severance.”
Credit score: AppleTV+
All of the rooms on the testing ground put Gemma’s Innies by means of universally disagreeable experiences: dental work, airplane turbulence, even having to put in writing tons of Christmas thank-you notes. They’re all pretty mundane, if aggravating, components of life, however think about having to undergo them again and again in fast succession. That is the life of every of Gemma’s many Innies, whose complete existence boils all the way down to a endless loop of repetitive duties or horrifying experiences.
With all these rooms in thoughts, it looks like Lumon is making an attempt to make it attainable to sever your self into a number of Innies: one for every inconvenience you do not wish to expertise or job you do not wish to do. That method, you’ll be able to eradicate not simply work, however any a part of your life you do not wish to dwell.
Mashable High Tales
As Dr. Mauer tells Gemma in one in every of their discussions, “Mark will benefit from the world you’re siring. Kier will take away all his pain just as Kier has taken away yours.” Is that Lumon’s finish aim, then? A world with none ache?
In fact, there is a large gap in Lumon’s reasoning right here. They are not ridding the world of ache. As a substitute, they’re simply passing the Outie’s ache off onto a poor Innie, condemning them to an everlasting dwelling nightmare. Additionally, should you’re sectioning off so many components of your life, how a lot of a life are you really dwelling?
Lumon is testing the severance barrier.
As Cecily and Dr. Mauer ship Gemma by means of the rooms day-after-day, they ask her whether or not she has any reminiscence of what occurred within the rooms, or whether or not she felt any residual emotion from her time there. Mentally, she doesn’t recall. Bodily, although, she’s feeling the rooms’ results: Her tooth harm following the dentist go to, and he or she’s rubbing her hand in ache after the Christmas card room. A lot for Kier taking away Gemma’s ache, proper?
Cecily and Dr. Mauer’s persistent questioning about Gemma’s experiences factors to them making an attempt to make sure the severance barrier holds quick, even when a topic, like Gemma, has been severed many, many instances.
Severance has hinted that it is attainable for issues to bleed by means of the severance barrier. Innie Irving’s (John Turturro) daydreams about his Outie’s black paint, for instance, or Outie Irving’s recollection of the black hallway all the way down to the testing ground. Mark’s “freshman fluke” of finishing the Allentown file is also an instance — did his Outie’s connection to Gemma have an effect on his velocity in any respect? And will it affect the completion of Chilly Harbor?
Possibly that is why Lumon was so adamant Mark be the one to complete that file. If neither Gemma nor Mark can recall their connection after the file is full, perhaps that may show this multi-severed know-how can stand up to something and is able to be given to the plenty.
Who’s monitoring the MDR employees?
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson in “Severance.”
Credit score: AppleTV+
At one level in “Chikhai Bardo,” Severance reveals us what seems to be just like the testing ground’s management room, the place Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) and Dr. Mauer observe MDR’s progress. However they are not the one ones watching. 4 individuals observe the MDR group by means of their display screen, with every particular person trying fairly a bit like their MDR counterpart. The impact is much like the eerie “twins” Lumon gave the Innies in “Woe’s Hollow.”
There are key variations, although. Whereas Mark’s double in that “Woe’s Hollow” (performed by Adam Jepsen) is credited as “Shadow Mark,” Mark’s double in “Chikhai Bardo” (performed by Eric J. Carlson) is credited as “Mark Watcher.” The totally different actors and function names verify these characters are totally different and fulfill differing capabilities — however might there be comparable Lumon know-how at work in every case?
Lumon has been watching Gemma lengthy earlier than her accident.
Adam Scott and Dichen Lachman in “Severance.”
Credit score: AppleTV+
Within the flashbacks to Mark and Gemma’s relationship, Severance reveals that Lumon was a part of Gemma’s life earlier than her time on the testing ground. When she first meets Mark at a blood drive, the Lumon emblem is on the gear. Later, when she and Mark go to the fertility clinic, Dr. Mauer pops up within the background.
These situations are proof of Lumon’s insidious attain on the earth, and in addition that they have been protecting tabs on Gemma for some time. Severance would not clue us into why Gemma was so vital to Lumon simply but, although. Possibly there was one thing particular about her blood or her consumption kind that piqued the corporate’s curiosity. Talking of…
What is the cope with Severance‘s ideographic playing cards?
One other method Lumon sunk its claws into Gemma was with the ideographic playing cards Optics and Design manufactures. They despatched her the playing cards by means of the clinic mailing record, and he or she needed to write out how they made her really feel.
One of many playing cards is labeled “Chikhai Bardo” — a Buddhist time period for the transitional state within the first moments of loss of life, and in addition a becoming description of Mark’s post-seizure state all through the episode. It is also the identical card Dylan stole again in Season 1, depicting one man pointing his hand at one other man’s chest.
Gemma sees these two figures as being the identical particular person, deciphering the cardboard as a person overcoming his personal psyche in a second of ego loss of life. (Somebody at warfare with their very own psyche is true up Severance‘s alley!) In the meantime, Mark simply thinks that the cardboard reveals two males combating and finds it pointless to interact.
Maybe Gemma and Mark’s differing reactions to the ideographic playing cards level to why Lumon singled her out for seize. Possibly her inquisitiveness and sudden understandings of the playing cards have been simply what they have been searching for in a check topic. May that imply the playing cards are a recruiting tactic and that extra persons are on Lumon’s radar for comparable experiments?
That is simply one in every of many questions “Chikhai Bardo” leaves us with, even because it supplies us with some extra readability on Severance‘s greatest puzzles. Now, the most important query going ahead is just, “Why did Lumon choose Gemma?”
Severance Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with a brand new episode each Friday.
