Before Severance, Britt Lower Guest Starred In This Perfect It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Episode

If you've watched both seasons of "Severance," you know that Britt Lower — who plays her innie Helly R. and outie Helena Eagan on Dan Erickson's inventive "workplace" series on Apple TV+ — is a really, really good actor. I'll circle back to all of that and praise her in a bit, but before she rose to international fame and acclaim on "Severance," Lower appeared in a ton of projects, including an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

Before "Severance," Lower showed up in movies like 2015's "Sisters" (with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as the titular siblings) and cult hit TV shows like "Man Seeking Woman," where she plays Lisa Greenberg, the older sister to Jay Baruchel's lead Josh Greenberg. Lower also worked on the procedural series "Unforgettable," Jason Reitman's Hulu comedy "Casual," the short-lived Craig Robinson series "Ghosted" (which also featured Lower's future "Severance" co-star Adam Scott), and even an episode of Ryan Murphy's spin-off "American Horror Stories." Now that Lower is everywhere thanks to "Severance," you'll easily be able to spot her in the "Always Sunny" episode "The Gang Gets Romantic," the season 14 premiere of FXX's long-running comedy (though it's not the longest-running live-action series in TV history, actually). So, who did Lower play in the episode, and how did the central gang on "Always Sunny" torment her?

In "The Gang Gets Romantic," roommates and best friends Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton) and Ronald "Mac" McDonald (Rob McElhenney) come up with yet another harebrained scheme to lure women into their apartment — they'll list their apartment as an Airbnb in a scenario that Mac decides is a "meet-cute" (yes, like one you'd find in a romantic comedy). In their own run-down apartment, Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day) and Dennis' dad Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) decide to do the same thing, even though the two men share a bed and, among other disgusting habits, Frank regularly cleans his feet with what he calls a "toe-knife."

When Britt Lower's Lisa shows up, Dennis and Mac share one of their rooms and give her the free one ... but they're disappointed when her husband Greg (Timm Sharp) comes with her. Naturally, the two men frantically eavesdrop on the couple and realize they're fighting, so Mac tries to create a romantic comedy device by setting Greg up with the remaining member of the gang, Dee Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson). If you've ever watched "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," you know that Dee isn't particularly smooth in scenarios like this, so she completely screws it up and freaks Greg out in the process, so Mac hastily switches gears and decides he should seduce Greg because he heard the couple arguing about "Teddy" and assumes that Greg had an affair with another man. (Oh, and in Charlie and Frank's apartment, they're disappointed when the Austrians they think will be two hot girls are a father and son, but the four of them turn out to have quite a bit in common.)

Teddy, as it turns out, is the name of Lisa and Greg's deceased child (which sounds dark if you've never watched the show but is extremely on-brand for the series, overall). There was no way Mac and Dennis were going to succeed in this plan, but the fact that they reopened this emotional wound certainly doesn't help! Lower is great in the episode, which won't surprise you if you've seen her astounding dual performance on "Severance."

Okay, so the basic plot of "Severance" is that the show's central employer, Lumon Industries, offers a severance procedure to many of its employees; after you receive the procedure, your "innie" goes to work in the bowels of Lumon's main building, and when you leave, you resume life as your "outie" in the real world. Alongside innies Mark S. (Adam Scott), Irving B. (John Turturro), and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), Britt Lower's Helly R. works in Macrodata Refinement, though the true nature of the quartet's work doesn't really come into focus until the end of season 2 (and even then, it's still largely a mystery). During the season 1 finale, though, we learn something shocking about Helly R.'s outie: she's actually Helena Eagan, the heiress to all of Lumon and a member of the sinister and mysterious Eagan family.

When we reunite with Helly R. and the other three innies during the season 2 premiere of "Severance," it's right on the heels of their daring overtime contingency stunt in the previous season's finale (which allowed the innies to enter the outie world and pose as their own outies to try and understand their existence more clearly, at which point Helly R. learns who she really is). If you watch (or re-watch) the start of season 2, you might notice something is sort of off about Helly R. — and it's because she's actually Helena, who's posing as her own innie. (We never really learn why she does this, but get some insight into the matter when we see Helena rewatching footage of Mark S. and Helly R. passionately kissing on the severed floor). This twist is revealed in season 2's outstanding episode "Woe's Hollow" — but as for anyone insisting that Helena is still posing as her innie on the severed floor in the season 2 finale "Cold Harbor," that theory has been debunked by Lower herself.

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is streaming on Hulu, and "Severance" is streaming on Apple TV+.