I’m bringing up the spoiler warning statement for Severance fans. Read it. Again:
I am thankful to have been warned of potential spoilers, my fall cut short by those with wizened hands. All I can be is thankful, and that is all I am.
I believe you mean it. Let’s get started!
This week, Severance ripped open its own puzzle box to show us the beating heart at its core and Severance’s director of photography, Jessica Lee Gagné, dazzled the world of prestige television with her directorial debut. ‘Chikhai Bardo’ is a triumph of filmmaking and storytelling, and we can only hope that someone is off engraving Gagné’s Emmy as we speak.
Although ‘Chikhai Bardo’ is Gagné’s directorial debut, she is no stranger to Severance. As DP for the series, her influence is woven into the visual language of the show. This week, she masterfully echoes and challenges that visual language. Tasked with introducing viewers to the mysterious Testing Floor, Gagné gives us something both familiar and new. We still get the stark white walls and omnipresent Lumon branding, but in this new space, the boxy labyrinth of right angles that defines The Severed Floor gives way to sleek diagonal lines that jut off of the main hallways. Similarly, the automatic lights of The Severed Floor return, but in this new space, they light the hallway from the ground up.
Gagné’s masterful vision also extends beyond the Russian nesting dolls of Lumon’s corporate puzzle box. Dark, soulless corporate housing gives way to interiors packed with books, plants, and natural sunlight; these fresh interiors take on a visceral sense of life and distinction from the rest of the show since they were shot on film using a handheld camera. It’s exciting to watch a show as unique as Severance continue to find new creative muscles to flex for the audience. Thanks to Gagné, we understand that this show is capable of even more than its rabid fan base could have imagined.
In fact, this episode is so unique that it’s going to require its own recap strategy. In the spirit of the show, we will sever this episode into its two main parts: the story of Mark Scout (Adam Scott) and Gemma (Dichen Lachman, Dollhouse) finding romance before slipping into a deteriorating marriage, and the story of Gemma’s captivity and torment on The Testing Floor at the hands of the twisted Doctor Mauer (Robby Benson, Beauty and the Beast). Finally, we will wrap things up with a special Gemma-centric edition of our signature Tempering the Evidence segment.
Before we get to that meet-cute, though, it’s worth noting that Gagné isn’t the only veteran member of the Severance team taking us to new heights this week. Series regular Dichen Lachman makes an absolute feast of this showcase episode and transforms Gemma/Ms. Casey from a quirky, abstract mystery machine to a beloved character who must be saved, no matter the cost. Up until this point, it was easy to dismiss Mark’s late wife as a past wound and focus our attention on his complicated relationship with Helly R./Helena Eagan (Britt Lower). Now, the stakes are more complicated than ever as we face Mark’s impending reintegration.
Speaking of Mark’s impending reintegration, “Chikhai Bardo” offers us a few fleeting moments in Mark’s corporate housing unit as a framing device for the episode. Mark’s sister, Devon (Jen Tullock, Perry Mason) spends much of the episode pleading with the mysterious Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge, Fargo) for information about her brother’s condition after watching him take a nasty fall and slip into a seizure on his kitchen floor last week. If Devon has anything to do with it, Reghabi will not be messing with Mark’s brain any longer: “It’s settled, fucking law, lady! Just accept it!” In fact, by the end of the episode, Devon’s questions scare Reghabi away entirely; particularly her question about whether or not it would be helpful to tell Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) that Mark is in trouble.
While Devon worries over and advocates for Mark, he is adrift on a journey through his newly reintegrated mind; Gemma seems to take a parallel journey from the confines of her prison in the depths of Lumon headquarters. Ultimately, the episode drives this tandem thought scape home by bookending our experience with the same question, posed first to Gemma, and later to Mark: “Where did you go?”
Mark and Gemma Bring the Heat
Our epic romance kicks off at a Lumon sponsored blood drive on the campus of Ganz College, where our star-crossed lovers worked as professors and first fell in love. We find a bearded, witty, and charmingly smug Mark Scout who is unafraid to flirt with the beautiful Russian literature professor on the next cot. While the mutual physical attraction is palpable, the sparks really fly when they bond by mocking the self-important, pseudo-intellectual subject matter of a student essay. Before long, these two crazy kids fall into bed and an overall charming romance. It’s almost too sweet to be true. For instance, Mark mistakenly buys Gemma an ant farm after mishearing her when she professes her love for plants.
