Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Severance Season 2, Episode 4, “Woe’s Hollow.”
Severance‘s latest episode, “Woe’s Hollow,” just confirmed what many fans already suspected: Helena Eagan has been masquerading as her innie, Helly Riggs, since the second season began. Get the full low-down on Severance Season 2, Episode 4’s Helly/Helena bombshell below!
Severance Season 2’s Helly/Helena Reveal, Explained
The big revelation about Helly’s true identity comes during the tail-end of Severance Season 2, Episode 4, “Woe’s Hollow.” Here, Irving Bailiff’s innie confronts “Helly” when the pair find themselves alone together on the MDR team’s outdoor retreat, having rightly deduced she’s not who she says she is. Irving’s sleuthing doesn’t stop there, either. He also correctly pegs “Helly” as a descendant of Lumon Industries founder Kier Eagan, reasoning that only an Eagan family member has the necessary authority to access Lumon’s severed floor in outie form.
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To her credit, Helena doesn’t fold under questioning. Sure, she apologizes to Irving; however, she stops short of confirming his suspicions. So, Irving uses a nearby lake to effectively waterboard “Helly” until the truth comes out. As escalation plays go, it’s right up there with the best of them – but it works. After Mark, Dylan, and Mr. Milchick arrive on the scene, “Helly” caves and orders Milchick (using his unknown-to-innies first name, Seth) to remove the “Glasgow Block” keeping her in Helena mode. And with that, the real Helly returns for the first time in Severance Season 2.
What Clues Did Severance Season 2 Give Us That Helly Was Really Helena?
If you’re not one of the Severance viewers who called the Helly/Helena reveal early, you’re probably wondering if there were any clues setting up this twist hidden in Season 2’s earlier entries. As it turns out, there were – and as early as Episode 1. After all, one of the first things “Helly” does in the second season’s debut installment is lie about her outie’s identity and everything else that happened at the end of Severance Season 1. At the time, it was easy to dismiss this as Helly not wanting her MDR pals to treat her differently because she’s an Eagan, or even a sign of her unease about her outie’s connection to Lumon. But really, this was Helena covering her tracks by ensuring Mark, Irving, and Dylan had no reason to think she was an imposter.
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Then there’s the scene in Episode 2 that shows Helena mesmerized by security footage of Helly and Mark’s kiss in Season 1, Episode 8. This was a big hint that she was keen to enter the severed floor as herself (not Helly) for not-so-corporate reasons. Ultimately, though, the real giveaway is the way “Helly” acts in Episodes 1-4. While Helena does a good job of emulating Helly’s personality – decent enough to fool Mark into continuing their office romance – her own, more malevolent nature occasionally slips out. Episode 4 includes a notable example of this, when she lashes out at Irving, calling him “lonely.” As Irving observes, “It was cruel. Helly was never cruel.”
Severance Season 2 is currently streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping Fridays.
Published: Feb 7, 2025 03:00 am