Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Please try to enjoy each fact equally.
“Severance” star Dichen Lachman, 43, who plays Gemma / Ms. Casey, is unpacking the Season 2 finale “Cold Harbor,” which is currently streaming on AppleTV+.
“The whole episode is so intense,” Lachman, who is also known for “Dollhouse” and “The 100,” exclusively told The Post.
“Severance” follows employees at the sinister biotech company Lumon. They “sever” their work identities (called “innies”) from their home identities (called “outies”). Mark (Adam Scott) has an innie who is in love with his colleague, Helly (Britt Lower). However, “outie” Mark loves Gemma (Lachman), his wife, who has been trapped at Lumon on the “testing floor.”
Mark has spent years believing Gemma was dead, and now that he knows she’s alive, he’s desperate to get her back. Gemma herself has an innie – Ms. Casey, who used to be the office “wellness counselor.”
During the Season 2 finale, Mark and Gemma finally reunite. In one emotional moment, they kiss, but the scene soon turns awkward and borderline comedic when Mark and Gemma – who are in love – both turn back into their “innies,” who aren’t in love, mid-kiss.
“That was a funny day,” Lachman recalled about filming the scene. “Because Ms. Casey is very dear to my heart, but she’s so peculiar. That episode was filled with a lot of tricky transitions, some more heavy and weighted than others. That [mid-kiss moment] was like a little breather in a really intense episode. Ms. Casey just pops up to say ‘hello.’”
Lachman quipped, “And you know what? I’m happy for her! I’m happy that she got to have this little moment. She got to see Mark S. again,” she said, referring to Mark’s “innie.”
“It was a really touching little moment.”
When asked if she and Scott, 51, laughed behind the scenes filming that, Lachman said, “Yeah, we had a few moments. It is just such a bizarre situation, and it was one of the lighter moments because the whole episode is so intense.”
Later in the episode, Mark is able to finally get Gemma free from Lumon. But, they don’t ride off into the sunset together.
In the middle of rescuing his wife, Mark turns back into his “innie.” As Gemma stands in the stairwell pounding on the door, screaming and crying for her husband to come with her, Mark turns away from her and walks towards Helly.
“I had a hard time. I just kept crying, which is unique for me,” Lachman told the Post. “Usually I’m able to just turn it on and off.”
“I’m very good at separating the character I’m playing at work and in-between stuff. That day was really emotional. It felt very visceral,” she continued. “The stakes are so high and the emotions are so contrasting. Like, to go from Ms. Casey to Gemma…and then you’re constantly switching. So, you see it and you feel it in a different way.”
Ben Stiller, who executive produces “Severance,” directed the Season 2 finale.
“Tonally, it’s a very peculiar show. So, sometimes you do have to massage these little moments. And maybe going that far isn’t the right thing, but at least we went there. I love the way he works,” Lachman said, referring to Stiller, 59.
“I love his commitment. I feel like it elevates everyone else’s work around him. I feel like I’m better when I’m working with him, because and also he’s an actor. So he speaks ‘actor.’ It’s just a really wonderful experience.”
Regarding whether she knows where Gemma’s story is ultimately going, or if she knows anything about Season 3 (which Apple TV+ hasn’t officially announced), Lachman said, “I am with you guys,” referring to the viewers who are in the dark.
“I have no idea. But I’m trying to encourage people to enjoy living in the question,” she said. “And, if we get to do this again, just trusting the the process. [Creator Dan Erickson] is so brilliant. He’s just a really extraordinary human being, and phenomenally talented. He’s created this world that has captured people’s imaginations.”
She quipped: “It’s just about being okay with waiting and seeing.”
