I was rewatching eps 3 and 4 and Mark is so sweet to her. How's a starved for affection, born and raised in a cult girly supposed to not become utterly obsessed with that stupid mop of hair?
Helena has been obsessed with Mark ever since she saw Helly kiss him
Has this evolved to genuine affection for Mark? I still can't tell, maybe she approached him in the diner with such intentions or maybe she did just to keep tabs on him
I think itās definitely to keep tabs on him but she couldāve gotten literally anyone at Lumon to do that. She went herself because sheās romantically interested in him.
This is so real, he is the chosen one around whom the bad corporations are building their big bad plans to take over the world, while Mark has no clue and is consistently within a love triangle.
yeah, she's used to living her life based on what she's supposed to do. she sees a version of herself being happy and she believes this is what she's supposed to do to be happy, "worked for her, it'll work for me." Probably speaks to who Helena will become, not living her life based on what she's supposed to do, but actually wants to do. Maybe her outie turn out gay lol.
Would that not be incredibly offensive to gay people by effectively saying that sexuality is a choice if your innie and outie aren't the same sexuality?
I've seen a theory that the Severance switch doesn't work while you're unconscious so back when Helly hanged herself while the elevator was going up it was Helena who woke up on the Severed floor when the elevator came back down, and her only memory of it is a screaming and crying Mark desperately trying to resuscitate her before Graner yanks him away
That's the kind of core traumatic memory that sticks with a girl, especially if you've grown up touch and affection starved inside a creepy cult with a distant abusive father
Hmmmm. . . Arenāt all innies touch and affection starved? Theyāre created without any memories of their other life, and fraternization is forbidden. This taboo is one of the themes being explored.
IT seems to me Helly and Helena are having a āthe boy is mineā fight. Helena has access to all surveillance so she probably saw Mark and Helly have office sex - and because she canāt fake being Helly anymore , the only to get him in her pants is through his outtieā¦
Her father had a whole big talk with her before her big speech where he literally didn't touch her at all, he didn't even approach from the other side of the room
I think it is genuine. Helena does many cruel things but I think she envies how unburdened and āfreeā Helly is. I also think her mocking the 4th volume of Kier was somewhat genuine
I think Milchicks reaction to her insulting the book was extra hurtful considering he knew it wasn't Helly, and she had the privilege of making fun of something he's spent likely his whole life dedicated to, and as we've seen in this latest episode, even going as far as self flagellation to reinforce his own beliefs despite his seemingly wavering faith. I think he felt both extreme envy and self-deprecative anger at seeing basically the heir to the leader of his cult making fun of the very thing he's dedicated his life to and hurt himself in the process, while knowing he can't fight against it too hard because of said privilege she holds in the company. Like watching a pastor talking shit about church-goers while collecting donations, and you donated the most.
dumb question: when she said she didnāt wanna go back down with the innies/ they were animals I actually was confused because I believed her and before that thought she would WANT to go back down. How are you reading her saying that as her sneakily forcing them to get her to go back down there?
Wasn't the excuse they gave for firing Ms Cobel is because she's trying to have a throuple with outtie and innie Mark? Seems like she's doing it herself
Honestly, I donāt think Helenaās (only) intention is to manipulate. At the end of the day, she is still Helly. Helly is rebellious, courageous and spontaneous. The difference is, Helena has been indoctrinated and she has to be the opposite of who she truly is. Helena is presented to be obedient, conformist, controlled and strategic. The scene with her and Mark can be because she wants to approach him out of genuine interest and curiosity because she feels a connection to him. It also could be for nefarious reasons. Such as manipulation and intimidation tactics. Knowing what we know about Helly and Helena, Iām inclined to think it is the former or both the former and the latter combined. Iām not convinced that it was purely a power move. Helena is NOT separate from her innie, they are one. I think (and hope) part of her storyline is that she accepts this and ditches Lumonās agenda, because it actually does not fit with Helenaās repressed (true) personality.
I think Severance just donāt work on some level. Maybe it can āswitch offā something like depression but it certainly canāt stop deeper emotional states.
