The second season of Severance has had some big moments, and the newest episode treated viewers to a pretty big reveal. You’ve got questions, and creator Dan Erickson…didn’t answer them in a recent interview so much as he did offer small teases on how this affects what comes next, and the why behind one particular moment that took on a new meaning by the end.
Episode four, “Woe’s Hollow,” ends with the MDR crew discovering Helly’s actually been by her Outie, Helena Eagan, since they reunited in the season premiere. Then, because he tortured Helena/Helly to learn that information, Irving B. was fired for attempted “collegial murder” and reverted to his Outie by Lumon. Speaking to TVLine, Erickson said both events would “definitely change the dynamic” for the rest of the season. For the Innies, he noted changes like Mark and Dylan forming new relationships—in Dylan’s case, with his Outie wife Gretchen—let them feel “like they were starting to move back towards a more peaceful status quo. All of sudden, now everything that we thought was true from the last four episodes was sort of based on a lie. It’s pretty devastating to all the characters.”
As the gang reels from that, there’s also the matter of Mark S. and Helena having sex the night prior to everything with Irving. At the time, Mark was under the impression Helena was Helly, so this raises some questions about consent. Severance is already about bodily autonomy, and he felt it was worth exploring since this is a show where “people’s bodies can sort of be off doing things without their minds being there and present. What are all of the implications of that?” According to Erickson, this wasn’t something they “wanted to shy away from,” but it wasn’t done for the sake of it, and he said the writers talked “quite extensively” when writing the scene beforehand.
Erickson went on to share his thoughts on how both Mark and Helly are victims here. In Mark’s case, he “thought he was with one person” when in reality, he was with someone else. Meanwhile, Helly is now in a situation the creator could only describe as “troubling, knowing that something like this has happened without you mentally being there.” According to TVLine, an upcoming episode will touch on the characters’ thoughts on what happened in greater detail. For now, audiences will have to keep watching Severanceand check out its stars’ thoughts on the episode’s events.
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