Yahoo Lifestyle A Major Fan Theory Was Confirmed This Week On "Severance," And I Still Have Chills
Note: This post contains spoilers for Severance Season 2, Episode 4, "Woe's Hollow." If you haven't watched it yet, keep this tab open and come back once you're done.
This week on Severance, the MDR team went on a field trip to the outside, where they saw the tallest waterfall on Earth, ate copious amounts of luxury meats (but no marshmallows; those are for team players), learned the story of noted lineage-spiller Dieter Eagan, and discovered that there has been an outie in their midst all season long.
Fans on Reddit have been debating whether that's Helly or Helena on the severed floor for all of Season 2, so this reveal was especially satisfying. I love it when a theory comes true.
I think it's pretty safe to say that John Turturro as Irving B. was the MVP of this week's episode, as his character sleuthed out the imposter in their midst and was ultimately banished from the severed floor.
Fingers crossed we at least get to see more of Irving's outie very, very soon, because this cannot be the end of John Turturro on my TV screen.
If you were also shaken to your core by these absolutely perfect 50 minutes of television, please enjoy these on-point reactions, details, and theories as we wait for the next episode. Friday really can't come fast enough!!!
1."John Turturro deserves awards for this episode. The hatred and venom he had when he said, 'Yes, do it, SETH!' is maybe a highlight of the series for me now."
"'Helly was never cruel.' Irving, the fucking detective, holy shit. I never saw him trying to drown her coming."
2."Considering 'hang in there' is the expression they've used on that poster in the break room that shows Dylan activating the overtime contingency, it seems pretty clear to me that Irv wants him to do it again in order to bring him back somehow."
3."So Helly went from being tackled while giving a speech to immediately being drowned in a freezing cold river by Irv. Imagine how confused she must be."
"Then she watched Irv be killed essentially."
4."Why is no one bringing up the weird twin versions of everyone? WHAT WAS THAT."
"Does anyone remember the mannequins from the Perpetuity Wing in Season 1?
The 'twins' looked off enough to be simple animatronics. It looked like they were wearing wigs, and they all made the same simple motion, which looked like a stepper motor lifting their arm to point mechanically.
Go rewatch the motion the 'twins' make. They're 100% meant to appear artificial."
5."They really dragged Ms. Huang’s child labor ass out here. 😭😭"
"Do you guys think we’ll get an explanation for her this season?
My theory is she’s an Eagan School for Girls person; backup theory is that she’s a part-time innie from the testing floor like Gemma."
"In Season 1, Episode 2, when the anti-severance protestors are yelling about Lumon during Mark and Alexa’s date, one of the protestors says, 'Lumon even wants to sever kids—' before they’re cut off.
I think Ms. Huang really is just a kid that they severed."
6."In Irving's dream with the computer, you can see the letters E, A, G, A, N form into the shape of Helena's face at 42:56. That's how Irv put it together."
7."'Kier Eagan writes about his twin brother loudly jacking off in the woods' was not on my Bingo card."
"More like Kier Eagan writes about himself jacking off in the woods and feeling so ashamed he creates an evil cult company. Innies vs. outies, shame vs. purity, white vs. black, etc., etc."
"That's my interpretation. He had no twin brother. It was just his way to absolve himself for his guilt."
8."THE FILE NAME IN IRV’S VISION BEING MONTAUK is so crazy. I love this show so much. 🤯😨😤"
"It’s a reference to ‘Meet me in Montauk’ from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a film that Severance seems to draw heavy inspiration from!
There are many parallels between the two stories, but ‘meet me in Montauk’ significantly represents the way love endures, transcending even the erasure of memory!"
"It’s also likely a reference to the ‘Montauk project,’ which is a theory/conspiracy that the CIA conducted horrific experiments on mind control and other wild sci-fi phenomena related to psychology/consciousness/memory."
9."I wonder if the place Irving slept influenced him to have hallucinations/weird dreams. I remember hearing some theories saying that sleeping at work was not allowed because the mind was vulnerable and susceptible to 'leaking' information from their outie. Could it be that the huts were equipped with some technology that prevented this from happening?"
10."Irving also tested Helena by saying 'Hey kid,' and she responded, 'Irving?' Not 'What's for dinner?'"
11."I think Helena and, unfortunately, Helly R. will be pregnant in the aftermath of this episode. The opening sequence for Season 2 shows babies around Mark, and a pregnancy would magnify some of the themes of the show. If this turns out to be the case, here are a few predictions about where character dynamics are headed."
"Helena would not want to give up the baby. At Woe's Hollow, she was able to live out her 'innie' fantasy. While I think she is still 'team Kier,' I think her experience with the other innies taught her that her prior worldview (that innies are subhuman) was wrong, both literally and morally.
Long story short, the baby would represent the birth of Helena's moral enlightenment, which I think we will see progress in the outside world through worsening relations with Lumon staff and her father. An irony here, though, is that while she comes to terms with the fact that innies are people who deserve meaningful lives and autonomy, she has to subject her innie to what her innie would view as a parasitic pregnancy. She wants the baby to continue living out her fantasy, but in doing so, she will subject the other version of herself to an unintended and unimaginable pregnancy for a baby that she will never get to raise.
For Helly R., the sex might tragically destroy the relationship she had been building with Mark S. over the course of Season 1. From Helly R.'s perspective, it would shock the conscience that Irving figured out the mole rather than Mark S., who she had developed a far closer relationship with and who knew her rebellious, spunky personality better than anyone. Not only did Mark S. not figure out that Helly R. never came back — he had sex with the alternate version of her. Helly R. being forced to carry the baby would just exponentiate the torment of her position — a daily reminder not only of her outie's control but also of her closest friend's unintentional betrayal."
"The baby Kier in the title sequence has snow(?) falling off his head when it turns to look up at Mark. A Kier baby conceived in a snow setting? I fear the same!"
12."'Remove the Glasgow block now!' Now we know what the Glasgow Contingency does."
In case you missed it, Glasgow appears on the menu when Dylan is running the Overtime Contingency in Season 1.
"Glasgow is a coma rating scale used in hospitals, basically determines how deep of a coma a patient is in."
13.And finally, "Honestly, I would not do any work after this retreat. Fire me, terminate me... You just killed my coworker in front of me as an undercover boss pretended to be my other coworker. WHAT IS THIS JOB."
Phew! What are your thoughts, how are you feeling, and what do you think is going to happen next? Let's talk about it in the comments!