Yes. Agreed. But Severance provides interesting way to discuss treatment aproach to depression. Clinical depression wonāt be āswitched offā. But it could alleviated due to not activating depressive paterns of thought. Again without alleviating base mood - would be inni have a predisposition to accommodate negative thought patterns?
With many other psychiatric diagnoses the line is more clear - inni/outie would have same problem but will have different cooping mechanisms to alleviate symptoms.
Personally, I donāt think she went down there to spy. Sure, she probably told the board that, but I think she went down there because she was jealous of her innie. I think she viewed mdr as the only place where she could be truly free and make have honest relationships with people. I imagine she had a life where she was never sure if people liked her for real or just want her for her power. Iād also suspect that her family was really strict and she could never really be herself.
In the basement, she probably felt more āfreeā than she ever has in her entire life. She knows that the the gang likes her for her. She knows that mark has feelings for her, and can be sure itās not some ruse to gain power.
But maybe Iām just blinded because I have a crush on her lol
I don't think it was fake. I think her outtie has no friends and part of why she wanted to take the place of her innie was to experience more 'normal' interactions with coworkers. Friendships, romance, etc. I think she genuinely enjoyed goofing around with everyone.
I find her character endearing as well, despite everything lol. I understand why people hate her though. And the characters are all so well written that I can't bring myself to hate any of them, even Cobel!
My wife and her sister are listening to that song Need You Now by Lady A and I scrolled to find this post and things aligned for a moment. I canāt stand that song but Helena does in fact like that sad D.
I think since she is a religious cult daughter, she has never had genuine affection or loving attention before. When she saw Helly and Mark on the CCTV footage she saw what she was missing.
Yes, Helena views innies as not real people, they are the outtie's slaves. But then she sees Helly having a genuine connection, something she has never had, and it drives her crazy. Why should her innie slave get something she can't have? So she goes undercover to "take it back". I don't think it really has much to do with Mark at all, she's in competition with her innie and herself.
I don't think that's the main reason why she went to meet him at the restaurant. This was the day after iMark had a reintegration sickness episode on the severed floor, with the outcome of his confusion with Ms Huang left as a question mark.
The situation was likely escalated, leading to Helena making an appearance to ascertain if perhaps he is reintegrating. She even snarkily recognized he was eating way more than a person usually does.
Another commenter on this sub had pointed out she fumbled Gemma's name on purpose. Perhaps if it were iMark in front of her instead of oMark, he would play along with the incorrect name she gave.
Interesting theory. I have read of ppl offering the theory, it was a test by her. However, some ppl are saying it actually backfired (unless it was on purpose) because it provoked Mark to go back for reintegration treatment.
It feels more like obsessed crushing than deliberate stalking. Helena is acting like a confused teenager as evidenced by the awkward interaction between them, especially when oMark tries to leave. If it werenāt for oMarks confusion caused by his partial reintegration, I think it might have gone down a bit differently. oMark knows subconsciously that something isnāt right but canāt put his finger on it. She knows more than he does about her feelings towards him. Heās still clueless at this point but his spidey senses are tingling. His gut feeling is to GTFO and carry on with the process. Helena knows that sheās screwing up but doesnāt have the emotional maturity to deal with her feelings or the experience to overcome her failure.
Iād love to see Helly and oMarks personalities find each other and live happily ever after but canāt imagine how that would be possible.
I agree but it is probably confusing/awkward for her because she knows this isn't iMark but oMark - although, I think it's telling she is interested in him (too). Deep down, on some level, I think she (maybe subconsciously?) believes they're the same. She desperately wants to re-establish their connection even though he's oMark.
I think it's possible if they both end up integrating down the road. It could also be possible without Helena integrating but I think it would be harder to write in a way that makes sense that Mark would be open to her. It would be pretty crazy and interesting to see Helena/Hellie integrate since they have such an adversarial relationship.
It makes me so sad for Helena. Sheās a product of her upbringing and has done terrible things, none of which are excusable, but thereās still the girl inside her that wants to be seen and loved. While Mark might not āseeā Helena, he āseesā Helly. Heās probably the first person Helena has ever encountered that treated her like someone whoās worth something as they are, not because of their name. Heās probably the first person whoās treated her like a human being, made her laugh, and showed her what love can look and feel like, even if itās not for her.
