Severance Season 2 Episode 1 has a disturbing Helly Easter egg you probably missed

Severance Season 2 premiere has finally landed on Apple TV, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it horror movie Easter egg that has major implications for Helly and the MDR team. Warning: spoilers ahead!

After three long years, Season 2 Episode 1 is here, taking us back to Lumon after the Overtime Contingency saw the MDR Innies make it to the real world. 

According to Milcheck, Mark, Helly, Dylan, and Irving are now famous thanks to what’s now referred to as the Macrodat Uprising. He also claims Mark is the only one who agreed to return to Lumon post-revolt. 

Mark’s not too happy with his new team, so much so that he breaks into Milcheck’s office and appeals to the board. Amazingly, rather than receiving punishment, Helly, Dylan, and Irving are brought back. 

Helly’s eye-opening Easter egg in Severance Season 2

At the end of Severance Season 2 Episode 1, we see the foursome getting back to work, deciding to stay at Lumon to find Ms Casey. As they all load their respective files, Helly’s screen shows she’s working on one called ‘Santa Mira’ – the fictional town in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Apple TV+

Now, you might think this is just an innocent homage to one of cinema’s greatest sci-fi movies, but there could be more to it, especially given Helly’s strange behavior since returning to the Severed Floor. 

Earlier on in the episode, the four unpack what each of them saw in the outside world, but Helly lies. Instead of revealing she’s the Lumon heiress Helena Eagan, she simply says she saw the “inside of a really f**king boring apartment” and spoke to a gardener. 

Irving picks up on this immediately, questioning the veracity of a “night gardener.” This, alongside the Santa Mira reference, has left some fans convinced that it’s not Helly down there at all – it’s Helena Eagan pretending to be her Innie. 

After all, Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ central premise involves people being replaced by emotionless duplicates – pod people who look the same but lack their original identity and humanity. 

The reference to Santa Mira, the town where this happens, could imply a similar dynamic at play. Helena Eagan could be using Helly’s body to manipulate the MDR team, much like the pod people in Body Snatchers.

Over on Reddit, one viewer pointed out the horror movie Easter egg, writing, “Santa Mira – the setting of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. More proof Helly R. has been replaced, right?” Another agreed, “It’s 100% Helena down there.”

“She’s definitely playing into the part, for the long game. Helly would be ashamed, and might also hide the truth at first, which Helena would know, and would use to fool the others more when she admits the truth later on,” added a third. 

Apple TV+

“She also definitely knows based on the ‘uprising’ and what Helly actually said up there, along with Mark that they are all not cool with their outies, so that’s an act too. I would love to believe she’s Helly, but I really think she’s been swapped.”

However, others believe there’s a different reason for her lies and the reference. “Dude I saw this and was just so confused by Helly from the jump,” said one. 

“We had suspected something had to have happened from Season 1 to now and it does appear either she is lying OR her memory was damaged/erased and rewritten maybe? I don’t know if she was replaced?”

Another commented, “Goddammit I really hope she isn’t. From the emotional side I tend to say she’s Helly. She seems upset at her outie, she’s trying so hard to distance herself from Helena. 

“She also seems disappointed for the fact that Mark said that Ms. Casey is his wife, as opposed to his outie’s wife.”

“One good point was that she could be feeling shame from having her outie be Helena,” added a third. 

We’ll have to wait to find out the truth, with Severance Season 2 Episode 2 landing on Apple TV+ on January 24. You can check out the full release schedule here, as well as the huge cameo you probably missed, the secret reason you find the show so disturbing, and other great Apple TV+ shows to stream this month.