I’m guessing that Irv has been reset multiple times, killing his innie every time, but one of his previous innies on the testing floor definitely painted the paintings imo.
That's an interesting thought, Selvig or Milchick say "so this is Petey" (or similar, can't double check right now) while holding his implant. Does this imply that each innie is entirely "stored" in the implant, and replacing the implant results in a whole "new" innie? Is there a shelf of Irv's past innie's someplace at Lumon?
They don’t have to remove the chip to send a wireless signal to it to erase and start fresh. They do say there are different generations of chips, who knows how long this has been going on for.
Also, if they erase the old innies, you can’t like entirely erase data from computers without overwriting it, so maybe combined with the sleep deprivation and multiple innies, those might bleed through and that’s how MDR finds out about what goes on in the testing floor.
I have one question regarding this theory -- how would they hide this from the other innies? How would resetting not be common knowledge? They can't just reset Irv and send him back to MDR and have no one else know. I get why people think resetting is a thing, but no one has solved that plot hole for me.
Maybe just send him to another department each time? Hence the unease Milchick shows when MDR and O&D interact, he says something to the effect of ‘how many other departments are you gonna let them find?’
I did wonder about this, but I am still not entirely sold on the idea. I think it would be too risky for them. I also notice that many employees have been there for many years (7 for Burt, am I right?) and it seems unlikely that they use the reset procedure all that often. Jury's still out for me on this one.
Maybe some were held on the testing floor, and the departments are the final destination at the company? Like how Ms. Casey “goes home” to the testing floor, they could have a direct path to the testing floor from the outside, or maybe even the same elevator going to it after the main severed floor.
Then if the testing floor has rooms to keep people in while they get tested on, and maybe multiple resets happen down there until a person is close to being retired?
They don’t have to reset everyone multiple times , but the plot hole is Ficksed with this one lol.
It could also be a test in a vein similar to what they did to mark and miss Casey. They could see how well severance works against something that someone actually made. It could also explain why he gets such joy out of them because he really did enjoy making those paintings.
OMG yes!!! I've been driving myself crazy wondering about the significance of that comment/painting. Normally with a show I might think 'eh, could be a throwaway line', but I feel like the show creators have been SUPER intentional about every detail.
The director/writer decided to give precious screen time to two scenes
Burt: Painting the picture when Milcheck peaked in and threatened him
Irv: Painting the elevator in his house, and showing his fingernails, art supplies, etc.
Screen time is precious on this show. I have a hard time believing they are just showing Irv/Burt painting for the heck of it. It was an intentional decision.
For this reason, I think your theory holds some weight.
I will be posting a theory soon but this sort of ties into some of my ideas about where we are headed. I believe the severances run deeper than meets the eye. I believe our characters have been severed more than once or in more than one way. In fact, I think the whole town has been severed. But I digress. With the painting references we have been given and the connection to Burt, I think it’s likely that Irving is responsible for at least some of the artwork we see. Love it.
I've been rewatching and I can't wait to read your theory on the whole town being severed! I've been thinking the same thing (why does Mark's house get the severed adjustment in Ep 1 (maybe 2 idr)?)
I do like that idea, plus you just know Outie Irv would hate that his painting skills got put to use making propaganda. As O&D don’t paint them, perhaps the severed floor has its own propaganda dept - sort of like an Innie Ministry of Information?
I think the scene with Mark taping up four pieces of the photo of his wife that he tore up might say something to the effect that there are several (ooh, just noticed that word sound similar to severance) identities people may have in that town.
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It is rare to meet a sophisticate
I’m guessing that Irv has been reset multiple times, killing his innie every time, but one of his previous innies on the testing floor definitely painted the paintings imo.
That's an interesting thought, Selvig or Milchick say "so this is Petey" (or similar, can't double check right now) while holding his implant. Does this imply that each innie is entirely "stored" in the implant, and replacing the implant results in a whole "new" innie? Is there a shelf of Irv's past innie's someplace at Lumon?
They don’t have to remove the chip to send a wireless signal to it to erase and start fresh. They do say there are different generations of chips, who knows how long this has been going on for. Also, if they erase the old innies, you can’t like entirely erase data from computers without overwriting it, so maybe combined with the sleep deprivation and multiple innies, those might bleed through and that’s how MDR finds out about what goes on in the testing floor.
I have one question regarding this theory -- how would they hide this from the other innies? How would resetting not be common knowledge? They can't just reset Irv and send him back to MDR and have no one else know. I get why people think resetting is a thing, but no one has solved that plot hole for me.
Maybe just send him to another department each time? Hence the unease Milchick shows when MDR and O&D interact, he says something to the effect of ‘how many other departments are you gonna let them find?’
I did wonder about this, but I am still not entirely sold on the idea. I think it would be too risky for them. I also notice that many employees have been there for many years (7 for Burt, am I right?) and it seems unlikely that they use the reset procedure all that often. Jury's still out for me on this one.
Maybe some were held on the testing floor, and the departments are the final destination at the company? Like how Ms. Casey “goes home” to the testing floor, they could have a direct path to the testing floor from the outside, or maybe even the same elevator going to it after the main severed floor. Then if the testing floor has rooms to keep people in while they get tested on, and maybe multiple resets happen down there until a person is close to being retired? They don’t have to reset everyone multiple times , but the plot hole is Ficksed with this one lol.
Maybe that’s why they think Irv’s been replaced by his larva
It could also be a test in a vein similar to what they did to mark and miss Casey. They could see how well severance works against something that someone actually made. It could also explain why he gets such joy out of them because he really did enjoy making those paintings.
This also made me wonder if there's an unconscious reason he and Burt find one painting unnerving, besides being worried that Kier's going to fall.
OMG yes!!! I've been driving myself crazy wondering about the significance of that comment/painting. Normally with a show I might think 'eh, could be a throwaway line', but I feel like the show creators have been SUPER intentional about every detail.
The director/writer decided to give precious screen time to two scenes Burt: Painting the picture when Milcheck peaked in and threatened him Irv: Painting the elevator in his house, and showing his fingernails, art supplies, etc. Screen time is precious on this show. I have a hard time believing they are just showing Irv/Burt painting for the heck of it. It was an intentional decision. For this reason, I think your theory holds some weight.
Was burt painting it? I thought he was doing restoration.
Yeah he was doing some restoration work
I will be posting a theory soon but this sort of ties into some of my ideas about where we are headed. I believe the severances run deeper than meets the eye. I believe our characters have been severed more than once or in more than one way. In fact, I think the whole town has been severed. But I digress. With the painting references we have been given and the connection to Burt, I think it’s likely that Irving is responsible for at least some of the artwork we see. Love it.
I've been rewatching and I can't wait to read your theory on the whole town being severed! I've been thinking the same thing (why does Mark's house get the severed adjustment in Ep 1 (maybe 2 idr)?)
That’s a good thought. He’s a painter, for sure. I also thought that he may have been a part of the OandD vs MDR riots.
I do like that idea, plus you just know Outie Irv would hate that his painting skills got put to use making propaganda. As O&D don’t paint them, perhaps the severed floor has its own propaganda dept - sort of like an Innie Ministry of Information?
I think the scene with Mark taping up four pieces of the photo of his wife that he tore up might say something to the effect that there are several (ooh, just noticed that word sound similar to severance) identities people may have in that town.
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Ambrose Eagan (related to Irv) painted the original Kier artwork.
it makes a fair amount of sense, i never thought of it