Severance S2E7 Review – The Gemma Episode

Well folks, here’s my fresh Severance S2E7 review and what a ride in what might become known as the ‘Gemma Episode’ down the line. Now as always I’m in FULL SPOILER territory on these reviews. I will tone that down a bit this week though, because you really need to watch this to appreciate it. If you wanna know my spoiler free thoughts…

Episode 7 is an absolute banger if you’re a fan of Severance. If you like surreal, this is the most surreal episode to date. There’s a lot of flashbacks and the director does a great job of messing with our perceptions, especially the timeline within them. It’s also the most revelatory episode of Season 2 so far. Beautifully shot, emotional, important and revealing. Best episode of Season 2 so far.

** Episode 7 SPOILERS Below**

We learn so much this week that it will take me time to digest a lot of it. However, let’s for now stick to the crux of Episode 7. We finally see the Gemma outtie and her situation is a reverse of Mark’s. The juxtaposition of their situations is inventive. Gemma is separated from Mark by the Severed Floor. Below the Severed Floor is where Gemma is, but, to get out, she needs to go through it. Mark is on the outside and anytime he gets close to Gemma he becomes severed and Mark S appears.

This situation plays out in ‘real time’ or near enough from Gemma’s POV. Therefore, we as the audience get a glimpse behind the curtain and what Lumon are actually doing with Gemma. Meanwhile, Mark is in dream land and from his perspective we see flashbacks of him and Gemma, from meeting to her eventual ‘death’. However, these memories are at times mixed in with Gemma’s own and the timeline gets a bit fuzzy as we kinda morph from one into the other. It’s really expertly crafted to reveal key details whilst we get caught up in a sad story of love, infertility, and the horror of what Lumon has done.

Lumon

This episode makes clear that Lumon became interested in Gemma after she went for IVF treatment. They started sending her things to complete and we see how desperate Gemma is to conceive. It’s all made to look like Lumon grabbed Gemma the night Mark didn’t attend a social gathering with her. I won’t say that’s a fact yet though. I wouldn’t be all that shocked to find Gemma agreed initially without fully appreciating the consequences. That’s not a theory, just a reluctance to make assumptions about this show.

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I won’t get into what I think Lumon is up to in too much detail. I’ll say I think one of the things they are trying to do is sell severance to everyone. Clearly Gemma is being tested against various situations which a human may wish to avoid and use an innie for. We also begin to see how this actually connects to what MDR are doing with their files. Is Gemma the only test subject, or are there others? Why are the team who monitor MDR so like them and just seem to copy what they do?

So many questions, but I don’t yet think we still understand fully what Lumon’s goals are. It’s also clear that for Gemma, the clock is ticking.

Final Thoughts

As you’d guess the two characters that get the most screentime this episode are Mark and Gemma, with a focus on Gemma. However, because we are now seeing the other side of the fence as it were, we get some new additions. In true Severance fashion, these new conspirators/baddies are disturbing in the extreme. It’s truly horrific how Gemma is forced to live her life in this inescapable prison.

The nurse and the dentist/jumper guy were both super creepy. I actually gave a ‘yes’ at one point when Gemma did something I’d have done myself.

Props to all the actors involved. Though outside of Dichen Lachman and Adam Scott, the secondary actors all had small little roles, they were effective. The real drama and emotion of course comes from Scott and Lachman.

This is a brilliant episode of TV. Surreal, and beautifully shot, emotionally heart-breaking, terrifying and thought provoking. Best Episode of Season 2 thus far. How can Mark S and Helly R ever be together when Gemma and Mark need to be together? What tangled webs these writers weave us.

GRADE: A+

I guess my indoctrination has been broken by Gemma. I do not love all episodes equally.

What do you think of my review for Severance S2E7? Let us know what you thought of Severance S2E7 below yourself.

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