I am watching Grosse Pointe Blank and there is a scene where Martin Blank is in a store when a hitman shows up to kill him. The store clerk is playing Doom on an arcade with head phones on while bullets fly around. The song playing is Ace of Spades.
I immediately thought of Irving. Suddenly I got a strange vibe about him, that he is a really bad guy. I don't know what about this random scene and the song brought me there but it did.
I think Irving was a killer. I think he is guilty of the same things Burt has done that are so horrible as to guarantee they never see the gates of Heaven. I am not sure if he was severed as a punishment or reward?
I wonder if Burt is even severed. He could just as easily have been a plant to try to trigger Irving's memories as Gemma was used with iMark to try and trigger his.
Yeah, I know this is just a fart in the wind, but if I don't type out my feelings they will just build up inside!
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Irving is a hero and is on a journey of redemption and salvation. He’s basically my Jesus at this point in the severance story
Laughable, man!
I KNEW HE LOOKED FAMILIAR I DIDNT KNOW THAT WAS HIM
I have wondered what his true connections to Lumon might be ever since it was revealed that his outie has visions of the export hall. Unless he was a test subject himself, he might have been sending people down there just like Milchick did Miss Casey.
I think he was the one sending people down for awhile, then maybe later at some point he became the testing subject.
Lumon recycles.
♻️✌️☮️
That would explain how he was introduced to Helly as the team member of greatest seniority working at Lumon but had worked outside of MDR for many years. If you're right, then that'd make Irving one of thr Lumon security goons like Grainer. Or maybe something even worse than Grainer?
With his navy background, this is very likely. His “outie” is perpetually haunted; he’d mind is fractured - it even bleeds into his innie’s conscious. Interestingly enough, Irving translate to sea friend, of water, green river.
When I learned that I thought of the Bruce Lee quote; Water can flow or it can crash lol
I think Irving has A-LOT of skeletons in his closet; a lot having to do with that painting he’s obsessed with. I think he’s very familiar with it. I think he walked several people there. Why it haunts him so.
Also his switches in personality; there’s a demon that comes of Irving’s innie when he’s upset. Uncontrollable. Angry. Vengeful. Rage filled. Evil.
When he snapped on Helena at the ORTBO 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think his piousness around the sanctity of Kier during the walk-through of the perpetuity wing in season one is another example of this inner demon. This self righteousness that really comes from a part of him, subconsciously or otherwise, that is desperate to atone for some horrible sins. The way he spoke to Mark with such indignant rage is seared into my brain, it reminds me of the religious zealots I grew up around (some of whom undoubtedly had skeletons of regret in their own closets).
Yeah Irving’s dark side is terrifying. It shows in both his Innie and Outtie. It’s always there, like a monster, just under the surfaces
You can split the soul, but the spirit remains.
Irving is pretty clearly ex-military and is attempting to infiltrate Lumon/the severed floor as part of an operation involving whoever he calls from the pay phone.
And yes, if he was some kind of military intelligence the chances he’s done bad things are pretty high.
Have you considered the possibility of him being reintegrated and if so, what would you say the likelihood of it being so?
I would say no because he still paints continuously to try and trigger reactions in his innie; if he were reintegrated he wouldn't need that and just have his memories
well that is a pretty good point
Already integrated? Almost definitely not.
Currently seething that the version of GPB you watched had Ace of Spades over that scene.
Fuck licensing laws changing the soundtrack to films, that was originally, and always should be, Guns n Roses version of Live and Let Die.
oh wtf! I have no doubt that this happens but I am not sure I've ever come across it myself before.
and super annoying there is no date on my DVD case or disc anywhere. Guess it doesn't really matter.
I'm going to have to go back now and rewatch it with that playing to see how it makes me feel about Irving (heh)
They did the same thing to Dawson’s Creek. They tried to even change the theme song to avoid licensing fees. None of the songs on streaming are th same as they were on air.
AND Beverly Hills 90210, etc was formerly a glorious timecapsule of all genres late 80s - 90s, and now is mostly the equivalent of elevator pop punk :/
Especially that soundtrack, which is a great one on purpose. I owned it on CD.
When Irv breaks he breaks bad. Remember the deviled egg smashed in the book? Next stop, attempted drowning.
Oh yeah the egg! I wondered if when oMark was starting to reintegrate and oddly asked, "Whats that smell!" if he wasn't back in the office and that was what he was smelling.
It was never addressed otherwise. It was only a few days between when it happened and when they returned. It sure must have started to stink by the time they settled back in to the office. What happened to it?
I just assumed he was having a stroke. Smelling burnt toast and one limp arm are two of the most famous signs that a character is seconds away from collapsing.
If Burt was a plant to trigger memories like you said, they wouldn't have acted like they just met each other when they met outside of lumon
If outie Irving is the original and only other version of Irving. I don't think oIrving is the only other Irving. One sign that could point to something else going on in Outieland is the elevator symbol above oIrving's door. And having seen different versions of people in Outieland such as the sentor's wife.
And you have oIrving who first meet's oBurt who is very suspicious of Burt and his husband, even seems a bit disturbed by them. But later oIrving warms up like a puppy dog to oBurt for some reason and joyfully agrees to go with him.
