This text accommodates main spoilers for “Severance” season 2 episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo”
“Severance” season 2 episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo,” goes laborious. It reveals that Gemma (Dichen Lachman) has a number of innies — at the least as many because the rooms she visits, that are named after the recordsdata the Macrodata Refinement staff is coping with. What’s extra, it seems that the Gemma trapped throughout the Lumon advanced is the unique character, and her varied “room” innies aren’t the one severed personas she has. She additionally has a failsafe innie that is activated within the elevator throughout an escape try, whom Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) instantly orders to return.
The episode’s revelation that an individual’s thoughts will be severed into greater than two components is monumental, and as soon as once more blows the present’s mind recreation extensive open. Who’s to say that any character we have seen is proscribed to only one severance? What’s extra, there is not any approach of understanding for positive that the individuals who we thought are the unique “outie” personalities or solely unsevered haven’t got additional severed layers we’re but to see. Let’s unpack this revelation a bit, and analyze which characters may need as but unrevealed additional innies.
Might all severed characters have additional innies?
The twists of “Severance” are likely to not solely encourage viewer paranoia however outright reward it. With “Chikhai Bardo’s” revelation in regards to the severance process’s hitherto unknown talents, it is time to begin guessing simply what number of personalities our severed protagonists actually have.
Oddly, the least doubtless suspect for a multi-severed mind is important character Mark (Adam Scott). The present tinkers along with his mind onscreen, and assuming we will belief Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) — which, in fact, is its personal can of worms — it is in all probability protected to consider that she would have observed had somebody been tinkering with Mark’s mind greater than anticipated. Then again, there is not any telling simply what number of Hellys (Britt Decrease) there is likely to be on the market. Season 2 episode “Woe’s Hole” revealed that her outie is kind of able to passing as her innie, and her duplicitous nature makes one wonder if there are different, much more devious Hellys hiding in her head … and whether or not we have already seen glimpses of them. Does not the typically govt degree assured, typically considerate and downtrodden outie Helly virtually appear to be two completely different individuals once in a while?
Dylan (Zach Cherry) is a curious case. There’s nothing particular that means that he is likely to be a multi-severed employee, however his present storyline of a loser innie and a boisterous however inexperienced outie appears just a little bit too easy for a present like “Severance,” so there’s motive to anticipate attainable surprises right here, as effectively. As for Irving (John Turturro), I’ve already posited a idea that he could also be secretly reintegrating primarily based on his visions and his innie’s peculiar perception in “Woe’s Hole,” however his story’s mysteries appear so deliciously scrambled that who is aware of what’s actually up with the man — and what number of severed personalities his mind is likely to be hiding.
Even the unsevered characters is likely to be residing a lie
Aside from the identified severed characters, the true nuances of the method make the viewer marvel if the present is hiding secret severed characters. There are a number of people on “Severance” who maintain a lot of necessary data that Lumon, an organization with entry to the severance process, shouldn’t have any enterprise nor inclination to permit them to stroll round with.
As an illustration, Lumon appears to supply a complete bunch of extraordinarily shady paid actor/stand-in gigs, such because the dancers within the season 1 waffle social gathering occasion or the “Woe’s Hole” doppelgängers — and, if Irving is not dreaming within the episode, probably even that manifestation of Woe herself. Think about how tough it will be to maintain all these small-time actors in examine whatever the NDAs they must signal, particularly since issues just like the waffle social gathering are implied to be routine Lumon process that takes place on a regular basis. The one logical solution to clarify that is if the individuals enjoying the roles are additionally severed.
After which there are individuals like Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman). A try-hard bureaucrat with simply sufficient cracks in his armor to indicate the derangement and bitterness mendacity inside, he comes throughout as secretly unstable and his worker analysis within the episode “Trojan’s Horse” hints that the corporate could acknowledge him as such. Concord Cobel (Patricia Arquette) is even worse — an outright maniac who goes above and past the job to spy a key worker’s outie and retains a Kier altar at dwelling. Are these actually the type of individuals an evil firm with entry to severance tech would depart unsevered … or the type of individuals Lumon would fortunately sever and have their employee bee innies consider they’re unsevered?
Your complete city of Kier may very well be simply one other Severed Ground
So, if there is a threat of a number of secret severed personas and characters operating across the city of Kier, how does Lumon hold issues in examine? On the threat of theorycrafting, the reply is likely to be that the city’s merely a large-scale “severed flooring” — an outer circle of the “Severance” hell, if you’ll.
Quite a few Kier residents appear to straddle the innie/outie line regardless of having gone by means of severance, which means that the method is both defective by design to permit them to suppose they’re breaking out, or that the city’s function is to include such cognitive leaks. Moreover, regardless of a number of severe transgressions, no innie or outie is ever bodily harm by Lumon employees, which is wild conduct for an implied mega-evil company. Even the creepy season 1 safety chief Doug Graner does not appear to be he is about to hurt Reghabi earlier than she brains him, and his acknowledged intention is to take her to custody. In the meantime, each main incident within the city — like Graner’s homicide — appears to go unnoticed.
The city of Kier is an odd, anachronistic, and sparsely-populated place that nobody actually appears to go away — save for the supposedly unsevered insider Cobel, who’s nonetheless fast to return. A pretend buffer city like this could not solely handily hold the knowingly severed staff in examine, but in addition permit for a straightforward approach for Lumon to regulate people like Cobel and Milchick in case their cup suggestions over they usually get thinking about spilling the beans on issues like Lumon using the patently underage season 2 solid addition Miss Huang (Sarah Bock). Whether or not that is the case stays to be seen, however certainly, an organization with goals of world dominance would haven’t any downside controlling one small city.
