Severance has been slow-playing the investigation into one of its most climactic reveals: Mark’s wife is alive. His innie found this out during the first season finale, and, before he had time to fully communicate it, he got cut off. A handful of episodes into the new season, Outie-Mark has discovered (on his own) that his wife is still alive, somewhere inside Lumon. Innie-Mark tried to pass out missing posters and got momentarily hampered by Mammalians Nurturable workers, who said they also took to Ms. Casey and wouldn’t impede his search. Innie-Irv has even pieced together that the elevator we last saw her go down is called the “exports hall.”
This is not nothing! But it has not satisfied my curiosity — mostly because I want to watch Dichen Lachman really flex her acting muscles again.
I first saw her in Dollhouse, a show where people are rented out to wealthy clients with temporarily uploaded personalities. The “engagements” for the dolls range from what you’d expect (sex and romance) to the more imaginative (using a serial killer profile to track down an active serial killer; becoming a protective backup dancer to a singer who’s being stalked) and the more nefarious (sleeper agents who don’t even know they’re dolls who can be activated at the behest of powerful people).
This is all to say: Dollhouse asked a lot of the actors who played the dolls. And Lachman always delivered. In her hands, the doll codenamed “Sierra” could remarkably and convincingly be anything. What’s more, as Dollhouse started layering on lore — this might shock you, a fan of Severance, but it turns out the mind-wiping procedure might not be fully impermeable — Lachman once again excelled, smoothly infusing even Sierra’s blank state with personality and character. In a show filled with strong performances and plenty of switching modes and even characters on a dime, Lachman stood out.
Lachman seemed to excel at small, subtle nods. You didn’t need to overwrite a scene for her because she could communicate depth and complicated (even scientific) internal machinations with just a tilt of her head. No matter what role Sierra was forced into, Lachman seemed to fluidly shift gears. I truly believed she could be anything.
But when Dollhouse ended, she never quite got the same kind of meaty showcase her performance as Sierra should have paved the way for. She popped up here and there, occasionally as a guest or limited main role in TV, or beating up Bryce Dallas Howard. But none of these roles quite translated into the spotlight she so deserved. Then she appeared on Severance and I, once again, thought, Well, I’m glad to see her, but this seems like a waste of her. But when the reveal of her being Mark’s wife came, it felt like we were really, finally cooking!
Whatever is happening with Gemma/Ms. Casey is clearly tied up in the much larger, much more nefarious and byzantine game of Severance. I know it’s naive to expect answers any sooner. But mostly what I want is to watch Lachman go off again. Even as the composed Ms. Casey, Lachman held the Lumon line, at once seeming like a coiled snake who could turn on you at any moment and also like the soothing softness of a spa treatment. It’s the sort of performance the show needs to quietly pivot around, an easy calm that you can completely believe people feel drawn to.
But that is but one gear in a very versatile wheelhouse. Gemma is alive, and Ms. Casey is somewhere, and Lachman is marvelous. Now show me what her deal is, dammit.
