The fourth episode of Severance Season 2 is called “Woe’s Hollow” and takes place outside of Lumon Industries’ clean office walls, in the creepy woods. The Macrodata Refinement (MDR) team goes on a strange business retreat in the Dieter Eagan National Forest. The line between reality and myth gets dangerously fuzzy as they meet creepy doubles, have scary visions and read mysterious passages about Kier Eagan’s past. This episode, which was written by Anna Ouyang Moench and directed by Ben Stiller, goes deep into the history of Lumon and reveals shocking facts about Kier Eagan’s past.
Let’s break down what happened in this haunting chapter.
Irving B. (John Turturro): The First Sign of Trouble
Irving B. wakes up on a frozen lake at the beginning of the episode, lost and confused. Putting on a thick fur coat, he looks around and sees Mark S. (Adam Scott) waving at him from the top of a cliff. Irving walks across the icy surface to get to him. Along the way, he meets Helly R. (Britt Lower) and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry). The team doesn’t understand or believe they are outside because they thought that would never happen.
They are walking through the snowy landscape when they come across a TV playing a welcome video from Milchick (Tramell Tillman). In it, Milchick tells them that they are taking part in an Outdoor Retreat and Team-Building Occurrence (ORTBO). Their job is to find Scissor Cave, which is an important spot in Lumon’s history because it’s said to be where Kier Eagan first met the Four Tempers.
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Helly R. (Britt Lower): A Test of Loyalty
As the group travels, they have a scary vision of a fake Holly pointing them in the direction of a cave. They open it and find a strange book with the Roman numeral “IV” printed on the cover. When Helly opens the book, she finds a scary story about Dieter Eagan, Kier’s twin brother, who tried to get Kier to leave society and live in the woods.
Irving, who is a big fan of Kier, is shocked by the news as he reads out loud Kier’s disturbing account of Dieter’s fall into madness. As the story goes on, Helly feels more and more uneasy. She knows something is wrong. Later in the episode, she goes to Irving’s tent to offer him a peace offering: a snow seal. But their conversation turns serious when Irving asks her to describe what she saw during the Overtime Contingency (OTC). Helly hesitates and won’t give a clear answer, which makes people suspicious.
Mark S. (Adam Scott): Torn Between the Past and Present
Mark S. has a hard time with his feelings throughout the episode. As he tries to find out the truth about—his wife Gemma/Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), his growing feelings for Helly keep getting in the way. Irving says that Mark is making “goo-goo eyes” at Helly while his “outie’s wife rots away somewhere” which makes things worse between the two.
Mark tries to comfort Helly in her tent, even though things are tense, and they have a private moment together. Before they kiss, Mark’s inner conflict is more clear than ever: he wants to start over with Helly, but he also has to deal with the mystery of what happened to his wife.
Dylan G. (Zach Cherry): Comic Relief Turns Dark
Even though this episode is mostly dark, Dylan adds some humor. His first reaction to being outside, “Out-f*cking-side!” makes the group’s scary adventure a little less serious for a moment. But things go from bad to worse when they find a half-eaten animal body by the river. Dylan jokes that they should eat it, but the mood quickly changes when Milchick shows up and says that the land they are on is holy.
Later, Milchick reads from—Appendix IV during a campfire story time and tells Kier and Dieter’s scary story in great detail. The passage gets gorier as it talks about Dieter’s body breaking down into moss and sap—which kills him in the end. As Milchick’s recital reaches its peak, Dylan laughs it off nervously, but the unease stays.
Milchick (Tramell Tillman): The Puppet Master
Milchick stays a scary presence at the retreat the whole time. His happy mood is very different from the scary stories told around the campfire. He makes fun of the next chapter, “Kier and the Thieving Nanny,” at one point, which makes the group confused.
Milchick’s friendly mask falls for a moment when Helly laughs at how silly the story is. He yells at Miss Huang to throw the marshmallows into the fire, showing that he is getting more and more angry that the team isn’t respecting Lumon’s sacred traditions. It becomes clearer that Milchick is in charge of the retreat, which makes people wonder what his real goals are.
The Group Breaks Up
Over the course of the night, things get worse between the group members. Irving starts to worry more and more about Helly. He follows her around and thinks she is lying about what happened at the OTC. Mark tries to calm him down, but Irving’s anger and love for Burt G. (Christopher Walken), whom he lost, get the best of him.
Irving gets angry, grabs a flashlight, and runs into the forest. Mark checks on Helly at the same time, and their bond grows even though there is chaos going on around them. Irving goes into the woods by himself and finds something he didn’t expect. He trips and falls, and in the depths of Woe’s Hollow, he meets something or someone.
Severance Season 2 Episode 4 Ending: Helly’s True Identity
In Severance Season 2 Episode 4, we learn a shocking truth—Helly (Britt Lower) is not who we thought. After a strange encounter, Mark (Adam Scott) experiences a reintegration side effect; briefly seeing Helly’s face morph into his late wife, Gemma. Later, Irving (John Turturro) has a disturbing dream where he sees strange things in the forest including desks from Lumon and the mysterious bride Woe.
Irving confronts Helly, accusing her of not being her real self and suspecting that she is an Eagan. Finally, it’s revealed that Helly has actually been Helena Eagan—an Eagan family member—impersonating her “innie” self on the severed floor. When Irving tries to expose her by dunking her in the river, she breaks character and orders Milchick to remove the Glasgow block, confirming her true identity. The Glasgow block was a control mechanism suppressing her innie’s awareness.
Milchick then banishes Irving from Lumon, promising to erase all traces of his existence, leaving Mark, Dylan, and the real Helly in shock. The episode ends with lingering mysteries about Irving’s fate, the eerie doubles in the forest, and the real purpose of the Glasgow block. The screen goes black, leaving viewers on a cliffhanger that makes them think there will be more surprises.
Severanceis a turning point in Season 2 of Severance. It adds to the show’s mythology and makes Lumon’s dark history even more mysterious. The Macrodata Refinement team is pushed to their limits by the scary outdoor retreat. It tests their trust in each other and makes them face their deepest fears. The stakes get higher with each new revelation, and the line between reality and illusion gets less clear.
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