Say more on Markgemma cuddling I NEED TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS!!!
-marvelsassbutts
Thank you so much for this ask because it’s an opportunity for my endless ponderings and ramblings!
Overall I think touch is an interesting element in severance because it’s so rare, there’s an ensemble of very insular characters who are either not allowed to touch each other / lack the drive to do so / are too disconnected to do so. Paired with the strange cold climate on the outside, there is a lack of very real physical warmth that affects the characters. It’s tragic! In Mark and Gemma’s case (oh boy), we meet them at a point in the story where they’re both terribly touchstarved, like desperately.
This is already iconic, but the fact that the first 5 mins of CB open with Gemma remembering these (extremely artistic) extremely delicate shots of naked cuddling and Mark caressing her hand speaks for the love language they built together, and also for the sharp contrast between before and after Lumon. Before, they were comfortable with each other, hugging, holding (in painful and happy times!), spooning (I truly believe they had spooning competitions all the time and most of the times Mark is the smaller spoon), leaning into each other, cupping each other’s faces, bumping their foreheads together like cats! Because not only are they cuddlers, they’re nuzzlers too! Exactly!
On the other hand, in the after, it’s like Lumon chopped their limbs off. And in this sense, it is worth recalling that part of Gemma’s torture leans heavily on sensory deprivation. Her days on the testing floor are repetitions of white and hallways, her captors are the only ones who can get close to her, and even that feels like a violation. Existing in this state of isolation for so long is poisonous, killing her from within.
In Mark’s case, his grief has put an enormous barrier between himself and the world/people, he is awkward and aloof and you can easily tell that Devon is the only one with whom he shares this sporadic physical closeness (him squeezing her hand during labor is such a top tier detail it needs to be given more attention). Mark is never the one to initiate physical contact, but you know the one time he DOES initiate physical contact? When Gemma comes back to herself after Cold Harbor and she recognizes him. That is literally that buried part from Before coming back to life, all the joy and relief in him jumping, reaching out to her because she's alive!!! And don't even get me started on what it means for Gemma, the implications of being hugged by the person she missed the most for the first time in two years (!!!)
Also interestingly, what do they do in the throes of their grief? Mark goes to the crash site and the tree, ugly crying, resting his forehead against the bark, while Gemma strokes her own face in the non-privacy of her Lumon cell. I mean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Godd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After their escape they're going to be so embarrassingly glued to each other! Faces mushed together, noses poking, fingers outlining features, nuzzling and tousling hair! They need a 1 hour-long hug at the very least for healing. Feeling that death no longer separates you from your love after such suffering is beyond words, their reunion proves that, and I think they would communicate that through gentle touch, cuddling, making the other feel safe and wrapped in their embrace
:')