And And, oBurt acts as if he does know Irving from 'before'. Their dinner is when I think I first started suspecting that Burt was not actually severed. I mean, what is Burt's plan? Why is he sending him off via the train station? What does Burt know about what is going on and why does he, when he shouldn't know anything about it as the outie of a severed.
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”
Its heavily implied that Irving and Burt were both fixers for Lumon.
Yes. Do you get the feeling that Burt remembers that time while Irving does not? Why would that be?
Lumon was able to get MDR to awake at the Ortbo, right? It shouldnt be much different to sever someone when they go out to beat someone up or kill someone.
Like you train an innie to kill, send them home, and then when you need the hit done you use OTC?
Very Manchurian Candidate
My head canon:
Irv has a military background and does investigative work. He’s looking into disappearances that are somehow connected to Lumon. This is all hard established fact.
Place now my head canon…
Irv took a job at Lumon to investigate what’s going on. He’s sifted through files he picked up at Lumon, gathering names and information.
Three years ago, after working at Lumon for six, he found information about the testing hall. Maybe a picture. Maybe a diagram. The information connects this to the disappearances.
Irv gets a job on the severed floor. His outie has spent the last three years painting that corridor over and over again to get his innie to investigate it. It finally happened at the OTC, but Irv was fired. Fortunately, Dylan found the directions Irv left and gave it to Mark. Mark was able to rescue Gemma.
This is all just feelings basically, but I think he's been at Lumon longer than 6 years. I don't believe any of the time frames they are giving us. Him being in the military seems to be right. I think he took a position at Lumon to work in security or just literally be a goon.
At some point maybe he got fired, as the non-severed employee. Later, for whatever reason he was severed. I think his outside investigation may be more about what happened to him. I don't think his outie self is his original pure self. I think there are multiple layers going on. I'm not sure we have seen Irving's true outie.
Why disagree with the timeline?
If Irv worked in a similar “field” as Burt, he would have personally known Burt and Burt would have known him.
It seems when they met that they didn’t know each other personally although they were curious about each other. We also see from Irv’s writing, he doesn’t think highly of Burt’s job. That seems to show Irv wasn’t “security” or an “enforcer”.
We know Irv is investigating Lumon. That has been firmly established. We know Irv is working with some anti-severance or anti-Lumon group. This is firmly established facts in the show.
We know one of the anti-severance groups is very well organized and well connected. They have access to internal Lumon HR files and were able to finagle time on “Lumon consoles” that allowed Reghabi to crack severance. They were able to get her space at Ganz college and had the dean look the other way.
All this pretty clearly points to Irv working on investigating severance and Lumon which I guess would make him a “good guy”.
Whoaaa
I mean him holding Helly*s face underwater does contribute to that vibe
Do it SETH!!
as an avowed Irving stan... I always felt that he got off pretty easy for this with fans. Obviously we don't trust Helene, but shoving a woman's head underwater with sadistic relish and then acting like it was for her (innie's) salvation just never quite sat right with me. Like.. should we not all be disturbed by this? It still weirds me out that we cheer for "DO IT, SETH!!!" as an ✨️iconic✨️ line. Helene does share a vessel with his surrogate daughter, Helly. (Underlying all this is my objection that it's just not great to assault a woman, period.) He should be a little more conflicted about this--and so should we, I think?!
It also really seems to go against his otherwise gentle nature. Then again, the show does indicate that he's suppressing something dark within himself, as illustrated by the sludge.
Aslo wild to see it was a decision taken in his innie state.
agreed. my personal unpopular opinion is also that his explosion at mark about "making love to [helly] with your pupils whole your outie's wife rots away" was waaaaaaay out of line, and the clapback from helena was, at least to some extent, deserved
Helena is the one who yells “DO IT, SETH!” and Irving is just repeating what she said. Also “it” is just removing the Glasgow Block.
Right. Why did he do that? Who did that? Was that oIrving? iIrving? Some other version of 'Irving'?
It is a bit unusual to hold someones head under water because you think they may be pretending to be someone else. Imagine this happening on the show Under Cover Boss because someone realized Tom isn't really just the new driver.
Maybe muscle memory…
LOL
I think it might be reflexive to him knowing it’s Helena. He shut down hard the moment her ‘waking up story’ didn’t make sense and when he realized it was her. My guess is that he more than likely has negative history with her so I think the loathing may have been from his subconscious 🤷♀️
Oh man this just made me think of Irving at a previous non-severed employee and his downfall at the company (assuming there was a downfall which caused him to leave/get severed).
If he was one of the main goons there, he must have had a relationship with Helena. I'd be interested to see how that was!
Hopefully we get 'Severance: The Flashback' series sometime around 2045.
This just made me laugh. The SNL spoof of Undercover Boss with Adam Driver is hilarious, btw.
I believe I saw that sketch but I can't remember it.
I had that theory as well. Now, I’m thinking either he had those names on the map to help Burt, or stop him. His innie falling in love with Burt would make for great conflict, especially if the find a way for their memories to merge.
He’s definitely an operative of some kind. I don’t think we can say he’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’ until we know more about his organization and motives.
I guess thats part of the whole thing, he could have been bad in the past, and could be good now in the present thanks to Lumon technologies!
I really hope we get a flashback season with 3. I kinda hope the series ends with a season 3 at this point too. I gotta move on with my life at some point!