A Severance Conspiracy Theory: Did Irving Get a Chip Reset?
In a series as psychologically dense and visually cryptic as Severance, no detail is throwaway and Irving B has some prime examples. He’s the most senior member of Macrodata Refinement, and yet there’s something... off about him. He’s hyper-loyal to Lumon, obsessed with protocol at first, and oddly knowledgeable about parts of the company he shouldn't know much about. Now, thanks to an in-universe LinkedIn post from the show’s marketing campaign, we might finally have a clue: Irving has worked at Lumon for nine years, not the three he claims - or believes - to have.
Welcome to the theory of the Severance Irving Chip Reset
Wait, Nine Years? Irving’s severed self thinks he’s only been at Lumon for three years. But the LinkedIn post drops the bombshell: his actual tenure is nearly a decade. Which begs the question, what happened to those missing six years?
One possibility? His Severance chip was reset. It wouldn’t be a stretch. We already know the tech has evolved over time. Irving might be one of the earliest test subjects, and when something went wrong - or right - Lumon may have wiped his chip clean and reassigned him to MDR. It would explain a lot: his muscle memory of hallways he shouldn't recognize, his deeply embedded sense of ritual, and especially his cryptic knowledge of places like the Testing Floor and the mysterious Exports Hall. It’s not just that Irving has a chip, it’s that his chip has a history.
Irving's Black Paint Bleed: Glitch or Trauma?
One of the most visually unsettling moments involving Irving is the black paint reflecting his Outie’s artwork which seeming bleeds into his Innie consciousness. These moments of overlap typically happen when Irving gets tired or disoriented. We see in later episodes Irving furiously painting the down elevator to the "exports hall" in black over and over at night while drinking copious amounts of coffee. Is his Innie trying to keep him from sleeping? Does he know it will inferere with his chip?
Or, could this be a side effect of a reset or malfunctioning chip? Remember, the Lumon chips are implanted directly into the brain and are designed to completely wall off memory. If Irving’s chip was one of the older models - or has been tampered with (maybe by Reghabi?) - it could be leaking subconscious elements from his Outie life. And unlike other characters, Irving isn’t actively trying to rebel. Instead, he’s haunted.
Is his Innie trying to keep him from sleeping? Does he know it will inferere with his chip?
Legacy Hardware: Clues from the CEO
In a passing comment, Lumon’s current CEO Jame Eagan mentions that the earliest Severance chips had blue and green lights. It’s a strange detail when he reminises with Helena (actually Helly) and easy to overlook but it may point to different chip generations and some may have had defects if they've been continuously evolving. If Irving has one of these older models, it may not be as stable, kept updated or compartmentalized as the newer versions. In fact, it could be degrading. That might explain why he’s more emotionally reactive, more disoriented, and why his sense of self seems porous in ways we haven’t seen with others.
Who Was Irving Before MDR?
If he was somewhere else at Lumon, the implications are huge. What department was he in? What was his role? And more importantly, what did he learn that required a reset? The Testing Floor is a likely candidate. Perhaps he saw too much. Perhaps he volunteered for something no one else would. Or perhaps he fell in love - remember, his connection with Burt feels epic in scale, as if it spans more than just a handful of MDR meetings? Could he and Burt have known each other before their current selves ever met? Could Irving be fighting toward something his chip is trying to make him forget?
Irving has always stood out in Severance - his precise mannerisms, his tortured artwork, his professional and ritualistic routines. But with the Severance Irving Chip Reset theory gaining traction, it’s clear there’s more to him than even he knows. Thanks to black paint and buried instincts coming to the surface, Irving's memory is beginning to wake up so we may soon find out.
