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This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of “Severance,” Season 2.
Who’s the sardonic redhead in the Lumon Industries Macrodata Refinement office? Is it Helena Eagan, double-dealing scion of the company’s founding family? Or is it disaffected worker Helly R., who would gladly burn the place down if she were given a match? The question has plagued “Severance” fans every time Britt Lower, who plays both characters, is on screen during the show’s long-awaited second season.
The critically acclaimed Apple TV Plus series follows a group of workers at a mysterious company who have chosen to undergo a “severance” procedure – their work selves (“innies”) have no memory of their outside selves (“outies”) while they’re at the office and vice versa. In Season 1, it was revealed that the newest addition to the severed team, Helly R., was a Lumon higher-up in her outside life. This season, Helly R. seemed a little … off. Were the audience – and her co-workers – being hoodwinked by Helena? In short: yes.
Ladies and gentlemen, it was all an act.
In the season’s fourth episode, viewers learn that Helena has infiltrated the office pretending to be her severed self. Of course, there were clues: Lower’s subtly different body language, the way her word choice and inflection felt ever so slightly unnatural, and the fact that she lied about what happened when she got a glimpse of her outside self. But Mark S. (Adam Scott) and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) devoured her act. The only worker who saw through her performance was former military man Irving B. (John Turturro), who attempted to drown Helena in an effort to force Lumon to return Helly R. to the shared body.
Now the audience can decide which, if any, of Helena’s actions reflected her true self. “Even though she’s lying, I think there are genuine moments,” Lower said via Zoom.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How far into the development of Season 2 did you realize what was going to happen with Helena?
A: That plot point was crafted from the very beginning. We all knew the arc of the season ahead of time, and worked as we were filming to figure out the variations and the Adobe Photoshop saturation levels or exposure levels of Helena blending in as Helly R., and to what degree we’re aware of that from the outside.
Q: How did you physically craft Helena trying to play Helly R.? I rewatched the first couple of episodes, and the way you interact with the world as the Helena acting as her severed self does seem a little different than Helly R.
A: You get to figure that out. Our fans are so smart. It’s a joy to watch them find these Easter eggs that we intentionally planted, and everything from the dialogue to the props to the lighting design, everything is very intentional on this show. So it’s such a joy to see people finding those things, and I would never want to rob someone of their detective work by telling them to do too much.
Q: Did you leave any breadcrumbs that you want to point out?
A: I think they’re picking up on those breadcrumbs. People will have a whole week before Episode 5, and they have time to kind of go back and find those clues for themselves and what it means to them. I think what’s so exciting about this show is that, yes, we built this world – the cast and the crew, we built this world together that [creator] Dan Erickson dreamed up. But that world is expanding as the audience is taking it in, and their imaginations and their ideas of what things mean sort of have a fractal effect, if you will. You can just keep zooming in, and that, to me, is what is kind of remarkable about the show and what gives us such true joy, knowing that the fans are taking it in the way they are.
Q: I loved that it wasn’t Mark S. who parsed out that Helena was impersonating Helly R. There wasn’t a big giveaway that the audience saw, but the characters didn’t – it was the fact that Irving B. knew her so well.
A: I think there’s something about Irving and Helly R. They formed an alliance in Season 1, really, at the Perpetuity Wing. They have this moment of connection together where he opens up about his first time waking up on the office table and being kind of nauseated by it. There’s a real familial bond that they have, so it made sense to me that he was picking up on something also based on his outie’s training. For Helena, her relationship with her father is so challenging that the kind of dynamic she has with Irving, I think, is triggering for her because it kind of rhymes a little bit with a father figure, but it’s a way more nurturing one than she’s ever experienced.
Q: What were the challenges of essentially creating three versions – Helly R., Helena and Helena pretending to be Helly R. – of one character?
A: I just keep using analogies because I don’t know how else to explain it.
They sound like different music in my head. With different music, it’s maybe the same musician but different songs or different albums, and they do have different internal rhythms. But keeping in mind what they share, which is they’re both quite strong-willed. They’re both fiercely loyal to the people they love, and I think they’re both longing for connection and meaning inside a world that they’re both trapped inside of in very different ways.
Q: Can you talk about shooting the scene where you’re being drowned? It’s a moving moment between Irving B. and Helly R.
A: As strange as it sounds, it really is an act of love to bring his friend back. I feel really lucky to have worked with John, in particular, on that scene. We have a real friendship and trust with one another, and he’s such a seasoned professional. When we’re in an environment that’s actually filled with dangerous elements – like, there were icy rocks and freezing cold water, and the temperature was low. We worked really closely with the safety team to make sure that we were physically safe enough to go to those emotional places that we needed to with the characters.
Q: This is also the first episode where we see Mark S. being intimate Helly R. Can you talk a little bit about how Helena’s actions have impacted Helly R.?
A: Getting to almost blend in as part of this chosen family has a huge effect on Helena. And again, I think there is that longing for connection and humanity because she’s been so starved for it. So even though she’s lying, I think there are genuine moments. There are genuine things that she’s filtering through the lens of Helly R.
Q: That leads to my last question. Helena, as Helly R., says to Mark, “I didn’t like who I was out there.” How earnestly did you play that line?
A: It isn’t so much what I think. It really matters how it’s received. I had an English teacher in high school who used to say, “Don’t ask what the author meant, ask what they suggested.” And I think what that scene suggests is really open to interpretation. But I will say that I wanted to have empathy for this person – both sides of this same person, this woman who has to move through a company in which she is trapped in a very specific way.
I think it’s a show you can just really think about, and that’s a journey in and of itself. It becomes alive in all of the conversations that people have about it and their daydreams.