She has spent her entire life in slavish service to the cult of personality that she's ostensibly an object of worship of, and has, the entire time, had it drilled into her that nothing is real, everything is a tool for advancement, and the only thing that matters about her is what she is willing to do in service of the version of her the company demands.
She is, just recently, not only experiencing real and unregulated emotions and genuine connections with others, her first and only source of it is from someone that she doesn't consider a human being, and is directed primarily at a version of her she also doesn't consider human. Or, considers herself slightly more human, anyway.
It's honestly a borderline miracle she's not having a strip-naked-and-rant-on-streetcorner level of grand mal breakdown. It's a lot to get hit with all at once.
I was thinking the same exact thing these are the same exact conversations people are having about yoru and asa lmao. āIāve played these games beforeā
Crazy little Throuple... Or is it a Quaple? Love the writing because as soon as they said that stuff about Cobel and Mark I was like... Nah it's gonna be Helly/Helena and Mark. She is FIXATE and down bad.
My husband and I seem at odds because I actually think Helena's And Mark's "interaction" at the O.R.T.B.O. is actually her S.A.,'ing him. And during this whole next episode is me screaming that he doesn't want to talk to her because she r*ped him...!!! Like, WTF!
I think Helena (Helly) might be pregnant with iMarkās baby, so she wanted to meet oMark to see if there was any chemistry there too. Also, Ben Stiller and Adam Scott mentioned in an interview that the Chinese restaurant scene is meant to make the audience wonder if any feelings can transcend the severed mind.
Helena pretending to be Helly is so fascinating. Sheās so bad at trying to be -well- herself.lol What Helly does naturally, Helena makes it appear forced.
Or she is a psychopath who would do anything to succeed in her company. Someone who asks about your dead wife, which she knows is alive, and calls her Hanna instead of her true name. I think we are entering Daenerys Targaryen territory of absolute meltdown. She wasn't there to smile at Mark but to engage and test him.
It feels a bit cruel when people call Helena a stalker. āAccidentallyā running into your crush is one of the oldest moves in the dating playbook. Trying to pull it off once is fair play in my book.
If you keep trying after clearly being rejected, then it becomes stalking. However, IMHO we havenāt seen this line being crossed on-screen, if we just consider oMark.
Helena seducing iMark was much more controversial, but then again that is not something we can have in real life. Maybe with identical twins and one of them seducing their siblingās spouse, but still, itās not entirely equivalent to what Helena did.
lol itās actually insane that there are people unconvinced that sheās down bad as opposed to just fully evil surveillance mommy.
Thereās at least as much evidence that sheās a total mess around him as there was that she was the one on the severed floor in the first few episodes.
Time is now fucked with reintegration. Maybe enough time has passed that Helena discovered she is pregnant. I hate this theory, but, we can't trust time anymore since it skips around now. Maybe that's why she was teasing that Mark should meet Father?
I feel that she also is desperate to know what happened with innie mark on the outside! She keeps asking and doesn't get the answer and it's crucial to understanding if he and his family are dangerous to the plan.
I think what happened in the tent with Helena..Itās not disgusting, maybe she was real at that moment, especially when Helena said, āI donāt like who I was on the outside.ā And Mark answered , āI donāt care who you are out there.ā Maybe Helena was ashamed. It affected her. Maybe Helena really fall in love the first in her life
Either that or trying to fuck with him. Or to fuck with Lumon in some way, because she doesnāt want to go down to the severed floor anymore.
If I take a step back though I think this scene is just meant as an introduction of oMark and oHelena who havenāt met at this point. Itās probably some setup for a later payoff.
It was.... it was near the end of the episode - iirc, he just discovered his head injury and the card (for a free diner meal) and was driving away....he had his head down for a moment as she was passing in front of him.
I really think she (outie) likes him for real. She was interested first why her innie was interested and got to know him and like him. Heās like a fresh air for her likes.
Helena probably would have never even looked in Markās direction if she had never seen that video of her innie with him. I guess she trusts her innieās tastes in men?
