….Yup, let’s just get right into it all of that. These are the biggest revelations and questions—both old and new—from “Chikhai Bardo,” the emotional, shocking, upsetting seventh episode of Severance season two.
Revelations From Severance Season 2, Episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo”
Gemma Is Alive and Knows Who She Is
She is alive! Ms. Casey is not especially weird because she doesn’t have an Outie. Gemma Scout is not dead. She’s not in some kind of stasis, either. Gemma is living on the Testing Floor at Lumon, just as Petey once surmised people might be. She also knows who she is and that she is married to Mark Scout.
She doesn’t have much of a life down there, though. At the start of the episode she seemed resigned to a lonely, sterile existence being more of a lab rat than a person. Every day she undergoes painful trials she can’t remember because of her unique severance chip.
Even after this episode revealed so much about Lumon’s “mysterious and important” work, it remains unclear exactly why Gemma is down there. It’s also unclear why she willingly agreed to participate in any of company’s tests. At least she did until the episode’s end. She tried to escape after Dr. Mauer lied about Mark remarrying and having a child. Before that she was frustrated and tired, yet seemed to think Lumon would eventually let her out to return to her old life. Mauer’s non-answers to her direct questions and his private conversations with Drummond reveal the company will never allow her to do that.
MDR’s Files Are Actually Rooms Full of Painful Experiences
The files that refiners work on in MDR, which have names like “Wellington” and “Cairns,” are not people. They are rooms where Gemma role plays highly specific scenarios, each set in different time periods, that cause pain. (At least the ones we got to see did.)
Gemma is also a totally different person in each room. She does not have a single Innie. Her severance chip allows Lumon to turn her into someone different in each room. Gemma and her many Innies have no memory of what happens in each rooms or the many roles Dr. Mauer plays in them. That means, for example, one Innie is always at the dentist while another is always “celebrating” Christmas. It’s a truly horrifying personal Hell for each version of Gemma/Ms. Casey.
Those different personas indicate Gemma’s severance chip is both new and special. Mr. Drummond asked if “the severance barriers are holding” and Dr. Mauer said “the technology works.” Drummond wouldn’t ask if Gemma was not unique among the people who previously, and likely currently, also serve as subjects on Lumon Testing floors. The company has refiners around the world. They must also unknowingly be working on test subjects of their own, but none quite like Gemma.
Every Refiner Has a “Watcher” Who Vaguely Looks Like Them
MDR computers connect to the Testing Floor. There, a “watcher” (as listed in the episode’s end credits) monitors a single refiner. These analysts can toggle between observing refiners directly, their work being done on files, or Gemma. Each watcher also vaguely looks like the refiner they personally track. These pseudo-doubles also seem to be the “twins” the refiners encountered during the ORTBO.
It’s unclear why Lumon would find it necessary to have watchers who dress and look like refiners. There’s no answer that won’t be weird.
Dr. Reghabi Left with Mark’s Reintegration Incomplete
A desperate Devon wanted to turn to Harmony Cobel for help with her brother. That forced Dr. Reghabi to leave for her own safety. She called Cobel “a soldier” who is Lumon “through and through.” That leaves Mark’s reintegration incomplete and without a doctor to look after him. Petey died from reintegration when he left Dr. Reghabi’s care.
Ricken Wasn’t Always Like That (But He Sort of Was)
Turns out Ricken wasn’t always so….Ricken. Kind of. Before he became an exhausting self-help guru, he was a slightly less exhausting hiker. He still had a Kier Eagan-like fondness for grandiloquent* words.
*We had to use a thesaurus for that one. We’re not Ricken. For good and for ill.
New Questions From Severance Season 2, Episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo”
Does “Chikhai Bardo” Refer to Someone Who Literally Died?
The episode’s title, “Chikhai Bardo,” is a Tibetan Buddist term. It refers to the fourth of sixth stages in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Chikhai Bardo is the fine line between life and physical death. It’s when consciousness moves away from the body right after a person dies.
That’s also reminiscent of the story in Leo Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. That was the book Gemma and Mark discussed when they first met and the one Dr. Mauer picked up in her Testing Floor room. Mauer was right. The main character dies after some profound reflections on life and death on his death bed.
Why so many connections to the concept of a dead person who is moving on to the next stage of their existence? Is it simply metaphorical and thematic? Is it just about the concept of “ego death” Gemma spoke of? Or is that concept quite literal on Severance? Are these all clues a major figure in this story physically died? A sign Lumon has brought, or is trying to bring, a dead person back to life?
Why Are Gemma’s Fertility Issues So Important?
Mark and Gemma’s relationship was certainly defined by more than just their attempts to have a child. Yet that was the focus of the episode’s flashbacks. It showed the couple’s struggles to conceive and even suggested the stress that caused contributed to why Mark wasn’t with her the night she “died.”
Why exactly are her fertility issues so relevant to Severance? What does that have to do with why Gemma and Mark are both so important to Lumon? That might now be the single biggest question on the show, and it raises even more questions about how and why she ended up on the Testing Floor.
Why Does Lumon Need To Check Gemma’s Vitals Every Day?
Gemma is sad and angry, but she seems fine physically. So why is Lumon checking her vitals every single day? Why is the company testing her strength and “intensity?” What’s the point of doing eye exams? Why does her physical health need to be constantly monitored as though she’s sick or especially vulnerable? Even with all the residual pain she experiences inside Testing Floor rooms she doesn’t seem to be at any special health risk. So why the need to constantly check?
