This text comprises main spoilers for “Severance” season 2 episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo”
“Severance” season 2 episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo,” goes onerous. It reveals that Gemma (Dichen Lachman) has a number of innies — no less than 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 inside the Lumon complicated is the unique persona, 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 might be severed into greater than two components is monumental, and as soon as once more blows the present’s mind recreation large open. Who’s to say that any character we have seen is proscribed to only one severance? What’s extra, there is not any means of understanding for positive that the individuals who we thought are the unique “outie” personalities or solely unsevered do not have additional severed layers we’re but to see. Let’s unpack this revelation a bit, and analyze which characters might need as but unrevealed additional innies.
Might all severed characters have additional innies?
The twists of “Severance” are inclined to not solely encourage viewer paranoia however outright reward it. With “Chikhai Bardo’s” revelation concerning the severance process’s hitherto unknown skills, it is time to begin guessing simply what number of personalities our severed protagonists actually have.
Oddly, the least possible suspect for a multi-severed mind is principal character Mark (Adam Scott). The present tinkers along with his mind onscreen, and assuming we are able to belief Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) — which, in fact, is its personal can of worms — it is most likely protected to imagine 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 perhaps 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 ponder whether 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 generally govt degree assured, generally considerate and downtrodden outie Helly virtually look like two completely different individuals now and again?
Dylan (Zach Cherry) is a curious case. There’s nothing particular that implies that he is perhaps a multi-severed employee, however his present storyline of a loser innie and a boisterous however inexperienced outie appears a bit of bit too easy for a present like “Severance,” so there’s purpose to count on attainable surprises right here, as properly. As for Irving (John Turturro), I’ve already posited a idea that he could also be secretly reintegrating based mostly 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 perhaps hiding.
Even the unsevered characters is perhaps dwelling a lie
Other than 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 of us on “Severance” who maintain a lot of vital 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 example, Lumon appears to supply an entire 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, presumably even that manifestation of Woe herself. Think about how tough it might be to maintain all these small-time actors in examine whatever the NDAs they need to 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 might 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 house. Are these actually the type of individuals an evil firm with entry to severance tech would go away unsevered … or the type of individuals Lumon would fortunately sever and have their employee bee innies imagine they’re unsevered?
All the city of Kier may very well be simply one other Severed Ground
So, if there is a danger of a number of secret severed personas and characters working across the city of Kier, how does Lumon preserve issues in examine? On the danger of theorycrafting, the reply is perhaps that the city’s merely a large-scale “severed ground” — 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 way of severance, which suggests that the method is both defective by design to permit them to suppose they’re breaking out, or that the city’s goal is to comprise 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 look like he is about to hurt Reghabi earlier than she brains him, and his said purpose 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 depart — save for the supposedly unsevered insider Cobel, who’s nonetheless fast to return. A faux buffer city like this might not solely handily preserve the knowingly severed workers in examine, but in addition enable for a straightforward means for Lumon to regulate of us like Cobel and Milchick in case their cup ideas 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 absolutely, an organization with desires of world dominance would don’t have any downside controlling one small city.