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The following contains spoilers for Severance season 2, episode 4.
Severance creator Dan Erickson explains the shocking Helly twist from season 2, episode 4. Season 1 ended with MDR teammates Mark, Helly and Irving executing the Overtime Contingency and experiencing life as their Outies. The gang’s visit to the outside world proved brief, however, as Severance season 2 saw them all returning to the Severed Floor, along with Dylan, to continue their vital microdata refining work.
Season 2, episode 4 just pulled out the rug, however, revealing that Helly never actually came back from her excursion outside, as her Outie Helena took her place on the MDR team. Severance creator Erickson explained this stunning Helly twist, revealing that such a move was in the works from early on the show’s life (via EW):
“Even going back to season 1, we talked about the implication of the Overtime Contingency, where you can have an Innie posing as an Outie,” We thought, ‘Well, that would likely mean that the inverse is possible, too.’ That becomes this really terrifying idea because then this group, who has come to trust each other in season 1, suddenly has to ask the question of whether they can still trust each other, because you can’t ever be 100 percent sure that who you’re talking to is who you think they are.
Erickson then detailed why Helly was chosen as the character who would be replaced by her own Outie:
We talked about different characters who might do that, and ultimately, Helly/Helena made the most sense because she would be the one with the most to gain from infiltrating that group.
Erickson also talked about why the reveal was timed for episode 4:
We talked about when exactly to reveal it to the audience, and at the end of the day, we thought that the most interesting version was for us to learn along with the characters. So much of the show is about being in their subjective experience and being surprised about things along with them. I mean, that’s the entire season 1 finale episode, it’s all us finding out these things along with them, and so we wanted to have that sense again.
Source: EW