'Severance' Episode 4 Is Unprecedented Television Greatness
If I asked you to pick Severance's defining episode, what would you say? The pilot episode is an instant classic. I bet some of you would cite season 1, episode 7, "Defiant Jazz." (Which is certainly the most-memed episode, at least.) "The We We Are," AKA the season 1 finale, is definitely up there, too. Until now, anyway.
I feel confident in writing that season 2, episode 4, "Woe's Hollow," is what "Fishes" is to The Bear. Season 2, episode 6 of the culinary drama also told a story that 1/ Left the sterile confines of the show's normal setting (i.e. the kitchen), 2/ Arrived in the middle of the even-better-than-the-first sophomore season, and 3/ Hammered home the show's emotional throughline. Kudos to Ben Stiller for his stellar direction of this episode.
When I wrote about "Fishes" while covering The Bear in 2023, I asked, "The question? The one that drives The Bear? Whether or not Carmy–in the gross, greasy thing he's made his life's work—can fix himself." In "Woe's Hollow," MDR faces several more abuses at the hands of Lumon: an offsite that makes them legitimately concerned about their physical well-being, a mole who (one could argue!) engages in nonconsensual sex with an employee, and the death of one of their own. At the very core of Severance's mystery box has always been the basic, age-old question: Can humanity trump capitalism?
Of course, in our increasingly bleak world, the answer is—more often than not—no. And "Woe's Hollow" certainly beats our heroes to an absolute pulp. But what if this is rock bottom? What if it took a fucked-up Outdoor Retreat Team Building Occurrence (ORTBO) to make MDR realise that Lumon will never change? What if Irving's death is the true beginning of the Innie rebellion?
"Holy shit! Out-fuckin'-side!"
Did I forget to mention that "Woe's Hollow" is just a really good episode of TV? Because it is. Nothing is ever as it seems in Severance, but the part of the brilliance of "Woe's Hollow" is how it eschews the show's usual rules in favour of nonsensical dream logic. In this episode, Mr. Milchick makes MDR recreate what is essentially a Kier-themed folktale; so, it tracks that the journey itself would feel as nonsensical and mystical as a folktale.
The episode begins (fittingly, I may add) with Irving, who wakes up in the middle of a frozen lake. Mind you, Severance never tells us how Lumon scattered MDR's severed bodies around the Dieter Egan National Forest. Mark is at the top of a cliff; he tells Irving to take a steep path upward to meet him. (Irving: "I'm on the fucking ice." Mark: "Maybe get off of it? C'mon!" Dream logic!) Irving treks up the path, where he finds Mark—and eventually, Dylan and Helena. Before we go any further: I'll herewith refer to the refiner we're led to believe is Helly as Helena. Turns out, the Helly-is-Helena theories were true, and knowing her real identity totally reframes "Woe's Hollow." So I'll recap the rest of the episode with the twist in mind.
The crew marvels at their surroundings (Dylan: "I mean, I knew there was no actual ceiling. But this is fucking insane.") and flicks on a TV on top of the cliff. It's a prerecorded message from Mr. Milchick, explaining why they're out-fuckin-side: an ORTBO. I seriously could write another story about how Severance simply takes aim at another Corporate America fixture—the bullshit company retreat—in "Woe's Hollow," but we have more pressing issues today. Here's the day's mission, per Milchick: "The truth you seek lies within The Fourth Appendix—a text of such sanctity that it is banned on the severed floor."
MDR eventually finds The Fourth Appendix without much fanfare, save for their Uncanny Valley-looking doppelgängers showing them the way forward. What are those, by the way? The Lumon-is-working-on-cloning-technology theory grows stronger by the day. I'd also be remiss to mention the dead seal(?!), but we'll cover that poor guy in the next section.
