Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: 3 big mysteries solved in Woe’s Hollow and 5 new questions I have about the hit Apple TV Plus show

Full spoilers follow for Severance season 2 episode 4.

You were warned, Severance fans. Before the critically-acclaimed series returned on January 17, numerous members of the press – myself included – said that season 2 episode 4, titled ‘Woe’s Hollow’, would emotionally stun you. Indeed, I teased as much in my Severance season 2 review, but I wasn’t convinced that many fans had taken any notice.

Now that ‘Woe’s Hollow’ is out on Apple TV Plus, though, the critically-acclaimed series’ fanbase is losing its collective mind over what happened in Severance season 2‘s latest chapter. As the dust settles on one of the show’s best episodes so far, I’m here to answer your biggest questions about its ending, which mysteries it solves, and discuss some new theories that I have in the wake of its release.

This is your final warning: huge spoilers immediately follow for Severance season 2 episode 4. Bookmark this page for later, go and watch it right now, and then re-open this article once you’ve made it through the end credits.

Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: wait, that’s not Helly R…

Ever since episode 1 of the hit Apple TV Original’s second season landed on one of the world’s best streaming services, fans have suspected that something was amiss with Helly R. Many of us believed that she hadn’t returned to Lumon alongside her fellow ‘innies’ and that Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon’s current CEO, had infiltrated the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) team to spy on them for the nefarious biotech corporation. That’s one of seven big theories I proposed following the release of Severance season 2’s first episode.

Well, it turns out I and many others, including Irving B, were right. Irving B has been suspicious of Helly R since MDR discussed what they saw in the outside world in Severance’s season 1 finale. Thanks to a weird dream he has (more on this later), plus the fact that Helena cruelly mocks him during a tense campfire conversation midway through this episode, Irving B determines that Helena is masquerading as Helly R. Confronting her the next day near Woe’s Hollow’s waterfall, he almost drowns Helena in a last-ditch, desperation-filled attempt to force Lumon’s hand and confirm his suspicions.

Long story short: Irving B is right. Helena was planted as a mole within MDR to keep tabs on them and seemingly woo Mark S (the ‘innie’ of Mark Scout), so he gives up on finding Gemma, the wife of his ‘outie’, and uncovering more of Lumon’s sinister working practices.

Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: what is the Glasgow Block?

Okay, but how did Helena manage to infiltrate MDR? The elevator, which leads to the Severed Floor, contains the technology that causes a severed employee’s ‘outie’ to be replaced by their ‘innie’ when they begin their latest shift at Lumon. So, how was Helena able to bypass this when she “goes to work” at Lumon? And why didn’t Helly R appear alongside her co-workers when the ‘innies’ were transported to the real world for the field trip (or ORTBO, as Severed Floor manager Seth Milchick calls it) that takes place in episode 4?

It’s all down to the Glasgow Block. Another program at Lumon’s disposal, it seemingly allows the company’s unsevered managers to prevent a severed worker’s ‘innie’ from materializing in certain situations. You know, like when the daughter of your company’s CEO has been tasked with spying on some severed employees… Anyway, we know this is the name of this software because Milchick tells someone (presumably back at Lumon HQ) to turn it off as Irving B drowns Helena.

Interestingly, ‘Glasgow’ is one of the program names that we first glimpsed in the final episode of Severance’s first season. Remember when Dylan G used the Overtime Contingency (OTC) to send Mark S, Irving B, and Helly R into the real world? When he’s cycling through Lumon’s override systems in its security room, ‘Glasgow’ is one of the pieces of software that appears alongside OTC. Clearly, Lumon has had the Glasgow Block application lined up for a while in case it needed to use it for myriad reasons. That raises questions about what the other programs do and whether we’ll see them in action in future seasons.

Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: did Kier Eagan really have a twin brother called Dieter?

‘Woe’s Hollow’ doesn’t just confirm that Helena was spying on MDR and what the Glasgow Block is. Indeed, the latest episode of one of the best Apple TV Plus shows also lifts the lid on some apparently critical details about Kier Eagan, aka Lumon Industries’ founder who’s worshipped by many of its employees. Revelations about Kier include him writing a fourth, secret appendix that few Lumon workers know about, his first encounter with Woe, one of the so-called Four Tempers, and that he supposedly had a twin named Dieter.

