20 hours Ago By Neela Debnath
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers from Severance season 2, episode 6 - Attila This week things took another unexpected turn on Severance. Viewers saw the dinner between Outie Irving (played by John Turturro) and Outie Burt (Christopher Walken) and his husband Fields (John Noble) play out. Meanwhile, Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) decided it was taking too long to reintegrate Mark (Adam Scott) and wanted to speed up the process.
Inside Lumon, things were getting surprisingly steamy for Mark and Helly (Britt Lower), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) had another visit from his Outie’s wife Gretchen (Merritt Wever). Milchick (Trammell Tillman), on the other hand, was trying to make improvements after his disastrous performance review, which included the incorrect use of paperclips and using long words, not to mention the small matter of nearly getting the future head of the company killed. Here’s a dive into some of the biggest questions from Atilla and what it could all mean.
Who really is Burt and why is his Outie going to Hell? Irving’s dinner with Burt and Fields saw the retired O&D worker saying he’d been a “scoundrel” in the past, hence his decision to join Lumon so his Innie could go to heaven with his husband Fields. Despite fans wanting to believe this cute and innocent explanation, it was clear Irving knew something dodgy was going on. It also begs the question of what terrible things Burt has done in his life to make this declaration with his husband in agreement about his past misdeeds.
Fans have already had their suspicions about the supposedly benevolent character. One Redditor posted: “Burt is the one who’s been reintegrated. I see a lot of people talking about Irv being reintegrated in the ep4 s2 for some reason, when there was no indication of that.
But I have another theory and I didn’t really see anyone discussing it. To me it’s kind of obvious that Burt is the one who was reintegrated, but I still might be wrong, so don’t come at me, I’m open to an honest discussion, but don’t be rude, please [sic].” The fan then listed Burt’s crying while watching Irving talking on the phone as another example of his integration and knowing what was going on.
Another Severance fan wrote: “To me the biggest clue to this being true is the way Burt spoke in his exit video, mentioning so many times that he doesn't really know the colleagues he was making the tape for. It really felt like he was trying to convince us he didn't know them.” A third suggested: “I think Burt and Iriving were previously together.
When we see the door open finally, we will see Burt questioning what Irving is doing there. I think Burt is the heartbroken one [sic].” There have also previously been suggestions Burt is the real mastermind at Lumon and this was compounded in the episode when he stressed to Irving he hadn’t been with the company, which would have predated the Severance procedure and the company opening Severed floors.
It would also mean Burt was part of Lumon before he was severed. One fan previously posted: “Is it possible that with Burt everything is not so simple? Could he also be from a higher council in Lumon, like Helly? In the first season, he lied to Irving that there were only 2 people working in their department, although this is far from true. Yes, then there was an explanation that Burt did not trust Irving's department, but still it is quite strange.
” After this episode, it seems fairly clear Burt is some sort of evil figure but the extent remains unknown. What is the history of Attila the Hun? Burt and Fields called each other “Hun” as a pet name before changing to “Attila” due to it being a derogatory term towards Germans during the inter-way years. Attila the Hun was a 5th century king and the most successful barbarian ruler of the Hunnic Empire, wrecking havoc on the Roman Empire across Europe.
He earned the nickname ‘Scourge of God’ due to his acts of cruelty inflicted upon his enemies, according to Biography.com. Attila the Hun was ruthless in his ambitions as he sought to gain power and ruled his empire from 440 to 453 AD.
In short, Burt and Fields’ nickname for each other is highly questionable. Did Burt help Drummond to break into Irving’s house? This feeds into whether Burt invited Irving over to his house, so Lumon Board member Mr Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) could snoop around in his home. Given the previous evidence and Burt’s tears, it suggests he could well have helped Mr Dummond and yet be conflicted by his decision.
Again, it would suggest Burt was very much onto Irving and is trying to shut down his investigations. Why did Mark S and Helly say ‘yes’? Inside Lumon, it looked like the romance between Mark S and Helly was back on after the previous week’s fallout from the Helena Woe’s Hollow twist. Helly decided she wanted to sleep with Mark and have her “own memory” with the pair doing the deed in a makeshift empty office.
Shortly before, Mark simply said “yes?” to Helly with her responding with a “yes”. The moment seemed to mirror Mark’s sex scene with Helena, where there was no consent when he unwittingly slept with the head of Lumon, instead of Helly. Also, Helena was essentially pretending to be Helly when she slept with Mark and so her Innie didn’t have any consent either.
Both Mark and Helly’s Innies appeared to be consenting after previously not getting the choice. Is Helena in love with Mark and why did he flirt with her? Things got weird between Helena, who appeared to now be stalking Mark and conveniently turned up at the Chinese restaurant where he was having a solo dinner. The pair started flirting until Helly brought up Gemma (Dichen Lachman), when Mark suddenly realised he needed to fully reintegrate.
There’s clearly a frisson between Helena and Outie Mark given their respective Innies’ attraction and their romance bleeds out into their external lives. Much like Dylan’s throuple, Mark is going to have his own complicated situation with Helly/Helena and Gemma/Ms Casey. Why does Gretchen lie about kissing Dylan’s Innie? Gretchen and Innie Dylan’s own stolen kiss was another point of contention - it appears she is happier with the Lumon version of her husband than her Outie hence why she lied.
Although she technically kissed her husband, Gretchen was clearly feeling like she’d been unfaithful to Outie Dylan. This will be another conflict which could come back to haunt both Dylan’s Innie and Outie as well as Gretchen and feeds into the question of whether they are the same person or different individuals altogether. What happened to Mark at the end? Atilla ended on a cliffhanger with Mark collapsing the end after it looked like the reintegration process had gone awry and he would ensure the same fate as his deceased best fried Petey (Yul Vasquez).
It seems unlikely Mark would be killed off so soon, but it does mean Devon (Jen Tullock) is now up to speed with what her brother has been trying to do in their attempts at corporate espionage. Severance season 2 episodes drop on Apple TV+ weekly on Fridays.
