Chikhai Bardo

Take a bow Jessica Lee Gagné! Everything about this episode - the plot, the pace, the sets and most importantly, cinematography is 10/10.

I have never seen better 50 minutes of television - and rarely 50 continuous minutes of any motion picture.

It has the dead wife montage. But it blooms in a way that we feel like the honeybee flying around in anticipation.

It opens up the Severance lore more than any other episode (barring S1 finale). But it makes it even more eerie.

We see more of the sterile Lumon but with georgious aesthetics. It is menacing with a friendly facade. Its clinical precision is handled by steely grip. It takes you to a prison of hope - that you volunteered into but cannot escape.

This episode should be (and I hope, will be) studied in art schools for ages.

As a starter, this episode is directed by the cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné, and if she reads this: thank you! They could easily tell whole story plainly but this way, just just amazing. The transitions, how timeline goes one to another. Details that make you remember old episodes and exact moments... I hope she directs more in the later episodes.

It's been an episode where we go in depth of the story. The story that led us to see S1E1, so loong back. But also we were able to see current moments and had a chance to find connections. It gives us a solid idea of the relationship between Mark&Gemma and how all this happen. The transitions and all cinematic details help you to understand whole story lot easier if you ask me.

I believe that was a common idea that innies were a lot positive people than outies. We seen a lot of scenes that support this idea rather than Gemma, imo.

In conclusion, lots of anger, sadness, hard-to-describe-without-spoilers moments wait for you and this is the episode that is worth every single second of it.

Severance is a miracle, the fact that this show works as well as it does is truly groundbreaking. Episode 7 takes what some could consider to be filler, and turns it into a gutwrenching backstory that pushes the main goals of the season into a necessity. I will avoid spoilers, but the story we got this episode truly put me personally in the shoes of our main character, and I am heartbroken.

I can't go any longer without mentioning the cinematography of this episode, oh my god? This should come as no surprise as the show's lead cinematographer made her directorial debut, and she knocked it out of the park.

Adam Scott gives a career performance, which could be said for many episodes this season. I am in awe of the character work and writing that Ben stiller and co. Have crafted here.

It's kind of insane to think this was originally inspired by the backrooms. Almost every scene leaves you mind blown with the camera work, set design, color grading. Everything is phenomenal. The transitions are so constantly creative you are siting there wondering how did they do that nearly every other scene. As far as story telling goes this is easily the most abstract and non-linear severance has ever been. It's unclear who's memories we are looking at half the time and who's perspective we are watching, and yet it still makes senses. We see more of lumon and what they are doing but there is still pieces missing, everything is there but it isn't quite connecting yet. I think most importantly this episode effectively sells Gemma as a character and it sells Mark and Gemmas relationship as something we should care about. This show continues to push television as a median forward and I'm on the edge of my seat to what comes next.

This is the most powerful, emotional, and arguably lore filled episode of the series so far. Out of all the backstory episodes in television, considering how bold and layered this series is it's no surprise how this one sticks out compared to the rest. The constant back and forth of learning so much about a character and the torturous things they've been accustomed to, to getting emotionally gut punched by the history of the most emotional dynamic of the series that we didn't get to see until now. This is my favorite of the season so far and considering the title of the final episode I'm assuming the climax is going to be a similar but more chaotic and grand finale from what we witnessed with season 1. Gravity Falls had a chokehold on many people episode to episode in terms of theorizing and plotting, and I'm glad it's being brought back with Severance. Dan Erickson impressed yet again, but given the dynamics of this episode Jessica Lee Gagné was phenomenal in the direction she took. Putting aside shows that concluded and were already on-going, so far this is the biggest accomplishment of TV this decade.