The Big Picture

• Helly is actually Helena Eagen, a high-level executive and daughter of CEO James Eagen, making her involvement in the severance process crucial for PR points.
• Helly's disruptive behavior in the office may have been tolerated because of her Eagen family connections, questioning the company's strict no-leaving policy.
• The reveal of Helly's true identity and her familial connections trigger hidden memories and emotions, raising the stakes for all characters involved.

From the moment Apple TV+’s Severance began, we’ve seen the world through the eyes of Helly (Britt Lower), a woman with no memory of basic details about herself who finds herself working for a mysterious company called Lumon. As Helly and the audience soon learn, this is because she voluntarily participated in a process called severance, where a chip in the brain allows one to keep their work life and personal life entirely separate, creating two different versions of the same person. Helly’s outie, in essence, like the other severed employees in the building, sentenced herself to a life where she could be doing anything for the company she’s working for, with no clue about what it is and how to get out of the arrangement. Of course, as the finale proved, Helly’s life is a lot different from the others in the company. Now that the wait for Season 2 has officially begun, with filming on the new season kicking into gear, let's discuss the clues leading up to Helly's big reveal.

'Severance' Reveals Helly's Lineage in the Season 1 Finale

From the start of Severance's finale, one of the first most shocking bits of information we’re hit with is that Helly is actually a descendant of Kier, the man behind the Lumon empire and part of the Eagen family, making her the daughter of CEO James Eagen (Michael Siberry). Helly is Helena Eagen, a high-level executive in the company, hoping to score PR points by projecting a positive view of the workplace. This is necessary because in the series, the Senate is currently engaged in a debate about whether Lumon’s severance procedure should be legalized or not. Therefore, her stint as a severed employee allows her outie to speak about the process on stage at a gala with members of the press invited.

Helly being linked to the Eagens has been a theory that gained steam as the series progressed, although the show did a stellar job of keeping us in the dark till the very end. One of the biggest reasons why many presumed that she was related to the Lumon founders was the extent to which her bosses on her floor put up with her. From breaking windows trying to escape, to wandering halls, and even attempting suicide. Helly made it clear in every possible way that she wanted to resign but was kept against her will. While it is established fairly quickly that Lumon doesn’t allow its workers to leave their posts, had Helly been a regular employee, this rule would likely have been bent, considering how disruptive she was in the office.

Hints were dropped about who Helly is from the start of the series. In Episode 2, Milchick (Tramell Tillman) comments while taking her to the severance surgery room that it is amazing that she is working there and even calls it a “miracle.” Later in the series, when the group takes a visit to the Eagen museum aka the Perpetuity Wing, Helly looks at the first female CEO of Lumon (likely her great-grandmother) and wishes that she remembered her childhood. We learn later on, in the wellness center, that some subconscious knowledge of a person’s outer life is retained in an innie.

When Mark (Adam Scott) starts creating a clay model of the tree where the car accident took place that caused him to lose his wife, it’s triggered by the presence of his wife in the room, even though he doesn’t recognize her as Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman). So it stands to reason that seeing a model of her family members was enough to trigger some part of Helly that linked the people in that room to her own childhood and family. There’s also the fact that Milchick almost always brought out the camera whenever Helly came into the frame at the party, a fact that seems benign at first glance but becomes extremely important when you realize that Helena Eagen’s entire reason for severing herself was for such promotional material to be mined out of her innie’s life.

Helena and Helly Are on a Collision Course in ‘Severance’ Season 2

We don’t know too much about the other characters’ outies on the show, but both Petey and Mark suffered personal losses that resulted in them undergoing the severance procedure. Mark lost his wife in a car accident (or so he believes) and Petey (Yul Vazquez) lost his in a divorce. There is reason to believe that Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro) had their own pain that caused them to sever themselves and work for Lumon. In the season finale, Helly's father briefly meets her to thank her for undergoing the procedure and even makes a comment about how things have been tough on her, which ties into the fact that all the severed employees are there to escape the hard life they live.

What little we knew about Helly’s outie prior to the Season 1 finale was from Helly herself. When Helly threatens to cut off her hand, in order to be relinquished from her role in the company, she finds herself face to face with a recorded version of her outie, a cold and unforgiving woman who tells Helly to get to work and stop complaining because she is not a real person. This cements the idea that Helly isn’t a real person for her. Even her own father sounds disdainful when he mentions Helly’s outie, likely because he shares Helena’s belief of not looking at them as actual humans. While we know that a large part of Helena’s quest was to work in the favor of the legislation, her father also mentions something about her joining him in his “revolving,” which could be some sort of title for Eagens when they assume command of the leadership. So it’s possible that innie Helly having told the world about the horrors of the severance process would result not just in the bill not being passed, but also in her losing confidence in the board.

While Severance has been one hell of a ride since it began, the Helena twist being masterfully woven in the show really ups the stakes for all characters, especially since now one of the biggest foes of the series is a character we all know and love. Severance Season 2 is finally underway and will be adding new characters played by Gwendoline Christie, John Noble, and Alia Shawkat among others, for Mark, Dylan, Irving, and Helly to interact with. Thankfully, audiences won't have to wait much longer to see the next chapter in this story.

Severance is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

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