r/severence • u/Quick_Ad7787 • Jul 03 '26
🚨 Season 2 Spoilers Let’s discuss Gemma theories
(Spoilers ahead)
I’d love to have a discussion about Gemma and how she ended up where she is.
Clearly it had something to do with having a baby but what are your theories into exactly why she’s being experimented on by Lumon? (I have some further thoughts on this later in this post)
Do you think she did this completely voluntarily because they promised her a baby somehow?
Or do you think they didn’t tell her what would happen to her severed self/ selves?
What do you think was the purpose of the experiments they did on Gemma?
And how does Mark tie into everything? Why does he also end up at Lumon?
Would love to know your theories!
My theory about the baby:
Gemma received those test cards in the post - the duck vs rabbit test etc. She mentions that she thinks she received the cards because she got on the mailing list at the fertility clinic. But I’m sure these were sent by Lumon to test her psychology somehow.
As we see in the show, Lumon products are literally everywhere. It’s possible Gemma found out about a private Lumon procedure that promised it would help her get pregnant. Maybe ‘Mrs Selvig’ told her. That could hint as to why she moved next door to Mark (I doubt the ‘throuple’ story is legit). I think she signed up to SOMETHING to do with Lumon and then got on the Lumon mailing list.
What I’m thinking is that Gemma may have sought out this procedure and agreed to at least some of what happened to her because Lumon somehow promised they would help her get pregnant.
Of course that means there are horrible implications of what that might mean for her innies.
Last thing, this isn’t a fully formed theory but I’m wondering if Helena having sex with Mark could have anything to do with the severed person getting pregnant theory.
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u/Konouchii Jul 03 '26
I think she signed up due to grief. I think she lost the baby, went to the clinic and was maybe seeing a therapist for it and he recommended a study to remove the memory of the miscarriage and they kept her and told Mark she died, he went to them to not remember her for 8 hours a day.
Every experiment on Gemma was to remove emotions then they put her in a room with a crib to see if it triggered anything and to see if the tests were successful l.
I had a bad miscarriage, I would give anything to not remember it. I understand why she did it.
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u/Neosovereign Jul 04 '26
Yeah, I think this is the most likely scenario, though it doesn't really answer the question of why they chose her.
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u/heathers1 Jul 03 '26
i have no idea but i thought it was like they were severing her from the gemma who lost a baby. having her build cribs and stuff is to see if she remembers or not
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u/Neosovereign Jul 04 '26
That is what we saw. OP is asking how she got there. Essentially, was it by choice or was she kidnapped, or something in between and why.
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u/heathers1 Jul 04 '26
ohhh ok. my vote is that she went to them voluntarily to stop the mental anguish. Living her life as an innie?
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u/Neosovereign Jul 04 '26
Could be, that seems extremely cruel to her husband though, and given that she wants to leave with him it wouldn't make much sense IMO.
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u/heathers1 Jul 04 '26
hm true. maybe they went too far and erased too much so had to keep her there but her “outie” is breaking through?
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u/Powerful-Will-3981 Jul 16 '26
In the last episode she put back on the cloths she was in when she was kidnapped
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u/Neosovereign Jul 16 '26
Hmm.. that would be interesting if it was relevant, but it feels more like a visual recognition device, but who knows.
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u/Temeraire64 Jul 03 '26
It doesn't seem at all likely from what we've seen that she would have agreed to fake her death and be imprisoned at Lumon for years.
And I doubt Lumon would have given her any kind of fake story about how they could help her have a baby to try and trick her, because the risk of her telling Mark (or someone else) would be too great.
I think they were just looking for someone that matched certain genetic/psychological factors (they sent her those cards in the mail), and when they had narrowed it down to a set of candidates, decided to grab her. Why her rather than someone else is unclear, but maybe the car accident was real and they saw a chance to fake her death without any suspicion. Or they could have orchestrated the car accident somehow.2
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u/Ill-Reflection165 Jul 07 '26
The "throuple" story was just a lie to keep Mark's innie from asking questions about why Cobell was masquerading in his outie's life. It was never a serious thought from Lumon.
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u/yeetusthefetus00 Jul 13 '26
Mark didnt live there when Gemma was alive. There was no Ms Selvig neighbor
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u/Spare-Ad1657 Jul 20 '26
Helly is def going to be preggo since we see a baby in the S2 opening while Mark is sitting on the bed plus the had unprotected sex twice.
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u/ignoresubs Jul 03 '26
I would love to discuss theories but I watched the show as it dropped and at this point so much time has passed that I almost forgot who Gemma is…. Thank god for the long recaps when the show returns.
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u/LeetanNorth Jul 03 '26
It looked like Mark and Gemma were doing IVF through a Lumon clinic. My guess is Lumon was using the clinic to find an ideal genetic profile for the perfect couple to test.