Of course, that begs the question: was Dieter a real person? I’m not buying that for one second. For one, Kier’s claims about what happened to Dieter are incredibly outlandish. In the fourth appendix, Kier writes that, essentially, Dieter was turned into a tree after committing the cardinal sin of, well, masturbating. Go figure.

In my view, Dieter never existed – instead, he’s the ‘evil twin’ to Kier’s morally righteous persona that Kier must exorcise, whether that’s through taming the Four Tempers or doing something else. Despite its sci-fi vibes and aesthetic, Severance is as much of an exploration of religious symbolism and ideologies (the battle of good versus evil and cultism to name just two), and man’s duplicitous nature – after all, this is a show where people have an ‘innie’ persona and an ‘outie’ persona. Dieter, then, is just Kier’s evildoing persona that he fabricated and then “defeated” to become the upstanding, virtuous individual he’s depicted as within Lumon.

Want one last piece of evidence? Dieter is derived from its fellow German name Dietrich, which roughly translates to “people ruler”. What does Kier Eagan do, even though he’s long since passed from this world? Laud it over Lumon. He’s the ruler of the people who work for him. Get it?

Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: what is the Montauk Project?

Severance season 2’s fourth episode might have solved some big mysteries, but it also creates new questions and theories that need answering.

One of those is the Montauk Project. After he falls asleep, Irving B dreams that he’s in a far more sinister version of the forest that MDR’s company retreat is being held in. Surrounded by thorny shrubbery, he walks towards an unsettling sound, which turns out to be a group of moths that are flittering around a computer monitor. Or, rather, four monitors, because he stumbles upon an office layout not unlike the set-up that the MDR team has at Lumon.

There, Irving B sits at his desk and stares at what’s on the screen. In the top left hand corner, the word ‘Montauk’ can be seen. Rows of numbers also litter the screen, but they’re soon jumbled together to form the face of Helena Eagan. Some of the numbers also turn into letters that spell out her surname – clues that confirm to Irving B that he’s right in his assumptions about Helena’s infiltration.

Comment from r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus

But I digress. Unfortunately, there’s no indication about what Lumon’s Montauk Project is. I don’t recall seeing it as one of company’s ‘innie’ programs like the OTC or Glasgow Block from season 1 episode 9, so it’s unlikely to be another piece of software that allows them to control the ‘innies’. I doubt it’s got something to do Project Cold Harbor, either, which is the project that Mark S needs to complete at Lumon and somehow has ties to Gemma.

‘Montauk’ is a name with real-life historical significance, though. For starters, there’s a real-world conspiracy theory called The Montauk Project, which alleges that the US government conducted experiments surrounding psychological warfare and time travel in Montauk, New York. There’s also The Montauk Monster incident – an event that saw an unidentifiable rotten animal carcass wash up on the shores of the New York City district in July 2008. MDR see a similarly styled carcass on their way to Woe’s Hollow, which is a neat callback to this real-world mystery. It’s possible, then, that references to Montauk in Severance season 2’s fourth chapter are just the creative team’s way of adding to the fictional and real-world puzzles within the show itself.

Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: is Irving B dead?

It certainly seems that way. After almost drowning Helena to force Lumon to admit she’s been spying on the MDR team, a furious Milchick tells Irving B that there’s no choice but to “retire” him. As we know, that’s code for “yeah, your ‘innie’ is toast”. Considering Irving B almost committed “collegial murder” (Milchick’s words, not mine”), it seems his time is up as a Lumon employee for his ‘innie’ and ‘outie’.

Fortunately, Severance‘s creators spare us the pain of seeing Irving’s ‘innie’ draw his last breath. Indeed, the screen cuts to black as Milchick tells Lumon to, well, sever Irving for what appears to be the final time. So long, Irving B.

That said, I don’t actually think Lumon destroys a person’s ‘innie’ when it ‘retires’ them – and it’s got something to do with the previously mentioned Glasgow Block. You see, in the real world, there’s a scientific tool called the Glasgow Coma Scale. It’s used to determine a person’s level of consciousness after a serious brain injury or some other traumatic experience.

