”Half Loop” (S1/E2)
”It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.” — George Eliot
Just as Helly’s “birth” scene was later shown from Mark’s point of view in episode one, here we get the perspective of Outie Helly, or Helena, for the opening episode’s failed hallway exit scene. But before we get there, first we are “treated” to some corporate brain surgery from some people who do not look remotely qualified to be drilling into skulls.
And, seriously, no general anesthesia for this? We later find out that Lumon has a long, dark history involving ether, so you would think they would understand the value of knocking someone out before drilling into someone’s head and placing a chip. This is a personal bias, but I am very queasy watching anything medically related and did not enjoy this bizarre surgery one bit. Plus, how do they do this without shaving some of Helly’s head?
But wait, I need to back up even farther, because this segment begins with Helly’s video creation, and I as mentioned previously, Mr. Milchick is there to record it. Walking her to the procedure room, Milchick gives some of the logistical details about when she’ll wake up and when she’ll be this version of herself again. It’s apparent in the scene that Milchick has no idea how important Helly is, not just yet. He points out the sun rising on Kier’s face and passes on the trivia that he drank three raw eggs in milk every morning. Helena would later be chided for her father for taking her eggs hard boiled.
That brings us to the procedure room. There are some pseudo medical professionals around, but given that Milchick is dressed exactly the same, perhaps none of them have actual medical training. They seem to use a regular hand drill to place the hole into her brain. I suppose I could look up what effect this might actually have on a human being, but I’m so repelled by the scene that I’ll pass. Everything is Lumon branded, not only the chip but also the tweezers used to drop the chip into the syringe.
Milchick seems to be flirting a bit with Helena in this scene, saying that he’s “very excited to meet you.” He then snaps a picture. We see an image of the chip on a monitor. I appears to be placed in Helena’s amygdala, which is the main processing center for our emotions. Helly appears to fall into unconsciousness after the placement.
Milchick told her that she would next be conscious on the elevator on the way back up towards the locker room at Lumon. But Milchick is wrong once again. She regains consciousness, bizarrely, in a stairwell. Milchick is there to greet her. She asks him where she is, and Milchick shares a weird lie about how they sometimes take innies there so they can viscerally experience the transition. Helena asks “am I trying to leave?” And, of course, she is, but Milchick lies, saying it’s all part of the process. And so he guides her to “spin around and head back in, that will be that.”
Now we are seeing the perspective of Helena re-entering the staircase whenever Helly tries again to leave. Except each time she runs into Milchick and he gently guides her to go back in again. Someone radio’s him … he says it’s “going … fair.” She crashed back through the door again, he tells the person that he needs to call him back. Milchick decides to be a little more honest this time “wow … you’re an inquisitive one.” Helena responds “I don’t want to be in there, do I?” And Milchick says that she’s learning that she does.
But now Milchick also seems to be aware of who she is and says “when we heard you were coming here, it was like a miracle. It’s amazing what you’re doing.” Even that answer is problematic, because either he was pretending not to know anything about her in the earlier scenes, which feels unlikely, or he’s making up the part about this group excitement about her impending arrival.
The next time Helena comes to consciousness, she is on the elevator, and Milchick is there waiting for her with the flowers we later see when Mark nearly runs her over with the car.