Before long, the pair are married and living blissfully alongside nature, sunlight, and wall-to-wall books. The pair settle into married life, and Mark buys a discount crib as a sign of his excitement about the couple’s plan to become parents.
We even get to see how comfortably Gemma exists alongside Devon and Ricken (Michael Chernus, Dead Ringers). Ricken is, well…Ricken. He is still a bit of a performative academic and braggart who can’t even take a compliment about his rock climbing skills without burying it under a layer of affectation: “I belayed my first couloir in middle school.” Mark is still short and dismissive with Ricken, but his teasing doesn’t carry the same venom that it does in the present timeline. More importantly, Gemma and Devon share a nearly silent moment at the table in which Gemma is able to reveal that she is pregnant. In a few brief seconds, we understand the depth of Devon and Gemma’s connection.
Unfortunately, the bright interiors begin to shift toward darkness and we see Gemma suffer a miscarriage. While darkness begins to seep into the marriage, the couple retains some positivity for a bit. Mark is able to playfully comfort Gemma as she shares her anxieties about her fertility treatments, but this is also the point where Lumon starts to get involved. Dr. Mauer, the twisted captor from The Testing Floor, walks through the frame at the fertility clinic; we are left to assume that his obsession/pursuit of Gemma began here, if not earlier.
After the next time jump, Mark and Gemma slip into a passive aggressive battle when Mark expresses concern over the strange Lumon surveys Gemma is receiving in the mail. This particular survey contains a set of cards, including an image that Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) swiped from Optics and Design back in season one. Gemma seems to be treating the surveys as harmless personality tests; she even finds them intellectually stimulating. She interprets the meaning of one card to be a depiction of the Chikhai Bardo; as Gemma interprets this process, the figure in the card is fighting himself and defeating his own psyche to experience an ego death. While we certainly share Mark’s concern and skepticism, he has lost all regard for tact. Instead of coming from a place of love and support, he is sarcastic and dismissive; Gemma feels patronized (rightly) and lashes back out at her husband.
As the distance between the couple grows, we cut to a series of sad shots, including an empty Christmas morning in which the cold weather that defines the look of this series has crept into their lives for the first time. In Mark and Gemma’s last moments together before her alleged death, she has to prod Mark to say, “I love you,” before heading out the door for the last time. It’s unclear what sort of social event Mark has chosen to avoid; it could be anything from a game night with Devon and Ricken to some sort of Lumon meet-and-greet connected to the creepy surveys. In any case, Mark’s next memory is of the police officers at his door; as far as he knows, he has lost his wife at the lowest point in their relationship. What once was beautiful has become a tragedy.
Gemma Endures Lumon Hell
Viewers are led to understand that Mark and Gemma are both journeying through the same memories. Mark’s journey is presented as a side effect of his sudden reintegration and his “flooded” Severance chip, but Gemma’s journey is presented as a regular escape mechanism that helps her endure an endless series of trials on The Testing Floor.
As soon as Gemma hits the screen in a green Lumon jumpsuit, we can tell something is not right, even if her Nurse (Sandra Bernhard, Roseanne) seems to have a gentle touch as she draws vials of blood.
Unfortunately for Gemma, this proves to be her last gentle moment on The Testing Floor. We are oriented to Gemma’s experience by paying off the sinister tray of dental tools we saw Dr. Mauer carry to The Testing Floor earlier this season. After learning that Gemma has to endure a certain number of “rooms” every day, we see her slip into a Lumon-issued costume and report to her first room. As she crosses the threshold, she undergoes the signature “zolly” shot that serves as the show’s shorthand for a swap of Severed personas. Gemma is instantly terrified and demands a break from her discomfort at the hands of this twisted dentist. He tells her it has been six weeks since her last appointment, but this particular Severed identity has clearly never known anything but a loop of pain. It is absolutely horrifying.
Meanwhile, we take another step toward one of the biggest reveals of the series. Using an incredibly intricate shot that required sending an actual physical camera through furniture and floors, we learn that the computers in Macrodata Refinement (MDR) are wired to companion devices on The Testing Floor. Here, each MDR member has a counterpart watching and recording their responses to the numbers upstairs. Each of these performers is credited as a “Watcher.” While we still don’t know or understand their exact jobs, the dark symmetry of their framing is enough to unsettle us: MDR’s tight cluster of cubicles face one another in an arrangement that lends itself to conversation and interaction while the Watchers’ consoles all face out from a dark central column.
