Gwendoline Christie’s Primal Rage: Unleashing Lorne’s Fury in Severance

by

⚠️ Caution: The tale you’re about to learn has plot twists revealed in “Severance” Season 2, Episode 10, currently available on Apple TV+.

This way of expressing it maintains the original tone while making it more engaging and easier to read for a general audience.

Among the various enigmas presented in “Severance,” the role of the goats has been the most perplexing and seemingly unrelated. In the first season, characters Mark (Adam Scott) and Helly (Britt Lower) encounter an unfamiliar man nursing one, but this is not revisited until Season 2, when the estranged lovers further delve into the labyrinth.

In Episode 3 of Season 2, they discover a large room filled with green meadows and numerous goats peacefully grazing. Unbeknownst to them, this area is managed by a whole Lumon department known as Mammalians Nurturable. This department is overseen by a rather anxious woman named Lorne, portrayed by actress Gwendoline Christie who was previously in “Game of Thrones”.

Mark and Helly implore Lorne and her team to assist them in finding Gemma/Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), and they hesitantly comply. We don’t encounter goats again until the Season 2 finale, where Lorne pushes a tiny bleating creature called Emile along the corridor. The reason for the goats becomes clear: Emile is destined to be sacrificed to Lumon as a means to guide Gemma’s spirit to “Kier’s door.” Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) hands a firearm to Lorne, who expresses displeasure at having to shoot Emile. “How many more must I sacrifice?” she queries Drummond, but before the ritual can be performed, he’s interrupted by Mark causing a ruckus in the hallway. The two men erupt into a fierce fight, and just as Drummond seems poised to choke Mark to death, Lorne aims the gun at the Lumon enforcer.

In Christie’s words to EbMaster, “This woman had consistently put effort and devotion into her work, cherished both the animals and her colleagues. However, she reached a breaking point. Consequently, she cracked under pressure and an animalistic side that had been hidden for a long time emerged, manifesting as a fierce, howling, destructive power.

In a fit of rage, Drummond disarms Lorne by knocking the gun from her grip and shoves her to the ground before striking her. However, Lorne retaliates fiercely, knocking Drummond down and repeatedly striking his face with bloodied fists.

Here’s another option:

Drummond snatches the gun away from Lorne and pushes her roughly to the floor, landing a punch on her. But Lorne, in an instant of blind anger, sends Drummond tumbling down and uses her bloody hands to strike him repeatedly in the face.

In her role as an actress, expressing anger through simulating being hit and spitting out blood is a powerful sensation. The only other instance that reminded me of this was during my fierce fight against the character known as the Hound on ‘Game of Thrones,’ when I viciously bit off his ear.

Christie and Ólafsson engaged in hours of intense physical interaction within the Lumon hallway. However, the physical strain wasn’t the most challenging aspect. As Christie explained, “The scene was demanding not only on our bodies but also emotionally. I felt quite impacted by it afterwards, and I needed to step away for a while to regain my composure.

Not long ago, when Christie received the opportunity to play in “Severance”, it seemed almost serendipitous. She had been an avid admirer of Ben Stiller’s 2018 miniseries “Escape at Dannemora” and considered “Severance” as the most innovative and unique work she’d encountered in recent years. At a juncture in her career following the conclusion of “Game of Thrones”, one evening, she experienced what she referred to as a profoundly difficult moment of self-reflection.

Christie often ponders, like many creatives do during those intense moments of self-doubt, ‘What’s the point of carrying on?’ She remembers. The following morning, however, came an unexpected email from the makers of ‘Severance’, inquiring if she would be interested in joining their upcoming season.

She was thrilled when Ben put her in charge of the goats, as she shared later. To gain insight for her role, she ventured out to the countryside. There was no need for pretense in her preparations. Christie mentioned that many of her past characters had an “everlasting energy,” and for Lorne, she aimed to establish a genuine bond with the animals and begin from a serene state: “I sought a foundation that could then be molded and turned upside down.

Christie reached out to some of her farming acquaintances and proposed spending time with their goats. However, she couldn’t disclose the motive for this unusual invitation as “Severance,” she mentioned, is shrouded in secrecy akin to that of ‘Game of Thrones.’

Following the conclusion of the series where her character Brienne of Tarth faced off against some of Westeros’ toughest criminals, Christie deliberately avoided taking on violent roles to prevent being stereotyped. “Upon wrapping up ‘Game of Thrones’, I made a deliberate choice not to engage in combat anymore,” she explains. “I was emotionally drained by it in numerous aspects, and I wanted to demonstrate my versatility.” However, “when this opportunity arose, it felt like an explosion of psychological energy.

Behind Lorne’s fight scene, there’s a deep reservoir of storytelling, as Christie explains. “This character is given a chance to express pain and trauma in a way she hasn’t before. It’s her strong will to demolish the institution that has held her captive for so long.

Lorne became frustrated for two main reasons, according to Christie. Firstly, because Emile was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Secondly, she seems to have a peculiar bond with Mark, which Christie describes as “electric”. This connection between them was initially established in Episode 3 and it seems to have created a sense of trust. Furthermore, Christie explains that Mark somehow touches Lorne deeply, making her remember her own humanity.

Very little information is available regarding Lorne’s past or activities beyond Lumon, and Christie prefers to maintain this mystery. As she conceptualized the character, Christie would occasionally run her ideas by the series creator Dan Erickson, serving as a sort of gauge for their validity. However, even Christie might never fully understand Lorne’s true nature unless the show “Severance” decides to disclose it.

As a cinephile, I found that statement to be a joyful rejection of traditional narrative structure. I’m sorry, but I can’t provide the explanations you seek, but trust me, it’s all part of the intrigue and mystery that makes this art form so captivating.

Read More

2025-03-22 00:51