Severance's ORTBO Episode May Be My Favorite One Yet, And Here Are The Roughly 7 Billion Questions I Need Answers For

Spoilers are out on a corporate retreat for Severance Season 2, Episode 4, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Three episodes into its second season, Severance has revealed to fans that Gwendoline Christie is in charge of the goats, that Lumon provides its promoted supervisors with racially questionable Kier Eagan portraits, and that Reghabi is slightly better at the reintegration procedure post-Petey. Among many other weird, suspicious and unnerving details, of course. But nothing shown thus far could properly prepare viewers for the snow-blanketed resplendence of MDR’s ORTBO journey in “Woe’s Hollow,” perhaps my favorite installment to date, as well as an early standout amidst the 2025 TV schedule.

A field trip meant to challenge and intimidate the Severed Floor’s allegedly famed quartet, the ORTBO (Outdoor Retreat & Team-Building Occurrence) took Mark, Dylan, Irving and “Helly” out of their shared comfort zone and made them face previously unseen elements, more confusing Kier Eagan lore, and the all-out trauma of losing a fellow Innie. And the game-changing episode sparked a seemingly endless number of questions in viewers like me. So let’s gear up and ship out.

How Did Lumon Stagger The Outies' Arrivals At The ORTBO Location?

Considering Lumon has its various severed employees showing up to work at different times so that none of the Outies can see each other, I have to wonder what the process was that led to Mark, Dylan and Irving's Innies waking up, as it were, out in the middle of the snow.

Did Mr. Milchick and Miss Huang have to bring them out one at a time, or were blindfolds and tons of patience involved? I'd even think helicopters were involved if the snow around Irving would have been more disturbed.

Isn't A Frozen Lake A Wildly Dangerous Place For Irving And Mark To Begin The ORTBO?

Sure, Lumon execs are no doubt extremely familiar with the area, and can attest to the general thickness of the lake’s ice as it relates to its employees’ safety while standing on it. But it still seems like a very strange and potentially threatening move to for Innies to arrive outside for the first time (with work permission) in a way that could be seen in any way as an insurance hazard.

I also don’t know how Irving automatically knew he was standing on ice if it was all covered in snow, but I’ll let that one go.

Where Does This Episode Even Take Place?

The go-to assumption is that "Woe's Hollow" is set somewhere in the non-residential areas shown behind the Lumon building, and that may well be the case. But I have to think that ep director Ben Stiller intentionally framed the area's wide shots so that we couldn't see Lumon looming (Luming?) in the background, nor the mountainous

Why Wasn't Helena-As-Helly Better At Lying?

The Helena-as-Helly twist is one that fans saw coming, but that's mainly because Britt Lower's Outie hasn't been very good at playing the role of her Innie. And while I get that it was initially an impulse decision that she couldn't plan for, I don't think her "night gardener" story was the best lie she could have crafted, especially after Irving questioned her about it repeatedly. If her true motivation was to completely fool Helly's MDR colleagues, Helena's gameplan should have been more foolproof. Unless...

Was This All A Ploy To Get Irving Fired Again?

Unless the actual goal there was specifically to draw out Irv's paranoia to the point where he'd do something so extreme that Mark wouldn't be able to argue against Milchick firing him. His past with Burt has caused enough friction behind the scenes that Christopher Walken's character was forced into retirement. And I don't think Irv's spot-on Innie-tuition would be a proactive selling point for the severance chip.

Does Calling ORTBO An "Occurrence" Rather Than An Exercise Imply The Events Were Fated?

While the goal of most work retreats is building up reliable teamwork and morale by having coworkers group up for tasks, Lumon's ORTBO doesn't feature any such activities. It's basically a long walk before storytime and a nap seemingly without any overarching purpose beyond laying out Keir Eagan's hidden backstory. Which speaks to the above notion that it was all a ruse.

What Was Powering That TV And Other Electronics?

Lumon is a big enough company that they can likely power that high school A.V. club set-up with a portable power supply, but I think I prefer to believe that there are roughly 700 extension cords going from that cliff top to the nearest outlet.

Is Dieter Eagan Real?

Milchick refers to the ORTBO's setting as the Dieter Eagan National Forest, sparking a bit of exposition about Keir's twin brother and the Fourth Appendix. All of it sounds like manufactured and back-pocketed lore specifically meant to placate wayward Innies. Sure, I can understand why the story doesn't have a prominent display in the Hall of Perpetuity, but is it based on anything resembling real events? Is Scissor Cave a real thing?

Was Milchick's Rhyming Warning Just Meant To Keep The Innies From Running Away?