Kier Lore Dump Time
This recap will be about 110 percent more legible if I combine the two readings from The Fourth Appendix, our mandatory discussion of Dieter Eagan, the dead seal, and Irving's dream into one section. Here we go:
Who is Dieter Eagan and what does The Fourth Appendix tell us? Truly eagle-eyed fans noticed a sign in episode 2—when Milchick rides his motorcycle throughout the town—that reads, "Dieter’s Brother Live, No Minimum.” Turns out, "Dieter's Brother" is Kier himself. And I'll take it one step further: Amidst fans' endless speculation that Lumon is planning to resurrect Kier, it's a juicy tease to essentially write "Kier Live" on a sign, no?
Anyway, Dieter Eagan was Kier's twin brother. We learn their story from The Fourth Appendix, which Kier dictated in the final hours of his life. Dieter and Kier were close growing up, but according to Kier, Dieter wanted them to leave home and live in the forest. They trekked into the woods, toward Woe's Hollow, the section of the national park where this episode takes place. In The Fourth Appendix, Kier claims—to put it bluntly—that Dieter openly and loudly masturbated every night in the woods. "I had no choice but to listen as he spilt his lineage upon the soil," Kier writes.
Still, the brothers generally liked each other, enjoying their time in the forest otherwise. So why do we hear about Kier all the time and we're learning about Dieter just now? Well, Kier wants to go home, back to their normal lives, and Dieter very much does not. "He believed, I suppose, that we'd be woodland paupers forever," Kier continues. With that, the forest promptly destroys Dieter—his eye pops out because of the puss swelling inside his skull. His hair turns to moss. The puss turns to sap. (This is great bedtime reading, by the way.)
The cries of his brother are apparently too much for Kier to bear, so he goes to the base of the waterfall so he can't hear him anymore. There, he encounters Woe, one of the Four Tempers. (Reminder: Kier believed that Woe, Frolic, Dread, and Malice define each human's character. If you tame them, "the world shall become but your appendage.") Woe represents melancholy and despair; she is represented by a bride who is "half the height of a natural woman." Woe tells Kier, "This is your doing. You suffered his wantonness. Now he's no one's brother. Only chaos's whore." (Milchick claims all of this magical-realism bullshittery is entirely true, by the way.)
I'm sure that you will all have your own takeaways from this story, but the tale works on two levels. One, it's a biblical moral tale intended to teach generations of Lumon workers about the horrors of behavioral deviation. The fable (well, memoir, apparently) echoes the story of Cain and Abel, a good-and-evil lesson where one brother kills another because God favored one's sacrifice over the other's. As for the story's other level: Kier totally killed his brother because he masturbated in front of him. Encountering Woe symbolises the guilt he felt in the aftermath, and likely did until his death. The Fourth Appendix is dedicated to Dieter, after all.
What's the deal with the dead seal? During MDR's journey, they stumble upon what appears to be a dead, mutilated seal. I'm stumped on this one, but I think there's much more to Dieter Egan National Forest than meets the eye. I didn't really spot any living wildlife during the group's expedition. Is the forest sort of like the island in Squid Game where the location is protected and kept largely a secret from prying eyes? It'd be extremely Lumon-y to clear an entire forest of wildlife in service of ORTBOs and mysterious tests. That's all I have for now.
What's going on with Irving's dream? While Irving is asleep in the woods, he stumbles upon a dream-like version of his office space in a nightmare. He sits down, only to find Burt at the desk in front of him. Next to Burt? It's Woe, typing away on her computer. The numbers on Irving's computer dance around, which he watches until Woe pops by for a jump scare.
Obviously, "Woe's Hollow" is the domain of Woe, so it's not a surprise that Irving would encounter the object of his grief, Burt, while he's passed out in the area. This is another overthink, but is there any chance that Irving finally processed his grief for Burt and "conquered" Woe, just as Kier did before him? He wakes up the next morning with absolute conviction that Helly is not only an imposter, but that she is an Eagan. I know that he's suspicious of Helly throughout season 2, but isn't mole-to-Eagan a pretty big jump? Are we supposed to understand that Irving's dream was really a prophecy?
