Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Severance’s season 2 finale!The final scene ofSeveranceseason 2 seesHelly and Mark run hand-in-hand down the halls while a 1960s jazz pop song plays, with the lyrics having deeper connections to their story. Following Milchick’s iconic Defiant Jazz dance scene in season 1,Severanceseason 2 put a greater emphasis on music and the meaning of certain songs in characters’ stories. From Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You” hauntingly scoringGemma’s rooms on Lumon’s Testing Floorto Dr. Mauer curiously whistling “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” music has played an important role in some ofSeveranceseason 2’s biggest moments.
WhileSeveranceseason 1’s endingclosed out with the familiar Innie elevator “ding” after Mark’s devastating “She’s alive!” cliffhanger, the season 2 finale went a different route. While still drawing the curtains to a close on another ambiguous last scene,Severanceseason 2’s endingsees Mark’s Innie remain inside Lumon while Gemma stands outside the door, screaming for him to go with her. AsMark rebelliously chooses Helly, a classic song from a 1960s heist movie plays as the two Innies excitedly and nervously run through the red-illuminated halls hand-in-hand into their uncertain future.
“The Windmills Of Your Mind” Plays When Helly & Mark Are Running Through The Halls
This Version Of The Song Was Released In 1969
Adding to the momentum, intrigue, and thrill of Mark’s last-minute decision with Helly, the song that plays over their intenseSeverancerunning scene is“The Windmills of Your Mind” by Mel Tormé. This iteration was released in 1969, though the song was originally recorded in 1968 by actor Noel Harrison, who notably starred in a few Britishspy comedy moviesthat decade. The song originally charted high back upon its original release and later established a greater legacy for its iconic use in movies, even being ranked 57 on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years… 100 Songs” list from 2004.
It’s no coincidence that the jazz-pop song “The Windmills of Your Mind” was chosen to score Helly and Mark’s run to their unknown future together, asits inclusion serves as a callback toSeveranceseason 1, episode 7, “Defiant Jazz.”The title refers to Helly’s genre selection for the “Music Dance Experience” she received for reaching a threshold in her file completion. Her choice of Defiant Jazz was symbolic of the rebellion and defiance brewing in MDR back in season 1, laying the groundwork for MDR to free Gemma and sabotageLumon’s plans with Cold Harborin season 2’s ending.
Severance Season 2’s Final Song Is A Tribute To The Thomas Crown Affair
The Song Was Famously Featured In The 1968 Heist Movie
Severanceseason 2 ending with “The Windmills of Your Mind” pays homage to the 1968 heist movieThe Thomas Crown Affair, which followed an investigator, Vicky, looking into those responsible for a bank heist orchestrated by Thomas Crown.Noel Harrison’s original rendition of “The Windmills of Your Mind” played in the filmas Steve McQueen’s titular character flew his glider plane, with that iconic scene representing Crown’s longing for freedom and escape, his high-risk decisions, and worries about his future identity. Rather than flying a plane, those sentiments are also felt by Mark and Helly while running through Lumon’s halls.
Mark, Helly, Cobel, and Devon’s plan to free Gemma from Lumon’s Testing Floor serves as their own “heist” inSeverance’s season 2 finale.
Other thanSeverance’s season 2 finale andThe Thomas Crown Affairboth having ambiguous endings, the Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller and theclassic heist movie’s stories and romantic dynamics don’t have much else in common. Helly and Mark are both on the same side, with their betrayals by running away together being to their Outies rather than themselves or other Innies. Meanwhile, Vicky and Crown were both playing a game of cat and mouse throughoutThe Thomas Crown Affair, with the former ultimately pledging her loyalty to the authorities despite helping to conceal Thomas’ crimes.
How “The Windmills Of Your Mind” Reflects Mark & Helly’s Severance Story
The Lyrics Connect To Severance’s Themes Of Consciousness & Ambiguity
The lyrics of “The Windmills of Your Mind” explore the ideas of the unknown and going to extremes with comparisons to objects and concepts that orbit or revolve in circles and spirals. The song uses dream-like imagery with the themes of memories that are almost forgotten andthe hope of a future or moment that never ends. The meaning of “The Windmills of Your Mind” more deeply links to uncertainty and doubt about life through mentions of subtle changes over time, a stream of consciousness, heavy thoughts and dilemmas on one’s mind, and the ambiguity of the world.
Helly’s Major Complaint About Helena & Mark Was Already Tragically Reversed In Severance’s Season 1 Finale
In its final moments, Severance season 1 perfectly flipped Helly’s biggest complaint about Helena and Mark’s relationship with one heartbreaking scene
The complex nature of consciousness, uncertainty about the future, and strange relationships with the passage of time and never-ending cycles are important themes in the stories ofSeverance’s main characters. Their consciousness is confined to a certain time and location outside their control, with the world around them also being interpreted so distinctly from Outies due to their limited experiences and environments.Everything in their world is ambiguous, as they only understand life based on the limited perspectiveof what they’re able to see themselves compared to what Lumon tells them.
Mark and Helly long for a world where their memories are their own, their love never has to end, and their existence is without ambiguity.
Knowing their unstable consciousness could easily be erased forever by theirOuties inSeverance,Mark and Helly seek another world that’s theirs – one where they can have a life and a future together. They dream of a non-cyclical life that isn’t just eight hours at Lumon every day, preferring something new like “the Equator.” Mark and Helly long for a world where their memories are their own, their love never has to end, and their existence is without ambiguity. Although that reality seems unattainable, Helly and Mark chase the dream of that life together inSeveranceseason 2’s ending.
