Severance’s Biggest Wild Card

Spoiler alert: This story contains major character and plot details.

Britt Lower faced a nesting doll of an acting challenge in Severance’s second season by portraying disparate characters: Helena Eagan, the cold, calculating heiress to the Lumon corporation, and her defiant Innie, Helly R. You get the sense that Helly — who possesses free will, acerbic wit, and close bonds with her colleagues in macrodata refinement — is someone Helena could have become if she hadn’t been groomed by her father, Jame, to take over the family empire. (“Think of hell,” Lower cracks about the name’s phonetics.) In the combustible finale, directed by Ben Stiller and written by showrunner Dan Erickson, both Mark S. (Adam Scott) and Helly make drastic choices that will inevitably set off further hostilities between the Innies and the Outies: After succeeding in an escape attempt to free his Outie’s captive wife, Gemma (Dichen Lachman), Mark S. remains and runs hand-in-hand through the severed floor with his redheaded love. And Helly unionizes another department against Lumon’s severed-worker practice, reminding everyone how they’re all treated like “fucking machines” that can be turned on and off at the will of the company. (“They give us half a life,” she spits, “and think we won’t fight for it.”)

Lower says the show has been planting seeds for this since the first season — and the narrative twist is enhanced by what she believes to be Helena’s own quiet radicalization while undercover as Helly at the start of the second season. “She’s waging a war inside of herself within the same body,” the actor tells me during a recent makeshift art session on a bench at the Pratt Institute Sculpture Park, adding touches of paint and marker to our shared canvas. “It’s quite provocative and relatable.”

Were you told Helly’s entire arc before the season?
I knew the whole of season two going in. We filmed out of order, as we did with the first, so it was necessary for me to know what was going on from the start.

What were some clarifying questions you had?
You go into a project with as much information as you can muster through inspiration and discussions. But then you hope for surprise — for the moment where you’re on set and the way someone reacts to you, or the way the lighting is, tells you something about the character that you didn’t know before. That was a lot of season two, especially with the Outie, like how Helena moving through the world is so dictated by her father. She doesn’t seem to have many females in her life.

Did anything genuinely surprise you about Helena’s development this season?
How much longing Helena feels. Especially when she’s in disguise, she’s embodying this part of herself she’s lost touch with or never had touch with quite fully. I was really moved by getting to see Helly’s perspective through her eyeballs. Helly has these really human connections with Irving, Dylan, and Mark, and they affect her so much. And then, by contrast, Helena’s scenes with her father are so sterile. Hurt people hurt people, generations of lack of nurturing. I tried to come at both sides of them with empathy for being trapped inside the same company in very different ways.

Do you interpret her longing as romantic love, friendship, or any type of general human connection?
In the first four episodes, if you’re doing a rewatch, you can see how much she’s enjoying getting to be Helly.

So she wasn’t putting up a front?
There are so many masks she has to wear. To a certain extent, I want the audience to decide for themselves. But there’s a heartbeat in there that she has. There’s a longing, I think, for something she hasn’t had access to: connection. She does have a sense of humor, and she’s able to tap into Helly’s. She passes, almost.

Did you play those episodes as assuming the audience would catch on that Helena was the one there?
It was something we had a lot of conversations about. Ben, Dan, the other directors, and I were always trying to decide how obvious it was. Even on set sometimes, the other actors would forget. But I was always aware. I, the actor, felt sad for Helly that her friends were being deceived. Then I felt a sense of sorrow for Helena, too, that she’s getting to experience this. It’s like the organic version of reintegration. Helly and Helena, by the time we hit the middle of the season, have gotten to experience each other’s lives firsthand for a little bit. Helly has experienced the father both on the outside and then the inside in that strange office scene from the ninth episode. And Helena has gotten to experience Helly’s “chosen family” within the office world. They still have a lot to learn from one another. I think about it as the inner critic and the inner child. We all have those parts of ourselves: the inner child that’s doodling and then the inner critic that’s like, This isn’t art! Being in a state of awe and childlike wonder is a goal. But also you wouldn’t get very much done if you were always in a state of awe. The ego protects you, but it can protect you too much from living a free life.

