Severance kept audiences riveted with the ongoing story of Mark Scout (Adam Scott) and his life as a severed employee of the insidious company known as Lumon Industries in Season 2 of Apple TV+‘s hit series. And while much of the story centers around Scott’s character, it’s his onscreen wife who got her moment in the spotlight as the show explored Gemma’s (Dichen Lachman) story in the pivotal seventh episode, “Chikhai Bardo,” directed by Jessica Lee Gagné.

It’s no surprise that Gagné, who is the show’s director of photography, has received praise for her television directing debut as viewers were sucked into various flashbacks of Gemma and Mark’s early romance pre-severance juxtaposed with the innie torture she was enduring on the lower floors of Lumon’s building.

Regarding the installment’s critical acclaim and fan-favorite status, Gagné says, “I think it’s always rewarding when you work so hard on something and you see that people actually like it because it’s not always the case. Filmmaking can be so heartbreaking.” There was also heartbreak onscreen for Mark and Gemma, whose struggle to conceive a baby appeared to be the catalyst for their current predicament, as Lumon took advantage of the couple’s trauma.

The revealing installment finally answered the question of where Gemma went after her death was faked in the outside world, and it reminded viewers of why her fate is so tragic as we saw her love story unfold in the past. Gagné’s vision for the episode delivered something fans hadn’t seen on the show before, with practically filmed scene transitions, sequences shot on film, and much more.

Below, Gagné opens up about her process of crafting the standout episode, working with Scott and Lachman to create an authentic onscreen dynamic, and much more.

How did Episode 7 land in your lap, and was it scary knowing this episode had to make audiences fall in love with Gemma?

Jessica Lee Gagné: It was definitely stressful because I knew that [Episode] 7 was there to charge the end of the show. You needed it to be good to have that dilemma. So it was a big ask. And it’s not like you can do that much in one episode, so every single thing was weighed, but then at the same time, you didn’t want to make these flashbacks seem super dramatic. They had to feel real. So it’s just the balance of real life and emotion. That was the trickiest thing.

Originally, there was no script. When I picked Episode 7, there was a synopsis, and I felt like this was the one for me. I’m really lucky being the DP on the show. I am a part of everything. The fact that I’m there for a significant amount of time allows me to understand the series as a whole. I had a special connection with Episode 7 because I also saw a lot of myself within Gemma. So I felt like I could connect with that, but I didn’t want to do two [episodes, which] was on the table for a hot minute. I just wanted to focus on [this episode] because it was special and felt like it was calling me.

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Was there an excitement in being able to capture some of those warmer outside moments between Mark and Gemma, which are so different in tone from the cold corporate space of Lumon?

Well, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t want anyone else doing it, because I felt like it made the most sense after having been a huge part of creating the look of this show. It’s the past, but I felt like I’d be able to make something that was completely different but somehow worked within the world. The experience and the feeling that you have when you watch Severance is that you’re seeing life through Mark’s eyes, and these people that are severed, who’ve chosen to shut a part of themselves off. So it’s a very specific look. But then, if you go back to before he would’ve done something like this, where he was living his life with a bigger range of emotion, he would see the dark and the light and the full spectrum of color. So the way that we shot it was just opening up the things that he would’ve closed himself off to.

Did you know where the story was heading for the rest of the season while filming this episode?

I had an idea. It was not clear yet. Severance has an interesting process in the way it’s worked. It’s very organic, so they leave space for things to happen. I knew how I wanted them to leave each other. To me, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be a happy ending. It was a real-life situation. The most bittersweet thing about losing someone is when things aren’t perfect; to me, that charges this character’s guilt on another level for Mark. She leaves, and they don’t get that opportunity [to share a goodbye kiss]. To me, that’s life. So I knew how I wanted the relationship to end in [Episode] 7, and I felt like that was the strongest setup, no matter which decision they were going to go with.

This episode has some incredible transitions that I know were done practically. Was that scripted, or were you able to come up with ideas yourself? 

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I mean, being the cinematographer of the show, these are things I thrive in, and we had had a taste of all of that in Season 1. I very much think in terms of camera, when I read something, I’m seeing it, and ideas just come in. What was amazing about Episode 7 is that it’s a little bit different than how the rest of Severance was made. I got to work very closely with Mark Friedman, who wrote this episode. Dan also worked on it a little bit, but it was mostly Mark and me doing it. I remember some of our first conversations about it when he was starting to write it. We were in his office, and he said, “I have all these scenes, and my thing is not transitions.” He was like, “I want you to help me.” He knew that that’s my forte.