Mark S. Loses His Virginity
After Milchick reads from The Fourth Appendix, Helena starts cracking up—which is interesting. After this episode's twist, we have to start asking more questions about Helena Eagan. Severance has led us to believe that she is the cold, calculating future CEO of Lumon Industries. And that's pretty much it. I've seen a couple theories out in the Reddit-sphere that suggest Helena will turn into an Innie sympathiser by the end of season 2. I could see it. The simple fact that Helena openly mocks a sacred Lumon text tells us that maybe she isn't the strict pencil-pusher we thought she was. With Helena seemingly harboring real feelings for Mark, I bet we'll see a different Helena Eagan once she returns from the forest.
On the romantic end: Innie Mark indeed loses his virginity. After Milchick and Ms. Huang burn the group's marshmallows in a fit of fury, Mark stops by Helly's tent for a little makeout-takeout action. "I can make goo-goo eyes at anyone I want," says Mark, referring to Irving's crack at them earlier in the episode. "Sorry if I’m distracting you from looking for your wife," says Helena, actually sounding genuine. They soon kiss and shed layers—Mark briefly sees Ms. Casey, our first glimpse of reintegration's effects on Mark's Innie—and it's implied that they have sex.
This presents a very Severance-y moral conundrum: Helena, knowing that Mark thinks she is Helly, willingly fucks him. So is it nonconsensual sex for both Mark and Helly, in a way? Am I overthinking this? Regardless, I'm sure we'll find out how Mark feels about his intimate brush with Eagan royalty in episode 5.
Is Irving Dead?
We already covered Irving's prophetic night in the woods, so let's pick up with the next morning. Helena wanders away from the group to mountain at the waterfall—which, despite her irreverence toward The Fourth Appendix, implies that she actually views the area as a site of familial significance. Or something. Irving walks up behind her. "Hey, kid," he says, before adding, "What you said to me last night was cruel. Helly was never cruel." He's referring to her campfire shade the night before—Helena said that Irving is just upset that he'll never see Burt again—but I genuinely think it's the dream that definitively tipped him off. "I'm right here," she says.
Well, Irving, uh... grabs Helena and dunks her in the freezing water, calling for Milchick between dunks. "Who would have the power to send her Outie to the severed floor?" Irving screams. A horrified Mark, Dylan, and Milchick watch Helena cry for help, while Irving reiterates that she's a mole. "She's not Helly—she's an Eagan!"
Eventually, Helena relents. "Do it, Seth," she pleads. Milchick tells someone on the other end of his walkie-talkie to "remove the Glasgow Block," which turns Helena back into Helly. Keep in mind that the last time Helly was conscious, she was outing Lumon's malpractices to the world. Now, she's flirting with hypothermia while in Irving's arms.
Milchick orders Irving to stand. "You have threatened collegial murder in the pond of Woe’s Hollow," he says. "For this, there can be no penalty but immediate and permanent dismissal. There shall be no formal valediction, catered or otherwise. Your Outie will be notified forthwith." Irving walks into the forest, where Milchick presumably makes the call to permanently kill his Innie. Irving B. is dead.
So What's Next?
If you can correctly tell me what's next, I'll send you all the copious luxury meats I can afford. Maybe we'll see Innie Irving again, but I doubt it. At least for a while—the man tried to kill an Eagan. That doesn't mean we won't see more of his Outie, who is one of Severance's biggest question marks. He paints pictures of the death elevator, makes mysterious calls on his local payphone, and clearly lies to Milchick during their interactions. Earlier in the season, we saw Burt spying on Outie Irving, so is a reunion in the cards?
Meanwhile, MDR has to recover and RTO, because Mark needs to finish Cold Harbor. You have to wonder if Lumon and Helena—knowing that the team will be crushed by Irving's death—will return Helly to the severed floor, if only to keep Mark happy enough to finish Cold Harbor. As for Dylan, I'll never recover from the way he shouted, "I'm sorry I didn't listen!" to Irving.
In the meantime, keep calm and carry on, refiners—we're not even halfway through the season yet. See you next week.
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