Season 2 Episode 7: Chikhai Bardo
Aired: February 28, 2025
Synopsis: An old romance intersects with a deadly present threat.
Directed by: Jessica Lee Gagné
Written by: Dan Erickson & Mark Friedman
Season 2 Episode 7: Chikhai Bardo
Aired: February 28, 2025
Synopsis: An old romance intersects with a deadly present threat.
Directed by: Jessica Lee Gagné
Written by: Dan Erickson & Mark Friedman
Is it bad that I found it kind of boring? Seems like all the comments I’m seeing is how amazing the episode was.
This episode explained some backstories. Maybe useful for the future, but kind of meh.
I enjoyed the episode and wouldn’t describe it as meh, but it did put all the other plot points from the season on hold so I get being lukewarm on it
I’m in the “I liked it” group, but I don’t blame you. Not a huge fan of episodes (in any show) that bring the plot to a halt for backstory.
I was bored too. It’s the type of episode that should be binged with a couple of other episodes.
I thought it was a nice change of pace and a way to learn more about gemma-- the ending interaction between mark’s sister and him was #feelsbad whered mark go? TO HIS LOVE 😭
I listened to a podcast talk about the episode, and I think I appreciate it more now. I just didn’t enjoy the relationship parts of the episode I don’t think. And the Gemma parts just seemed to ask more questions when we already have too many unanswered questions.
I will probably like it more when I do a rewatch.
I’m surprised, it felt like they revealed much more than I would have expected to ever get this season, without opening too many new questions. Any in particular?
Everything to do with the testing floor is a question. Who are the people watching the computers? What do the rooms mean? Why do they have the same name as the files? We know Cold Harbor is important, but now it’s a room also, what’s in it? Somebody said the doctor is going to have to let Gemma go, why? And go where?
Also, we know now she’s still alive, but Mark said he saw her dead body. What did he look at?
I feel like there’s more questions, but that’s just off the top of my head.
While we don’t know their identities, it clears up who the “twins” were in Woe’s Hollow. They seem to be individuals that are deliberately similar to our refiners, basically “shadows”.
And this tells us a lot about the severed floor! Now we definitely know that there’s more staff on the Lumon back-end, and all their actions are being analyzed.
The episode implied that the rooms are scenarios that Gemma strongly dislikes, with each room having a separate severed version.
The implication is that MDR is responsible for something in relation to the room - they probably either “uncover” the scenarios the test person hates, or they prepare/change the innie versions in some ways. I’m thinking it’s the earlier since Cold Harbor isn’t done yet, and Mark is still working on the file.
It’s going to be a scenario like the other rooms, and the episode foreshadowed that it will involve drowning (or suffocating).
Presumably this will be the topic of the next few episodes.
Rhegabi explained that Lumon has people at the morgue. They found a corpse that looks similar to Gemma, and burned it (Mark mentioned something about identifying her charred remains).
I definitely missed this. When mark mentioned earlier that he saw the body, he didn’t mention it was burned and couldn’t tell it was her. It seemed like he knew it was her. So that’s not a very satisfying answer, at the same time, I get that grief fucks with your perception.
As for the others, you are just guessing the answers to the questions. Fact is, the show created more questions than it answered. For instance, telling us there is more staff on the Lumon back end is not answering a question we previously had, it is creating new questions. Who, what and why are these people? That’s 3 questions.
I thought it was a nice change of pace and a way to learn more about gemma-- the ending interaction between mark’s sister and him was #feelsbad whered mark go? TO HIS LOVE 😭