Spoilers below.
One of things I appreciate most about Severance is its intentionality. Clothes, dialogue, set design, camera angles, props, color palettes, even so-called “Easter eggs”—they all seemingly serve a grander purpose within the series lore. That specificity goes a long way toward making the Apple TV+ hit so much fun to watch, because even if the pieces don’t initially connect, we as audience members are constantly anticipating the payoff of when they do. For that reason, I spent a lot of time this week thinking about waterfalls.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let’s lay the foundations of what transpires in episode 4, “Woe’s Hollow.” This chapter is not a bottle episode, but it does take place in a contained (and entirely unfamiliar) landscape—somewhere frigid and wooded known as the Dieter Eagan National Forest.
There’s already so little we know about the town of Kier, PE, where Mark and his MDR cohort’s Outies live. Kier is not a real-life town, nor is PE the abbreviation of any existing state in the U.S. (It is the abbreviation for Prince Edward Island, a Canadian province, but it seems likelier that Lumon is a U.S.-based company.) With that in mind, we can’t know for certain if the Dieter Eagan National Forest is in Kier, PE, or where Kier, PE, is in respect to other states. All we know is that it’s a place of significance to the Lumon founder Kier Eagan, and to Lumon itself, thus why the MDR Innies “wake up” there this week.
After Mark, Irving, Dylan, and Helly find their way to one another at the top of a cliff, they notice an old-fashioned rolling TV cart—a familiar sight for ’90s babies—sitting not far from their post, and they traverse the rocks to watch its educational message. According to Mr. Milchick’s pre-recorded PSA, the refiners are currently taking part in an ORTBO: an Outdoor Retreat Team Building Occurrence. (“Occurrence” makes it sound more like a natural disaster than a corporate exercise, but I digress.)
The mission set before them is to find the Fourth Appendix of Kier, a “text of such sanctity that it is forbidden upon the severed floor,” or so Milchick says. They will supposedly find this text in Scissor Cave, the same grotto where “Kier Eagan tamed the Four Tempers for the very first time.” Those up on their Severance lore will recognize this as a callback to season 1, in which the Perpetuity Wing’s wax likeness of Kier Eagan outlines his philosophy on humankind: “In my life, I have identified four components, which I call Tempers, from which are derived every human soul. Woe. Frolic. Dread. Malice. Each man’s character is defined by the precise ratio that resides in him. I walked into the cave of my own mind, and there I tamed them.”
In a Lumon painting known as Kier Taming the Four Tempers (also seen in season 1), the founder is depicted as a Biblical figure raising a cat o’ nine tails against Woe, Frolic, Dread, and Malice, themselves depicted as a bride, an old woman, a jester, and a ram. (These are the same Four Tempers who appear as erotic dancers during Dylan’s waffle party in season 1’s penultimate episode.) So it’s intriguing that what was once depicted as a figurative, symbolic taming (“I walked into the cave of my own mind”) is now being made literal in the Innies’ quest to find Scissor Cave.
When they do eventually discover the Fourth Appendix—having followed a path laid out by their creepy doppelgängers—the Innies discover the book is dedicated to Dieter Eagan. Reading the text, they learn that Kier and Dieter were twin brothers, and that they once embarked on a journey through the woods to a spot known as Woe’s Hollow. “So,” as Irving surmises, “we’re to walk in the brothers’ footsteps.” They do exactly this as Irving reads aloud from what can only be described as an extremely bizarre passage in the Fourth Appendix. It details, in the most purple prose imaginable, Dieter masturbating.
It’d be easy to write this scene off with an eye-roll and an “Okay, weird...,” but that would do a disservice to Severance’s aforementioned intentionality. The show makes frequent reference to religious zeal, particularly when it comes to “purity” of mind, spirit, and body. Anyone who grew up during the purity ring craze of the 2000s will recognize the fire-and-brimstone-level condemnation of masturbation that the Fourth Appendix evokes, and which eventually—in Kier’s telling, anyway—consumes Dieter. But more on that later.