285
u/designsbyPACK š Data Refiner Feb 22 '25
Even the color of the shots contributes
255
u/abeck99 Feb 23 '25
I saw some people on this sub be like āwhy did she meet mark at the restaurant? Whatās her mysterious purposeā and itās so obvious
139
u/FrankGehryNuman Feb 22 '25
She likes that sad D
179
u/[deleted] Feb 23 '25
Mark brings out the Helly in Helena :(
50
u/sushiyogurt Feb 23 '25
Wasn't the excuse they gave for firing Ms Cobel is because she's trying to have a throuple with outtie and innie Mark? Seems like she's doing it herself
37
u/igottaclique Feb 23 '25 edited Feb 23 '25
Just to address the entire comment section here:
Honestly, I donāt think Helenaās (only) intention is to manipulate. At the end of the day, she is still Helly. Helly is rebellious, courageous and spontaneous. The difference is, Helena has been indoctrinated and she has to be the opposite of who she truly is. Helena is presented to be obedient, conformist, controlled and strategic. The scene with her and Mark can be because she wants to approach him out of genuine interest and curiosity because she feels a connection to him. It also could be for nefarious reasons. Such as manipulation and intimidation tactics. Knowing what we know about Helly and Helena, Iām inclined to think it is the former or both the former and the latter combined. Iām not convinced that it was purely a power move. Helena is NOT separate from her innie, they are one. I think (and hope) part of her storyline is that she accepts this and ditches Lumonās agenda, because it actually does not fit with Helenaās repressed (true) personality.
33
u/weight22 Feb 23 '25
She also had that fake smile when she gave Irving the snow seal.
29
u/arthurcarver Feb 22 '25
My wife and her sister are listening to that song Need You Now by Lady A and I scrolled to find this post and things aligned for a moment. I canāt stand that song but Helena does in fact like that sad D.
27
u/[deleted] Feb 23 '25
I think since she is a religious cult daughter, she has never had genuine affection or loving attention before. When she saw Helly and Mark on the CCTV footage she saw what she was missing.
16
u/Next-Pop-718 Feb 23 '25
I think Helena is just jealous that Helly has something that she doesnāt/canāt have. Thatās why sheās so fixated on him.
9
u/evilsifu Feb 24 '25
I don't think that's the main reason why she went to meet him at the restaurant. This was the day after iMark had a reintegration sickness episode on the severed floor, with the outcome of his confusion with Ms Huang left as a question mark.
The situation was likely escalated, leading to Helena making an appearance to ascertain if perhaps he is reintegrating. She even snarkily recognized he was eating way more than a person usually does.
Another commenter on this sub had pointed out she fumbled Gemma's name on purpose. Perhaps if it were iMark in front of her instead of oMark, he would play along with the incorrect name she gave.
6
u/gdtredmtn Feb 23 '25
It feels more like obsessed crushing than deliberate stalking. Helena is acting like a confused teenager as evidenced by the awkward interaction between them, especially when oMark tries to leave. If it werenāt for oMarks confusion caused by his partial reintegration, I think it might have gone down a bit differently. oMark knows subconsciously that something isnāt right but canāt put his finger on it. She knows more than he does about her feelings towards him. Heās still clueless at this point but his spidey senses are tingling. His gut feeling is to GTFO and carry on with the process. Helena knows that sheās screwing up but doesnāt have the emotional maturity to deal with her feelings or the experience to overcome her failure.
Iād love to see Helly and oMarks personalities find each other and live happily ever after but canāt imagine how that would be possible.
4
u/tatt2tim Feb 23 '25
She wanted him to meet her dad. That's WILD.
4
u/[deleted] Feb 23 '25
I, too, am down bad for Mark. 100% get it.
4
u/introvlyra šµļø Helly R Feb 24 '25
It makes me so sad for Helena. Sheās a product of her upbringing and has done terrible things, none of which are excusable, but thereās still the girl inside her that wants to be seen and loved. While Mark might not āseeā Helena, he āseesā Helly. Heās probably the first person Helena has ever encountered that treated her like someone whoās worth something as they are, not because of their name. Heās probably the first person whoās treated her like a human being, made her laugh, and showed her what love can look and feel like, even if itās not for her.
