This article contains spoilers for Severance season 2, episode 1, “Hello Ms. Cobel”

Severance creator Dan Erickson explains why Helly lies in the season 2 premiere. The hit Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller wastes little time in getting down to business after its extended hiatus, with Severance‘s debut episode featuring the innies debating a choice: they either leave Lumon, thus ceasing to exist, or they go back to work. The innies — Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Irving (John Turturro) — all share what they saw on the outside, though Helly lies about the fact that her outie is Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon’s CEO Jame Eagan.

In an interview with Variety, Erickson is asked about why Helly lies to Mark and the rest of the innies at that moment. Speculation quickly sparked up that Helena, an outie, is now spying on the innies. But the series creator offers a far simpler explanation, saying that Helly lied because she’s rattled by what she saw on the outside and essentially ashamed to be connected to Helena. The full response is below:

All of the characters were rattled by what they saw, in one way or another. And each of them has to make a decision when they come back as to how much of that they are willing or ready to share. Helly made the most horrifying discovery that she could have made — because she is, it turns out, what she hates the most. There’s a lot of shame that comes with that, and there is a concern that she won’t be accepted by her friends. She knows they all vilify the Eagans, and she is one. She doesn’t want to have to take on that baggage.

What Helly’s Lie Could Mean For Severance

It Doesn’t Sound Like She’s Spying

As the innies are all debating what to do next, they share what they saw while they were briefly out in the Severance season 1 finale. They are each roughly truthful, but Helly says something about how her outie has a boring life that is essentially not worth mentioning. Irving picks up that her story doesn’t sound quite right, though he doesn’t push it.

The scene is an extended showcase for the Severance cast, with Turturro selling Irv’s sense of despair at a love lost. Later, though, when it’s just Helly and Mark, she voices a clear desire to separate the innies from the outies but says she’ll help Mark in his quests if that’s what he wants. This could be read as a lie from the spying Helena, but Erickson doesn’t entertain the possibility. It points, instead, seemingly, to the rest of Helly’s season 2 arc.

Our Take On Helly’s Lie

Will She Kill Her Outie?

One possibility that hasn’t been brought up as much is if the innies could replace their outies and the moral questions that brings up. In any case, if Helly isn’t a spy, then her larger arc will be about coming to terms with Helena. But, given that this is Severance, there may be a few twists on the road to that reconciliation.

Severance season 2 streams Fridays on Apple TV+

Source: Variety