Gemma as a character vs a plot device

I’m gonna preface this by saying please don’t downvote me for having a critical opinion on an aspect of this show. I like this show. I love this show! I just don’t like this specific aspect of it.

Before this point in the story, Gemma/Mrs.Casey has not really been a character. Well, obviously she is a character insofar as she is a Person who Exists in the show, but she did not make choices or have agency in the plot. She has been a glorified plot device.

I’m not really opposed to that - Gemma has to this point been a photo for Mark to look at and be sad, and I think that’s fine. But as of this episode, Gemma is now a capital c Character, and I’m not a fan of how she’s being written.

Gemma’s personality traits include: Wife and Mother. End of list. Her motivation is getting back to Mark. Her want is having a baby. She doesn’t really exist outside of this. Does Gemma have her own family? Does she have coworkers? Friends? Who else, besides Mark, is missing her? We don’t know!

What we do know that she is being treated poorly and is very sad, and she misses her husband and wanted a baby. The show, at least at this point, doesn’t care about her outside of these facts. We don’t get to know her outside of her relevancy to Mark, and I think that’s pretty poor writing for a character who is supposed to be a major actor in the plot.

Now, that’s not to say I didn’t empathize with her or feel pity or emotional at her struggle - I definitely did - but I didn’t really feel anything outside of pity. Gemma is a kicked puppy who it’s really easy to feel sorry for but with no real depth. It’s really disappointing to see her written like this when other female characters in the show - whose personalities and motivations also orbit Mark - are not written like this.

What I care about in character writing above all else is that a character is interesting. You can absolutely write a female character whose main motivation is having kids in a way that makes them interesting. Gemma is not that.

And it’s a shame, because severance is chock full of female characters who are well written and fun to watch! I’m sure at some point, Gemma may be given depth, but at the moment she does not have it. And I find that extremely disappointing.