The latest episode of Severance, "Woe's Hollow," takes the severed workers of Lumon Industries on a field trip to an icy cold forest where they retrace the steps of Kier Eagan, the company's long-dead, cult leader-like founder. The episode has been praised as one of the best of the show so far. It also blew open the biggest mystery of the season: just what is up with Helly R (Britt Lower)?
Audiences got to know the brave and kind Helly in the first season, but something has been off about her this year. A lot of fans assumed that it wasn't really Helly R we were looking at, but rather Helena Eagan, the person Helly is after she leaves the Lumon basement. Helena, who is high up on the Lumon corporate ladder, was posing as Helly so she could spy on the other "Innies" at the company, fans figured.
And they were right! Helly is found out in "Woe's Hollow." What does her in is a cruel comment she makes about Irving B. (John Turturro) being desperately lonely. Irving was already suspicious of Helena, but that clinched it; the episode ends with him holding Helly's head under water, demanding that Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) bring back the Helly we know. He does, Irving is fired, and the game is changed forever.
Does Helena have feelings for Mark S on Severance?
Oh, and Helena had sex with Mark R (Adam Scott) before she was found out, which raises all kinds of disturbing questions. Scott and Britt Lower have been out there talking about everything that went down. Let's start with Helly and Mark's tryst in the tent. How much of a violation is it for Helena to have sex with Mark under their very strange false pretenses?
"One of the big questions of the series is who has autonomy over their bodies," Britt Lower mused to The A.V. Club. "Is it the outie, the innie, or both? And questions of free will and consent are cracked open here very delicately. But I will say that Helena’s never experienced that kind of interaction before with anyone. There’s a kind of humanity and a warmth to what she experiences in those episodes, especially and obviously with Mark. There’s something unspoken and there’s some kind of connection between those two people."
Is it possible that Helena has real feelings for Mark? "The audience should decide for themselves," Lower told TIME. "I mean, without question, this is a person who is isolated. Her experience with her family is so chilling. I think that her meeting the innies has a profound effect on her humanity. And I think that she does share a sense of humor with with Mark, that's natural."
The lives of the innies are already very strange. They're only alive when management at Lumon decides they should be alive; otherwise they revert to their original, outie personality. We know that Mark S. and Helly R. have feelings for each other. Now we've added Helena into the mix. Where does that leave Mark's outie? "It's something we talked about a lot and spent a lot of time mulling over, the idea of this sort of triangle that's created with Innie Mark and Helly R. and Helena," Adam Scott said. "For Mark's outie, Helena is someone he finds frightening and who is responsible for so much tumult and grief in his life. Yet, I think these two people, one way or another, have a connection of some sort. I'll leave it at that."
How Severance star Britt Lower played Helena as Helly
We'll see what lies down that weird road in the weeks ahead; new episodes drop every Friday on Apple TV+. For now, Britt Lower looked back on how she changed (and didn't change) her performance to reflect that she was playing not Helly, but Helena posing as Helly.
"They're two parts of the same person," Lower explained. "So there's obviously an inner rebel inside of Helena. That's an aspect of her that's not totally foreign to her. It is something that she has access to. And in Season 1, we see Helena looking at the innies. We see her studying Mark and Helly's interaction and having this curiosity about them."
"Playing those different layers was kind of like on Adobe Photoshop. You're kind of working with the saturation or the exposure levels. It's the same source material, but you're kind of modulating it based on what's happening. And then you're watching the reactions of your teammates, the directors, to see how it's landing for the group she's trying to blend into."
It almost sounds like Helena had a good time playing this less buttoned down, more open-minded version of herself. Lower thinks that might be why Helena cracks up when Mr. Milchick is explaining some ponderous new lore about Kier Eagan to the innies around a campfire. "[W]ith Helly R. as her lens through which she’s seeingthe world, she has permission to act out and she’s enjoying it," Lower said. "Maybe she’s been wanting to laugh at these mythological scriptures her whole life, and here’s her chance."
"There's a rollercoaster ahead" on Severance
The end of "Woe's Hollow" marked the first time we'd technically seen Helly R. all season, but it sounds like that's going to change. "[I]t was a relief to kind of come back to full Helly R. in Episode [5] because it'd been many months of doing something that was an uncanny valley, I guess, version," Lower told IGN. "But yeah, they just sound slightly different in my head, like different music. Almost like the same musician, but different albums.”
"Hopefully, when Helly R. comes back properly now, it will be to a sense of having missed her. I certainly felt that as an actor. It felt really good to be back in her perspective in a clearer sense after episode four...I think what’s cool now is that you can and should go back and rewatch the first four episodes to pick up on new things before you dive into five."
Speaking for myself, I'll definitely be happy to have Helly R. back, although it sounds like we're going to lose Irving B. at the same time. As always, it's hard to predict what happens next on this show, but it doesn't sound like the momentum is going to flag. "There’s a rollercoaster ahead that I feel like no one is ready for," Lower teased.
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