Severance Theory Report 2: Ms. Casey’s Outie is in a Coma

Welcome to a new series about theories for the TV show Severance.

If you haven’t yet watched Severance yet, head over to my recommendation post Might I Tempt You With Old Man Yaoi?  Otherwise, be prepared for spoilers through season 2 episode 3, ‘Who Is Alive?,’ as well as speculation based on future episode titles and hints about their content based on trailers and articles released under spoiler embargoes that are very light on details.

Theory: Ms. Casey’s Outie, Gemma, is in a Coma, and the Innie is only able to be conscious through the Severance procedure. 

I think this theory is a pretty solid one, especially now that we have access to future episode titles.  This theory has been floating around ever since it was revealed Ms. Casey was Gemma, though, and it’s grown stronger with season 2.

Let’s evaluate the evidence. 

Lumon Got Ms. Casey’s Body

As far as we know, Gemma died and Mark identified the body.  It was burned presumably from the crash, though some think that line of dialogue means she was cremated.  I’m in the former group and assume her “body burned” in the accident. That means Lumon had to get her body somehow.

Or she’s a clone!  But no, she’s not a clone. The cast and the creators have debunked that theory in interviews. So Lumon got her body. There are two leading theories as to how.

1. Body switch.

Mark stated her body was burned. Perhaps burned beyond recognition. When bodies are unidentifiable visually, often other things are used to identify them, such as personal objects. Wedding rings, for example, are a common item used for this purpose. 

This theory posits that the burned body was not Gemma, and Mark was shown someone else instead. A personal object was used to trick him into believing it was her. Was Gemma even in a car accident at all? Opinions among believers of this theory are divided.  You can come up with your own sub theory on this detail.

2. She Was Repaired with Salves

The second variation of this theory believes that was her body shown to him, but she was dramatically healed through Lumon salves. That was the first thing Eagon created when he founded Lumon, after all.  We’re in a science fiction world where chips can be implanted into brains to split consciousness so healing burns with salves is doable. 

Additionally, she tends to wear rather conservative dresses so hiding body scarring that needs to be hidden is a possibility.  This part isn’t necessary with the salves theory, but I’ve seen it brought up in discussions regarding hiding scarring so I wanted to at least include it as part of the overall “where are the burns?” discussion.

Her Innie’s behavior is abnormal

Even for Innie’s, Ms. Casey is an odd one. She remarks upon this herself, telling Mark that she’s aware at she “vexes” him. She’s very monotone and her personality is subdued.  This perhaps relates to part of her brain being damaged from the crash.

Look, I’m not a neurologist.  I have no idea if the part of the brain that contributes to one being in a coma would affect personality. But you don’t have much of a personality when you’re in a coma so there’s not exactly studies to Google anyway. This is why it’s a soft science fiction show.  Sometimes the science may not make sense perfectly and that’s okay. So I’m fine with theories stretching it a bit too.

She seems to be stored on the testing floor.

Ms. Casey was sent back down to the Testing Floor when she retired from her position as the Wellness Director.  It hasn’t been confirmed, but it’s generally assumed (a dangerous thing with mystery box shows, I know) that this is the place that Petey was referring to when he said there’s a place where some people never get to leave.

This would make sense as she can’t leave if her Outie is in a coma. Perhaps the testing floor is full of people who are similarly close to death and being experimented on in the pursuit of some form of immortality or resurrection.  Perhaps this is the grand mystery of the entire show.

Mark appears to be “refining” her file

At the end of season 2 episode 1 we see flashes of Gemma as Mark is refining Cold Harbor.  Trying to explain this bit of the theory is tricky because it’s going to tie into a lot of other theories floating around, so if you aren’t neck deep and theories and it doesn’t make sense to you, fine.  I might not win you over with this, but consider the other points!

The numbers are shown to be going into bins that match the Four Tempers, plus a fifth unexplained box. This theory posits that MDR is refining brains somehow. These flashes of Gemma indicate he might be refining her brain. Perhaps refining brains can potentially bring near dead brains back to life. Perhaps the end goal is to bring back near dead Eagans.

Did I lose you? That’s okay. This is a tough one if you don’t life in the battlefields of Severance theories.  Try this next on instead.

Her upcoming episode might be called Chikhai Bardo, which means “the intermediate state of the time of death.”

I was hesitant to include this because it’s borderline on if this is considered a leak or not.  Most places have only released episode titles through episode six. However, some places have all of the episode titles.  Was this a mistake? I don’t know. And if it is and we weren’t suppose to see this yet, I profusely apologize. But since it’s out there and there’s been no effort to claw it back, we’re going to talk about it.

I admit I don’t know much about Buddhism so my knowledge of this comes entirely from Google and a kind Redditor who further clarified it for me. Chikhai Bardo means “the intermediate state at the time of death.” The Redditor compared it to purgatory, but instead of the step before heaven, it’s the step before reincarnation.

People who got the full season to review are under a heavy spoiler embargo, but they’ve been allowed to say that there’s a flashback episode for Gemma around episode 7. If it is, indeed, episode 7, and the title alludes to her story at all, it gives an enormous amount of weight to this theory.

Glasgow

When we get a good look at the screen in the security room, there’s several different states on the screen in addition to the Overtime Contingency. There’s Beehive, Branch Transfer, Elephant, Freeze Frame, and Glasgow.  Some of these seem pretty straight forward in relation to their memories: elephants never forget, for example. But what does Glasgow mean?

Some people believe this could be related to the Glasgow Coma Scale. It’s possible this is something used to put Innies from the Testing Floor back into their coma state when they’re done with their work.  I can’t possibly think of what else it could mean. But I also can’t think of what the heck “Beehive” could mean, either.

Likelihood: Very Possible

I think this is a very possible theory, and it gives weight to other theories, such as the Keir Resurrection Theory, which I might cover next. There’s a lot of competing theories out there as well, though, and we don’t know until it’s confirmed, so we just have to keep watching.  

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary