(Warning: Spoilers ahead)
Seeing Mark Scout (Adam Scott) in jeans, a chambray shirt, a tie, and a snazzy haircut is one of Severance’s most jarring visuals so far. Mark’s outie doesn’t care how he looks, and Mark’s innie is stuck with the same Lego-leaning hairstyle and boring suit. Pre-severed Mark is a different story, serving a hip professor aesthetic.
But even more exciting than a glimpse of Mark’s sartorial best is how much time “Chikhai Bardo” spends with Gemma (Dichen Lachman), both within old memories and current whereabouts deep in the belly of Lumon. In true Severance tradition, it is romantic, disturbing, tragic, and mind-bending, giving answers and adding more questions to the growing list. It also takes a break from the myriad outie-innie romantic dynamics to deliver crucial backstory and more insight into Lumon’s plans—though we are still in theorizing territory. It is a high bar, but this is one of the most satisfying episodes of the season.
Given how important Gemma is to Severance, it is about time we take a trip down memory lane in the aftermath of Mark’s neurological issues. Asal Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) tells an extremely panicked Devon (Jen Tullock) that there “might be some deficits” in Mark’s memories, though hopefully nothing long-term. It will be heartbreaking if he can no longer recall his meet-cute with Gemma. The on-campus blood drive opens the episode, in which Mark finds himself marking papers and donating blood next to Gemma.
Scenes cut between Mark and Gemma’s love story, with an unconscious Mark in the present and Gemma confined to a previously unseen subterranean Lumon floor. Sometimes, it is hard to distinguish whose memory is whose, and the overall mood is reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Except here, we start at the happy beginning and move toward pain, experiencing a rupture before Gemma’s “death.”
At Lumon, Gemma undergoes various tests from a nurse (played by icon Sandra Bernhard). The nurse chaperones Gemma to different named rooms that activate her innie when she enters. First up, a dentist chair awaits in Wellington, and a doctor (Robby Benson) greets an apprehensive Gemma. According to the nurse, Gemma spent two hours in Wellington, but it is impossible to trust Lumon employees.
Cutting between Mark’s sterile, dark living room and the sunlit and lived-in home Mark and Gemma shared underscores how much has changed. Throughout the series, severed Mark has moments of levity but lacks playfulness. There are subtle shifts in Scott’s performance, taking recognizable parts from the innie and outie in portraying a complete Mark.
A montage accompanied by Jacques Brel’s “La valse à mille temps” has a home movie feel, capturing intimacy and ease. A dinner with Devon and Ricken (Michael Chernus) reveals that Gemma is pregnant, but we know they don’t have children, so I braced myself for the tragedy that quickly follows. The episode doesn’t linger too long in the immediate pain, yet it informs what follows.
Switching to the time Gemma (as Ms. Casey) spent observing Helly (Britt Lower) on the MDR floor last season offers a new perspective. The camera follows the cables from the MDR terminals to the floor below. Four stations with four employees resembling Mark, Helly, Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) monitor the activity of the MDR team using cameras. What exactly are they refining?
Gemma’s doctor now has facial hair and confirms to Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) that the severance barriers are holding. Is it the same man dressed in disguise? Benson plays each one, but it isn’t explicit (to me, at least) if they are one person, clones, or identical siblings.
In the past, Gemma and Mark are shown visiting the Butzemann Fertility Center. Butzemann means “bogeyman” in German, a massive red flag for a healthcare facility. The overall vibe when Mark injects Gemma is romantic and reassuring, and I can’t help but think Lumon purposefully messed with Gemma’s IVF meds. Perhaps it goes back to when they donated blood, but something about Gemma and Mark made the biotech company target them.
Back to Lumon in the present, Gemma tells the doctor she has no memories from inside the different rooms. Gemma wants to know about the only room she hasn’t been in yet: Cold Harbor. “You will see the world again, and the world will see you,” is the doctor’s response when Gemma asks what happens when she has been in all the rooms. Gemma takes this to mean she will see Mark, but the answer is disturbing: “Mark will benefit from the world you’re siring.” Whatever they are doing to Gemma is definitely not okay.
Devon is in protective sibling mode and is trying to think of options, like taking Mark to the “innie cabin” at the birthing center (where Devon crossed paths with a severed woman). Devon suggests calling Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), but Asal thinks this is such a bad idea that she swiftly exits, leaving Devon to handle Mark alone.
Mark tries to say something, which could be “Chikhai Bardo,” as the following memory is Gemma looking at some sort of psychological test sent to her in the mail. Gemma explains this concept—which originates in Buddhism—as fighting yourself or, rather, ego death. It sure sounds connected to the innies vs. outies dichotomy. Mark is prickly, speaking to the discord in this marriage.
At Lumon, Drummond says Cold Harbor is stuck at 96 percent complete. No one is at their terminal (they are still monitoring the team), and Mark’s nosebleeds have sent them back. “When he’s [Mark] done, you’re gonna have to say goodbye to her [Gemma],” Drummond says to the doctor with facial hair—a worryingly final sentiment.
Later, when Gemma says she wants to go home, the doctor (who Gemma calls Dr. Mauer) spins cruel lies: Mark remarried and has a daughter. Gemma doesn’t believe him (knowing the sad boy Mark would become). If that wasn’t horrible enough, the doctor suggests maybe Gemma has moved on in one of the rooms. Dr. Mauer also negs her about the Tolstoy book on her shelf (The Death of Ivan Ilyich), and it is very satisfying when Gemma knocks him out with a chair. After spending all season as a dialogue-free fragment, Lachman commands the screen as each part of Gemma.
While the nurse spots this escape in progress, Gemma gets to the elevator first. Unfortunately, her innie is triggered inside, so when Gemma exits, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) convinces “Ms. Casey” that her outie made a mistake. Intercutting this tense sequence with Mark and Gemma’s last interaction adds to the gut punch when shots of Mark seeing the police at his door overlap with Gemma realizing her plan has failed. It is like Gemma died all over again.
“Where’d you go?” asks a thrilled Devon now that her brother is awake. In Mark’s mind, Gemma is alive. Now, those flashes of his wife don’t have to be fantasy.