First, the Innies come upon the decaying corpse of a seal. Irving thinks they should eat it; the rest consider that an objectively bonkers idea. Mark suggests Irving isn’t coping well after his initial experience in the outside world; Irving is furious, turning on Dylan and asking, “What did you tell them, dumbass?” (Dylan, bless him, replies, “Nothing! What the fuck?”) Something is definitely eating at Irving, and it’s not simply the fact that his true love’s Outie is in a committed relationship.
They walk further and discover their doppelgängers standing at the top of a waterfall, waiting for them above Woe’s Hollow. There, they also find Milchick—dressed in all-white, interestingly—who tells them they’re looking at the tallest waterfall on the planet. And here we come to my hyperfixation of the week: The waterfall at Woe’s Hollow is an objectively small waterfall. It is definitely not the tallest waterfall on the planet—unless, of course, the world as we know it today is not the world as depicted in Severance, which seems all but confirmed to be the case. We know that the show is set roughly in our present day, but that it takes place in an alternate timeline and/or reality. Might that timeline be one in which the world’s water supply has drastically shifted?
Keep in mind that Lumon’s company logo is a droplet of water, and the show makes numerous references to water. As outlined in one of my favorite TikTok theories, the MDR refining files all bear the names of water sources, such as harbors, dams, and reservoirs: Tumwater, Kingsport, Cold Harbor, and so on. Conspicuous glasses of water pop up in dinner scenes. In season 1, Ms. Casey tells Irving that his Outie “can swim gracefully and well” and “values water.” If the Woe’s Hollow falls are really the world’s tallest, then what has Lumon done with all the water?
But the Innies don’t know any better than to take Milchick at his word. They venture further to a camp that Lumon (and Miss Huang, in particular) has set up for them, complete with heated tents, a roaring fire, “luxury meats,” and an outhouse stocked with “four-ply washroom tissue.” (This added detail made me laugh.) The MDR refiners look upon the fire like cave-people; it is, after all, the first time they’ve encountered a flame.
It’s worth noting that, over the past few episodes, Irving has demonstrated an increasing suspicion of Helly—ever since she lied about her Outie’s experience meeting a “night gardener.” When she presents Irving with a snow seal to “eat,” teasing him about his earlier paranoia, he takes the opportunity to press her: What did she really see during the overtime contingency in the season 1 finale? Helly does not like this line of questioning. Her facial expression shifts in an instant, hardening into steel. At this point, plenty of fans will recognize what they might have already suspected: This Helly is not the Helly they know. You can tell, based on Irving’s frown, that he knows it, too.
Around the campfire, Milchick reads more from the Fourth Appendix, which continues the uncomfortable tale of a young Kier and Dieter. Dieter wants to remain in the woods forever; Kier knows they must return to the ether factory. Dieter then, literally, turns into a tree: His eye pops out; his hair becomes moss. Kier walks to the water’s edge and encounters Woe, “a gaunt bride,” who tells Kier that his brother’s death is thanks to him. I have no doubt that’s true. But I don’t think it’s because Dieter masturbated, Kier witnessed, and the forest got upset about it. I think Kier killed his brother for reasons as yet unknown. (Perhaps the dead seal is a symbol of Dieter’s corpse?) The reference remains Biblical either way: a Cain and Abel tale for the corporate era.
Regardless, Milchick insists that “every word” of the Fourth Appendix “is truth,” causing Helly to burst into laughter. Dieter “turned into the forest because he masturbated,” she says through fits of giggles. “I mean, seriously, that’s actually the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Milchick is not so amused. “You know we often laugh at what we don’t understand,” he says, then punishes the Innies’ immaturity by throwing their Kier-branded marshmallows into the fire.
In spite of his distrust of Milchick, Irving happens to agree. He uses the opportunity to turn on Helly. “It isn’t funny,” he says. “Just tell us about him, Helly. The night gardener.”
