Severanceis a number of things.
That loss has proven a rich motivator for Mark and has set the tone for Season 2.
Cut to a spaced-out Gemma getting blood drawn somewhere within Lumon’s characteristically white halls.
Image via Jefferson Chacon
“It’s settled f*cking law, lady, just accept it, the end.”
(Her answer’s drowning.)
Gemma asks, “How many rooms today?”
Image via Apple TV+
to which the doctor replies, “Six.”
“There she is,” the creepy Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson) says.
Just for a little while?"
Image via Apple TV+
“But it’s been six weeks,” he replies.
“I was just here,” she says.
“I know, nobody likes the dentist,” he replies before beckoning her to sit.
On the outside, we reenter Mark’s reintegrating memories.
The scene slides to another memory, with the pair living together as Mark buys a crib.
“That sounds painful,” Gemma says before turning down a pour of wine from her sister-in-law.
Image via Apple TV+
Devon understands what that means.
“Oh f*ck right off,” she whispers as the pair share happy looks.
An elegant transition later sees Gemma in pain, alone in the bathroom.
Image via Apple TV+
She sits in the running shower, in shock, with blood running down her leg.
“Are the severance barriers holding?”
“You like her,” Drummond replies.
Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.
“She’s easy to like,” a very 1970s-looking version of the creepy doctor replies.
“She’s fond of me too, of course.”
“Didn’t she try and break your fingers?”
She apologizes, but Mark is warm.
“How are you feeling?”
“My mouth hurts,” she retorts.
He asks which room caused her mouth to hurt.
“How did you feel in the hall?”
Mauer asks, inquiring about whether she left any rooms with residual feelings.
It’s possible that Lumon is even more sinister than it first seemed.
“So what happens, once I’ve been in all the rooms?”
““So I’ll see Mark?”
Devon asks Reghabi if she thinks the reintegration will work, and she replies they had no other choice.
Devon then recalls an “innie cottage,” a place where severed people “become their innies.”
“Damona Birthing Retreat,” Dr. Reghabi replies.
“Why would you do that?
She runs the severed floor,” Dr. Reghabi replies.
“Not anymore, she doesn’t.
She might know how to get to the cabin.
And, f*ck, she might know how to get to Gemma,” Devon counters.
“This isn’t my choice, it’s yours… donotcall that woman.”
Meanwhile, Mark can only mumble “Chikhai Bardo,” still unconscious.
“It’s the same guy fighting himself, defeating his own psyche.
A “bardo,” in Tibetan Buddhism, is a transitional stage between death and rebirth.
In response, Mauer lies to her, telling her that Mark has remarried and had a daughter.
“He’s moved on.
Maybe you’ve moved on, too, in one of the rooms.
What do you think?”
Maybe I’ve seen it.”
She makes her way down the corridor’s dark hallways in an effort to escape.
Sadly, she walks down the hallway and back to the elevator going down.
We learn a lot in this episode.
Is the companytrying to bring back Kier Eagan?
What’s going to happen with the creepy whistling Dr. Mauer?
SeveranceSeason 2 is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S. New episodes air on Fridays.
