WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Severance’s season 2 finale!The last scene of Mark and Helly running away together inSeverance’s season 2 finaletook inspiration from some classic movie endings, including one of the most iconic rom-com dramas from the 1960s. WhileSeverancetends to avoid direct references to pop culture and modern events, the show still subtly includes Easter egg nods to iconic movies and TV shows. In the finale alone,Severanceseason 2 includes clever references toThe Thomas Crown Affair’ssong “The Windmills of Your Mind,” as well as visual and thematic parallels toLogan’s Run,Playtime, andButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
One movie nod, in particular, has deeper implications for Mark and Helly’s future. InSeveranceseason 2’s ending, Mark is presented with a devastatingly complex choice for his Innie and Outie. After reaching the main hallway, Innie Mark ensures that Gemma leaves the severed floor’s boundaries to escape, with Devon and Cobel presumably waiting outside. However, rather than exit through the door, revert to Outie Mark, and flee with Gemma, Innie Mark turns back to Helly, takes her hand, and runs away with her through Lumon’s halls – whichBen Stiller confirmed (viaX) takes inspiration from Mike Nichols’ iconic 1967 movieending.
Mark Choosing Helly Over Gemma & Running Away Mirrors The Graduate’s Ending
Mark Makes An Elaine Robinson-Like Decision In Severance Season 2’s Ending
Mark’s moment of looking between Gemma and Helly, choosing Helly, and running away with her to an uncertain future takes a page right out ofThe Graduate’s book. InThe Graduate’s ending, Benjamin Braddock shows up at the wedding of his love interest Elaine Robinson, who was forced by her parents to leave him and marry her boyfriend Carl instead. While Elaine and Carl are preparing to say their wedding vows,Benjamin yells to Elaine through the glass at the church, leading her to leave the altar and run away with him.
InThe Graduate’s final moments, Benjamin and Elaine, still in her wedding dress, run through the streets and onto a bus, where they sit for a few beats before the movie cuts to black. Like Mark looking between Gemma outside the door and Helly down the hall, Elaine looks between Carl and her family in the church and Benjamin as a vehicle to get outside. In both cases,Elaine and Mark make the choice that they think is right for themselves, even if it means betraying others’ expectations, angering those around them, and potentially causing more problems in the future.
Elaine choosing Benjamin and Mark choosing Helly are also both choices that betray what they’resupposedto do, or at least what they’ve been told to do. Mark going with Gemma would have allowed his Outie and wife to reunite, presumably freeing both from Lumon’s grasp. Elaine choosing Carl would have given her the safe, predictable life that her parents always envisioned. However, Mark takes control of his life and chooses his love for Helly, proving that his life matters just as much as an Outie’s. Meanwhile,Elaine takes agency over her own path, not the one her parents forced upon her.
Of course, the difficult decisions in bothThe GraduateandSeveranceseason 2’s ambiguous endings also come with the caveat thatthe paths Elaine and Mark choose are the ones with uncertain, likely doomed futures. Elaine chooses Ben despite neither having a plan for what their relationship will look like, where they’ll live, what their jobs will be, or how they’ll make their relationship work despite their families’ disapproval. Meanwhile,Mark chooses Helly inSeverancedespite having nowhere safe to run to.
Apple TV+ confirmedSeverance’s season 3 renewal on June 15, 2025.
If Mark and Helly leave Lumon’s halls, they revert to their Outies. If they’re caught by theEagan family, they’ll likely be “killed” anyway. Still, Mark opts to spend what might be his final moments alive running away with the woman he loves, choosing his happiness even if a life together seems impossible.Mark knows he and Helly might not have a future, but he’d rather choose her than exit Lumon and die without a fight. Similarly, Elaine knows she might not end up with Benjamin, but she’d rather leave with him than stay in that church and marry Carl.
