The episode of this week of division It is interesting both because of what it discovers and what is hiding. We learn so much and yet, by the time the loans remain, at least two very monumental questions remain. Spoilers follow.
First and foremost, we learn how Gemma’s daily life was on the floor under the floor cut in recent years: gloomy and terrible. Gemma (Dichen Lachman) is divided into pieces. Lumon is leading a terrible experiment on it, sending it to countless rooms, each with a different detached consciousness and strange experience. In ‘Chikhai Bardo’ she enters six rooms. We see only some of these.
One million small pieces
In the first, the Wellington room, she visits a dentist. Effective is a torture room. Think about it for a moment: this innie visits only the dentist. Over and over again. Gemma should never go to the dentist, but her innie lives there. Her jaw is later hurt, but hey imagine a world where you should never go to the dentist. Lumon will free you from pain.
The dentist is the whistle man we saw next week, whistling “Edmund Fitzgerald’s ruins” by Gordon Lightfoot. We don’t see his face then, but we see it now. This is Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson) and he is the nightmare of all Gemma’s meetings meet, in each of these strange and terrible rooms. In one, he is her husband, dressed in a Christmas sweater. Gemma’s Innie sits on the floor, handwriting notes on casual Christmas gifts, all are a matte blue.
Here, we find echoes of Gemma and Mark’s past. The episode is divided into two main stories. In one, we follow Odyssey Lumon of Gemma. On the other hand, we see how Mark (Adam Scott) first met with his wife and unfolds in their tragic background. At one point, she tells her that she will write a note of thanks and he answers, “You hate to write notes thanks.” So of course in one of her separate rooms, that’s all she does. When it’s time to get out of the room, her “husband” says “I love you” and when she doesn’t answer he says, “Hey, I said” I love you “” and she says it again, though there is poison in her voice.
This is also her echo and Mark’s past. The night she leaves and “dies” in a car accident, as she is leaving she says “I love you” and Mark doesn’t answer, very confused with his work. “Hey, I said” I love you “” she says. In another reaction, we see them pet from a Christmas tree. Are each of these rooms any example of her life playing in a dark and twisted way, her and Mark’s memories that form the small drawings of her countless experience? This would explain why Mark’s MD’s work is so important to the experiment, with Mark “building” its interiors different from his keyboard. The work is mysterious and important, after all. And the numbers are scary.
In another room, Gemma finds herself in a plane. Dr. Mauer is her flight companion, serving her a plate of food while the turbulence tightens the plane, throwing it on the ceiling while she panicles in her place.
When Dr. Mauer visits Gemma after her visits to the rooms, he asks her questions about how she felt. “Have you experienced despair?” He asks. “Guarantee?” Does she remember anything from any of the rooms? Clearly, Lumon is working to refine the detachment procedure, creating a world where it can be used in a way, though for what the end remains a mystery.
When Gemma asks Dr. Mauer for the last door, what she has not yet entered, he replies, “Ah, cold port”. He tells her that after she has gone to that room, her work will be done. “You will see the world and the world will see you,” he says, cryptically. When she asks if she will be able to see Mark, his eyes grow cold. “Mark will benefit from the world you come,” he tells her, ominous. “Can’t you speak just as a normal person #*$ & ing?” She says. “Gemma good night,” he replies. “Sweet Dream.” I think no.
First comes love, then comes marriage
This episode also gives us our first gaze in Mark’s life and Gemma before “death” and his decision to change. They meet in a blood draw (apparently run by Lumo) and from that first moment, you can feel their chemistry. It’s not long before they are in love. Flashbacks are slightly dreamed, with grain film and a wash pallet. We see their relationship unfolding in small moments of sweetness and joy, while they decide to have a baby. This is not discussed, but Mark buys a crib, so we know. He makes a joke about who will unite. Is a little forecast.
The baby never comes. Gemma MisCarries and Mark finds it in the shower crying. Their efforts to take a child back to Lumon and his fertility clinic. But it is clear after some time that nothing is working. Their relationship suffers. The gemma is destroyed and the brand grows detached. A distance is formed between them, a great breast of sadness, nor can it violate. The night she leaves to go to the holiday, she asks if she is sure she doesn’t want to come. When he says no, she offers to stay. He tells her that she has to finish all this job anyway and so she goes. Later, police appear at his door. He stands in the shadows while removing their hats.
