Severance Season 1 Burt Christopher Walken Irving John Turturro
(Apple TV+)

Creator Dan Erickson loved the reaction to ‘Severance’ season 1’s unexpected romance

Even Dylan G ships it.

Dan Erickson, the creator of Severance, has admitted to reading the Reddit threads about the Apple TV+ series even though he knows he shouldn’t.

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“It’s great to watch people relate to the show on that level,” he told The Mary Sue in an interview. Mostly, he appeared pleased with the reaction to Severance’s unexpected romantic relationship between Burt (Christopher Walken) and Irving (John Turturro) in season 1.

Irving and Burt met midway through Severance season 1 and bonded over the paintings on Lumon’s hallways. But as they started growing closer, admitting their feelings for each other, and sharing some romantic moments, Burt’s outie retired from Lumon Industries. He was likely encouraged by Milchick. (Remember that, as far as we know, retirement for an outie is like death for an innie.) To make matters even more tragic, when Irving’s innie woke up in the outside world, he searched for Burt and discovered that his office flame had a committed partner at home.

The sweet relationship is against type for Walken & Turturro

“It’s wild,” Erickson said of the positive reaction to Burt and Irving’s pocket-sized love story. “These are guys that we’re normally used to seeing as real tough guys, and you don’t necessarily expect them to show that kind of vulnerability. Although, both actors have certainly shown over the years that they can do that and that they have that side of them as performers.”

It does add to the relationship’s charm that these are two high-profile character actors you might not always expect to see in such a tender romance, and not just one. Erickson told The Mary Sue that the show likes to play against type when casting actors.

In some cases, though, they absolutely do cast characters with an actor’s type in mind—nobody plays depressed like Adam Scott, after all. Erickson teased that some of the characters played by the new cast members in Severance season 2 would also play with audience expectations. For reference/your theorizing pleasure, those actors include: Bob Balaban, Alia Shawkat, Stefano Carannante, Gwendoline Christie, Merritt Wever, John Noble, and Robby Benson.

Severance season 2 won’t forget Burt and Irving

Fans have already noticed that the claymation “recap” of season 1’s rebellion in the Severance season 2 premiere outed Helly (Britt Lower) and Mark’s (Scott) smooch but made no mention of Burt and Irving’s flirtation–even though their workplace relationship progressed faster and was arguably more intense. Is this corporate homophobia, or something even more sinister? Thankfully, our core four at Lumon have not forgotten about Burt and Irving. In fact, Dylan (Zach Cherry) has changed his tune and seems ready to defend them.

“I love that Dylan now kind of takes responsibility for the relationship of Irving and Burt and is like ‘yeah, well, you know the whole thing was my idea,'” Erickson said, “when he was literally accusing Burt of attempted murder and stuff in season 1. Now that he knows Burt’s cool, there’s a little bit of revisionist history happening on Dylan’s part.”

Severance season 2 is available now on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping weekly on Fridays.


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Leah Marilla Thomas
Leah Marilla Thomas (she/her) is a contributor at The Mary Sue. She has been working in digital entertainment journalism since 2013, covering primarily television as well as film and live theatre. She's been on the Marvel beat professionally since Daredevil was a Netflix series. (You might recognize her voice from the Newcomers: Marvel podcast). Outside of journalism, she is 50% Southerner, 50% New Englander, and 100% fangirl over everything from Lord of the Rings to stage lighting and comics about teenagers. She lives in New York City and can often be found in a park. She used to test toys for Hasbro. True story!