Severance Recap: Into the Woods

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Baby goats! Baby goats! This is not a drill, people. Baby goats is code for sex with Mark S., right? So … baby goats! It finally happened, but, um, not the way we ever thought it would.

I’m just going to say it: Helena Eagan is a rapist. I know that, as the season has progressed, there has been some sympathy for Helena, her daddy issues, and her sad, sheltered childhood. However, childhood is over. Helena Eagan is now an adult, and her behavior is unforgivable. Sure, go undercover as your Innie, but don’t sexually assault the other Innies! Now, none may atone for her actions but her. But let’s circle back to that whole mess in a bit.

Taking everyone out of their comfort zones, this Very Special Episode of Severance was directed by Ben Stiller and written by Anna Ouyang Moench. The premise is absolutely wild. We follow the refiners as Milchick takes them on an Outdoor Retreat Team Building Occurrence (ORTBO) in the middle of a frozen tundra wasteland. He claims that the field trip is a response to the refiners’ desire to see the outdoors, but right from the jump it almost feels like a form of torture. Is this the Bad Place?

To kick off the ORTBO, the Innies wake up either on a snowy cliff (unsettling) or on an ice-covered lake (horrifying), with absolutely no prior warning. It feels like Milchick could have briefed them on this trip earlier in the work week, right? And how did he get the Outies to agree to this, much less hike out into the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter? Oh, I have so many questions.

We open with a completely unnerving visual of Irv waking up in the middle of a giant frozen lake. He follows the sound of Mark’s voice, the four refiners find one another, watch a training video from Milchick on a tube TV (that’s somehow operable even though it’s suspended on a literal cliff), and then head off to find Kier’s mysterious fourth appendix, which he dictated on his deathbed. Fun times!

The Innies have never hiked before, much less hiked in crampons and ushankas, but some sort of muscle memory takes hold because they all seem to manage the strenuous hike pretty well. Stiller often frames the journey from above, depicting the refiners as small, insignificant blobs moving in tandem across the harsh and unforgiving landscape. The snow that blankets the forest recalls the endless white hallways on the severed floor, and the episode is nearly devoid of color with the notable exceptions of the “MDR blue” tents and the bright red of their torches and space heaters that provide the only warmth.

The refiners are given very unconventional directions to the cave. Every so often, a doppelgänger of one of the refiners pops up, eerily and wordlessly pointing the way. These look-alikes aren’t dressed for winter — oddly, they’re in business attire — and they don’t seem to be carbon copies of the refiners. Severance often plays with the duality motif — framing characters in reflections or mirror images, showcasing Mark’s tank of beta fish, etc. — but this is the most overt visual we’ve seen so far, and it comes courtesy of Lumon itself. Are the twins actors? Are they hallucinations that can be triggered via the severance chip? Is this a simulation?

Watching this episode felt like a fever dream. The circumstances surrounding many aspects of the trip seemed both surreal and unreal, and at times I was left wondering if Lumon had activated a yet-unknown-to-us part of the severance chip (à la The Matrix) to send the refiners on this journey in their minds. How else to explain the sudden drop into an unforgiving landscape? How else to explain the weird twins that point the way? Or, alternatively, given where we left off in the last episode, is the ORTBO experience just an extended reintegration hallucination in Mark’s mind? Ultimately, given the twists that occur throughout the episode, I’m of the mind that it takes place in the “real” world. That’s not to say that Lumon can’t do freaky deaky things with the chips, I just don’t think it’s happening here.

Eventually, the group locates the fourth appendix and starts reading from it. One of the reveals in this episode is that Kier had a twin named Dieter, and it’s interesting to wonder if the original idea for severance came from his relationship with his brother. The book includes a story about how Kier encountered the temper of Woe for the first time after he witnessed the forest murder his brother to make him atone for masturbating and ejaculating on the ground. The importance of this story is underscored by the fact that Milchick tells it again later in the episode, but it is a very silly tale. Is anyone else getting the sense that Kier killed his twin?

On the way to the campsite, the refiners stumble upon a gigantic rotting animal carcass. In a panic, Irv suggests that they eat it. The rest of the refiners are like, ew, no, and so they soldier on. But the camera lingers over the big dead thing as they leave. This recalled moments from Lost in which they found random animals in the jungle that did not belong, but other than that, I’m a bit stuck on the potential meaning here. Please put all your theories in the comments because my brain is in knots over this one.

Finally, they reach Woe’s Hollow. Thankfully, Milchick has set up the ultimate glamping experience for the group. The tents are heated, the TP is four-ply, and there are copious luxury meats to be had. By the fireside, Milchick reads the story about Dieter’s masturbatory murder in full, reveling in all the gory details. He shows them the picture of Woe — she looks a lot like the chick from The Ring — and then chirps, “The End!” Everyone is shook, except for Helena, who has probably heard this story a thousand times before and has just been waiting for the opportunity to laugh at how absolutely absurd it is.

Helena. Helena Eagan. Tsk tsk. From what I’ve been seeing in the comments section here (as well as my obsessive Reddit browsing), many viewers guessed that it was Helena and not Helly who returned to the severed floor after the OTC. And, if you hadn’t guessed that twist, I’m sure the reveal at the end of this episode probably packed an even bigger punch! And Irv? Irv was onto this bitch the whole time.

The conflict between Irv and Helena begins to boil over when Irv confronts her yet again as the group sits around the fire. Milchick has Miss Huang burn all the marshmallows as punishment for Helena’s outburst, and the refiners sit there giggling like kids who have pranked their teacher. Except for Irv. Irv steps up his line of questioning and scolds Mark for making “goo-goo eyes” at Helena. At this point, Irv doesn’t exactly know who she is, but he’s certain that she’s lying. When Helena cruelly mentions that Irv is just mad because he can’t see Burt again, Irv grabs a torch and stomps off into the wilderness.

