Note: This story contains spoilers from “Severance” Season 2, Episode 5.
That big twist around Helly R. (Britt Lower) was always in the cards for “Severance” creators Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller. Perhaps what’s more interesting isn’t the twist itself, but the fact that its creators always planned to reveal it midway through Season 2.
“What’s interesting to me is that, if somebody might be thinking about that [twist] or guessing that early on, maybe it goes on so long that a certain point they go, ‘Well, it can’t be that,’ ” director Ben Stiller told TheWrap.
Before Season 2 even premiered, fans started speculating about Helly’s true identity. Last week’s “Woe’s Hollow” revealed the truth: The Helly who returned to the severed halls wasn’t Helly R.’s innie but Helena Eagan, her outie pretending to be her other half. It was a revelation that cost innie Irving (John Turturro) his life. And in Episode “Trojan’s Horse,” the Apple TV+ original unpacks the full weight of that betrayal.
Stiller knew that audiences would be skeptical of Helly, who has spent the season thus far acting more avoidant than usual around her coworkers. But Stiller thought audiences would chalk that shift up to the assumption innie Helly doesn’t want to tell her coworkers she’s an Eagan on the outside. Helly learned of her outie’s true identity in the final moments of Season 1.
“I also thought — if the audience doesn’t guess it or most people don’t guess it — when you do learn [Helly’s real identity], it would be really interesting to go back and re-watch those first four episodes to see what the little clues are,” Stiller said.
During Season 1, Lower channeled innie Helly’s anger and confusion surrounding Lumon. But for Season 2, Lower had to understand what motivates Helena when she’s not trapped within endless fluorescent hallways of her father’s company.
“Meeting Helly’s dad at the end of Season 1, you can extrapolate what her upbringing must have been like. I had a lot of empathy for that,” Lower said. The actor sees Helly’s far more repressed exterior self as the natural progression of her barn-burning character in Season 1. “It made a lot of sense to me that there was that juxtaposition and that, within this person who’s been indoctrinated into a high control group, she would have the most rebellious inner child.”
Lower worked closely with Stiller and Erickson to make sure the revelation always felt true to her character.
“Helly R. is not some totally different person than Helena. It’s an energy that she has within her. They’re just different consciousnesses. So it was interesting to figure out what bleeds through and what doesn’t, what has been conditioned out of Helena that doesn’t ring as true,” Lower said.
For Lower, her return to the real Helly was also “exciting,” partially because she hadn’t been with the character for half a season. “It felt refreshing, just the way she moves through the world and looks at a situation in front of her. There’s a directness and an unapologetic quality to Helly R. that was refreshing to step back into,” Lower said.
“Severance” airs new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.
