In our Severance season 2 episode 7 recap of the episode “Chikhai Bardo,” we finally get the backstory of Mark S.’s wife Gemma, aka Lumon Industries’ Ms. Casey. With it comes a deeper look at what’s really going at the company. And by the way, the visually stunning, intellectually challenging and jarringly unfamiliar episode takes its title from a transitional experience in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, referring to the “moment of death” prior to rebirth. But whose death and whose rebirth?
Oh, and guest stars this week come as fascinating surprises: Robby Benson as the scary Lumon dentist who whistles “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and Sandra Bernhard as a scary Lumon nurse.
Last week’s episode brought us strange liaisons inside and outside of Lumon Industries. Mark S. and Helly R. got busy in an unused Lumon office. Outie Irving attends a tense but ultimately rewarding dinner with Burt and his husband, Fields. Before the end, Mark S. took a reckless risk that looked life-threatening.
Severance season 2, episode 7 recap: ‘Chikhai Bardo’
Last week’s episode six, “Attila,” ended with a cliffhanger with Mark S. collapsed on the floor, frothing at the mouth with reintegration sickness and looking all but dead. Before that he reunited with Helly, who came to grips with his sleeping with her outie, Helena Eagan. Helena, by the way, pressured outie Mark for details on the Overtime Contingency innie escape. And meanwhile, Dylan’s relationship with his outie’s wife (secretly) deepened during her Lumon visits. And outie Irving, under investigation by Lumon’s Mr. Drummond, got to know outie Burt and his husband, Fields, a little better over dinner. However, Burt’s actual ties to Lumon remain a mystery.
In episode seven (only three more to go), directed by Jessica Lee Gagné — the show’s principal cinematographer making her directorial debut — we finally get the Gemma (Dichen Lachman) backstory that fans have been waiting for. We get some crucial answers about her relationship with Mark (Adam Scott) and her current existence, trapped in the depths of Lumon. We get a peek behind the company’s curtain.
Mark and Gemma’s love story
Photo: Apple TV+
The episode weaves between Mark’s reintegration-induced memories and Gemma’s present-day reality. We see their meet-cute at a university blood drive where they bond over books, with Mark reading a student paper humorously titled “All Quiet on the Western Blunt.” Their relationship blossoms into a tender romance filled with dancing, shared meals with Mark’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock) and her husband Ricken (Michael Chernus), and a house full of books.
However, their happiness faces challenges when they struggle with fertility issues. After suffering a miscarriage (shown in a devastating scene where Gemma breaks down in the shower as Mark holds her), they turn to Lumon’s Butzemann Fertility Center for IVF treatments. Mark optimistically purchases a crib. But after three unsuccessful IVF attempts, the strain begins to affect their relationship.
During this difficult time, Gemma begins receiving mysterious ideographic cards in the mail — the same ones we saw Dylan (Zach Cherry) steal from O&D in Season 1. She explains to Mark that she “got onto the mailing list at the clinic.” One card depicts what she describes as “Chikhai Bardo,” a Buddhist concept referring to the transitional state between death and rebirth. Mark dismisses her interest in these cards, asking, “Why are you wasting your time with this?”
The tension culminates in a scene where Mark angrily dismantles the crib. On the fateful night of Gemma’s “death,” Mark skips a planned outing to focus on work, and Gemma leaves alone. Later, emergency lights illuminate their home as police arrive to inform Mark of her accident.
Gemma’s life at Lumon
Photo: Apple TV+
The episode reveals that Gemma is indeed alive and imprisoned within Lumon. Each morning, she undergoes examinations by a nurse, Cecily (Sandra Bernhard), who measures her vitals and asks bizarre questions like: “If you were caught in a mudslide, would you be more afraid of suffocating or drowning?” For what it’s worth, Gemma says drowning.
Gemma’s days consist of visiting various “rooms” named after cities (Dranesville, Allentown, Wellington, etc.), each containing a different nightmarish scenario. In Wellington, her innie undergoes painful dental procedures with Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson, former 1970s teen idol). In Allentown (which Mark helped “refine”), she’s forced to write endless Christmas thank-you notes until her hand cramps –something we learn she hated in her life with Mark. On a simulated airplane, where Mauer is a flight attendant, she experiences terrifying turbulence.
It seems each room triggers a severed state, creating a different innie consciousness. Chillingly, we learn that Mark’s MDR team has been unknowingly helping to create and refine these torture environments through their mysterious number sorting work.