This episode begins at night and ends with daybreak for Mark as Devon sits by his side. Was that a symbolic choice?

I’m very aware of the timeline of the general storyline of the show, and I play with that a lot. Season 1, especially, I was choosing what time of day we’d be at the house for everything and making sure it made sense. But for this specific episode, it was not written; it was what would make sense. Originally, I think it might’ve all been set at night, but I can’t confirm that because I can’t remember it. But no, it was not written as a metaphor in that sense. And even the shots, when we see Gemma walking in the library and her eyes flash, those weren’t written in. I just wanted him to have that first moment when he saw her originally.

What was it like collaborating with Adam Scott and Dichen Lachman to build the kind of relationship between Mark and Gemma that fans will root for?

The blessing of Dichen and Adam is that they’re extremely technical actors. So not only are they great actors, they can do very, very difficult things with cameras. We were going to shoot this scene with a shower rig in MDR, and you have to act backwards. Basically, go from an MDR scene to a miscarriage scene backwards and don’t blink while this camera’s flying in your face and rain is starting to fall on your head. And MDR, he can do that, and there’s no challenge there. But the funnest part was really in the flashbacks to create a new feeling. Even the way we worked on set was different than what we usually do in Severance. A lot of the crew changed, and we went with a smaller crew, and we shot film. So it had this essence and vibe that was different. They came over to the house that I rented for two years. The whole thing is magical.

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I wanted them to come over for a day, and we hung out and just talked about the scenes. We barely rehearsed them. It was just a read-through with a little intention. I think because we casually tackled it and they knew the space they were staying in, where they were getting ready, was in this house, and it made it become their own house. I think that really had an impact and took off a lot of the heaviness.

Gemma’s innies are moved in and out of several different kinds of rooms throughout the episode. Did you have a favorite? 

Well, we had to fight to keep them all because these sets are so expensive and they’re done so well. I’m glad that we pushed to keep three. The airplane was super hard to shoot. That thing was built on an actual hydraulic set, and the camera operator was in this thing that was shaking them around. And with the stunts, it was a very difficult day. And on that same day, we did the pullback shot on the couch. So it was a huge day. But I think the Christmas room is my favorite set. I absolutely love the Christmas room. I got to DP all the innie stuff… I gave so much attention to the lighting. I remember I was so frustrated on the day I couldn’t get it right, and I just kept pushing and taking. I ate up my own shooting time.

There are hints that Lumon is part of Mark and Gemma’s journey from the moment they met. Were you actively working to showcase those Easter eggs or draw less attention to them? 

No, I think that with Severance, there’s a moment where those fans or those people who watch the show and they’re folding their laundry at the same time, we’re not making the show for them. It’s a show that’s made for the people who do watch it twice and who do really hang in there and are looking for those things. I think that’s what’s so special about Severance, is the attention to detail and that you can rewatch it a second time and a third time and you’ll see new things. We didn’t want it to be obvious, but it was like riding that line that was a concern because we have to answer this question of, how did she get down there? And it’s also nice to leave some mystery to it and leave people to have their own interpretations of it.

Did you have any say on the prop card Gemma uses to describe Chikhai Bardo to Mark? It looks awfully representative of the situation he faces in the finale, fighting between his innie and outie self. 

That was something the writers wanted to do from the beginning. So that wasn’t something I had much say in. I don’t think it was meant to look like Adam, but who knows?

Was there anything that made it into the episode that wasn’t scripted but was found during filming on the day? 

One is that I did a big time-lapse sequence where we go through their life. It wasn’t written; it was just that scene in the office. And for me, my main concern was that people need to understand how long they have been together. We need to show a passage of time. So much of this episode is about the concept of time and the passage of time and how time works, and I wanted to do a time-lapse sequence. And I knew on set, you don’t have time to shoot this stuff. You just don’t. Ben [Stiller] actually came to set when we were doing some of these scenes, and in between shots, as I was working on setting stuff up, I’m like, can you just go shoot them outside with the Bolex? And he did some of the stuff with them and the flowers with the tree.

And those sequences where you see snow melting, and you see deer, and you see moons, that’s me shooting in my house with the Bolex. So I would actually set it up on a tripod over a couple of days. And when it would snow, I would go and just do random photos where you can do one frame every time you press it. So I actually shot those manually myself.

Severance, Seasons 1-2, Streaming now, Apple TV+