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Severance Season 2 Episode 7 Ending Explained: Gemma’s Chikhai Bardo
Published on February 28, 2025
Severance season 2 episode 7, called Chikhai Bardo, is mainly about Gemma and her attempt to escape from Lumon’s basement. That place is filled with severed rooms with doors labeled with names like Wellington, Allentown, etc. These names were seen on the computers of MDR. Gemma takes turns going to each room and plays out various scenarios with a doctor. So, what is going on with her?Â
What’s Going on with Gemma?
Severance season 2 episode 7 is all about Gemma and her whereabouts. We now know that most of the data the MDR team was refining was collected by her. The various file names- Allentown, Wellington, etc. are scenarios that Gemma gets put through.Â
So, she was suffering in a monotonous cycle where she visited multiple rooms every day, hoping that she would be reunited with Mark eventually. By the end of the episode, she does manage to almost escape but gets stopped by Mr. Milchick. So, she returns to the backroom floor she was stuck on.Â
Gemma and Mark’s History
Severance season 2 episode 7 also shows us a glimpse of Gemma and Mark’s relationship. We see their meet-cute, marriage, and attempts to have a baby through IVF. The show seems to hint that their marriage was crumbling because Gemma was infertile and couldn’t conceive.Â
Gemma Wanted a Rebirth
The doctor who resides in the Lumon basement conducts experiments on Gemma in the fertility clinic that she and Mark went to. It’s made pretty obvious that he put Gemma on Lumon’s radar without Mark’s approval. They probably ran psychological tests on her with the Chikhai Bardo and then brought her into their program.Â
But what is Chikhai Bardo? Well, according to Tibetan Buddhism, it refers to the period between the beginning of the process of dying and the final breath. So, whether knowingly or unknowingly, Gemma had signed up for something that would end everything about her and begin her rebirth as Ms. Casey.Â
But why would Gemma join Lumon knowingly? They probably promised her something she desperately wanted- like helping her conceive and since that was the main issue in her relationship with Mark, she probably agreed.Â
These experiments by the doctor are probably being done to check what affects her positively and what she reacts badly to. The doctor also lies to her that her husband has moved on, remarried, and is about to have a daughter.Â
Therefore, subtly coaxing her to remember why she was doing the severance in the first place. The episode has also confirmed a theory that Severance fans have long held- that a person can be severed multiple times. If Gemma has been visiting every room of whatever floor she is on, then the numbers become eye-watering.Â
What’s next?Â
One question remains: Are these flashbacks about their life that Mark and Gemma are remembering? Or is it another nightmare that Gemma is being forced to live through over and over again? Mark is also inching closer and closer to finishing the Cold Harbor file, but what that remains a mystery.Â
Severance season 2 is available on Apple TV+. New episodes stream every Friday. Also, check out the recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, and Episode 6.Â
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