To your earlier point, how many masks does Helena have to wear?
Her relationship with her father is one. She’s seeking his approval, and she’s concerned for his well-being. There’s something up with him; I do think there are some mental-health issues going on. Just based on Michael Siberry’s incredible performance — the way he moves through space and the way he’s treated by her. So she has this ailing father who’s so odd and withholding. And she has to wear a mask in front of the other women employees, too. It’s like a Russian doll of masks.

Do you think Helena wants to be CEO?
I don’t think she would even be able to answer that. There’s just no choice in a family structure like that. I was recently watching Orlando with Tilda Swinton. I love that film. I was thinking about that kind of lone, princely figure. And in this case, it’s a high-control group she was raised in. I’ve thought a lot about, Where’s Helena’s mom? I think she, much like Helly, is on a journey of self-discovery and answering the question Who am I? Seeing this other version of herself has really rattled her. There’s a strange envy. Helly has her own different version of that toward Helena. But Helly is much more on the journey of This isn’t fucking ethical. She has a really clear sense of what’s justifiable and what isn’t. Initially, Helly is like, “Get me the hell out of here at all costs.” But then it turned into “Get us out of here.” To her surprise, she realizes this is her family. And then in season two, all of them start to have contrasting desires — all the Innies with their Outies. They have opposing objectives within their little family unit, which is so real. Moving through that together is what makes a family grow, deepen, and help define itself.

A big hole that we don’t know about Helena is, as you said, the identity of her mother.
I’m going to leave that one a mystery.

What else have you filled in for yourself about the character to inform your portrayal?
Some of it isn’t verbal. I listen to a lot of Patti Smith to get into Helly. For Helena, it’s these sweeping classical arrangements. That was more of how I tapped into her subconscious, which was also informed by the strange environment. She lives with her dad. She has the regimen of eating an egg in the morning and the routine of swimming. It’s just all very brutal. She has corporate, cultlike mannerisms. I can imagine that’s been the case her whole life. The cool thing about playing Helly in season one is I got to walk around Lumon and be like, “What the fuck are you guys doing? Why are you acting like that? Ms. Cobel and Mr. Milchick, why do you talk like that?” Now, I get to be in the position of someone who walks around and talks like that. Still, you don’t see Helena alone very much, except for that scene when she’s watching the security footage of Mark and Helly. So, again, is there a mask? Even if there’s no one in the back of the room, she’s still aware there’s someone watching her every move.

When Helena, pretending to be Helly, sleeps with Mark, she tells him afterward, “I didn’t like who I was on the outside. I was ashamed.” Do you believe her?
I think there’s some honesty in what she’s saying. She also has self-awareness of how she acted toward Irving. She tells Mark, “I was mean. That was mean of me.” There’s a really tender scene that was cut for, I think, plot purposes between Dylan and who we now understand was Helena on the outdoor retreat. Dylan says, “I don’t like the outside.” It’s a beautiful scene that Zach Cherry is so present in. And Helena as Helly is being so present with him and listening. And she’s like, “I get it.”

I know there were quite a bit of rewrites and delays this season. Was anything dropped from the Helena-Helly perspective that you felt would have been beneficial to the character?
There were a lot of rewrites. Maybe I shouldn’t say it, maybe it’s fine. A lot of reworking happened in the middle of filming. We had a break due to the strikes and came back with a fresh set of scripts for the ending. It’s like a giant puzzle that we’re all building and solving at the same time. Every piece of it is detailed and correlates to another piece. But, of course, much like the fans, we as actors have a vivid imagination of what might be happening that’s not seen.

Do you find Lumon’s lore as a company and the dynamics of the characters equally compelling?
There are so many interesting pieces to the “what” of what’s happening, but the “why” and “how” are the human part. What are they going after, and how are they going about getting what they want in relationship to each other? I’m really drawn to the warmest thing onscreen, which is the people and the goats. Some of those questions are answered by the end. It’s like a fractal — you zoom in and there’s more.

Have Helena’s beliefs about Innies softened a bit? At the start of the season, she was referring to them as “fucking animals.”
She’s definitely been affected by what she’s experienced. She’s doubting what she does at the company. It’s humanizing.

