**’Severance’ Season 2, Episode 7 Reveals Dark Realities About Gemma and Lumon’s Trials**
The newest episode of *Severance* Season 2, called “Chikhai Bardo,” illuminates the unsettling circumstances surrounding Gemma (Dichen Lachman) on the foreboding “testing floor”—and, as anticipated, none of it is positive.
We have previously delved into the episode comprehensively, examining the importance of the enigmatic doors, their relation to the MDR files, and Lumon’s overarching aim in putting Gemma through these trials.
### Fans Speculate on Lumon’s Real Objectives
After the episode aired, viewers have been conjecturing about Lumon’s ultimate goal. Reddit user u/MysteryRawDog posits that the corporation’s main aim is to utterly disconnect individuals from any adverse life experiences.
When Mashable’s Belen Edwards interviewed *Severance* creator Dan Erickson regarding Episode 7, his remarks appeared to support this hypothesis.
“I will say what’s intriguing here is that she’s experiencing these painful or unwelcome events and then she’s leaving,” Erickson elaborated. “The query being posed throughout the episode by Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson) is, to what extent is anything getting through? Is she exiting that room with any emotional residue of what she endured? Up to this point, it appears that she is not. That’s the continuous thread of what’s occurring in those chambers.”
### The Enigma of “Cold Harbor”
One of the most pressing unanswered questions pertains to the last door—labeled “Cold Harbor”—which Gemma has yet to open. Curiously, this title also appears on the document Mark (Adam Scott) is currently handling.
Expanding on the notion that each room symbolizes a distinct kind of suffering, one Reddit user theorized that “Cold Harbor” might be associated with death.
“I suspect Cold Harbor will represent the death of another, and the miscarriage scene was a hint,” they suggested.
This theory is plausible. The title “Cold Harbor” conjures images of death, and sorrow is one of the deepest human experiences of suffering. If Lumon seeks to eliminate emotional pain, it seems logical that grief would be one of the final emotions they aim to erase.
Both Mark and Gemma have profound personal connections to grief—Gemma through the miscarriage, and Mark through both the miscarriage and the loss of Gemma herself. Could this make them the ideal candidates for Lumon’s experiments?
### What Lies Ahead?
As *Severance* Season 2 continues to unfold its mysteries, fans are keen to witness how these discoveries will affect Mark, Gemma, and the other characters.
New episodes of *Severance* Season 2 are currently available for streaming on Apple TV+, with new installments released every Friday.