Angry at his continued suspicion of her journey outside, Helly decides to hurt Irving in the best way she knows how. “We all know Irving’s upset because he can’t ever see Burt again,” Helly says, in the unmistakably soft voice of Helena Eagan. “He’s really lonely.”
A betrayed Irving cries “fuck you all!” and stalks off into the frozen woodland while Mark and Helly decamp to Mark’s tent and have sex. What would have been a highly anticipated romance has become a nightmare as the audience understands Helly isn’t Helly. She’s Helena, and she’s taking advantage of Mark’s feelings for her to get him to finish the Cold Harbor file. She’s violating him in every sense of the word. For Mark’s part, he seems to bear no suspicion toward this version of Helly—at least, not until he gets a reintegration flash, momentarily seeing Ms. Casey/Gemma lying beneath him rather than Helena.
Nor are Helena and Mark the only nightmare figments in this scene. As Irving ventures deeper into the woods and falls asleep beneath the moon, he experiences his Innie’s first dream: He “wakes” to find his MDR cubicle buried within the forest, its glowing computer screen buzzing with flies. He shares the cubicle with a smiling Burt and with Woe herself, the “gaunt bride,” who looks like a decaying doll from a horror movie. Staring at his screen, Irving watches the numbers of his refiner file coalesce until they become letters, eventually spelling the word “EAGAN.” The realization is like a thunderclap. The pieces come together in his mind. Helly is an imposter. Helly is an Eagan.
The next morning, Irving returns to Woe’s Hollow, where he discovers Helena gazing upon the waterfall with a strange sort of fondness. (Has she been here before? What does she know about Kier and Dieter’s story that we don’t?) John Turturro is absolutely magnificent in this scene, as his tone morphs from gentle and paternal to defiant and ferocious. “What you said to me last night, it was cruel,” he tells Helena. “Helly was never cruel. So if you’re not her, then who are you? Who would have the power to send their Outie to the severed floor?”
The question is rhetorical. He knows exactly who Helena is, which is why he drags her to the ice-cold water’s edge, shouting for Milchick and the others to come witness her baptism. “She’s an Outie!” he bellows as he plunges her head into the the pond. “She’s a fucking mole! She’s not Helly! She’s an Eagan!”
Mark and Dylan, who up until this point have been frustrated with Irv and defensive of Helly, suddenly realize that their friend isn’t crazy. He’s the only one seeing their present situation clearly. They stop shouting for him to let “Helly” go. Mark, in particular, looks flabbergasted...and crestfallen.
“Turn her back, Mr. Milchick! Turn her back!” Irving demands as Helena finally screams, “Goddammit, Seth, do it!” Turturro’s face twists into a triumphant, seething scowl. “Yes! Do it, Seth!”
I could watch this scene a hundred times and never get sick of it. Especially because, in the mere seconds it takes for Helena to “wake up” again as Helly—once Milchick as radioed Lumon to “remove the Glasgow block”—Turturro’s demeanor transforms instantly. He holds her like a child, cradling her against his chest. “I’m sorry,” he tells her, nearly weeping. “I’m so sorry, Helly.”
He’s not the only one. As an enraged Milchick—sorry, Seth—proclaims Irving will be punished with “immediate and permanent dismissal,” Dylan shouts to his best friend, “Irv, I’m sorry! I should have listened!” To which Irving replies, cryptically, “It’s all okay. Just remember, hang in there!” Milchick then makes Irv march into the trees surrounding Woe’s Hollow, where he is supposedly wiped clean of his Innie’s very existence.
We can be certain we’ll see Turturro in future Severance episodes. But is this really the end of Innie Irving? What does it mean for an Innie to be permanently dismissed? If their existence is the result of Lumon’s severance brain implants, is it even possible for Innies to be “wiped,” without removing the implant itself? Can reintegration—which we know Outie Mark is currently undergoing—bring an Innie like Irving “back”?
Right now, we have no idea. And because living with that uncertainty is driving me crazy, I’m just gonna keep thinking about that waterfall.