As if this weren’t sinister enough on its own, we learn that whatever nefarious experiments are at play, they are about to come to some sort of an end for Gemma. Once Gemma enters the “Cold Harbor” room, Dr. Mauer says she will, “see the world again, and the world will see [her].” When she asks a natural follow-up question about whether or not she will see Mark on the outside, Dr. Mauer’s response is even more chilling: “Mark will benefit from the world you are siring…Kier will take away all his pain, just as Kier has taken away yours.” We hate to see Gemma in this situation, but we at least get the silver lining of learning that she is not fully on board with all of this cult talk. She rolls her eyes and asks her captor to speak normally for once.
Of course, Doctor Mauer is anything but normal. We learn that he torments Gemma with a unique experience in every room of The Testing Floor. These experiments range from common human traumas like extreme turbulence (crashing?) on an airplane to the psychological torture of being forced to write endless thank you cards without any help or support from a domineering husband. This last room is particularly troubling when we consider the fact that it is labeled “Allentown.” This is the file that Mark refined with record speed on his very first attempt at his new job; it’s the feat that earned him the rotating glass etching on his MDR desk. Based on what we learn about Mark and Gemma’s outside lives, it seems that this room is reflective of the dark, cold Christmas that the pair once shared together. While we don’t get any evidence that Mark was demanding and controlling in a way that mirrors Dr. Mauer’s performance in this room, we know that the room is fueled, in part, by Mark’s special knowledge of Gemma’s distaste for thank you notes. Learning that Mark’s work is literally helping Lumon torture his late wife makes their separation even more painful.
We also learn that Dr. Mauer’s obsessive sense of ownership over Gemma runs deeper than his investment in Lumon’s perverted vision of scientific discovery. Mauer believes that Gemma is attracted to him; even sinister Lumon stooge Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Somebody Somewhere) has to remind Mauer that he will have to let Gemma go after Cold Harbor is complete. Nevertheless, Mauer’s manipulation continues. He even goes so far as to tell Gemma the most painful lie possible. He claims that Mark has moved on, remarried, and become a father. Not only does he crush Gemma’s hope of reuniting with her husband, but twists the knife by implying that he achieved a life that Mark and Gemma were unable to build together.
Perhaps the greatest moment of the episode comes when Gemma smashes her captor over the head with a chair and makes a desperate run toward freedom. Unfortunately, all of her efforts fall apart when she emerges from the elevator in her Ms. Casey persona on The Severed Floor. Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) is there to drop an empty lie about Ms. Casey’s Outie taking a wrong turn, but we can tell that Ms. Casey’s trust has dissolved. Fans at home can only hope that the spell has been broken enough for Gemma/Ms. Casey to have better luck in her next attempt.
TEMPERING THE EVIDENCE (Gemma Edition)
This week’s episode was so unique and momentous that it deserves its very own edition of Tempering the Evidence. Next week, we will reintegrate all of our theories with a more traditional format.
Severance is so full of lore, iconography, and open questions that we could never explore every possibility. Instead, we will try to make things more manageable by “tempering” the evidence. In other words, we will attempt to shape our theories into a more focused and manageable arrangement. But what is a logical arrangement for such a strange and complicated story?
Fans of the show have become all too familiar with Kier Eagan’s theories about human personality as depicted in a painting, the “Taming of the Four Tempers.” In fact, a top fan theory is that the four members of Macrodata Refinement each represent one of the tempers: Woe (Mark), Frolic (Dylan), Dread (Irv), and Malice (Helly). It is even possible that their unique dispositions must work in harmony (Harmony Cobel?) to complete the department’s hidden function or objective.
Each week, we will check in on five theories. We’ll swap them out if they are resolved, disproven or otherwise lose steam along the way. Each of the first four theories will reflect one of Kier’s “tempers,” and for the last theory, we will “throw a Waffle Party.” In other words, we’ll take a big swing, hold nothing back, and attempt to tame the tempers by exploring our most bonkers prediction.
In order to best keep up with this ongoing segment, consider checking out last week’s installment of Tempering the Evidence.
Woe: Severed Death?
It is clear that Gemma has been subjected to a host of torments and tortures during her time on The Testing Floor, and with only one room remaining on her severed journey, it seems like the final trial left to endure might be death itself. If we are to believe the Lumon brass, Mark is the only one capable of completing the Cold Harbor file, and his completion of this file will change the world as we know it.
It’s hard to imagine a more life-changing experience than developing technology that offers to shield people from their greatest collective fear: death. We also get some potential evidence to support this theory throughout the episode. Many viewers noted the nurse’s questions about whether Gemma would be more worried about suffocating or drowning in a mudslide. Between apple bobbing and Helena’s near drowning (not to mention Helly R.’s suicided attempt last season) earlier this season, it’s easy to wonder if Cold Harbor is getting ready to test whether or not Severance technology can banish death into the darkest corner of a severance chip.
