Answers to Severance Season 2's Helly R & Helena mystery could be hiding in the tones of the series' personality-switching elevator.
The hit Apple TV+ thriller is back with its second season, following up on the Season 1 finale, where the show's central group of severed employees (workers who have separated their at-work and at-home selves) act out against their employer, taking control of their out-of-work bodies while not at the office.
Thus far, Season 2 has focused on this cast of characters picking up the pieces from that act of defiance, including Britt Lower's Helly R—who some seem to think could be hiding a massive secret.
Severance Season 2's Helly R Elevator Theory
Eagle-eyed fans seem to think the secret to Severance's Helly R & Helena mystery could be hiding in plain sight in Season 2.
Audiences were shocked to see in Season 2, Episode 1, that Britt Lower's Lumon employee was reunited with her fellow Macrodata Refinement coworkers (including Adam Scott's Mark Scourt) acting a little differently than before.
This included the character lying to her team about what she saw during their out-of-work heist at the end of Season 1. She told them she was just sitting at home in an apartment when she was actually revealed to be a member of the Lumon-ruling family, the Eagans (read more about Helly R's secret here).
Because of this, some have speculated that it was not Helly R that returned to the severed floor at all, but instead, it is her outie (out-of-work personality) in hiding trying to further along Lumon's interests from within. And, this new theory could further prove that very point.
As pointed out by TikTok user Raised on Rice, the series' iconic elevator may be the key to revealing what happened to Helly/Helena and who she actually is during the events of Season 2 on the severed floor.
Fans have come to know the show's iconic elevator that brings its severed workers to and from work every day. As a part of this, the transition from innie to outie has been seemingly paired with two distinct elevator tones, a lower G and a higher C# as the door opens and closes.
Every instance of the severed Severance characters transitioning from their innie to their outie that has involved the elevator has included these two distinct tones. That was until the end of Season 2, Episode 2.
At the end of the show's latest episodes, fans are treated to glimpses of every member of the Macrodata Refinement team coming back to work following Lumon authorities pushing the progress of a mysterious project known as "Cold Harbor."
This is paired with the same "Bing, bong" sound of the severed elevator for every character, except for Helly/Helena. Fans only hear the first note play as Helly enters the elevator and never hear that second lower C-sharp.
That could mean that Britt Lower's character may have bypassed the severed barrier within the elevator and has been tasked to enter the severed workplace as her outie to push the Lumon agenda.
Was Helly's Elevator Sound Teased in Season 1?
While the missing elevator tone could be the result of a simple editing decision, cutting before the second sound could be heard, there is a bit more to this particular theory.
Not really seen as a part of the severed transition within the elevator, but still a part of every elevator ride in the series has been a third B-sharp note that plays when the doors either open or close.
That B-sharp has been heard every single time the elevator in Severance has gone up or down across two seasons but is slightly different when Helena comes down as Helly at the end of the Season 2 premiere. Instead, in that moment, the doors open to a slightly higher B note.
The only other time this has happened was when Helly (Helena's innie) attempted to hang herself in the elevator in Season 1, Episode 4 ("The You You Are").
This B could be a subtle Lumon-created sign that something weird has gone on in the elevator, potentially leading even more credence to the theory that the Helly that returned to the severed floor in Season 2, is not the same one that left.
Right now, this musical pondering remains a complete speculation (like that of where the mysterious teenage supervisor came from in Season 2); however, Severance has proven it is a clever enough show to include such a nugget of foreshadowing knowing a certain contingent of fans would dig into it eventually.
Severance continues with new episodes arriving on Apple TV+ every Friday.