Did Lumon Cause Gemma’s Miscarriage?
We have plenty more questions about Lumon’s activities and possible/likely covert recruitment of Gemma, but the most heinous question the episode raised is whether or not Lumon caused her miscarriage. The company ran the fertility clinic she went to after she lost her pregnancy, but even before she went there, they knew about her. Lumon ran the blood drive where she met Mark, a man who is also vitally important to Lumon’s ultimate goals. (The machines used at the drive had Lumon’s drop logo, which was also on the fertility clinic form, and the medical professionals wore Lumon blue and white.)
If the powerful, omnipresent, evil Lumon did cause her miscarriage and prevented her from getting pregnant after, then why? Did the company want to drive them apart? Or did it want to make sure she did not give birth? And if so, is that because….
Is Lumon Trying To Turn Gemma Into the Perfect Vessel for a New Kier?
Drummond said when “Cold Harbor” (which somehow Mark’s mere nosebleed prevented from being finished) is done, Mauer will have to say goodbye to Gemma. Mauer loves Gemma but knows his work will have to stop then. He even said why: “For Kier.”
Why “for Kier?” Why not in memory of Kier or Kier’s honor? “For Kier” might just be a turn of phrase, but what if both men meant that literally? What if all of this is literally for Kier, a messianic figure who died decades ago? Considering the episode’s title, connections to death and rebirth, and Gemma’s fertility issues, it’s not outrageous to wonder if Lumon is trying to make Gemma into the perfect vessel to give birth to a reborn Kier Eagan.
MDR refines the emotions Gemma experiences in those Testing Floor rooms. Those digital buckets are all related to Kier’s Four Tempers which he believed a human must conquer to achieve happiness. Does Lumon want to make sure Gemma has completely conquered her own Tempers so she can give birth to Kier whose early life as a carpenter has obvious connections with the life of Jesus Christ? Is this why a baby Kier shows up at the end of the season two opening credits?
“Lumon is turning Gemma into its personal god’s mother” sounds absurd for obvious reasons. And yet it sounds less ridiculous than ever after this episode. Lumon’s “mysterious and important” work is obviously super strange and creepy so much so it requires de facto slaves who can’t remember anything when they leave the office.
Old Questions We Still Have After Severance Season 2, Episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo”
How Does Outie Irv Know About the Testing Floor?
Now that we know what goes on in the Testing Floor, it’s even more surprising Irving knows anything about it. Who told him what goes on there? Was he ever down there? Did he ever work there? We don’t know what Irving knows or how and we want to know more than ever.
Did Gemma Ever Actually Die or Did Lumon Fake Her Death?
The easy explanation for how Gemma ended up at Lumon is also the most likely. It makes the most sense that the company faked her death and took her prisoner. She was alone that night and it was the perfect opportunity. And yet, that wouldn’t explain why she’s so docile and why she was willing to work with Lumon in any way. Also, despite the episode revealing so much, it clearly refused to reveal what happened the night of her “crash.” At one point it even made an obvious visual connection between Mark’s memory of the tree she supposedly hit with her experiences on the Testing Floor.
Severance is giving us plenty of reason to think Lumon took Gemma against her will. It seemed to know she was the perfect recruit for whatever it is they are doing. They had her blood work. They ran the fertility clinic she went to. (Why was Lumon running a fertility clinic in the first place?!) And they sent her those Bardo cards, the exact same ones Dylan stole from in O&D in season one. Those cards were so crucial and dangerous it made Milchick utilize the Overtime Contingency Protocol when he thought Dylan snuck it out of the building.
By very intentionally not simply telling us what happened the night of Gemma’s “crash,” Severance is making it so we must still ask if she did actually die. Which brings us to the most pressing issue the one that might explain everything.
Seriously, What is “Cold Harbor?”
Gemma says she’s never been in the new room labeled “Cold Harbor.” Yet when Mark completes that file, Lumon believes it will be one of the greatest moments in the history of mankind. Has she been in it and doesn’t remember? Can she only enter rooms once they’re entirely refined? (That seems the more likely explanation based on something else Mauer said.) Or is it a fluid process where a person goes in and out multiples times, which could explain why some files expire before refiners can complete them?
Somehow we know more about Macrodata Refinement than ever and yet have more questions about what the hell it does. The biggest of which is “Seriously, what is ‘Cold Harbor; all about?” What’s in there?”
The phrase “cold harbor” still conjures images of death. We can’t help but ask if that room contains Kier Eagan’s body or even Gemma’s original body. (We’re not ready to give up on those cloning theories juuuust yet). But trying to guess seems futile. Lumon’s plans and activities have proven almost impossible to figure out. Mark S. was right. Lumon is always one step ahead of us.
Mauer literally told us in this episode what will happen when Gemma goes into “all the rooms.” Yet we still don’t have any idea what he means. We just know we don’t like or trust it.
The creepiest doctor on the planet, working for the most evil company ever, told Gemma, “You will see the world again, and the world will see you.” He then said (emphasis ours), “Mark will benefit from the world you’re siring. Kier will take away all his pain, just as Kier has taken away yours.” We don’t have to know what any of that means to know it doesn’t sound good.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. Despite everything he wants to eat the weird Lumon Testing Floor food. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.