As Severance Season 2 approaches, one of the most-discussed mysteries in the show surrounds Mark’s deceased wife, Gemma – but what really happened to her?
It’ll be almost three years since Severance was last on our screens when the highly-anticipated Season 2 drops next month. That’s a long time to wait, especially since Season 1 ended with one of the biggest cliffhangers in recent memory.
As Mark, Helly, and Irving all dipped into the outside world as part of the OTC switch, one of the biggest surprises was when Innie Mark made a startling discovery about his wife, Gemma. Needless to say, it looks like Lumon is involved somehow.
Before Season 2 kicks off, let’s recap what we learned about Mark’s wife in Season 1, including everything we know about what supposedly happened to her. (Warning: spoilers ahead!)
What happened to Mark’s wife?
In Severance, Mark’s wife Gemma is said to have died in a car crash two years prior to the events of the show, which is part of the reason why he chose to be severed in the first place.
Mark struggled with his grief for two years before ultimately deciding to undergo Severance, so he could get some relief from his crippling loss.
When she was alive, Gemma was a teacher of Russian Literature. She had a great relationship with Mark, as well as his sister Devon and her husband, Ricken. During the course of the show, we also learn (via Mark’s memories) that she was allergic to nutmeg, liked other people’s dogs, and thought cardigans looked ridiculous.
Gemma later died in a car accident, and Outie Mark can be seen visiting the crash site in Season 1 Episode 4. (It’s worth noting that the accident itself isn’t depicted in the show.)
He pays particular attention to the tree she appeared to crash into, which his Innie later sculpts out of clay – perhaps marking how his Outie experiences are capable of leaking into his Innie’s subconscious.
However, this is Severance, and not everything is as it seems. In Episode 7, it was revealed to audiences that Mark’s wife is actually Lumon employee Ms. Casey when he pieces together a ripped photograph.
Then, in the Season 1 finale, Mark’s Innie (who has been granted access to Mark’s outside world as part of the OTC protocol) makes the same shocking discovery for himself.
Is Mark’s wife Ms. Casey?
In the Severance Season 1 finale, Mark discovers that Ms. Casey, the Wellness Director at Lumon, is actually his deceased wife Gemma.
How is this possible? Well, what we found out in Season 1 can mean many things, but one thing is for sure: Ms. Casey has the same face as Mark’s wife.
When Innie Mark discovers this, he grabs the photo and runs into Devon’s living room, yelling the words, “She’s alive!” right before the OTC is shut down and he reverts back to his Outie self.
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Based on the fact that Mark has a photo with Gemma in his possession and that Ms. Casey has Gemma’s face, we can deduce that Ms. Casey is in fact her.
How is Ms. Casey alive?
Since the Ms. Casey twist was revealed in the Season 1 finale, Severance has yet to explain how it’s possible that Gemma can still exist in the form of Ms. Casey, making it one of the biggest mysteries going into Season 2.
Season 2 has a lot to answer for, but everyone wants to know exactly how the show will go about explaining this connection. Naturally, this has led to countless Severance fan theories about what Mark’s wife has to do with any of it.
The biggest theory (and perhaps the most likely) is that Ms. Gemma is actually Gemma’s Innie, and that her Outie is still alive and hidden somewhere in the outside world. Alternatively, Lumon may have somehow found a way to keep Innies alive, even if their Outies die in the real world. Gemma even acknowledges her severed nature when she asks Milchick if her Outie has a happy life. So, in her mind, she is simply an Innie.
Another possibility is that Ms. Casey is a clone of Gemma, and that Lumon’s enigmatic work revolves around cloning technology (which may link back to why there are collections of goats being stored around the building).
What we do know is that Ms. Casey is a very different Innie from the rest. While the others are still able to experience normal human emotions and thoughts, Ms. Casey appears to be void of emotion entirely. This much is evident from her frequent wellness check-ins with Mark throughout the first season. She’s also one of the few “part-time” employees at Lumon.
The ethical repercussions of this are immense, but with Lumon’s motivations and actual purpose still being unexplained, anything is possible at this point. The only question that remains is why Lumon would specifically target Mark’s wife in either instance.
Did Lumon kidnap Gemma?
Nobody knows why Lumon has a vested interest in Gemma or Ms. Casey, and it’s not been confirmed how or why they have been able to store Gemma’s likeness.
It’s obvious, however, that Ms. Casey is very much under Lumon’s control. She seems to have no knowledge of the world around her outside of her Wellness work, nor does she express a desire to leave at any point, like the others do.
But there are clues that suggest Lumon is up to something. Once the company suspects something is amiss between Mark and Ms. Casey, they send her to the “testing room” to undergo unspecified work on her.
So while we never find out in Season 1 how Lumon and Ms. Casey came to work together, it’s very likely they have had some involvement with her Outie’s life, and quite possibly her death.
When Severance Season 2 arrives on January 17, expect more answers (and questions) surrounding the mystery of Mark’s wife.
Until then, check out some of the new TV shows out on streaming this month. You can also revisit the best TV shows of 2024, and see what other TV shows Apple TV+ has to offer.