What Mark & Helly’s The Graduate Parallels Mean For Their Severance Season 3 Story
Mark Likely Won’t End Up With Helly, But He Also Won’t Have Any Regrets
Unfortunately, some of the ambiguous movie endings referenced inSeveranceseason 2’s final scene have tragic implications. One of the most popular readings of Elaine and Benjamin’sThe Graduateending is that they’re inevitably not going to work as a couple. Elaine and Benjamin use each other to escape the disappointing futures that have been outlined for each other, buttheir faces of uncertainty on the bus indicate that both are aware of the probability that their romance is doomed. They don’t regret their decision, but Elaine and Benjamin ending up happily married doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
Even if Jame Eagan decides that he wants Helly to be conscious instead of Helena, or forces his daughter to reintegrate, it’s hard to believe that Mark and Helly won’t be separated throughout season 3.
That same realization was already had by Mark and Helly during theSeveranceseason 2 finale’s “I’m her” scene. Helly reminded Mark that there’s no practical way for them to have a future together;her Outie is Helena Eagan, who won’t reintegrate, would rather end Helly’s existence, and realistically couldn’t end up with Mark’s Outie anyway. Additionally, even though a reintegrated Mark would be driven by the consciences of both his Innie and Outie, the latter presumably has more control, meaning Mark would still choose Gemma over Helly/Helena.
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The finale of Severance season 2 saw monumental changes for Mark and his peers, and these developments will undoubtedly lead into Severance season 3.
Mark and Helly ending up together isn’t a realistic prospect in this world ahead ofSeveranceseason 3. Unless both are reintegrated, they can’t be together in the outside world. Even then, they wouldn’t really be with each other, as their Outies would also be included.In season 3, they’ll still fight for their lives as Innies, but it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be together. Even if Jame Eagan decides that he wants Helly to be conscious instead of Helena, or forces his daughter to reintegrate, it’s hard to believe that Mark and Helly won’t be separated throughout season 3.
“There’ll Be No Honeymoon Ending”
Image via Apple TV+
ThoughThe Graduateends with Elaine in a wedding dress gleefully running out of a church onto a bus that will take her away with Benjamin,the couple isn’t experiencing anything close to a “honeymoon ending.”The road ahead for them will be difficult, uncertain, and perhaps even doomed, which is a sentiment similar to that which Patricia Arquette’s Cobel drives home to Mark’s Innie at thebirthing cabin inSeverance’s season 2 finale:
“Mark. Oh… there’ll be no honeymoon ending for you and Helly R. She’s an Eagan. You’re nothing to them. Nothing to her. They’re using you. Then they’ll discard you like a skin husk.”
When trying to convince Mark to go along with the plan to save Gemma,Cobel reminds him that Cold Harbor fulfills his and Helly’s purpose at Lumon. AfterMark completes Cold Harbor, Lumon will effectively kill Mark and Helly’s Innies; the company no longer has a reason to continue the risk of bringing them to the severed floor and working at MDR. Mark can be reintegrated and still survive after Lumon tries to discard him, but Cobel knows that this won’t be the case for Helly, whose Outie has a bigger future purpose at Lumon as the CEO’s daughter.
Severance Season 2’s “Heleny” Line Was The Moment I Knew That Outie Mark Wouldn’t Get A Happy Ending
There was still some hope left for Mark’s outie in Severance season 2, but his future was doomed after he uttered the “Heleny” line in the finale.
Like how Elaine’s parents warned their daughter and Benjamin that it wouldn’t work out, Cobel warns Mark it won’t work out with Helly and tries to get him to work in his Outie’s best interest instead. In both cases, Elaine and Mark don’t listen. Mark still helps Gemma escape and sabotagesLumon’s Cold Harbor plans, but he, like Elaine, ignores the warnings that he won’t get his desired “honeymoon ending.”Even though the others may be right, Elaine and Mark at least won’t have to regret not taking actionor worrying about “what ifs” afterThe GraduateandSeveranceseason 2.
