Just ahead of the halfway point of the second season, Severance delivered a seismic twist for viewers to chew over.
Created by Dan Erickson, the sci-fi psychological thriller follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott), an employee at fictional corporation Lumon Industries, who agrees to a “severance” procedure where his memories between his work and private life are separated.
Alongside Scott, the show’s cast includes Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, Michael Chernus, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, and Patricia Arquette.
After the first season achieved acclaim in 2022, the second season debuted in January 2025.
What happens to Helly at the end of Severance season 2 episode 4?
The fourth episode revolves around a snowy office retreat in Woe’s Hollow, and after making some discoveries related to Lumon founder Kier Eagan, Mark Scout, Dylan George, Helly Riggs and Irving Bailiff, along with manager Seth Milchick, find themselves spending the night in the woods.
The group are huddled around a campfire when Irving interrogates Helly over what she saw in the outside world, suspecting she was lying about seeing a ‘night gardener’. In response, Helly cruelly makes a dig about his past lover Burt, which causes Irving to storm off.
Irving spends the night in the woods alone and has a fever dream, where he appears to realise Helly is actually a member of the Eagan family, who founded Lumon.
The next morning, Helly is confronted by Irving, who notes how Helly would never have made the cruel dig she did around the campfire. “So if you’re not her, than who are you?” Irving asks. “Who would have the power to send their outie to the severed floor?”
Following this exchange, we discover Helena Egan, the daughter of Lumon Industries CEO Jame Eagan, has actually been posing as Helly since they came back to the severed floor near the start of the season.
Is Irving dead?
After making the discovery about Helena Eagan, Irving threatens to drown her in a pond unless Mr. Milchick switches her back to Helly – proving that he can trigger their switch from anywhere.
As Mr. Milchick outlines, to threaten someone with murder means “there can be no penalty but immediate and permanent dismissal”, adding: “It will be as if you, Irving B., never even existed nor drew a single breath upon this Earth.”
While it remains to be seen exactly what this means for Irving, this probably means Irving’s Innie will cease to exist. His outie, however, will be alive and well.
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