Severance's Dichen Lachman on the mysterious yet relatable TV show

Australian actress Dichen Lachman is a key character in Severance, the hit TV show that has turned the mundane world of office work into a sci-fi psychological thriller.

The finale of season two aired this weekend on Apple TV+. The dystopian drama is the streamer's most-watched show ever, even more than the lovable comedy Ted Lasso. (warning: there are spoiler alerts in this article).

The show confronts audiences with a concept that isn’t too far from how our lives might feel sometimes: when the characters are at work for a biotech company called Lumon Industries, new technology “severs” their mind from their life outside of work and vice versa. When they are at work, they can’t recall anything about their personal life. When they are outside work, they can’t recall anything about their work world, essentially creating two distinct selves.

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Lachman essentially plays two characters, one of them mysterious Ms Casey, a wellness counsellor at Lumon. In season one, we learn that she is the supposedly dead wife of the lead character Mark, played by Adam Scott. In a show full of baffling mysteries and characters, Ms Casey is probably the most mysterious.

“[Lumon is] trying to create a technology where one doesn't ever need to experience anything unpleasant so the very interesting way of commenting on our society,” Lachman told Jim Mora from RNZ’s Sundays.

“Look, with technology it is always a double-edged sword. It is just about how responsible you are with it.”

When asked if Lachman would opt to be severed from her work self, that answer was probably no, but perhaps there was some use for it in specific circumstances.

“I can see with long flights - wouldn’t you just love to wake up on the other side of the world and not have squirmed around in discomfort.”

“That would be pretty cool, but then some part of yourself has to endure that forever.”

When Lachman first read the script for season one, she was instantly hooked.

“I burned through them. Nothing had really grabbed my attention like this for a very long time and I just felt really excited to be on the show.”

Fans have been equally hooked, with the show's lingo spilling into real life and across social media. Characters on the show use the term “outie” to refer to their private selves and “innie” to refer to their work selves (not to be confused with belly buttons).

As per a New York Times article: “Your innie wears unsexy clothes like knee-length pencil skirts even though your outie wears crop tops and miniskirts. And your outie parties late at night because your innie has to deal with the hangovers.”

Some fans are creating their own edits to episodes. Others are creating artworks that try to explain what the characters' severed minds are going through, including Lachman’s Gemma.

“It is really heartwarming to see,” she said.

The production design of Severance is eerily bland, showing the office world as void of personality. Again, it’s pressing the right buttons for the show's many fans.

“So much about the show is so relatable to people like going into the office with the fluorescent lights and all the little office politics and what have you.”

The show touches on a darker idea that some might believe is already happening in our real world: big corporations taking over the world and turning us into subservient humans. For Lachman, there is some truth to that.

“Everything is becoming one blob rather than walking down a high street and having these little independent businesses where someone was passionate about coffee and someone else was always wanting to do organic vegetables or teas.”

“All these little businesses are getting swallowed up by big corporations. We are losing our sense of community and it is harder and harder to compete.”

Lachman has recently starred in Planet of the Apes and Jurassic World Dominion. Where many of her previous roles have been physically challenging, playing both Ms Casey and Gemma has been emotionally challenging.

“I think that everything that I've done up until this point was getting me ready to do this.”