Severance Season 2 Finale Helena Eagan Theory Debunked By Britt Lower

The following spoilers are mysterious and important. This article contains details from the season 2 finale of “Severance.”

Season 2 of “Severance” just came to a spectacular endbut that isn’t stopping the passionate fanbase from scouring every single inch of the last episode for hidden clues and deeper meaning that more casual audiences may have missed. The Apple TV+ drama has constantly rewarded observant — some may say obsessive — viewers, leaving all the mysterious goings-on over at Lumon Industries just ambiguous enough to support even the most outlandish fan-theories out there. Allusions to real-life conspiracy theoriesnever-ending speculation surrounding those pesky goats, and questions surrounding the exact nature of Cold Harbor are likely going to continue keeping those folks awake at night … but at least one recurring belief that’s been popping up on social media in the wake of the finale can now be safely considered debunked.

The final moments of the season leave a lot up to interpretation, specifically as it concerns Mark S. (Adam Scott) and Helly R. (Britt Lower). The two innies have just helped pull off a daring heist at the very heart of Lumon, freeing Gemma (Dichen Lachman) from imprisonment and setting up Mark’s outie for a happily ever after ending. The plan works to perfection, right up until the moment Mark’s innie makes his fateful choice: either to walk through those doors and potentially end his own severed existence, or run away with his lover Helly R. instead and choose one brief ray of freedom amid captivity. He opts for the latter, running hand in hand with Helly in as bittersweet an ending as we could’ve imagined — but fans have been convinced that this wasn’t Helly R. at all, but yet another switcheroo with the dreaded Helena Eagan posing as her own innie.

According to the star of the show Britt Lower, however, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

As much as I try not to place too much weight on interviews and other extraneous information outside the confines of a show like “Severance,” it doesn’t get much more definitive than the actual actor talking about how they chose to play a specific scene. If the creative team intended for another last-minute twist involving Helena Eagan impersonating her inniewell, you’d think creator/writer Dan Erickson and director Ben Stiller might’ve mentioned that to Britt Lower. Instead, she provided a rather straightforward answer to the LA Times in a recent interview. When directly posed the idea that Helena might’ve been the one pulling Mark’s strings and trying to keep him trapped in Lumon, Lower dismissed it entirely:

“That’s Helly R. in the final episode. But I think, in (Episode 9), Dylan (Zach Cherry) has thrown some doubt in her own understanding of herself. She’s lost this father figure in Irving (John Turturro) and then she’s lost this brother figure because Dylan seems to have turned his back on her, at least in that episode. When Mark, at the beginning of (Episode 10), presents her with this chance for him to get to live in some capacity, and she’s just seen her weird dad, who’s told her, ‘Oh, I see Kier in you,’ it cast some doubt inside of herself that she has a family anymore.”

To her credit, the actor at least speaks extemporaneously about why it’s fair to wonder whether the lines have blurred between Helly R. and Helena — thematically, at least. The innie has certainly undergone her fair share of troubles this season, all of which factors into the mutual decision she and Mark S. ultimately make to run off together … even if their fates remain as uncertain as ever.

When it comes to such a blatant mystery-box show like “Severance,” believe me — I get the impulse to overthink things. The writers have already pulled the wool over our eyes a time or two before throughout these pair of seasons, so why wouldn’t they save one of their biggest swerves yet for the finale? It can be tough to resist the urge to outsmart any given movie or show we’re watching these days, but there’s a reason why this particular one remains leaps and bounds over almost all the others. Everything that happens in this series happens for a justified narrative or character-based reason — not just for the sake of a twist. Adding another Helly/Helena twist on top of the one we already witnessed earlier in the season would probably be the definition of putting a hat on a hat. But even beyond that, there’s the matter of how a twist would’ve robbed Helly of her agency in such a game-changing moment of the show.

Reading between the lines, that’s the basic gist Britt Lower seems to be gesturing towards in her incredibly well-thought-out answer. There’s a mountain of compelling, nuanced emotional motivation going into her actions throughout the episode, but especially in those final moments. As Lower explains in the same interview, “I think when Dylan comes back to the vending machine and the marching band (is playing) and he’s on her side, then all of a sudden she’s standing on a desk remembering Irving and remembering that their half-lives are worth fighting for, I think she just runs to go see Mark one last time. Maybe there’s a chance they can do this all together. For all they know, if he crosses that barrier, they’re going to take down Lumon entirely and all of these innies are going to get wiped away. I think it’s just gut instinct that she runs.”

Can you imagine losing all of that in favor of a cheap twist that it was actually Helena all along? I certainly can’t, and personally I’m relieved that the writers didn’t choose to go that route, either. Whatever they have planned for the officially greenlit third seasonyou can bet we’ll be watching to see how it all goes down.