In our Severance season 2 episode 5 recap, the maddeningly mysterious show delivers a somber and tense episode called “Trojan’s Horse.” It picks up the pieces after last week’s not-so-shocking revelation that Helena Eagan had been masquerading as innie Helly R., and Irving B. paid with his innie life to reveal it.
Last week’s episode 4 brought us into a wintry wilderness for the world’s weirdest team-building glamping trip. It turned a spotlight on Irving B. for the first time, but it also showed his likely demise as an innie as he took an uncharacteristically bold stand in the woods. Now he gets a Lumon-style funeral.
Severance season 2, episode 5 recap: ‘Trojan’s Horse’
In last week’s episode four, entitled “Woe’s Hollow,” we saw Irving’s end as an innie, when he forced Mr. Milchick’s (Tramell Tillman) hand by threatening to drown Lumon heir Helena Eagan — Irv realized she wasn’t innie Helly (Britt Lower) — in a creek. Forced to march into the woods, his innie world went black on Milchick’s command into a walkie talkie. Trembling in Mark’s arms, a soaked and bewildered Helly, now present because Milchick ordered the “Glasgow block” turned off, looked on.
“Trojan Horse” opens mysteriously, with an unseen figure whistling Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” while collecting dental tools. Then he descends into the ominous Exports Hall via the elevator down that dark hall that Irving B.’s outie obsessively paints. Portal to hell, anyone?
OMG, the aftermath of that ORTBO
Photo: Apple TV+
Following the chaos of the outdoor retreat and team-building occurrence (ORTBO), Helena meets with Lumon executives Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) and Natalie (Sydney Cole Alexander). Despite Helena’s protests and her description of the innies as “f*cking animals,” she’s informed that she must allow her innie to return to work. They believe Mark S. (Adam Scott) won’t complete the crucial Cold Harbor project without Helly.
When Helly’s innie returns to the severed floor, she reunites with Mark and Dylan (Zach Cherry), but the atmosphere is tense. The team learns of Irving’s (John Turturro) permanent dismissal. Milchick explains it away as Irving’s outie departing on an “elongated cruise voyage.” He also tries to explain Helena’s presence among innies via Swedish history, telling the story of the Gråkappan. A long-ago Swedish king would wear a Gråkappan, or old gray robe, over his royal vestments and walk among his people incognito to learn their true grievances. Kier Egan supposedly did the same in his “ether factories.” And so Helena merely continued a noble tradition. The refiners think it’s horsesh*t, as Mark S. calls it.
The workplace has been modified to remove all traces of Irving, including a reconfiguration of their four-person workspace into a three-desk arrangement. He’s even gone from frames photos of the team. Dylan demands a funeral be allowed for Irving.
They ‘readied a bereavement kit’ for Irving B.
Photo: Apple TV+
And so the episode features a touching yet darkly comical funeral for Irving, complete with commemorative mugs bearing his face and a watermelon carved in his likeness. Having demanded the funeral, Dylan delivers a foul-mouthed-yet-heartfelt eulogy, revealing regret for not helping Irving with his final request.
After the ceremony, he discovers Irving’s hidden map to the Exports Hall behind a “Hang in There” poster. Remember, that’s what Irv shouted to him by the waterfall before they shut him down. What seemed like very bland parting advice now takes on new meaning.
Meanwhile, tension builds between Mark and Helly as he struggles to trust her following Helena’s deception. Their relationship becomes further strained when Dylan reveals to Helly that Ms. Casey is Mark’s outie’s wife. Mark’s paranoia about Lumon’s surveillance reaches new heights. He believes Helena has revealed all their secret activities to management and he treats Helly coldly.
Plot lines advance outside Lumon’s halls
Photo: Apple TV+
Outside Lumon, Mark S.’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock) confronts her husband Ricken (Michael Chernus) about his decision to write a Lumon-approved version of his book The You You Are. She sees it as a betrayal of his principles. She says he’s changing his ideas to tow Lumon’s corporate line of propaganda. Ricken defends it as a “Trojan’s horse” that could inspire revolution.
In a significant development, Irving’s outie encounters Burt’s outie (Christopher Walken) surveilling him. Outie Burt reveals he was fired from Lumon for having an “unsanctioned, erotic entanglement” with another worker. And because Irv showed up at his doorstep shouting his name during the Overtime Contingency, Burt guesses his innie was entangled with Irv’s. This leads to an invitation to dinner with Burt and his husband, Fields, potentially bringing Irving closer to understanding his innie’s experiences.
Milchick’s harsh monthly employee review
Photo: Apple TV+
The episode also focuses on Milchick’s first performance review, where he’s criticized for using “too many big words,” using paper clips the wrong way and his “kindness reforms” that failed to prevent employee curiosity. Drummond reminds him to treat the severed MDR workers as “what they really are,” suggesting a darker turn in Lumon’s management approach. And making everyone wonder: “What are they?”
Mark, who’s been secretly working with Dr. Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) on reintegration, experiences increasingly severe symptoms, including coughing and reality-bending episodes. In a powerful moment, he experiences a vision of Ms. Casey/Gemma (Dichen Lachman), marking the first time his outie has seen his supposedly departed wife since her “death.”
Grasping at threads
This Severance season 2 episode 5 recap finds it ends with several threading plot lines:
- Dylan now possesses the map to the Exports Hall. Will he look for it?
- Mark’s condition undergoing reintegration deteriorates as his connection to his innie memories grows.
- The dynamic among the remaining MDR team members without Irv, amid Milchick’s crackdown, is tense and complicated.
- What are Irving and Burt’s outies going to get up to, and who is Irv talking to in that phone booth?
The title “Trojan Horse” takes on multiple meanings, referring not only to Ricken’s book but also to the various ways characters are attempting to subvert Lumon’s control from within.
Through its careful character work and mounting tension, the episode continues to peel back layers of Lumon’s mysterious operations. The strong performances, particularly from Lower as she navigates Helly’s return to work, and Cherry’s emotional tribute to Irving, help ground the show’s increasingly complex narrative in human emotion and relationships. Praise Kier!
Previous Severance recaps:
- Season 2, episode 4: Irving B. takes a brutal stand in the icy Severance wilderness
- 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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