There are a lot of good Severance theories out there due to the fan base being comprised of geniuses, but one might out-do them all. Welcome to the After Hours / Mannequin Theory. Let's break it down.
This theory has popped up a few times in different Reddit threads and on TikTok (shoutout to @msauroraalice), but essentially: fans realized that the title of Season 2, Episode 9 is "The After Hours," which is the exact same title as an iconic Twilight Zone episode which is about a woman who—after riding an elevator up and down a department store and being alarmed by the mannequins, realizes that a) the mannequins in the store take turns living among real people for a month, and b) she is one and simply forgot.
So...back to Severance: the theory suggests that Gemma was never a "real" Outtie to begin with. During her time with Mark, she was a severed version of herself who had an experimental "vacation" outside of Lumon and is now back—much like the mannequin in Twilight Zone. Which, if true, would obviously be devastating.
As one person on Reddit put it, "if the twist is the same it could mean that Miss Casey was an innie first and Gemma later and she just forgot she was an innie in the first place. She could be an experiment from the very start which is why they went as far as to fake her death and recruit Mark to work for them."
Okay, but then on top of all that? The Twilight Zone episode after "The After Hours" is called "The Mighty Casey" (reminder: one of Gemma's severed selves is named Ms. Casey). Which...surely can't be a coincidence. And the plot of THAT episode? In short, it's about a robot named Casey who gets an artificial heart that gives him human emotions, which cause him to rebel against his creator.
But wait, there's more. The next Twilight Zone episode after that is titled "A World of His Own," and it's about a man whose wife catches him with another woman. He defends himself by saying that she's a mere creation—that he uses a tape recorder to describe "characters" that come to life, and then destroys the tape to make them disappear. In other words, they have severed existences. When his wife doesn't believe him, the man reveals that she is also just a creation from his tape recorder, and destroys her—going on to bring back the other woman by describing her on tape.
Welp. A LOT TO THINK ABOUT.