An escape attempt
Photo: Apple TV+
Between room sessions, Gemma retains her original memories and identity. She has a small quarters with her favorite books, including Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich — the same book she was reading when she first met Mark. When she asks Dr. Mauer what will happen once she’s visited all rooms including the mysterious “Cold Harbor,” he cryptically responds: “You will see the world again, and the world will see you … Mark will benefit from the world you’re siring. Kier will take away all his pain, just as Kier has taken away yours.”
Frustrated with this non-answer, Gemma attacks Dr. Mauer with a chair and attempts to escape. She reaches the elevator to the severed floor, but upon arrival, her consciousness switches to Ms. Casey. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) intercepts her, explaining her “outie got turned around when visiting for an art exhibit,” and directs her back to the elevator. As she descends, her Gemma consciousness returns, and she whispers, “Mark.”
The oversight operation
Photo: Apple TV+
Throughout the episode, we glimpse the elaborate surveillance system monitoring MDR. Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) oversees a room of observers watching Mark, Helly, Irving and Dylan as they refine files. We see workers in dark rooms peering at the refiners through their own terminal screens.
During a conversation with Dr. Mauer, Drummond mentions that Mark’s work on the “Cold Harbor” file is at 96% completion, suggesting that once finished, they’ll “have to say goodbye to her [Gemma].”
There are also hints that Lumon may have deliberately sabotaged Gemma and Mark’s fertility treatments, as we see Dr. Mauer walking past them during their clinic visit.
Photo: Apple TV+
Devon and Dr. Reghabi
Meanwhile, Devon watches over the unconscious Mark alongside Dr. Reghabi (Karen Aldridge), who triggered his reintegration. Devon forcefully tells Reghabi that Mark’s reintegration experiment ends now: “It’s settled fucking law, lady.” Devon threatens to call Harmony Cobel.
As they wait for Mark to wake up, Devon recalls the “innie cabin” at Damona Birthing Retreat where severed people become their innies. She suggests contacting Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) for help in accessing this cabin and potentially finding Gemma. Dr. Reghabi vehemently opposes this idea, warning that Cobel is a Lumon loyalist who will betray them, and leaves in protest.
The bardo connection
Photo: Apple TV+
The Buddhist concept of “Chikhai Bardo” and a theme of liminality permeates the episode. Both Mark and Gemma exist in transitional states — Mark hovering between his innie and outie consciousness during reintegration, and Gemma trapped in a suspended state of existence, neither fully alive in the outside world nor completely severed.
The white hallways of Lumon and the sterile environments create liminal spaces that reflect these transitional states. As Gemma explains to Mark when discussing the cards, death doesn’t have to be only physical. It can also represent the death of an ego or a self. And that seems to be exactly what severance accomplishes.
When Mark finally awakens at episode’s end, his first word is “Gemma,” suggesting that his reintegration has successfully merged his innie and outie memories, including the crucial knowledge that his wife is alive within Lumon.
This revelatory episode not only provides answers about Gemma’s fate but deepens the mystery of Lumon’s ultimate purpose. As the pieces fall into place, the stakes for Mark and his colleagues continue to rise, setting up what promises to be an intense conclusion to the season.
Photo: Apple TV+
Previous Severance recaps:
- Season 2, episode 6: Mark S. risks all as Severance bonds are tested
- Season 2, episode 5: Severance: Innie Irving’s last words take on new meaning as Mark breaks through
- Season 2, episode 4: Irving B. takes a brutal stand in the icy Severance wilderness
- Season 2, episode 3: Severance boldly sends Mark S. back to his Lumon beginnings
- Season 2, episode 2: Lumon deals with Severance outies in Overtime Contingency’s aftermath
- Season 2, episode 1: ‘It’s been a minute’ since we felt that Severance vertigo
Watch Severance on Apple TV+
Severance season one and season two’s new episodes now stream on Apple TV+. New episodes air on Fridays (though they’re usually available the night after 6 p.m. PT).
Apple TV+ is available by subscription for $9.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. Customers who buy a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
After launching in November 2019, “Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 471 wins and 2,090 award nominations and counting,” the service said.
Apple TV+ is home to more than 200 exclusive movies and TV shows (including breakout soccer comedy Ted Lasso). The service also offers documentaries, dramas, comedies, kids shows and more.
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David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
