The latest episode of Severance, "Woe's Hollow," was a big one for John Turturro's character Irving B. It almost feels like he might not be able to come back from it. Let's get into the specifics. Beware SPOILERS for Severance below.
In "Woe's Hollow," Irving and the other Innies woke up in a snowy forest. They're on a field trip of sorts, set up by Lumon, where they retrace the steps of Kier Eagan, the messianic founder of the company. All Lumon employees basically treat Kier as a god, and his handbook as the Bible. Irving used to be a true believer, but of all of the Innies, he's become most disillusioned with Lumon and Kier after getting his heart broken in the first season, so he has little patience for this excursion.
Things get pretty real on this trip. Irving has been suspicious of Helly (Britt Lower) ever since she lied about what happened to her in the season 1 finale, when all the Innies woke up in their Outie's bodies after work hours. Irving confronts her during a particularly intense scene near Woe's Hollow, where Kier Eagan supposedly attained enlightenment however many years ago. He almost drowns her next to "the biggest waterfall in the world" and gets her to admit the truth: that she's not Helly R. the Innie coworker they've come to know. She's actually Helena Eagan, a powerful executive at Lumon trying to manipulate the Innies to some mysterious end.
Irving basically tried to kill Helena, which is a major no-no at work. His supervisor Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) tells Irving this is grounds for immediate termination. That means that Irving B. as we know him will never return. Instead, the Outie Irving Bailiff will control this body on a permanent basis. It will be as if Irving B. had never existed.
It's quite a plot twist, and normally I would just wait to see what happens to Irving next week. But John Turturro has said some things that make me wonder if this isn't the end for Irving. “I didn’t like being in that office—the light there drove me insane,” he shared before the second season aired. “I did my second go round, but I feel like I’ve had a full meal.”
At the least, this makes it sounds like Turturro will not return for the show's third season, whenever that comes around. We don't know quite how long Severance will last, but it sounds like the showrunners have plans that go beyond this second season. I wouldn't be surprised if Irving was written out of the story sometime this year.
However, I don't "Woe's Hollow" will mark John Turturro's final appearance on the show. There's still too much we don't know about Irving. What happened after Irving B. went offline during the overtime contingency jailbreak in the season 1 finale, after he went to Burt's house and started pounding on the door and yelling? And in the season 2 premiere, we saw Burt (Christopher Walken) tailing Irving Bailiff. What's that about? What's at the end of the long dark hallway Irving's outie keeps drawing, and how does he know about it?
We'll probably get answers to these questions in season 2, and Irving — in one form or another — will likely be around to receive them. But after that, given how Turturro seems like he's done with the role, I wouldn't be surprised if the show has to go on without him.
New episodes of Severance drop Fridays on Apple TV+.
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