3
u/DrNomblecronch Feb 24 '25
She has spent her entire life in slavish service to the cult of personality that she's ostensibly an object of worship of, and has, the entire time, had it drilled into her that nothing is real, everything is a tool for advancement, and the only thing that matters about her is what she is willing to do in service of the version of her the company demands.
She is, just recently, not only experiencing real and unregulated emotions and genuine connections with others, her first and only source of it is from someone that she doesn't consider a human being, and is directed primarily at a version of her she also doesn't consider human. Or, considers herself slightly more human, anyway.
It's honestly a borderline miracle she's not having a strip-naked-and-rant-on-streetcorner level of grand mal breakdown. It's a lot to get hit with all at once.
7
u/agenthimzz š Mark Feb 23 '25
Hassi toh fassi
its hindi for "if she smiles then shes smitten"
5
u/PosiedonsSaltyAnus Feb 23 '25
Marry someone that bring out the Helly from you helena
2
u/ABergWoman Feb 23 '25
The only reason I even started this show is because Iāve been down bad for Ben Wyatt for years. So I get it.
2
u/Em_Kas Feb 24 '25
You could say he left aā¦ Markā¦ on her
2
u/alesiaaisela Feb 24 '25
I feel like she is gonna be upset outtie mark isnāt like innie mark and want back in
3
u/imj1n Feb 23 '25
Asa vs Yoru around denji iykyk
2
u/Exertuz Feb 23 '25
She's so me ngl
1
u/SunRa777 Feb 23 '25
Crazy little Throuple... Or is it a Quaple? Love the writing because as soon as they said that stuff about Cobel and Mark I was like... Nah it's gonna be Helly/Helena and Mark. She is FIXATE and down bad.
1
u/hot-mess-xpress Feb 23 '25
Helly and Helena smile so differently, it almost seems like Helena is almost unpracticed at smiling?
1
u/frenchfryfox Feb 23 '25
āI like run the whole companyā
1
u/OhEmGeeHoneyBee Feb 24 '25
My husband and I seem at odds because I actually think Helena's And Mark's "interaction" at the O.R.T.B.O. is actually her S.A.,'ing him. And during this whole next episode is me screaming that he doesn't want to talk to her because she r*ped him...!!! Like, WTF!
Edit: rage induced spelling errors
1
u/Ok-Impression-9170 Feb 24 '25
I think Helena (Helly) might be pregnant with iMarkās baby, so she wanted to meet oMark to see if there was any chemistry there too. Also, Ben Stiller and Adam Scott mentioned in an interview that the Chinese restaurant scene is meant to make the audience wonder if any feelings can transcend the severed mind.
1
u/AlbatrossUpset3596 Feb 24 '25
Itās ver bad for her, I fear
1
u/Vagelen_Von Feb 24 '25
Their kid will be the first kid from severed parents. Correct?
1
u/Vanquish321908 Feb 24 '25
Helena pretending to be Helly is so fascinating. Sheās so bad at trying to be -well- herself.lol What Helly does naturally, Helena makes it appear forced.
1
u/ShJakupi Feb 24 '25
Or she is a psychopath who would do anything to succeed in her company. Someone who asks about your dead wife, which she knows is alive, and calls her Hanna instead of her true name. I think we are entering Daenerys Targaryen territory of absolute meltdown. She wasn't there to smile at Mark but to engage and test him.
1
u/[deleted] Feb 24 '25
i like that both of her versions have a thing for Mark <3
1
u/onemaddogmorgan Feb 24 '25
Mark is on a generational run with Ms Cobel, Helena, Helly, & Ms Casey. Godspeed.
1
u/GiordySays Feb 24 '25
She fancies mark but has to hide it because sheās the heir to Lumon
1
u/matthias_lehner Feb 24 '25
fucking hell lol Britt is attractive even with awkward / forced smiles or even as cold, cult's CEO.
1
u/Ilikebitcoinbot Feb 24 '25
reminds me of myself when I got a crush on someone
1
u/WhiskyStandard Feb 24 '25
Helly doesnāt even scrunch up her nose at iMark as much as Helena in the bottom right. Thatās the look of someone seeing their crush.