With Irv gone, Mark sidles into Helena’s tent to make goo-goo eyes and more. The two get busy with the space heater, casting an ominous red glow on their bodies. This sex scene is more stressful than sexy, especially as it’s interspersed with Irv’s attempts to navigate the wilderness. He loses his torch, finds a rock, and sits down, possibly to die. At the same time, Helena and Mark lie in post-coital bliss, and there’s a moment where it seems that Helena almost tells Mark who she actually is. She doesn’t, but when Mark looks at her lovingly from above, he gets a reintegration flash of Gemma. This was not the love triangle we had planned for, folks. This is a love hextangle, and it’s going to get messy.

As everyone else sleeps, Irv struggles in the woods. He dozes fitfully. It’s the first time he’s been allowed to sleep as an Innie, and he experiences a horrific nightmare that doubles as an instructive hallucination. In his dream, he finds the MDR desk in the middle of a clearing. There are bugs all over his computer screen, and when he sits down, Burt pulls down the partition between them, a loving look on his face. And, surprise! Woe is there, too, working diligently on her file. Eventually, the only numbers on the screen are 1, 4, 5, and 7. Then, letters begin to appear, and they look like the word “EAGAN” scrambled up on screen, over and over. (E = 5, A = 1, G = 7, N = 14.) Irv’s got it now. He knows who Helly really is. Woe sidles up beside him, hisses, and the spell is broken. Irv wakes up and knows what he has to do.

“Woe’s Hollow” is truly John Turturro’s episode. I have watched the last seven minutes of this episode more times than I can count, and it has yet to lose its power. My breath catches, my eyes tear up, my hands fidget, and my heart races. The tension and emotion that the entire Severance team creates in this sequence is right up there with the last few minutes of the season-one finale, but here, it all pivots on Turturro’s magnificent performance. Hand this man an Emmy, please. We don’t need to wait for the ceremony or anything; he deserves an Emmy right now.

In the light of day, Irv goes to find Helena. She’s contemplating her good fortune while gazing upon Woe’s Hollow when Irv sneaks up behind her. “Hey, kid,” he says, madness twinkling in his eyes. He tells her what he knows — pointing out that what she said about Burt was cruel, and Helly was never cruel. For what it’s worth, Helena does look contrite. She genuinely apologizes, which feels like a new thing for her, but Irv doesn’t care. He hauls her ass down to the edge of the frozen pond, and they both start screaming.

Milchick, Dylan, and Mark follow the sound to the top of the waterfall, helpless to immediately intervene in the scene below. Irv starts dunking Helena’s head into the water like a misbegotten Oreo, punctuating each dunk with an angry declaration: “Turn her back, Mr. Milchick! She’s been an Outie the whole time! She’s an Eagan! I’m gonna kill her, Mr. Milchick!” Irv’s commitment to freeing his friend is admirable, especially as he knows he’s sacrificing himself in the process. Between dunks, Helena orders Milchick to switch her back, and Irv gleefully mocks, “Yes, do it, Seth!” The ferocity Turturro brings to this line delivery is blistering.

Milchick gets on his walkie and commands someone on the other end to turn off the “Glasgow block.” They do. Helly changes back in an underwater transition moment that’s simply a marvel to see. And then, when Irv pulls Helly up, his face changes. His seething rage and resentment instantly melt into a triumphant tenderness. As he cradles a very confused Helly, it’s almost like he’s looking down at a child he’s just birthed into the world. For his efforts, his Innie is killed. As he begins his final good-byes, he shouts up to his bestie Dylan: “Hang in there!” Dylan is confused but mostly bereft at the impending loss of his friend.

We know that Tramell Tillman is an exemplary actor, but here he goes toe-to-toe with Turturro and does not miss. Having almost watched the Eagan heir be murdered while under his care, he is fury personified. He commands Irving to stand up, turn around, and walk into the forest, firing him and effectively sentencing him to death. Irving walks into the wilderness, closes his eyes, and welcomes his fate.

While this conclusion was certainly electrifying, we do know that we’ll be seeing Irving again. His Outie has too many mysteries dangling for his character to be cut entirely, and thanks to Mark and Reghabi, there’s always reintegration. But, for now, let’s pour one out for a real one. Irving B., you’re the friend that all our Innies need but probably don’t deserve. See you on the other side, brother.

It looks like it’s time for my staggered exit, so I’m going to go grab the elevator. Until next time …

Severed Sentiments

• Helena is totally going to get pregnant, right? Was … that the goal all along? Holy shit, Mark would be the father to the next link in the Eagan lineage. That’s an incredibly creepy thought.

• What happens to Irving’s Outie when he wakes up in the woods with a bunch of Innies and Milchick a few paces behind him? Or does the “Glasgow block” mean that they put the Outies in a coma before bringing them to the woods? I do not have any answers for these questions.

• Milchick claims that the waterfall at Woe’s Hollow is the biggest waterfall in the world, which is hilarious because the waterfall in question is Awosting Falls near Peterskill, NY. It’s gorgeous, but it’s a mere 65 ft. tall, while the tallest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela, standing at 3,212 ft. tall.

• The next chapter in the appendix is “Kier and the Thieving Nanny.” Excuse me, what? Perhaps this title is referring to a nanny goat?

• Scissor Cave feels like a nod to the Kier maxim, “We must be cut to heal.”

• When Milchick shows the Innies fire for the first time, Miss Huang seems very delighted too. It’s almost like she’s never seen it before, either. Hmm.

• Dylan is super psyched about seeing the sky for the first time, but personally, I think the experience of sleeping is much more coveted. Your mileage may vary.