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 immediately after watching it. But it’s Dr. Mauer who lingers in its bleakest moments, showing us that there’s a new MVP among Severance‘s not-insignificant stack of malevolent characters.

The creepy doctor is an archetype that horror fans will immediately recognize; it preys on the fear that a medical professional will set aside their “do no harm” oath and take advantage of their position for cruel or murderous reasons. Dr.  Hannibal Lecter, Dr. Giggles, the Dead Ringers twins, the Human Centipede guy, and anyone involved in the PTSD-inducing plot of Coma—you know them, and you rightfully fear them. And Dr. Mauer is right up there. While his tactics do cause Gemma physical pain, his psychological assaults are exponentially more agonizing.

As of the most recent episode, we don’t yet have the full picture regarding Lumon’s invasive interest in Gemma and Mark’s relationship. We know they visited a fertility clinic with ties to Lumon, as all bio-tech in Severance‘s world seems to be. The facility also has a connection to Dr. Mauer; blink and you’ll miss him skulking through the background of that scene. We’re well aware that Gemma drove to an event one dark night and never came home, with police arriving on Mark’s doorstep to deliver the sad news. And, of course, we know Gemma underwent the severance procedure and became the robotic Ms. Casey, the counselor on Lumon’s severed floor.

“Chikhai Bardo” answered one of the biggest Severance questions to date, showing us where Gemma has been dwelling since her supposed death. And it’s become apparent her ordeal has something to do with Mark’s work sorting numbers in Lumon’s Macrodata Refinement department. There are still a lot of puzzle pieces left to fill in. But Dr. Mauer’s introduction into the story left no doubt, if we had any before, that there’s true evil at work here.

Dichen Lachman’s performance as Gemma has gotten rightful praise, but Robby Benson as Dr. Mauer is equally formidable—a onetime teen idol (see: 1976’s Ode to Billy Joe and 1978’s Ice Castles), he also voiced the Beast in Disney’s 1991 animated classic Beauty and the Beast, and has popped up in TV shows (including Friends) and in video games here and there. But his Severance turn offers proof that you can often find excellently effective villains by casting against type.

Gemma’s quartered in a subterranean, featureless room where she’s surveilled by cameras and watched over by an ever-present nurse. Her physical health is carefully monitored and regimented, but it’s her mental stability that Lumon is most interested in probing. She’s Dr. Mauer’s only patient; every day, he meets her in each room off the long hallway on the testing floor. She doesn’t remember their interactions, because each space triggers a different severed persona. Each has their own wardrobe and hairstyle: the dental patient, the traveler on a plane that’s about to crash, the… 1970s tennis player? (We don’t see the room for that one, just the outfit.)

Most haunting, though, is the room where “it’s always Christmas,” a dreadful version of the holiday in which Gemma’s dressed in a frumpy bathrobe and forced to pen an endless stack of thank-you notes. (In Gemma’s pre-Lumon life, she especially loathed writing thank-you notes.) Like all the rooms, this is the only reality this particular consciousness ever experiences. It’s the same as Mark and the other severed workers constantly snapping awake in the elevator, feeling like no time has passed since they left the office, except so much more dreadful. Imagine your entire existence was getting your teeth drilled over and over. Or being on a plane that’s about to crash.

In each of these awful locations, Dr. Mauer is an active and overly eager presence, clad in his own special outfits; it can only be the case that he designed each aspect of this process. He’s the dentist, the flight attendant, the tennis coach, and—most distressingly—the “husband” in the Christmas room. Even Drummond, the Lumon bigwig keeping tabs on Dr. Mauer’s experiments, questions his choice of sweater, which he pairs with a stick-on beard and mustache. In this room, he emits a exceedingly unwholesome vibe, calling Gemma “sweetheart” and forcing her to say she loves him.

This is especially sickening given this earlier exchange between Drummond and Mauer: “You like her.” “She’s easy to like. She is fond of me too, of course.” “Didn’t she try and break your fingers?”

Dr. Mauer also interacts with Gemma as herself, querying her about her experiences, making sure she remembers nothing, and displaying not a shred of humanity—he has the opposite of “kind eyes,” something Severance made a point of emphasizing in season one. He’s patronizing, and quite clearly takes improper enjoyment in having such total control over another person.

“When he’s done,” Drummond tells Dr. Mauer—referring to Mark’s progress on the mysterious “Cold Harbor” project, which Severance has teased as an end point for Gemma’s ordeal—”You’ll have to let her go.” Dr. Mauer says he’s aware of that, but there’s something unsettling in his countenance. Something that suggests he believes actual tender feelings are propelling those forced “I love yous.”

Why else, when Gemma pleads to go home, would he lie to her and say Mark’s moved on since she’s been MIA—with a new wife and daughter, adding an extra knife-twist? Why else would he then imply that perhaps Gemma’s moved on too, maybe without realizing it, maybe by rediscovering love with Dr. Mauer in one of the severed rooms?

It’s the ickiest of all things to consider, that she would have feelings for this odious man and not even remember them, and that he would slither around and plant the possibility in her brain. Her escape attempt ends in heartbreaking failure at the end of “Chikhai Bardo,” but there’s a ticking clock on this misery. Cold Harbor’s secrets are bound to be revealed soon—only three episodes in season two left to go—and with them, closure of some kind. With Dr. Mauer in charge, and the ruthless Drummond peering over his shoulder, you have to wonder if there’s any ending where Gemma survives, much less ever goes home.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.