I theorize, then, that the Glasgow Block is the program utilized by Lumon when it wants to ‘retire’ an ‘innie’. That doesn’t mean that said ‘innie’ is bumped off, though. Instead, I think they’re simply placed into a comatose state. If required, Lumon can simply reawaken an individuals ‘innie’ if it needs them to.

If I’m right, that means that all of the supposedly dead ‘innies’ are still somewhere inside the brains of Irving B, Burt G, and any other severed employee who’s been let go by Lumon. Long story short: there must be a way to bring them back and I wouldn’t be shocked if one of the company’s other ‘innie’ programs has the capacity to do so.

Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: why did Irving tell Dylan to “hang in there”?

Before Irving’s ‘innie’ is shut down (I refuse to believe he’s dead), a guilty Dylan G shouts down to him to apologize for not believing him over Helena. Irving B responds by telling Dylan that it’s okay and that he just needs to “hang in there”.

This is an incredibly important callback to Severance season 2 episode 1. After Mark S’ co-workers are welcomed back to Lumon and as they sit through that bizarre ‘Lumon Is Listening’ video (yes, that’s Keanu Reeves voicing Lumon’s anthropomorphic building in Severance season 2’s premiere), a poster with the words ‘Hang in there’ can be seen on one of the walls. It also recreates the scene from season 1 episode 9 where Dylan G holds onto the two OTC switches to activate it.

Hang in there poster (Break room) from r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus

What does all of this mean? Irving B has hidden something behind that poster and wants Dylan G to find it. Remember: in last week’s episode, Irving B told Dylan G that he’d sketched the painting (the one that his ‘outie’ has made numerous times) of the long, dark hallway with an elevator leading down.

I believe Irving B has been playing the long game here. He knew he was going to fired by Lumon if (or, rather, when) he forced them to admit Helena had been spying on MDR, so he put plans in place for his colleagues to continue their quest to find out what Lumon was really up to. Long story short: I think Irving B has hidden his sketches behind that poster. if Dylan G is clever and brave enough to find them, he can tell Mark S and Helly R about the sketches, and they can use them to find the elevator and, potentially, Gemma.

Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: hang on, are those clones of the MDR team?

Given other shocking events that transpire in ‘Woe’s Hollow’, it’s easy to forget another deeply unsettling moment that happens earlier in season 2 episode 4. As the MDR team begin their journey towards the titular location, they’re apparently aided by silent versions of themselves, who point them in the direction of Woe’s Hollow.

Severance fans have long believed that Lumon Industries’ primary objective is unlocking the secret of human cloning. There are numerous threads on the main Severance Reddit page theorizing this is the case, with some viewers suggesting the series’ adorable goats are all clones, Ms Casey is a clone of Mark’s wife Gemma, and that the Severed Floor’s newly installed deputy manager Ms Huang is a clone of Gemma or even what would’ve been Mark and Gemma’s daughter. The purpose of all of this? To resurrect Kier by implanting his consciousness in a clone of his own body.

If – and it’s a big if – this is the crux of Severance‘s story and/or biggest mystery, it would explain why MDR sees cloned versions of themselves as they try to find Woe’s Hollow. Sure, these ‘clones’ could just be a mirage, but I’m struggling to determine how Lumon would make the ‘innies’ have hallucinations of themselves. I suppose they could be animatronics (Lumon has used them before), but the clone theory just makes more sense to me.

Severance season 2 episode 4 ending explained: how will MDR react to events at Woe’s Hollow?

If Severance doesn’t provide answers to questions 4 through 7 in its next episode, it’s a sure fire bet that it’ll provide answers to this and all of the below?

How will Helly R react to the fact that Helena has been masquerading as her? Will Mark S tell her that he slept with Helena (he thought she was Helly, for what it’s worth) and, if so, will it destroy their burgeoning romance? Will Milchick keep his job as Severed Floor manager? And is Dylan G going to take Irving B’s advice or will he sacrifice it in favor of seeing the wife of his ‘outie’ again?

It’s going to be a long week to get answers to all of these questions and more. So, as Irving B said: “hang in there”.

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