The first time Irving showed up to Burt’s home on Severance he was banging on the door screaming the former O&D employee’s name. In season two’s sixth episode “Attila,” Irv returned under very different circumstances: Burt invited him to dinner. But that quiet, awkward dinner of Cuban-glazed ham still made a whole lot of noise. New information and a breakin have us wondering if a certain “scoundrel” is hiding something truly sinister.
The gentle, sweet relationship between Irving and Burt’s Innies was one of Severance‘s best developments in season one. It seemingly ended forever when Burt retired without warning. Only Lumon’s attempts to destroy the duo’s burgeoning love pushed Irv to agree to the Overtime Contingency Protocol escape plot. Once his Innie found himself in the real world he discovered his Outie had a locked chest with a list of severed employees and their addresses. Burt was among the people Outie Irv has clearly marked on a map. Desperate to talk to someone he could trust, Innie Irv found himself banging on Burt’s door screaming his name.
In season two, while Irv has been busy calling an unknown, anti-Lumon accomplice from a payphone, Burt was following Irving around in his car. In episode five, the two finally spoke, revealing they didn’t already know one another. Burt also said and did some things that didn’t exactly add up in the moment and seem even worse now. Irving said/asked, “You’re with Lumon?” and Burt didn’t actually respond. He did eventually say the company had recently fired him. “I got canned a couple of weeks ago,” Burt said. “When I pressed them for a reason, they said my Innie had an unsanctioned, erotic entanglement with another worker. They wouldn’t tell me who.”
That didn’t make sense, and after “Attila” it seems to have been an outright lie. Lumon never tells Outies the real reason why it has fired them. They don’t even share the truth about injuries suffered at work. What happens on the severed floor stays there, and Outie are never supposed to know the truth. Yet in this specific case they told Burt exactly what was going on with his Innie? They told him about an “unsanctioned, erotic entanglement?” Lumon doesn’t even want to acknowledge romance can happen, especially after a severed employee once got pregnant at work and it was a public relations nightmare. They would certainly never tell a fired employee about one.
Plus, you know, Burt wasn’t fired! He made a very warm, grateful retirement video for his Innie. At no point in that recording did Outie Burt indicate he’d been fired or that there were any hard feelings between him and the company. He clearly left on good terms.
Why the two very different stories about the end of his Lumon career? One answer explains everything: he didn’t actually retire or get fired. He’s still working for Lumon in his most important, oldest role at the company.
During dinner, an inebriated Fields said his husband Burt has worked at Lumon for at least 20 years. That would put him at the company at least eight years before the first severance procedure. Burt said being severed was the entire reason he went to work for Lumon. Normally we could give Burt some benefit of the doubt and say that a drunk Fields made a mistake about the timeline. We can’t do that here, though, after hearing the story of why Burt claims he went to work at the company.
Burt said he was a “scoundrel” in his younger years. So much so that his own Christ-loving husband believes Burt’s Outie will burn in Hell for eternity. They both hoped that severance would allow Burt’s Innie to at least get through the Pearly Gates.
What exactly did Burt do that was so bad his church-going husband has given up hope on Burt ever atoning for his sins? Burt must have done some truly terrible things, crimes of the soul much worse than what we’d expect from a “scoundrel.” We know one thing that would definitely qualify: doing evil things for an evil company who treats its founder as a messianic figure. And we know what would prevent someone from finding penance for those acts: still doing them.
Burt’s Outie appears to still be doing just that. He lied to Irving to manipulate and control him. He told Irv about an Innie romantic relationship to gain Irv’s trust and draw him to his home. Then, during that dinner, Mr. Drummond just happened to know it was the perfect night to break into the house of a man who usually spends every evening at home painting all night. Mr. Drummond also knew he could take his time slowly rummaging through Burt’s locked chest of Lumon files. It was as though someone tipped of the company’s loyal watchdog to Irving’s plans. Plans for an evening of good food and interesting conversation with a possible love interest Irving just learned about.
For as lovable and warm as Burt’s Innie was, his Outie seems to be duplicitous and corrupt. He’s likely working for Lumon, just as he has for decades, doing horrible things to good people like Irving. That might sound like a big jump for a character who until now has never given us a reason to doubt him. But we’re not the only one who doesn’t trust Burt. Fields knows him better than anyone, and he thinks so little of his husband’s soul and actions he believes Burt is doomed to eternal damnation.
We have no reason to trust Burt anymore and plenty to think he’s another Lumon monster. We do have hope, though. Hopefully that Lutheran pastor was right about Innie’s being their own people. The Burt that Irving fell in love with at work doesn’t deserve to suffer for his Outie’s sins.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He isn’t sure what his Outie does off hours and he doesn’t want to know. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.