In our Severance season 2 episode 4 recap, we follow our friends from Lumon Industries’ Macradata Refinement (MDR) department into a wintry wilderness central to Kier Eagan’s lore. In the most bizarre corporate team-building event ever, two of them find forbidden love and one may never return. And it’s the first episode to take place completely outside of Lumon’s halls without visiting outies’ lives.
Last week’s episode 3 went further down innie rabbit holes in amusingly confounding ways. Ultimately, an improved-yet-still-dangerous outlaw reintegration procedure seemed like it might be outie Mark S’s path to returning to his beginnings at Lumon, cracking the sinister company’s mysteries and finding his wife. It made likely plot trajectories a little more clear. But episode 4 actually unravels some mysteries, and gives Irving B. (John Turturro) center stage for the first time.
Severance season 2, episode 4 recap: ‘Woe’s Hollow’
In last week’s episode three, entitled “Who Is Alive,” we saw the search for Mrs. Casey (aka Gemma, outie Mark’s supposedly dead wife) continue. The Macrodata Refinement (MDR) innies fanned out in search of answers at Lumon. Mark and Helly enlisted help from the bizarre “Mammalians Nurturable” department and its goat herders. Each of the other refiners made progress in one way or another. Importantly, an improved reintegration process — supposedly better than the one that killed Mark’s former supervisor, Petey — brought Mark back to Lumon as on his first severed day. But before we see if reintegration can help him figure things out in Lumon’s antiseptic hallways, we head into the woods for “Woe’s Hollow.” The episode title refers to a place-name from Kier Eagan lore.
Uncharted territory in Dieter Eagan National Forest
Photo: Apple TV+
“Woe’s Hollow” takes Severance’s MDR team into uncharted territory as Irving (John Turturro), Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) wake up in a frozen wilderness for an “Outdoor Retreat Team-Building Occurrence” (ORTBO). Irving finds himself standing on an icy lake, while Mark calls to him from a cliff above. Early images from the season showed the team in heavy black fur coats and black fur hats, looking like Russian fur traders. This is that episode.
Led by Milchick (Tramell Tillman), initially on a tape played, incongruously, on a clifftop, the team encounters eerie doppelgangers of themselves who guide them through the Dieter Eagan National Forest (as we ask “who the #$@% is Dieter?!). These mysterious doubles, dressed in business attire despite the cold, silently point the way to their destination. The team discovers a leather-bound book containing Kier’s fourth appendix. It reveals he had a twin brother, Dieter, who chose to live as a pauper in these woods.
Campfire readings about ‘chaos’s whore’
During a fireside reading by Milchick, accompanied by Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) on theremin, they learn of Dieter’s grotesque fate. His eye reportedly burst from its socket and moss tore from his bleeding scalp as he transformed into “chaos’s whore.” The tale concludes with Kier’s encounter with “Woe,” a supernatural half-sized bride who blamed him for his brother’s fate. Whoah.
Tensions escalate when Irving becomes increasingly suspicious of Helly’s behavior (he never bought her made-up Overtime Contingency story, with its “night gardener”). After she makes a cruel comment about his separation from Burt (Christopher Walken), Irving storms off into the woods with a torch. Meanwhile, Mark and Helly have sex in her tent, where she cryptically confesses to being “ashamed” of who she was on the outside — a statement that takes on new meaning later.
Irving B. takes a brutal stand, alone
Photo: Apple TV+
During his night in the wilderness, Irving experiences a vivid dream featuring Burt, Woe and his MDR computer displaying numbers that decode to spell “EAGAN.” This revelation leads to the episode’s climactic confrontation at Woe’s Hollow waterfall. There Irving confronts Helena (Helly’s outie) and begins drowning her to force Milchick’s hand. Helena breaks character, ordering “Seth” (Milchick) to “remove the Glasgow block,” which returns Helly’s innie consciousness.
The price for exposing Helena’s deception is steep. For nearly killing a future Lumon CEO, Irving receives a permanent dismissal. Milchick orders him to walk into the forest, declaring that all evidence of Irving B.’s existence will be erased. Before departing, Irving shares a poignant “Hang in there!” to Dylan and apologizes to the newly-returned Helly. When Milchick says “Now” into his walkie-talkie, Irving’s world goes abruptly black, along with the episode and this Severance season 2 episode 4 recap.
Along with MDR, we needed to learn more Lumon mythology
The episode, directed by Ben Stiller and written by Anna Ouyang Moench, masterfully weaves together Severance‘s growing mythology. And it does it while raising provocative questions about Lumon’s technological capabilities — particularly the mysterious “Glasgow block” that apparently allows them to control innie/outie transitions. The revelation of Helena’s deception forces viewers to reevaluate all of “Helly’s” recent actions, including her intimate encounter with Mark, which takes on a disturbing new dimension, given her true identity.
Other mysteries abound: an unidentifiable animal carcass in the woods, the nature of the doppelgangers and the true story behind Kier and Dieter’s relationship. The episode ends with Irving’s sacrifice having successfully exposed Helena’s deception and restored the real Helly, but at the cost of his own existence as an innie. Turturro’s performance in the final scenes, shifting from righteous fury to tender triumph as he cradles the confused Helly after nearly drowning her (as Helena), stands as one of the season’s most powerful moments.
Previous Severance recaps:
- Season 2, episode 3: Severance boldly sends Mark S. back to his Lumon beginnings
- Season 2, episode 2: Lumon deals with Severance outies in Overtime Contingency’s aftermath
- Season 2, episode 1: ‘It’s been a minute’ since we felt that Severance vertigo
Watch Severance on Apple TV+
Severance season one and season two’s new episodes now stream on Apple TV+. New episodes air on Fridays (though they’re usually available the night after 6 p.m. PT).
Apple TV+ is available by subscription for $9.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. Customers who buy a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
After launching in November 2019, “Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 471 wins and 2,090 award nominations and counting,” the service said.
Apple TV+ is home to more than 200 exclusive movies and TV shows (including breakout soccer comedy Ted Lasso). The service also offers documentaries, dramas, comedies, kids shows and more.
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