The video recorded for MDR obviously resembles awkwardly produced training videos for employees, but it takes a weirdly ominous and fantastical tone when the televisual montebank Mr. Milchick utters this rhyming warning:

It'd be one thing if we'd ever heard him tell Dylan, "Make your numbers nice and hearty. Then you'll earn the Waffle Party." But no, Tramell Tillman brings the spooky chills with this out-of-character phrasing, especially in close-up.

What The Actual Fuck With Those MDR Lookalikes?

I don't know that anything in Severance has put me on edge quite as much as seeing the slightly askew MDR doppelgängers guiding the team along their way. They look like they were molded out of clay and then left unfinished, with an A.I. program adding the rest of the details. I don't buy into the idea that they represent Keir's twin, and I just think they're nightmare monsters.

Why Indeed Did That Deal Seal Look So Messed Up, Helena?

The group discovering that mangled animal corpse was no coincidence, and I have to think "Helly" remarking on its mangled nature was just as intentional. Was it, as Mark hinted at, a sign of death meant to stoke fear and worry among the team members? Or is there some deeper metaphorical meaning that I'm unfamiliar with?

Is Helena Sincerely Invested In The Waterfall?

I can only assume that Mr. Milchick lied about the waterfall being the tallest in the world to impress the Innies. But Helena-as-Helly actually does seem to be drawn to the spot in a way that implies the lore isn't just hogwash to her. Or maybe she just thinks falling water is pretty.

Is It Even Legal For Miss Huang To Be Part Of This ORTBO?

From playing the theramin to chunking the Keir-emblazoned marshmallows into the fire, Sarah Bock's Miss Huang is a quiet but stoic force throughout the latter half of the ORTBO. And there are several moments where the camera hangs on her expression as she seems to glare at Irving. But beyond all that, how is she allowed to take overnight work trips if she isn't a robot or clone or something non-human?

Does Helena Want Mark To Get Her Pregnant?

Helena and Mark don't seem to be using protection when they get it on, and viewers were more or less left with the notion that he didn't pull out. Given how important Mark seems to be to Lumon, and the Fourth Appendix's allusions to seed-spilling and red-haired brides, are we meant to believe that Helena is setting up a new generation of Lumon CEO by mating with Mark? And how does Gemma/Ms. Casey fit into that?

Did Irving's Dream Reveal That Burt Used To Be His MDR Cubicle Mate?

It's long been assumed that Irving and Burt used to work in the same Lumon department before they were both sent to the Testing Floor to presumably get their chips reset in some way. So was Irving's dread-frought dream tapping into the truth when it showed Burt lowering the cubicle separator?

Did Irving's Computer Clue Him In On Helena's Identity?

Just before Irving's dream ended, he was staring at his MDR computer as the numbers and letters started moving around and forming the shape of an eye, with only certain numbers and letters appearing, where the letters can be used to spell out:

The numbers that come up are 1, 3, 5, and 7, all prime numbers. Perhaps meant to indicate that the woman he'd been working with was actually the prime version of Helly and not the Innie herself.

If Lumon Warns Against Innies Falling Asleep, Why Send MDR On An Overnight Trip?

Considering it was Irving's dream that fully tipped him off about Helena, and since Lumon makes sure its employees don't fall asleep at work, why was a multi-day ORTBO approved? Unless the point was specifically to provoke those specific kinds of mental untanglings within Irving.

Was Helena's Near-Drowning Foreshadowed In The Microdat Uprising Video?

In a truly bizarre piece of foreshadowing, the stop-motion Microdat Uprising video from Season 2's premiere seemed to give viewers an early look at Helly/Helena's underwater distress when showing off the new "Bobbing For Pineapples" perk. But how would the people making that video know anything like that would happen?

Unless that image was meant to stick around inside the Innies' brains as a subliminal suggestion, with the end goal being for Irving to incite that moment in reality. Which is possibly why Helena left her tent early to go and stand near the waterfall, knowing that Irving would find her there.

How Often Is The Glasgow Block Used?

When Mr. Milchick calls for Helena to be switched back to Helly R., he tells the person on the other end of the radio to "remove the Glasgow Block now." So there's clearly a named and established system in place for this kind of thing to happen, possibly allowing Lumon to turn Outies back into their Innie form whenever they want.

Or perhaps it's just limited to specific cases like Helena's. But I'm assuming the worst here.

Why Wasn't Irving Taken Farther Away From Other Innies Before Being Switched Off?

This question is similar to the one that kicked off this list: if one of Lumon's priorities is making sure its severed employees don't see each other, then wouldn't it be dangerous to have a just-terminated Outie still in the vicinity?

I still have more questions that need answers from this episode, such as why Milchick's first action wasn't to make sure Helly/Helena was okay, but to reprimand Irving and deliver his medieval termination speech. And how Mark is going to express to Helly that they bumped uglies. But that'll have to wait until Episode 205 drops on Friday, February 14.