So we know what their life was like and what they brought them to Lumo, and we know what the life of Gemma has been like since, but we still have a very big question that this episode does not answer.
First, how did Gemma finish inside Lumoni to start? She is clearly a prisoner. An attempt to escape this episode resulted in her to climb the elevator down after Dr. knocked. Mauer out with a chair. (That came after he made some deeply boring comments about “what goes on” in different rooms, perhaps the things she never experienced with Mark; he also lies about her, telling her that Mark is remarried and has a daughter). When it reaches the detached floor, it becomes Mrs. Casey and at the end of the corridor, goes to Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) who tells her to return to the elevator. When she starts protesting, he says “go to you”, in that deeply scary way he has.
So she is a prisoner, but how did she end up here to start? Was it something she chose to do? Or did she get against her will? Did she promise Lumon something, pulling her here from her will? Or was it really in an accident, and was taken by the people of Lumoni who then falsified her death without her knowledge? I’m really not sure what to think about.
The next big question is what are they planning to do with it as soon as they visit the cold port room? And, of course, what this will achieve for Lumo and their mysterious separate project. They clearly do not intend to let him leave, and earlier when Mark asks Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) if Gemma was a live, she says “yes” but also notes she was the last time she saw. In other words, she is not completely sure she is still alive. This suggests that Lumoni, in fact, does not intend to let him live. After all this experiment, after sharing who knows how many slices, Lumon will kill him in the end. Or at least that seems to be the plan. But why? To cover them all? Or because they are actually an upset cult of death?
Okay, now what?
The title of the episode is “Chikhai Bardo”. A “Bardo” is a Buddhist Tibet concept, which refers to an intermediate state or a transitional phase between the two stages of existence, most often related to the period between death and rebirth. According to the Samye Institute, Chikhai Bardo “is Bardo of the moment of death.” The website says “According to tradition, this bardo begins when the external and inner signs of the beginning of death appear and continue through dissolution or transformation until the outer and inner breath ends.”
This relates to the episode when Gemma is passing some photo cards sent by Lumo and discusses what he sees with Mark, but I think it is quite clear that the concept has much more for what Gemma himself is experiencing, as in her relationship with Mark and down in the Lumon basement. It is all very ominous. Lumon is, of course, a deeply bad organization run by bad and bad people.
This was another deeply powerful episode, and perhaps more difficult to see so far. The cruelty caused in gemma is purely devastating. Her tragedy and Mark’s marriage is heartbroken. I have looked at the episode twice and whenever I left not only unresolved, but moved deep and sad.
In the present, Devon (Jen Tullock) talks to Reghabi about Mark and learns that he is reintegrating. She is not very happy about that. But when ReGhabi discovers that Gemma is alive, she is at a loss. Concern for her brother wins, and she tells Reghab that they cannot continue to do so. There must be another way. She tells her about the birth of birth and the “Innie” house there. Perhaps they could get Mark there and talk to his Inniee instead of going by reintegration.
When Devon suggests the call of Mrs. Cobel (patricia arquette) Reghabi rolls. She will turn them all, she says. It is a “soldier” Lumon raised by Lumon since childhood. A true believer. But Devon insists, so Reghab packs things and leaves. “You can’t leave!” Devon tells her, shocked that Reghab is doing exactly what he said he would do. “I need you.” “That’s not my choice,” replies ReGhabi, “it’s yours.” She leaves the door. “Don’t call that woman!” She says during her appearance, leaving behind Devon and Mark.
Few shows can follow a perfect first season with such a powerful second, but so far detachment is an exception to the rule. Weekdo week has been a banger, and this is no exception. Only three episodes remain. Will we receive answers to these great constant questions? What is Lumon actually? How did Gemma end in their claws? Will Mark and his friends be able to save it before it is late? And what will happen if they do, especially between Mark S. and Helly R. (lower Britt)?
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