Warning! This article contains spoilers for Severance season 2’s episode 9.
After only hinting at Burt’s shrouded history with Lumon,Severanceseason 2’s episode 9 finally draws a clear picture of what he did for the company before being severed. Burt’s journey as an innie ended inSeveranceseason 1 after his outie announced his retirement. This left Irving’s innie heartbroken because he was only starting to embrace his romantic relationship with Burt. InSeveranceseason 1’s endingmoments, Irv went knocking on Burt’s door during the Overtime Contingency incident, which paved the way for the events of season 2.
InSeveranceseason 2’s episode 6, Burt invites Irving to his home for dinner, where Irv meets his partner, Fields, for the first time. The dinner takes an awkward turn when Fields hints that Burt was associated with Lumon even before he got severed. This raises Irv’s suspicions, but he does not learn much about his Lumon history until Burt tells him the truth inSeveranceseason 2’s episode 9.
Burt Was A Driver For Lumon Before He Underwent The Severance Procedure
Season 2’s Episode 9 Reveals Some Cryptic Details About His Lumon Past
InSeveranceseason 2’s episode 9, Irving finds Burt sitting in his home. Burt reads all the notes he took about him and his partner, Fields, after he met them for dinner. The next scene shows Irving and Burt going somewhere in Burt’s car. This is when Burt opens up about his Lumon history, revealing that he never hurt anyone. He recalls that he used to drive people to places at Lumon’s command but never intended to harm any of them. Even though he tries not to take accountability for what happened to the people he drove,his voice is ridden with traces of guilt and regret.
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Burt tries to defend his actions by implying that he was only doing his job of driving people around. However, deep inside, he realizes that something terrible happened to the people he drove. Therefore, he regrettably recalls that he never asked what was happening to the people he drove from one place to another. Burt’s history with Lumon suggests that long before he was severed, he was employed as a driver at Lumon. During his long tenure with the company,he never questioned the nature of his job and only did as he was told until his conscience got the best of him.
Why Burt Chose To Be Severed After Serving As A Lumon Driver
He Wanted To Feel Innocent Again
Irving initially fears that Burt is working for Lumon again and is driving him to a place where the company would try to harm him. However, Burt takes him to a nearby railway station and asks him to leave the Town of Kier. He does this because he fears that after learning about Irving’s undercover operation to expose Lumon, Lumon might try to hunt Irving down and kill him. Before letting Irv leave, Burt also reveals why he decided to get severed. He says thatafter feeling guilty about his previous Lumon job, he just wanted to feel innocent again.
Irving’s innie claims to have worked for Lumon for three years, but anofficial LinkedIn postabout him reveals he has been with Lumon for 9 years. This suggests that Irving, too, has had a long history with Lumon, explaining why he knows about the Exports Hall and the Testing Floor.
This aligns with the dinner table conversation from season 2’s episode 6, where Fields reveals that a priest convinced Burt to get severed. The priest claimed that since the innies are separate individuals and have a clear slate compared to their outies, they have a better chance of going to heaven. Since Burt hated how he served as an accomplice to Lumon’s unethical practices, he wanted to redeem himself from his past actions. Getting severed gave him a semblance of redemption, andhe even found heaven as an innie when he fell in love with Irving’s innie.
Was The Man From Severance Season 2 Episode 3 Burt’s Old Partner?
The Man Could Be Burt’s Replacement At Lumon
Fields mentions something about Burt having a partner during his tenure with Lumon as an unsevered employee. It is hard not to connect the dots and believe that Burt’s partner was the man Cobel spotted inSeveranceseason 2’s episode 3before fleeing the scene and never looking back at Lumon again. The details Burt reveals about his past suggest that he drove people to places where they were harmed or even killed by Lumon. Since Cobel has been associated with Lumon almost her entire life,she probably knows about these shady activities and also identifies the people involved in them.
InSeveranceseason 1’s ending, Cobel even warns Helly that Lumon will make her innie friends suffer and leave them in pain if she blows the whistle on the company.
Owing to this, as soon as she sees Helena’s driver inSeveranceseason 2’s episode 3, she seemingly realizes that he is the same man who, like Burt, drives people to places before Lumon silences them for good. Fearing for her life, Cobel decided to leave before it was too late, understanding that Lumon was willing to harm her or get her killed to prevent her from being defiant. InSeveranceseason 1’s ending, Cobel even warns Helly that Lumon will make her innie friends suffer and leave them in pain if she blows the whistle on the company. This confirms she knows what Lumon is capable of doing to rebellious workers.
