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This week’s episode of Severance, “The After Hours,” didn’t really touch on Irving until the very end. His outie persona, Irving Bailiff, has recently connected with Burt (Christopher Walken), acknowledging that their innies had fallen in love at Lumon. Here, Irving arrives home to find that Burt has broken into his apartment. Burt reveals that he didn’t just work as a Severed employee at Lumon — he was an operative securely transporting people of interest for the company.
Burt asked Irving to take a drive with him, then put him on a train heading out of town. The whole scene carefully balanced threat with intimacy, as Burt made it clear he was protecting Irving from something that he refused to explain. Irving rode the train far away and seemed excited about his new, uncertain future.
[RELATED: Severance Season 2 Has a Surprising Connection to a Fan-Favorite Twilight Zone Episode]
The live-tweets and Reddit comments immediately after the episode ruminated on this scene, savoring the romance of an aimless traveler alone with his dog. Many were heartbroken by the smile on Irving’s face, noting that this brief moment of compassion from Burt was enough to make him happy. On top of all that, fans found creative ways to interpret the similarities between Irving’s struggle as a gay man and as a Severed worker.
“I really feel like the most painful tragedy of Irving was that he said he’s never been loved before, but he was sooo so loved not just by Burt but by Dylan and Mark and Helly too and he will never know that,” one fan noted. Another pleaded, “I feel so bad for Irving from severance can just One good thing happen to him please.”
Severance Season 2 has one more episode to go, premiering on Friday, March 21st on Apple TV+. A third season is reportedly in development, but details are scarce.
