Severance Season 2 Offers Major Reveal About What MDR Is Really Doing

One of the main appeals of Severance is its central mystery, which revolves around the titular technology created by Lumon Industries and the enigmatic work performed by the Macrodata Refinement team. However, Severance is particularly brilliant because it knows how to put character ahead of plot, gradually explaining what’s happening at Lumon rather than withholding answers solely to extend suspense, with each revelation deepening the inner universe of its fantastic cast of characters. Episode 7 of Season 2, titled “Chikhai Bardo,” might be the best episode of the series, exploring the caring relationship between Mark (Adam Scott) and Gemma (Dichen Lachman) before her supposed passing. Beyond providing an emotional rollercoaster, Episode 7 finally explains why the MDR work is so important.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Severance Season 2, Episode 7

Severance’s season 1 finale reveals Gemma is alive in the Testing Floor of Lumon, a location first referenced on Petey’s (Yul Vazquez) map. While we still don’t know if she volunteered to go there or if she ended up as a lab rat after her car accident, Episode 7 reveals her daily routine in detail. Every morning, she undergoes physical examinations by a nurse (played by Sandra Bernhard) before being directed to rooms with specific names like Wellington, Dranesville, Allentown, and Cairns. Once Gemma enters these rooms, her severance chip activates an entirely different personality, one that exists only within that specific environment. For example, inside Wellington, she becomes a terrified dental patient. In Allentown, she’s forced to write Christmas thank-you notes until her hand cramps. Inside a simulated plane, she experiences turbulence and panic.

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Since personalities activated by the severance chip don’t hold any memory, the rooms doom each version of Gemma to existing only amidst a spine-chilling situation – imagine the horrors of having your entire life reduced to keeping your mouth open while a dentist pokes your teeth. These agonizing experiences are designed to push the severance chip to its limits, testing how much stress, pain, and despair a person can endure before the barriers between consciousnesses fail. Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) confirms the significance of this work when he asks Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson) if “the severance barriers are holding,” indicating that MDR’s primary purpose is ensuring these artificial personalities remain distinct. 

Curiously, each room bears the same name as the files the MDR team sorts into five numbered bins on the severed floor, directly connecting the refiners’ work and Gemma’s suffering.

Is the MDR Team Creating Each of Gemma’s Severed Personalities?

Episode 7 implies that each file the MDR team refines creates or modifies the personality that’s activated once Gemma enters a specific room. This connection is corroborated when Gemma confirms that the only room she has never entered is Cold Harbor — which is also the name of the file Mark is currently working on at Lumon. The show has repeatedly emphasized the importance of completing Cold Harbor, with Helena Eagan (Britt Lower) insisting Mark return to work precisely to finish this file.

Episode 7 reveals that once Cold Harbor is complete, Gemma’s fate will be sealed. As Mr. Drummond ominously tells Dr. Mauer, “When he’s done, you’re gonna have to say goodbye to her.” This suggests that Cold Harbor represents a final stage in whatever experiment Lumon is conducting. When Gemma asks what happens after she visits all the rooms, Dr. Mauer cryptically responds: “You will see the world again, and the world will see you. Mark will benefit from the world you’re siring. Kier will take away all his pain, just as Kier has taken away yours.” This language suggests a transformation rather than death — perhaps a complete rewriting of Gemma’s consciousness according to Kier Eagan’s twisted philosophy.

The emotional impact of this revelation is devastating. Mark’s innie has been unknowingly participating in his wife’s torture. Each time he sorted numbers into bins, he was shaping the experiences Gemma would endure on the Testing Floor. This also explains why Lumon goes to such lengths to keep the MDR team isolated and controlled. By keeping them in the dark about the true nature of their work, Lumon ensures they continue processing data that directly impacts real human subjects. Fortunately, Mark’s current reintegration process might rescue Gemma from her cruel life at Lumon.

Severance Season 2 streams new episodes every Thursday on Apple TV+.

What do you think is inside the Cold Harbor room? Share your theories in the comments!