After three years of waiting, a new season of Severance is off and running on Apple TV+. The season 2 premiere, "Hello, Ms. Cobel," was just as mind-bending as fans had come to expect. We spent the whole of the episode in the basement of Lumon Industries, where the "severed" employees toil at some mysterious task, unable to remember anything that has happened to them outside the office. By the end of the episode, the whole team of "innies" from the first season — Mark S. (Adam Scott), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), Irving B. (John Turturro), and Helly R. (Britt Lower) — were reunited...OR WHERE THEY?
At the end of the first season, this severed foursome mounted a jailbreak of sorts from the Lumon basement, bringing their consciousness online when they were outside the walls of the Lumon building. Usually, that time is reserved for their "outies." Helly R. was in for a huge shock. Her outie, Helena Eagan, is the descendant of Kier Eagan, the founder of Lumon Industries and someone whom everyone in the company treats with cult-like reverence. Helena herself is an important decision-maker at Lumon, and is about to give a speech to a crowd of people touting the success of the severance program when Helly R. comes online. Helly takes the opportunity to tell the crowd just how horribly the severed employees are treated, something they weren't expecting at all.
When the foursome reunite, they all share what happened to them on the outside...except for Helly, who lies and says that she woke up in her pajamas in a drab apartment watching TV. Why would she keep her incredibly dramatic story to herself?
The short answer is we don't know; this is another mystery to add to the giant pile. But I don't think that's really Helly R. I think that's Helena Eagan, Helly's outie, going undercover as Helly. Lumon wants to keep Mark and the other innies as ignorant of what's really going on as possible, and Helly sharing her experience would give them some valuable information. Also, as an important person within the company, Helena may have the power to veto her going back into her severed persona. Remember: Helly once tried to kill her own outie, so fed up was she with work at Lumon. Helena may not want to put herself at risk again.
Or maybe that really is Helly, and Lumon used some of kind of technology to selectively edit her memories so she forgot her speech. Whatever the case, I can't see the real Helly lying to Mark and company about this, so something is up.
We'll learn the particulars as the second season of Severance continues. New episodes drop Sundays on Apple TV+.
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