Warning! This article contains spoilers for Severance season 2, episode 2.
One of the burning questions afterSeveranceseason 2, episode 2 is why Helena Eagan kept rewatching Helly and Mark’s kiss from season 1.Severance’s cast of charactersis much more interesting than any other show, given that several actors are portraying two versions of themselves.Severance’s Innie and Outie personalitiesand the differences that separate them are endlessly intriguing, with these differences being highlighted much more closely in season 2 than they were in season 1.
WhileSeveranceseason 2, episode 1’s endingfocused on the Innie personalities of Lumon’s workers, season 2, episode 2 delved into the Outies. The out-of-work personalities of Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan were left reckoning with the aftermath ofSeveranceseason 1’s Overtime Contingency, with Helly’s Outie taking center stage as Helena Eagan, the heir to Lumon. Although Helena is shown leading the damage control for Lumon after what the Innies orchestrated, she is notably interested in the footage of Helly kissing Mark fromSeveranceseason 1, begging the question of why.
Helly’s Relationships Are Different From Helena’s
The most obvious reason as to why Helena keeps rewatching the tape of Helly and Mark kissing inSeveranceis her loneliness. BeforeSeveranceseason 2, episode 2, little of Helena’s life was revealed aside from a few videotapes. This episode, though, delves a lot more into Helena’s life as the heir to Lumon, depicting it as a very lonely position. Most of those around her treat her with reverence, only without much genuine love or affection, including her family members, as evidenced by Jame Eagan’s strangeSeveranceseason 2 scene.
Severance’s Eagan Family Tree Explained
The Eagans play a huge role in Severance, and their family tree is briefly explained during the crew’s visit to the Perpetuity Wing in season one.
InSeveranceseason 2, episode 1, Milchick reveals to Dylan that his Outie is the only one with a family, confirming Helena is also not married. With all that said, Helena is likely a very lonely person and does not have much in the way of real love with anyone else. Thanks to the tapes of her Innie, however, Helena can strangely watch herself - or a part of herself, at least - experiencing love for the first time with Mark. Despite not actively feeling or remembering this herself, Helena rewatching the tape could prove she is trying to live vicariously through Helly.
The Relationship Is Solely Confined To Lumon’s Severed Floor
Image via Apple TV+
Helena rewatching the tape of Helly and Mark is also a reminder of another aspect of her life. This reality is that she and Mark, at least on the outside, can never be together and will not have the love that Innie Helly and Innie Mark share. While it is worth noting that Helena likely does not want to pursue a relationship with Mark, it must be a strange sensation for her to know that her severed self has found love with someone. Outside of work, this love ends.
A big reason for that is the drastic differences between Mark and Helena’s Innie and Outie personalities; Helena is likely a believer in the ways of Lumon and worships Keir Eagan, whereas Helly is a rebel who goes against that entire belief system. Outie Mark is much more dour and depressed as he is grieving the loss of Gemma, his wife. As alluded to above, Helena has likely struggled to have that kind of connection with someone outside of Lumon. All of this means that, while Helena can watch her Innie find love with Mark, these feelings would never manifest in the real world.
Helena’s Actions Could Tie To A Major Severance Season 2 Theory
Since the release ofSeveranceseason 2, episode 1 on AppleTV+, many theories have been crafted, fromIrving’s black hallway paintingsto what is happening with Ms. Casey/Gemma. Another big theory concerns Helly R, with many audience members wondering why she was acting strangely to her fellow Macrodata Refinement workers inSeveranceseason 2. One explanation is that she is shaken by the fact that her Outie is Helena Eagan and thus the face of everything the team has fought against, but a clever theory states that Helly is not actually Helly at all.
Severancecreator Dan Erickson confirmed that Helly’s lies to the MDR crew stemmed from her shame that she is truly an Eagan, yet that did not stop theories from being crafted.
Many have speculated that the Helly who entered the severed floor at the end ofSeveranceseason 2, episode 1 is actually Helena. The theory claims that Helena is infiltrating the MDR gang to gain information for Lumon, with the rewatching of the tape potentially being her way of emulating Helly’s mannerisms. This is an admittedly farfetched theory, butSeverancehas been known to take seemingly unrealistic plot twists and make them work, with one possibly linking to Helly and Mark’s big kiss from season 1.
Cast
Severance is a psychological thriller series featuring Adam Scott as Mark Scout, an employee at Lumon Industries who undergoes a “severance” procedure to separate his work and personal memories. However, as work and life personas mysteriously begin to collide, it quickly becomes clear that not all is as it seems. Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle.
