Severance‘s Creepy Doctor Is True Nightmare Fodder

Though Dr. Mauer made himself fully known in “Chikhai Bardo,” the seventh episode of Severance season two, we’d actually encountered him earlier in the season. He strolled into Optics and Design to pick up dental tools, then wheeled them to that ominous elevator at the end of the Exports Hall. It’s the last place we saw Ms. Casey at the end of season one, so to connect the two characters wasn’t a huge leap. But “Chikhai Bardo” exceeded our worst nightmares in that regard. The fact that Dr. Mauer is constantly whistling “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” Gordon Lightfoot’s folksy yet morose ballad about a ship that sinks in icy waters, spelling doom for all aboard, really sets the tone perfectly, doesn’t it? Most of “Chikhai Bardo” revolves around fleshing out Gemma and Mark’s love story—long before she became Ms. Casey, tending to a totally unaware Mark on the severed floor at Lumon. The episode was so beautifully acted and directed, it was easy to focus on those elements immediat ... Read full article.