A slightly less brutal vision that would better explain Mark’s connection to the file would be if the room in Cold Harbor turned out to be some sort of recreation of Gemma’s alleged death as Mark thinks he knows it. Since Season One, the show has teased us with tree imagery. Not only does the tree represent Gemma’s alleged death site, but a tree is also central to the decor in Ms. Casey’s Wellness Room in Season One. Mark even sculpted a tree during a wellness session last season. Perhaps Cold Harbor is another dark echo of that Wellness room: a place where Mark and Gemma will be forced to confront her (ego?) death head on.
Frolic: Soma for the Masses?
One popular online theory posits that Gemma’s Severance chip could represent a new wave of Severance technology that might allow folks who undergo the procedure to compartmentalize all of their unpleasant experiences for a life of simple pleasure. If a magical chip could separate one’s consciousness from every unpleasant moment, it might be a tempting option, even for people who are wary of the Severance procedure. This would certainly fall in line with Lumon’s larger political goals. While we have largely avoided political intrigue in Season Two, our old friends from The Whole Mind Collective once claimed that Lumon was looking to Sever children and even petitioning for some sort of forced Severance process. Perhaps an opiate for the masses would fit into Lumon’s long con.
Dread: Programmable Workers?
Has Gemma’s severance chip been developed as a means of programming Lumon workers and other unwitting disciples of Kier Eagan? Earlier this season, we learned that the Eagan family practices what it preaches. After Helena Eagan is nearly murdered during the calamitous ORTBO, we learn that her medical team not only treated her body, but also her mind. They assured Helena that her “tempers” would rebalance soon. What if Lumon is developing Severance in an attempt to map the mind in keeping with Kier’s theory of the tempers? If the corporation suddenly had the means to turn certain parts of a consciousness off and on as they saw fit, they might be able to program a psyche that fits Kier’s vision.
Malice: Corporate Matchmakers?
Was Mark and Gemma’s relationship influenced by corporate interests? It’s hard to miss the proximity of Mark and Gemma’s meet-cute at a blood drive to the sequence of a nurse drawing blood from Gemma on The Testing Floor. What if Lumon has been pulling strings for those two lovebirds since the beginning; if not from the beginning, maybe just since the couple walked into a fertility clinic desperate for help and support? We have no idea how many personality surveys Gemma submitted to Lumon, but it’s possible that she built a blueprint for corporate meddling. If the sundering of this couple’s relationship is also essential to the mysterious Cold Harbor project, perhaps the powerful Eagan family might undergo this sort of manipulative enterprise. We know Dr. Mauer was present at the fertility clinic, so it’s entirely possible that he or other Lumon agents could pop up anywhere on this show. For all we know, Mark’s therapist with the “weird little mustache” that Devon joked about in Season One might have been our twisted new costume master: Dr. Mauer.
Waffle Party: Flock of Eagans?
Is it possible that all of the past Eagan CEOs are about to be reborn within Gemma’s Severance chip? Earlier this season, Mark opened a short door to crawl down a narrow hallway designed for goats. The shot was a clear homage to Being John Malkovich (1999). In that wild and wacky film, a group of individuals hiding behind a business front carry out a scheme to walk through a strange door and into the consciousness of John Malkovich. When they succeed, Malkovich loses his own identity, and the crew begins preparations for finding their next vessel.
Severance has been chock full of creepy nods to immortality. At the very least, Lumon has gone to great lengths to keep the memory of Kier Eagan eternal. The company is obviously pushing a cult; there is even a Perpetuity Wing on The Severed Floor that celebrates all of Lumon’s past CEOs. What if the fractured mind they are perfecting within Gemma has been designed to house multiple consciousnesses at once? Could this be what Jame Eagan was referring to last season when he said that Helena would one day stand beside him at his “Revolving?”
It’s out there, for sure, but Severance isn’t afraid of taking big swings. Plus, this is a waffle party, after all. In fact, a couple of Gemma’s costumes this week are evocative of the outfits that we see on the Eagan mannequins in the Perpetuity Wing.
Yupppppppp pic.twitter.com/P9szpUSUoZ
— Johnny Utah (@johnnyutah269) March 3, 2025
In any case, this episode was truly something special. We’ll be back next week to delve into the next episode: “Sweet Vitriol.”