How long have the seeds been planted about the Innies and Outies essentially going to war with one another?
The conversation started in season one when Helly’s progression of self-harm reaches a point where … it’s less of a suicide and more of an act of war, really, because she wants Helena to wake up in a noose. Humans are meaner to ourselves than we are to anyone else. And look, Helly has taken over Helena’s body at the end of season one. She posed as her Outie in the same way that Helena then poses as her Innie. The question of autonomy is really at full volume in these episodes — and certainly consent. We dealt with those scenes delicately and had a lot of conversations about what Mark and Helly would be going through. When she comes back in episode five, she learns what’s happened. And then, it’s interesting again, after Mark and Helly share that intimacy under the makeshift tent, it’s directly after that when Helena goes to see Mark at the Chinese restaurant.

That scene seemed like a test arranged by Helena.
Helena’s curious about it. They have a kind of chemistry that’s different in each iteration. So far, the only versions of them that haven’t met yet are Outie Mark and Innie Helly. In season one, Helly and Mark have a camaraderie and shared banter. It’s that scene where Helly’s like, “I think we should kill Mark and I should wear his face.” Mark picks up on the joke and bats it back. That’s really where the seed of their connection is — a dark sense of humor. They’re finding levity in an environment that’s quite intense.

The finale’s ending scene is a spectacular implosion of autonomy, with Innie Mark choosing to run through the halls with Helly than escape with his Outie’s wife. How did you prepare for this moment?
We definitely talked about The Graduate. Everything is happening so fast from the time the marching band arrives. The intensity in all the corners of Lumon are ramping up. It starts by Helly wanting Mark, at least, to survive. That’s his chance of surviving if he gets out and saves Ms. Casey in the process. Once there’s that turn in MDR with Mr. Milchick and Dylan returning, they’re in it together. Then the alarms go off. I think it’s instinctual. She just runs. I don’t know what she’s after except maybe to see him one more time.

The Graduate’s ending veers to the uncertain. Do you read Mark and Helly’s stampede more optimistically? They look pretty elated to me.
It’s the cocktail of emotions. They’ve made this decision. So I think there’s an elation. The script direction said they were just running. I remember when we were doing it, it felt like we were a couple of wild horses who were just let loose. The moment that was important to me that stayed in the edit, which I’m proud of, is Helly seeing Gemma. Mark pulls her, she lingers, and she’s really connecting with Gemma for the first time. That moment is really essential for what comes next.

Is it like a “I see you and I won” type of look? A competitive element?
Not necessarily. The whole scene is a reckoning for all of them. Helly is reckoning with this other person who loves the same person she loves, but on the outside. It’s so complex. It was important to me that it feels like Mark is making that decision with you, the audience. Again, maybe Helly is just coming to look at him one more time. She’s present and it really becomes about Mark’s choice at that moment. Looking at this other woman who he doesn’t know, making a choice for him. And then he’s weighing, Was my Outie being truthful? Are we going to reintegrate? Is he going to hold up his end of the bargain? It’s an impossible decision.

How will this reckoning reflect what we see in the third season?
All of the Innies are waking up to their own humanity and free will. Dylan is on that journey and even the marching band, another department, is now. Helly’s just like, “Maybe we have more people on our side than we think, and maybe there’s a chance for us down here to figure out something.”

What are you hopeful for the chance to explore as the show continues? It’s almost like the duality of Helena and Helly gives you an ever-expanding terrain.
It’s so relatable to be at odds with parts of oneself. I think it’s interesting that in this project, those parts of the same person get to be fully actualized and have this discourse with each other to see what it’s like to walk around in someone else’s shoes. Hopefully, that creates empathy and understanding, particularly for the head of this company that has some questionable things going on. For someone to have inside of her a really strong rebellion, how does that affect the company for the greater good? On a personal level, how does the wilder, fiercer, and freer part of this woman — which she has lost touch with — affect her moving forward? What does she have to learn from that? How can she grow and expand? I think the question in season two is how the Innie and the Outie have two separate souls. I don’t know if there’s an answer to that, but there are two separate consciousnesses with a shared body.

I wholeheartedly believe Helly has more freedom trapped on the MDR floor as an Innie than Helena does in her life as an Outie.
I think so too. Helly’s not afraid to ask questions. In the world of Lumon, you can’t. There’s a way that things are done. You don’t question authority, and you follow a protocol. Helly is just the total antithesis of that. She really was the catalyst in season one for waking all of them up. They all start to be like, “Wait, what? What are we doing here?” That starts to bleed through to all versions of them.