On the latest episode of Severance, "The After Hours," we bid goodbye to Irving Bailiff (John Turturro), who's been investigating the shady Lumon Corporation. Apparently he was getting too close, because his friend Burt (Christopher Walken), a former Lumon employee, put him on a train traveling far, far away from the creepy, icy town of Kier.
Still, it was painful to watch him go, especially after he and Burt had developed a love connection down in the bowels of the Lumon building, where their "Innie" personas labored without any memory of what happened in the outside world. If you'd told me before I watch this show that John Turturro and Christopher Walken would share one of the most achingly romantic moments in TV history, I would have laughed you off the face of the Earth, but here we are.
It sounds like the actors built up a real rapport behind the scenes, as well, which you can absolutely tell watching their scenes as Irving and Burt. "I can’t speak for Chris, but I don’t think he wanted to lose what we had built [in season one]," Turturro told The Hollywood Reporter. "Burt has his own reasons for why he wound up getting severed, and how he wound up working for Lumon. But here… I don’t know, some things are meant to be."
"With Chris and I, the sum of our parts are greater than whatever it is. That’s just how it is with us. One plus one doesn’t equal two with us. That’s how it is when you have a certain kind of chemistry. It’s innate. You can’t force it. It’s there, or it’s not. You have your friends who crack you up, right? You can go anywhere in the world with them, and they crack you right open. With Chris and I, it’s like we’re in second grade. We just have a ball sometimes. Sometimes maybe our choices aren’t so appropriate. But sometimes, that leads us somewhere. I learned that from Chris. "
It's a shame to break up such a great onscreen duo, but Irving will definitely be safer as far away from Kier as possible. I've been expecting Turturro to exit the show for a while. Back before the second season premiere, he made it sound like this would be his final stint on the show. “I did my second go round, but I feel like I’ve had a full meal," he said.
But when THR asked Turturro whether he'd be satisfied with this as an ending for Irving, the actor made it sound like there's more to come: "No. And I don’t think it is. If someone wanted the story to be complete? It could be! But I think there’s so much more here." Turturro also talked about developing backstory for Irving, much of which we haven't seen yet. THR asked if he'd like to bring that to the screen: "Oh yeah. And it would have to be in a very active way. "
It sounds like we haven't seen the last of Irving after all
I was girding myself for "The After Hours" to be the last we ever see of Irving; sure, it would have left some questions about his background unanswered, but this show is all about mystery. So I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that he'll be back!
Or at least, that seems to be what Turturro is strongly hinting. The question is whether Irving will return in the season 2 finale, which airs on Apple TV+ this Friday, or if he'll only be back for a future third season. At the lease, it feels like Irving getting on the train marks an end for his story for now. But who knows?
The season 2 finale of Severance, "Cold Harbor," runs 76 minutes long, the longest episode in the show's history so far. Perhaps they'll be room for Irving after all.
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