Note: This story contains spoilers from “Severance” Season 2, Episode 7.
Where in the world has Gemma/Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) been on “Severance”?
That’s been one of the major questions in Season 2 for fans who last saw her in earnest being walked off the severed floor into what was clearly a much sketchier part of Lumon. We’ve seen glimpses of Gemma in just about every episode — flaunting her lethal face card, much to the Internet’s delight — but this week people are finally getting answers.
Below let’s unpack just where Gemma has been all season, what her circumstances mean for a long-running fan theory, and whether or not those flashbacks were flashbacks at all.
Where Has Gemma Been?
Episode 7 finally dove into where Gemma/Ms. Casey has been since she was shuffled off the severed floor at the end of Season 1. What we did know is that she was tied in some way to the Cold Harbor file that Lumon is desperate for Mark (Adam Scott) to finish. What we now know is that most of the data the MDR team has been refining has been collected by her (and likely others).
Many thought each individual file the MDR team was working on was possibly tied to a person and Cold Harbor represented Gemma. Episode 7 revealed that the various file names — Wellington, Allentown, etc. — are scenarios that Gemma (and again likely others) are put through. They represent the mundane but excruciating long dentist visit or writing Christmas thank you cards to the more extreme plane crash.
Gemma as Ms. Casey either represented one of these scenarios or was a way to get her and Mark to interact. Regardless, she has been suffering in a monotonous cycle visiting multiple rooms per day, all while being promised she’ll eventually be reunited with Mark.
Toward the end of the episode she even manages to escape, but is stopped by Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) when she arrives on the severed floor. The episode ends with her being turned back to whatever backrooms floor she’s stuck on and the experiments continue while Mark inches closer and closer to finishing the Cold Harbor file — which remains a mystery.
How Many Times Can One Be Severed?
Gemma’s various experiments in the vast hallway of rooms seems to confirm another long-standing theory among “Severance” fans: That a person can be severed more than once. It isn’t clear how many times a person can be severed but if Gemma has been visiting every room on whatever floor she’s on — aside from Cold Harbor — then the number is pretty staggering.
This also raises the concerns of who else is trustworthy or untrustworthy which was already a big concern. Any person at Lumon just became an unreliable narrator until it’s proven they aren’t working on another floor as someone else entirely.
Was Gemma Flashing Back to Her History with Mark or Living It Concurrently?
Episode 7 also gives viewers a peak into Gemma and Mark’s history leading up to her “death.” The hour shows their initial meet-cute up through their marriage, attempts to have a baby through IVF, and through the day of Gemma’s wreck.
What is less clear is if these are flashbacks Gemma — and Mark who spends the episode struggling with reintegration side effects — are remembering or if this is yet another nightmarish scenario a version of Gemma is forced to live through over and over.
Lets hope they were memories that both Gemma and Mark are clinging to as they weather the increasingly choppy waters of being a Lumon employee.
“Severance” releases new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.
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