This scene is discussed on The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott. S2E6: Attila, about 49 minutes in. They don't really dig into the answers as such, but here's what they had to say:
Ben: And you go to the Chinese restaurant and that's where we have this, you know, incredible sort of … we always called it the Heat scene.
Adam: Yeah. Mark Friedman, who was really digging into this scene [also one of our writers and executive producers] coined "the Heat scene".
Ben: Yeah. (laughs)
Adam: I remember hearing about it long before it happened. We always talked about it being the Heat scene, and …
Ben: And Heat being the movie … the Michael Mann movie, the scene where Pacino and Deniro meet for the only time in that movie and you know, the audience has been waiting for that moment. And we thought, "Well, this is kind of this moment where, you know, Helena and outie Mark are meeting for the first time …"
Adam: Mhm.
Ben: "… and what is that going to be about?" And I thought you guys did an amazing job with that scene and the writing of the scene I think is really, really interesting and there's so much under the surface and so many levels to what you're experiencing with her and what she wants from you.
Adam: Yeah.
Ben: It's really interesting.
[They play the audio of the scene.]
Adam: I loved this scene. It was fun to do and … it was just fun to kind of get this new dynamic between Britt and I and kind of figure out what it would be. And it ended up being--kind of having this charge to it, like these two people … Like, you know, outie Mark is scared shitless of this person and has no concept of who she is to him on the inside, but she does, obviously, and she knows they've actually slept together. So there's so much going on, but the fact that there ended up being this almost flirtatious charge to the scene was something that just really started happening while we were shooting it and felt really interesting, and …
Ben: You sort of dip into it and then you go away from it …
Adam: Yeah.
Ben: … and then you give in to it and then you're …
Adam: Well, she starts fucking with me by, like, getting Gemma's name wrong.
Ben: Right. What do you think that's about?
Adam: Oh, I--I think she's 100% fucking with me. Just toying, seeing what reaction she can get.
Ben: That's so interesting.
Adam: And she gets one.
Ben: It's so interesting because it's almost like some sort of a manipulation that Milchick would do on the inside, you know?
Adam: Uh huh. Oh, totally.
Ben: But it's Helena doing it on the outside.
Adam: Yeah. But maybe she's no… You know, Britt and I never talked about that, or any of … Maybe it's sincere, I don't know, but that's …
Ben: Yeah.
Adam: … that's how I took it then, and so …
Ben: I think it's, yeah, and when you think of all that's sort of, the baggage in that scene, like earlier that same day you both slept with each other.
Adam: Yeah. But neither of us are aware of that.
Ben: Neither of you are aware of that, but she's aware that she slept with you and you're not aware that you slept with her.
Adam: With either of her.
Ben: Either of her.
Adam: (laughs)
Ben: And that, to me, what's so interesting to me about that is, like, again, it's the question of like "What permeates? What permeates?"
Adam: Right.
Ben: "What is, you know, what pheromones are there?"
Adam: Yeah.
Ben: "What sort of--what's the memory there, what is the connection, what's the love feeling, what's the--" All those things, there's just so much going on to …
Adam: Yeah.
Ben: I'm sure as actors, there's just so much there to have just sort of waiting to, like, call up or you know, play with.
Adam: Yeah! Yeah, that's part of what was interesting about it, is that there was something there and it was entirely different from whatever connection or flirtation exists in either of the versions that we had done before. It was like this new, weirder, more lived-in thing 'cause both of these people have lived a lot longer than the innies.
Ben: Yeah.
Adam: And "grown-ups", more. It was just weird.
Ben: And we shot that at a great restaurant called Eng's up in Kingston, New York. It's a beautiful restaurant, and …
Adam: Great exterior, too.
Ben: Yeah. And then you're all freaked out, you come out, that sort of like spurs you to say "Yes, let's go and let's do the, sort-of, like the souped-up version of reintegration where she's gonna, you know, she's gonna inject the chip and really take it to the next level."
Adam: Yeah.