Severance’s Dichen Lachman is glad that severed kiss made you laugh

In the midst of all the Severance finale hubbub — which includes a full-on marching band, a good ol’ Gwendoline Christie brawl, an accidental murder, a slew of fuck yous, and some heartbreaking love triangle decisions — there is a rather strange kiss. Mark (Adam Scott) and Gemma (Dichen Lachman) have finally reunited and make it safely to the elevator, seemingly making their way to freedom together after two years of captivity. As one might after a daring rescue, they passionately hug and then kiss. 

Unfortunately for them, the kiss happens right as severance technology in the elevator kicks in and they both revert to innie form. Mark becomes Mark S., and Gemma becomes Ms. Casey — and it all happens mid-kiss. 

Lachman is happy to have that moment land delicately and charmingly, since, she says, it took a little bit of dialing in. 

“We’re in such a small space, and it was one of those moments that we had the gift of time to just play with it a little bit to find the right balance,” Lachman tells Polygon. “I think we even played with different Ms. Casey reactions, and the way she would say her line, or the actual words she used.” 

For as dialed in as so much of Severance feels, Lachman’s experience of finding Gemma and her 25(!) innie personalities was much looser. There were certain facts she “knew” for the character — stuff like how Ms. Casey intuitively trusts Mark S., even with a severance block — but how those moments came out gave her a lot of room to experiment. 

“We always strive to try many different things, especially in complicated moments where it could go so many different ways. But this show is so specific in tone, and there’s so many also very bizarre things, that sometimes you just have to find it in the moment,” Lachman says, noting there’s “technical considerations” to think about as well. 

Given all that, the best way to find it — it being either the Severance tone or where Gemma/et al. is that day — is to “try many different things” until you land on something everyone feels good about.

It would be a nebulous way to approach a character like Gemma, who’s defined in a very select few moments. Gemma’s character and arc are a weird mesh of being held hostage and tortured, but never remembering any of it. But for Lachman, the core of the character feels clear. And despite the sci-fi world she’s living in, the approach is much more based in realism. 

“I always felt like these innies become little parts of the subconsciousness being awakened,” Lachman says. “There are people walking around in [our] world who have memories or experiences that they’ve actually blocked out of their brain, and they have an enormous amount of work to open up those memories. So I just played it as realistic as I could.”

Lachman is reluctant to say too much about where she wants Gemma’s story to go (hopefully getting up that staircase and out of the building, but beyond that, she leaves it in the hands of Severance creator Dan Erickson). But, despite all the “successful” testing Lumon did on her, she sees Gemma being fundamentally changed by this experience, whether she remembers it or not. 

“I do think the pain — from the dentist and the tortures she goes through — I do think on some level she feels that. She’s not happy there,” Lachman says. “I’m really curious to see how they approach it. She does have a lot more innies who have been through traumas than the other severed employees.”