Character from Severance by Dan Erickson
A true believer whose faith in Lumon crumbled the moment he fell in love with someone from the wrong department — and whose outie has been painting the same dark hallway for years, trying to warn his other self.
Irving's innie was Lumon's model employee — nine years of devotion, encyclopedic knowledge of Eagan history, a fanatic adherent to the handbook. He quoted Kier Eagan the way other people quote scripture. He believed. Then he met Burt Goodman from Optics & Design, and his faith collapsed because the company that taught him its principles also told him that O&D were enemies, and the man from O&D was gentle and kind and looked at him in a way that made the handbook irrelevant. Irving's outie is the opposite of his innie — a rebellious investigator compiling evidence against Lumon, painting the same dark corridor over and over in acrylic. The paintings are messages. His outie figured out that painting the black hallway — obsessively, every night — would bleed through into his innie's consciousness as nightmares of black goo, triggering questions about what Lumon was hiding. His love story with Burt is one of the show's most devastating arcs. Their innies fell in love. Burt was retired. Irving's innie was destroyed by the loss. His outie found Burt outside and discovered Burt had a husband named Fields. There was no version of this love story that worked — the system ensured that. When Irving discovered Helly was actually Helena Eagan — an Eagan masquerading as a prisoner — he tried to drown her. The depth of his betrayal by Lumon, by the Eagans, by the system that stole his love and his faith, erupted in a moment of violent desperation. He left Kier on a train ticket Burt bought him. Whether his two selves will ever reconcile their opposite approaches — devotion and rebellion — is the question Irving carries.
Tall and thin with light brown skin, brown eyes, curly grey hair kept short and neat, and a thick well-groomed mustache. At work: suits with vests, the careful presentation of a devoted employee. At home: paint-stained clothes, black acrylic under his fingernails, the wreckage of someone who stays up all night painting the same image over and over. His outie's eyes are haunted. His innie's eyes used to be serene.
Also known as: Irving B., Irv