Severance Fans Devastated After Character’s Exit in Latest Episode

WARNING: There are spoilers ahead for Severance Season 2, Episode 9! We don’t know for sure yet, but it seems like this week, Severance fans said goodbye to Irving B. for quite some time — or perhaps even for good. As fans pick through all the details of the episode, they’re mourning Irving in a way, and marveling at how far his story has come. The conversation has led to some interesting questions about where the show is going and what Irving’s journey has meant for it up to this point. The entanglement of his sexuality with the Severance procedure is the most poignant part of the show, as far as some viewers are concerned.

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.

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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.