WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Severance season 2, episode 9 – The After Hours
Viewers of were treated to another enigmatic episode this week. The After Hours begins with Helena Eagan (portrayed by Britt Lower) eating breakfast with her father Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry), the CEO of Lumon.
Helena, who is next in line to take over the company, was seen cutting an egg with an egg cutter, while her father chose not to eat but instead observed her, reports the .
He expressed his preference for her to “take them raw”, a comment which Helena did not respond to.
Before the episode aired, Apple TV+ shared a short clip from the scene on its account, leading many fans to speculate about the significance of the scene on social media.
One viewer suggested: “helly/helena is definitely pregnant [sic]”, and another added: “because she shared vessels with Mark S [sic].”
Helena lived a lonely existence with her father Jame (Image: APPLE TV)
[THEORY] [FAN REACTION]
A third agreed, commenting: “helly so pregnant bro [sic].”
Another fan speculated: “My vote is on a Mark and Helena baby and I’m not happy about it.”
However, another viewer disagreed, stating: “I’m happy about it because it’s a way to destroy Lumon. Plus Mark and Helly / Helena have been built up from the jump.”
One observant fan noted the symbolism of the egg slicing and the ominous image on the plate, writing: “Not a duality (innie/outtie), but a multiplicity of selfs [sic]”. This comment also draws parallels to the various ways Gemma Scout (Dichen Lachman) was severed by Lumon.
A viewer expressed their confusion with a comment: “Cutted (egg) (chip). Forced(child and witches) (to be in there). And seperated (eggs) (from memories? ) [sic].”
Jame Eagan seemed to be overseeing Helena’s breakfast (Image: APPLE TV)
The gripping finale of The After Hours left audiences reeling when Jame confronted Helly on the severed floor, declaring ominously: “You tricked me.”
Without further explanation, Jame’s words paralleled Mark’s (Adam Scott) own about Helena manipulating him into a sexual encounter at Woe’s Hollow.
The question now looms whether Jame has discovered an intimate encounter between Helly and Mark below ground, or if there is more to the paternity puzzle surrounding Eagan’s potential offspring.
There’s an unnerving tension threaded throughout the exchanges between Helena and Jame in Severance, leading some to speculate the possibility of Lumon’s chief being split more than once, and his vessel housing multiple Eagan souls in the “revolving”.
Diving into the complexities of the characters’ relationships, creator Dan Erickson remarked on the familial dynamics: “If there’s one thing that Helly and Helena have in common, it’s a lack of that familial love.”
Jame told Helena how he wished she would eat her eggs raw (Image: APPLE TV)
He continued, touching on their quests for connection: “In Helly’s case, she’s able to sort of find a family through her co-workers. Helena, I think, still doesn’t have that, and that’s what’s so much more painful is that she lives with her father. He’s right there, but he’s never going to give her that foundational love that we all need to be human beings.”
Fuelled by these revelations, fan theories intensify, especially concerning the shadowy reproductive agenda within Lumon, magnified by the chilling events of episode seven, Chikhai Bardo, and Gemma’s harrowing experiences on the testing floor.
One viewer speculated on : “I suspect lumon wants babies to turn into severed child labor, and if that is the case it would make sense for them to keep track of romantic partners or TTC couples… or even to manipulate their choices somehow [sic].”
They added: “i think the ideal severed employee is one that has never known real life and has been raised with ‘balanced tempers’ based on everything we have seen so far [sic].”
Another viewer suggested: “Babies I don’t know, but there is certainly a long tradition of them getting children working in the company. The group Ms. Huang is interning for is the same one that Cobel was in as a child.”
Fans have speculated about the egg (Image: APPLE TV)
Meanwhile, a third commented: “Wouldn’t be far fetched for them to be able to switch the outtie to the innie before they knew they were pregnant, steal the baby and then turn the person back like nothing happened.”
These comments seem to support the theory of a Lumon breeding programme designed to create the perfect workers and maximise productivity.
Furthermore, when Ms Cobel (Patricia Arquette) had a conversation with the security guard at the birthing centre, she mentioned that Devon Scout (Jen Tullock) was “one of Jame’s”. Could Jame’s lineage be in these women?
The title credits for season two also feature baby imagery, including a scene of a baby Kier (Marc Gellar) crawling across Mark’s bedroom floor, suggesting that Jame might be having women inseminated on behalf of Lumon to produce more Eagans and continue the lineage.
Severance season 2 airs on Apple TV+ on Fridays