The Severance Season Finale Leaves More Questions Than Answers
Photos Courtesy of Apple TV+
If we learned one thing from the Severance finale, it’s that the series really wants us in for the long run.
The ninth and final episode of Severance’s first season revealed a plethora of information about the outside world, not only to the audience but to Mark, Helly, and Irv’s innies as well. As Dylan barely holds on to the override switches that keep the innies in the outside world, Severance finally gives us the big reveals we’ve been waiting for all season.
While we had already seen a small bit of Irv’s life—his paintings of the hallway Ms. Casey disappeared down—we were finally given a bit of context for it. Alongside the dozens of paintings in his basement, Irv’s outie had hidden information about Lumon’s severed employees, including the address of Burt G., who he quickly sets off to find despite the fact that he should have no idea how to travel from point A to point B. Despite not really knowing how to drive, Irv manages to figure out his outie’s car and make it all the way to Burt’s house, where he sees that he’s happily married to another man. Unfortunately for Irv, by the time he finally gets up the courage to go knock on Burt’s door, he is snapped back to being his outie. It is also through him that we are finally aware of an even broader scope of Lumon’s influence, as the town where the entire story takes place is named after Keir Eagan, the company’s founder.
In regards to Helly, the hints of her outie being at least somewhat shady finally came to fruition with it being revealed that her outie’s real name is Helena Eagan. The daughter of Lumon’s current CEO Jame Eagan, Helena went under the severance procedure to document life as a severed worker and use her experience to advocate for pro-severance legislation. In finally seeing an outside view of the Lumon, it’s clear that the company’s cult-like teachings are not just for the workers on the severed floor to keep them compliant. Helly watches as her outie speaks about how she had to recite the same nine principles that are the foundation of Lumon’s corporate culture every night before bed as a child. When Helly speaks to Jame, it is clear that he has long been indoctrinated into the cult of his own family’s design. He tells Helly that everyone in the world will “all be Keir’s children” because of Helena’s decision to sever herself, which is a welcome expansion to the exploration of the real world consequences of being a severed worker. Before she’s cut off from the outside world, Helly takes the stage as Helena and reveals herself as her innie in an attempt to take Lumon down once and for all. Before Natalie (Ms. Cobel’s secractary) tackles her to the ground, Helly tells everyone in the room that the severed employees are tortured at Lumon. Regardless of Natalie taking her down, Helly would have been stopped by the timing of Dylan being forced to let go of the switches in the security office.
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