Within the winding corridors of Lumon Industries, the place minds are severed and identities fractured, Severance has carved out probably the most haunting and profound love tales on TV. However beneath the hit Apple TV+ present’s company dystopia lies the potential for a mythic echo that stretches again to historic Greece — particularly, to the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
In giving us the backstory of Gemma within the present’s most up-to-date episode, the epic seventh episode of Severance Season 2, the potential hyperlink turns into onerous to disregard. If Mark S. (Adam Scott) is our fashionable Orpheus, then Gemma (Dichen Lachman) is undoubtedly his Eurydice — trapped not within the underworld of Hades, however on Lumon’s testing ground, an underground purgatory the place fragmented consciousnesses flicker between selves. The parallels between the 2 tales not solely enrich Severance’s narrative however may also provide a chilling trace at what destiny awaits Mark and Gemma.
A descent into the underworld
In Greek mythology, Orpheus descends into the underworld to retrieve his beloved Eurydice, who’s died from a serpent’s chew. His music, so achingly lovely, strikes Hades to permit Eurydice to return to the world of the residing, on one situation: Orpheus should not look again at her till they’ve each reached the floor.
In Severance, Mark’s journey is not any much less perilous. Whereas his outie walks the sunlit world above, his innie toils on the severed ground — only one stage above the place Gemma languishes, locked in countless psychological torment. The divide between them just isn’t loss of life however reminiscence, a chasm carved by the severance process itself. Mark’s longing to reunite with Gemma, although he barely is aware of it, is the engine driving each halves of his fractured existence.
The twin selves of Orpheus and Mark
Considered one of Severance’s most sensible narrative gadgets is its fixed interaction between two variations of the identical particular person. Mark’s wrestle to reintegrate his innie and outie mirrors Orpheus’ divided soul, a person caught between two worlds. Orpheus is each a residing man and a customer to the lifeless. Mark is each a grieving husband and a clueless worker, cut up throughout layers of actuality he can’t totally comprehend.
However what makes Mark’s plight much more tragic is that reintegration is perhaps the one strategy to free Gemma. Simply as Orpheus should lead Eurydice out of the underworld himself, Mark should bridge the hole between his two selves — a journey that might break him or set them each free. We noticed Gemma attempt to engineer her personal escape in Episode 7, solely to transition again to her clueless innie as soon as she steps out of the elevator and into the lengthy, darkish hallway. Milchick cuts her off on the finish, sending her again the best way she got here.
Will Mark ‘look again?‘
The Greek delusion’s most devastating twist is that Orpheus fails. On the final second, doubt gnaws at him — he turns to see if Eurydice continues to be behind him, and he or she vanishes again into the underworld endlessly.
If Severance is following the identical blueprint, the query just isn’t whether or not Mark can save Gemma — it’s whether or not he can resist the self-destructive pull of doubt, concern, and even love. What occurs if he learns the total fact too quickly? What occurs if he tries to reintegrate earlier than he’s prepared? Will his determined must see her once more doom them each? Helly/Helena has additionally inserted herself into his life. I can’t assist however surprise if Lumon totally intends on exhibiting the Mark+Helena hookup throughout the ORTBO to attempt to break Gemma in some way.
There’s a lot we nonetheless don’t know. This potential connection to Greek delusion, nonetheless, offers me a foul feeling.
A glimmer of hope
But there may be one distinction that might rewrite the parable: Mark isn’t alone. Orpheus walked his path in isolation, however Mark is a part of a rising insurrection — the Macrodata Refinement workforce, allies who may assist him carry the burden of bringing Gemma again. The parable, in different phrases, doesn’t have to finish the identical approach.
If Severance has taught us something, it’s that the road between hope and tragedy is razor-thin. As Season 2 hurtles towards its conclusion, the present appears to be asking whether or not fractured souls can ever be made complete — or if some reunions are at all times destined to slide via our fingers, simply out of attain. Mark, don’t allow us to down; you’ve obtained this. The one purpose you’re there within the first place due to your highly effective love for Gemma. And love, supposedly, conquers all.
