[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Severance Season 2.]
Severance may have introduced Dichen Lachman‘s Ms. Casey in Season 1, but she truly arrived in Season 2 when fans finally met Gemma, the long-lost love of Mark Scout (Adam Scott).
After discovering that his wife was the Wellness Center worker Ms. Casey, innie Mark spent most of Season 2 trying to find her, and in the pivotal installment “Chikhai Bardo,” viewers finally got a better picture of what the couple’s life looked like pre-Lumon employment. For those less acquainted with the Apple TV+ hit, Severance follows workers at the company Lumon, where many have undergone the titular procedure which separates your inner and outer consciousnesses, dividing the individual’s memories into two spaces — one for work, known as the innie, and the other for outside of work, a.k.a. the outie.
It turned out that Mark’s wife Gemma had become a prisoner of sorts underground at Lumon, where her mind had been severed several times. With her final test, “Cold Harbor,” looming, both innie and outie Mark had to race against the clock to set her free. But Lachman’s character was no damsel in distress as she exhibited her own ferocity in attempted escapes.
Apple TV+
TV Insider caught up with Lachman to reflect on Season 2’s standout moments, and the star looked back on Mark and Gemma’s moving reunion, in which he managed to free her from the Cold Harbor room and reactivated her outie, allowing the long-separated spouses a brief and tender reunion.
“I think it’s the same essence of why Mark builds the tree out of clay in the Wellness Center. It’s the same reason why Ms. Casey is drawn to Mark when she’s close to him… She doesn’t know why, but there’s something deeply buried in her subconscious that makes her feel like she can trust him,” the star says in our latest Scene Study. (Watch the full video above.)
When it came to that moment of clarity once Gemma exited the Cold Harbor room and stepped into the hallway where she and Mark could be fully reunited, Lachman shares, “There was a lot of juggling to do because of the transition from that innie and that weird situation she was in back to Gemma. And then not just to Gemma, but seeing Mark who she’s, in some ways, almost given up hope that she’d ever see him again.”
“She was just so relieved because this is something that she’s been yearning for, for God knows how long, and has been imprisoned in these really bizarre circumstances,” Lachman adds.
However, their peace was very brief and the joy of Mark and Gemma’s reunion began to fade in Season 2’s final moments when innie Mark wasn’t able to leave his work love Helly (Britt Lower) behind, turning away from a confused Gemma in the process after he managed to get her into the staircase where her outie can exist and escape from.
See what else Lachman has to share about the pivotal moment in the full video interview, above. She also details Gemma’s dynamics with Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson), muses on the possibility of Gemma fighting to save Mark, and reveals the truth behind Adam Scott’s beard!
Severance, Seasons 1-2, Streaming now, Apple TV+