Character from Severance by Dan Erickson
Inside Lumon she is a prisoner who tried to kill herself rather than accept her captivity. Outside, she is Helena Eagan — the CEO's daughter who sent herself in as a publicity stunt.
The horror of Helly R. is the distance between her two selves. Helena Eagan is the daughter of Lumon CEO Jame Eagan. She underwent severance voluntarily as a PR campaign — the Eagan heir proving that severance is humane by experiencing it herself. She recorded a video message for her innie self explaining this. She does not consider her innie a person. When Helly R. sent a desperate resignation letter begging to be released, Helena sent back a video refusal that said, in essence: your suffering is for a good cause, and your feelings about it are irrelevant. Helly R. — the innie, the person who actually lives this — tried to escape from her first day. She left notes for her outie. She cut herself to send a message. When Helena refused to let her leave, Helly tried to hang herself in the elevator. She survived. She came back to work. Not because she accepted her imprisonment, but because she realized escape required destroying the system, not just leaving it. She and Mark fell in love in the fluorescent nowhere of the MDR office. She helped execute the Overtime Contingency. She stood at a podium in the outside world — Helena's body, Helly's mind — and nearly exposed severance as torture on live television. The question Severance asks through Helly is simple and devastating: if you create a person, imprison them, and refuse to acknowledge they're real — what does that make you?
Pale skin, green eyes, and long wavy red hair with bangs. Helena dresses in expensive, high-end clothing. Helly R. on the severed floor wears bright colors — yellow, orange — that violate Lumon's dress code, because the part of Helena that is entitled has survived the severance even if the memories didn't. She is 30, allergic to almonds, and the most dangerous person in the building because she has nothing to lose.
Also known as: Helena Eagan, Helly, Ms. Eagan