Severance Season 2 Episode 7 Ending Explained: What The Flashbacks Mean

Warning! This article contains major spoilers for Severance season 2’s episode 7.

Severance season 2’s episode 7 is one of the most stimulating installments of the series, featuring everything from detailed flashbacks to Mark and Gemma’s past to shocking revelations about the testing floor. Each new episode in Severance season 2 seems to top its predecessors. Episode 7 continues this trend by walking viewers through some of the best visuals in the series while giving away surprising details about what is actually going on in the overarching story. Like all Severance installments, episode 7, too, leaves viewers with more questions than answers.

However, it makes enough room for audiences to come up with many solid theories about Lumon’s purpose, the testing floor, Gemma’s fate, and Mark’s future. A lot happens in the Apple TV+ sci-fi show’s new episode, making it hard to keep up with every plot development and revelation it presents. Owing to this, a detailed breakdown of all the major narrative progressions in Severance season 2’s episode 7 seems necessary.

What The Ending Flashback In Severance Season 2’s Episode 7 Reveals About Gemma’s “Death”

The Truth About Gemma’s Fate Remains A Mystery

In the final flashback in Severance season 2’s episode 7, Gemma asks Mark if he would be interested in attending a party with her. Mark, however, seems too consumed with his work and asks Gemma to go without him. Before leaving, Gemma assures him she will be back by 10:00 pm. Moments later, police cars arrive in front of Mark’s house, suggesting that they are there to inform him about Gemma’s accident and death. Mark’s concerned expression and look of denial almost confirm they break the news of his wife’s demise to him.

Severance season 2’s episode 2 featured a scene in which Mark explicitly told Devon that he saw Gemma’s body and confirmed it was her after her death. In another recent episode, Reghabi implied that Lumon might be stealing the bodies of dead individuals from the town’s morgue to experiment on them. These details suggest that Gemma might have actually died in the car accident, and Lumon found a way to revive her. However, what remains unclear is how they brought her back. The version of Gemma on the testing floor remembers Mark and wants to go back to him.

The fact that she has memories from her life before Lumon suggests she is still the Gemma Mark knew in the outside world. Severance season 2 episode 7’s closing flashback also raises questions about what caused the accident. Did Lumon intentionally orchestrate it? Or, was Gemma in on Lumon’s plan to fake her death? Many of these questions remain unanswered but the other flashbacks from episode 7 seemingly allow some speculation.

Mark & Gemma’s Severance Backstory Explained

Mark Has Been Associated With Lumon Far Longer Than He Realizes

The flashback reveals that Mark and Gemma were trying to have a child. However, things took an unexpected turn for the couple when Gemma had a miscarriage. They tried to go down the IVF route by seeking help from a local fertility clinic, but that, too, did not work out. This is when Gemma seemingly got involved with Lumon. In one flashback, she has a set of Chikai Bardo cards, one of which was stolen by Dylan from the O&D department in Severance season 1. “I think I got onto the mailing list at the clinic,” she says, suggesting the clinic sent her the cards to help her recover.

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The clinic Gemma refers to seems to be run by Lumon. By promising that they could help her deal with the pain of her failed pregnancy, the Lumon clinic must have lured Gemma into agreeing to sign up for their experiments. “So what happens once I’ve been in all the rooms?” she asks in one scene, implying she clearly hopes to get something out of her tenure with Lumon.

The way Gemma cooperates with Lumon’s workers on the testing floor suggests that, to some extent, she is willing to put up with whatever they are trying to achieve from their experiments on her. However, by the end of the episode, she, too, gets suspicious and attacks the Dentist before rushing out of the Lumon building. Unfortunately, for her, she turns into Ms. Casey moments before she arrives at the “Exports Hall” and forgets everything about her life as Gemma.

The Purpose Of The Rooms On The Testing Floor Explained

Each Room Triggers A New Innie For Gemma

The dentist reveals that Gemma visited six rooms on the testing floor throughout the day: “The Billings room, the Lucknow room, St. Pierre, Cairns, Zurich, and The Wellington room.” When he asks her if she remembers anything from the rooms, she assures him that she recalls nothing. For each room, Gemma is given a specific outfit, allowing her to associate each room with a clothing item. Owing to this, even before she enters the Wellington room, she associates it with something bad and acknowledges it by saying, “Oh s**t!” as soon as she lays her eyes on her outfit for the room.

The names of the following rooms have been revealed so far:

• Allentown
• Dranesville
• Siena
• Lucknow
• Loveland
• Wellington
• St. Pierre
• Zurich
• Cold Harbor

When she enters the Wellington room, she transitions into an innie who seems afraid of the dentist. Severance has established that innies are “created” by Lumon to exist “eternally” in a specific space. This suggests that the Wellington room’s innie has spent her entire life getting dental treatments, explaining why she fears the Dentist and asks him for a break. In another room, Gemma seemingly transitions into an entirely different innie and experiences a simulation that involves a turbulent aircraft.