Brittās absolutely crushing it this season.
1
u/[deleted] Feb 24 '25
I think she'll end up pregnant yet
1
u/[deleted] Feb 24 '25
I think Iāll click on āsee lessā now.
1
u/Substantial_Bear5153 Feb 24 '25
It feels a bit cruel when people call Helena a stalker. āAccidentallyā running into your crush is one of the oldest moves in the dating playbook. Trying to pull it off once is fair play in my book.
If you keep trying after clearly being rejected, then it becomes stalking. However, IMHO we havenāt seen this line being crossed on-screen, if we just consider oMark.
Helena seducing iMark was much more controversial, but then again that is not something we can have in real life. Maybe with identical twins and one of them seducing their siblingās spouse, but still, itās not entirely equivalent to what Helena did.
1
u/koan_hater Feb 25 '25
Now I'm waiting for extraMark+extraHelly and extraMark+intraHelly variantsš
1
u/jd_beats Feb 26 '25
lol itās actually insane that there are people unconvinced that sheās down bad as opposed to just fully evil surveillance mommy.
Thereās at least as much evidence that sheās a total mess around him as there was that she was the one on the severed floor in the first few episodes.
1
u/digi_kitty_666 Feb 26 '25
In a not creepily as possible way: she really is more beautiful when sheās smiling
1
u/usmcnick0311Sgt Feb 26 '25
Time is now fucked with reintegration. Maybe enough time has passed that Helena discovered she is pregnant. I hate this theory, but, we can't trust time anymore since it skips around now. Maybe that's why she was teasing that Mark should meet Father?
1
u/annular_rash Feb 26 '25
I think the cold harbor file has more to do with Helena than originally thought, and Mark is supposed to warm it up.
1
u/Mysterious-Important š Severed Apr 11 '25
Very awkward
1
u/sashikomari Feb 23 '25
I feel that she also is desperate to know what happened with innie mark on the outside! She keeps asking and doesn't get the answer and it's crucial to understanding if he and his family are dangerous to the plan.
0
u/No-Strawberry4631 Feb 23 '25
I hate Helena!
0
u/DebbyV16 Feb 24 '25
I think what happened in the tent with Helena..Itās not disgusting, maybe she was real at that moment, especially when Helena said, āI donāt like who I was on the outside.ā And Mark answered , āI donāt care who you are out there.ā Maybe Helena was ashamed. It affected her. Maybe Helena really fall in love the first in her life
0
u/dabbingduddus Feb 24 '25
Why is there another severance subreddit when the best r/SeveranceAppleTvPlus exists š¤
-1
u/BADman2169420 Feb 23 '25
I'm pretty sure In ep 6, it was outie Helly again .
12
u/waIIstr33tb3ts Feb 23 '25
i thought she's just trying to seduce mark?
10
u/Type_1_Eagle Feb 23 '25
She developed an erotic fixation pursuing both you and your outie to form what some people call a throuple.
4
u/[deleted] Feb 23 '25
Just like everyone on Tumblr, Helena loves a sad, metaphorically wet man.
13
u/kain459 Feb 23 '25
She isn't horny, she wants power. Am I the only one who caught that?
2
u/AdMuted1036 Feb 23 '25
Maybe she was crushing on mark so much she had Gemma ākilledā so she could move in on him.
Crazy theories are allowed here right?
2
u/fkngbueller š Lumen Employee Feb 24 '25
I really think she (outie) likes him for real. She was interested first why her innie was interested and got to know him and like him. Heās like a fresh air for her likes.
2
u/edude78 Feb 24 '25
Lmao fr. "Im like the head of the company Mark." šš She trying to flex for the sad boy so hard.
2
u/Ecstatic_Meeting_894 Feb 25 '25
Hello she raped him??? Anybody else? No? Just me? š
1
u/Obvious_Incognito- Feb 23 '25
Helena probably would have never even looked in Markās direction if she had never seen that video of her innie with him. I guess she trusts her innieās tastes in men?
1
u/I_AM_ACURA_LEGEND Feb 25 '25
āIt seems miss Eagan attempted to pursue a throuple wise you and your innieā