In the Allentown room, she finds herself living through eternal Christmas, where a man, posing to be her partner, asks her to write thankful Christmas cards with her non-dominant hand. It looks like all the rooms subject her specific innies to trauma and torture. By doing this, Lumon seemingly tries to test whether any of the traumatic innie memories leak into Gemma’s consciousness. Since Gemma only experiences physical pain from the rooms with no memories of the cause, Drummond acknowledges the severance barriers are holding.

The Cold Harbor Room Explained: What Is Inside It?

It Is The Only Room Gemma Has Not Been To

Gemma says that the Cold Harbor room, which previously did not even have a name, is the only room she has not been to. When she asks the Dentist what will happen after she visits that room, he says, “You will see the world again, and the world will see you.” In response, she inquires if she will get to return to Mark after the Cold Harbor room. To her dismay, the Dentist gives a cryptic response, saying, “Mark will benefit from the world you’re siring.” While only time will tell what the Cold Harbor room holds, it will seemingly complete the test Lumon has been conducting on Gemma.

Since the name of each room corresponds with a file Mark’s innie has worked on in the MDR department, it is hard not to believe that Mark has been unknowingly “designing” Gemma’s innies. This means that Cold Habor, too, will have another distinct innie Gemma, who will be subjected to one final test. The Cold Harbor room will seemingly determine the effectiveness of the severance procedure, helping Lumon understand whether the severance barriers hold even when the innies are exposed to some of the most traumatic situations.

Why The Dentist Lies To Gemma About Mark

He Seems To Be Conducting A Test On Her

Almost midway through Severance season 2’s episode 7, the Dentist seemingly plays mind games with Gemma, claiming that Mark has moved on. He also tries to convince her that she, too, has fallen for someone else from one of the rooms on the testing floor. Gemma does not believe him and smashes his head with a chair before attempting to leave Lumon. The Dentist seemingly does this to make Gemma more compliant, fearing that her desire to reunite with Mark might make her defiant.

He might have also done this to test whether she remembered anything from the rooms. By asking her if she feels more inclined to one of the rooms, he hopes to understand if her innie memories from any of them have leaked into her consciousness. Gemma’s anger towards the Dentist’s claims confirms that she remembers nothing from the rooms.

The Meaning Of “Chikai Bardo” Explained

Ego Death Is A Recurring Theme In Severance Season 2’s Episode 7

In the aftermath of the failed pregnancy, Gemma receives letters from the fertility clinic that was helping her and Mark with the IVF treatment. The flashback calls attention to one of the cards Gemma receives in the mail, which is similar to the one Dylan had stolen from the O&D in Severance season 1. When Mark sees the card and says it shows a man hitting someone, Gemma explains that it represents “Chikai Bardo,” the death of ego. She tells him the card represents one’s fight with one’s own demons.

According to Buddhism, bardo refers to a liminal state between life and death. Six bardo states exist, representing one’s journey from birth to rebirth. “Chikai Bardo” is the fourth one, marking the inception of the process of death. It is a pivotal step that involves the dissolution of the self or ego. Even the man’s pose on the “Chikai Bardo” card is called the Virabhadrasana Warrior Pose II, which is one of the three poses that serve as metaphors for ego death.

Before Gemma hits the Dentist with a chair, he takes out Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich from the bookshelf, which is also about a man who understands the true purpose of his life during his final days by letting go of his ego and artificial life. Since ego death is such a consistent theme in the Severance episode, it is hard not to believe it is something Lumon wants Gemma to achieve. They may be trying to create more evolved humans through these experiments. Or, they could be driven by something even more sinister.

What Drummond Means When He Says They’ll Have To Say Goodbye To Gemma

They May Not Need Gemma Once The Project Is Completed

While looking at Gemma’s progress through a screen, Drummond says that they will have to eventually say goodbye to her. The nods to “Chikai Bardo,” the Virabhadrasana Warrior Pose II, and the Leo Tolstoy book also suggest that Gemma will experience a certain kind of death once the Cold Harbor project is complete. However, only time will tell whether this will be a literal or metaphorical death and how it will impact Mark’s narrative.

Why Devon Wants To Call Harmony Cobel To Help Mark & Reghabi’s Reaction Explained

She Realizes That Cobel Knows A Lot More About Lumon Than Any Of Them

In Severance season 1, Devon met Gabby Arteta at the Demora Birthing Retreat. To her surprise, Gabby could not recognize her when she ran into her outside the retreat. Devon connects the dots in Severance season 2 and realizes that Gabby was likely severed, allowing her innie to bear the pain of pregnancy while keeping her outie free from the trauma of childbirth. Realizing that this could help them connect with Mark’s innie, she suggests they should go to the retreat’s cabins.

She also considers calling Cobel, but Reghabi grows infuriated by the idea. The former Lumon surgeon claims that Cobel was raised by Lumon, hinting that Cobel has been involved with the company from a very young age. Reghabi ultimately leaves when Devon tries to call Cobel, but Devon seems convinced that the former severed floor head might be able to help them. In Severance season 2’s episode 7, Devon considers calling Cobel because she understands that she would know a lot more about Lumon than them, and they could benefit from her knowledge.

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Release Date

February 18, 2022