Are We Still Debating the Nature of Irving's Scheming at Lumon? At This Point, It Seems Straightforward to Me...
While we don't yet know the goal of Irving's presence at Lumon, I'd argue that the basic outlines of what he's up to seem clear.
Irving B. is distressed that he keeps falling asleep at work (1x02, 1x05), yet he can't seem to stop himself (1x04). What does Irving dream of when he sleeps? Black sludge: oozing down the cubicle divider onto his keyboard (1x02), dripping from the ceiling onto his hand (1x05), sinister sludge - thick and black and viscous. This sleeping / sludge motif is a running theme, brought up over and over and over again in Season I. Dylan quips that Irv has been disciplined for dozing (1x02). Milchick catches Irv dreaming and says Lumon will deduct the time he spent dozing from his outie's paycheque (1x02). Irv finds black dirt under his fingernails at the melon party (1x02). He shares his shame with Burt during their courtship (1x04).
Meanwhile, Irv's outie is clearly conducting some kind of investigation of Lumon. He has newspaper clippings, an employee roster and even maps to other employees' homes.
And what does Irving's outie do in his free time? Irv's outie obsessively paints the elevator to the testing floor in thick, black, viscous oil paint while chugging coffee and blasting heavy metal music to keep himself up all night!
Once you see all those elements laid out, putting the pieces together does not feel difficult to me.
We know the subconscious mind persists between innie and outie.
It seems straightforward to me that Irv's outie is staying up all night guzzling coffee and painting images of the testing floor elevator to embed this message is his innie's subconscious, then trying to ensure the innie receives the message by causing him to fall asleep from exhaustion while at work.
As of the end of Season I, the messaging plan has succeeded, just not in the way Irv's outie intended! Instead of seeing the images that Irv's outie painted reflected in his dreams, Irv sees the medium his outie is using to paint!
In Season II, when Irv's outie says "my innie got the message" (2x02), he knows - or, at least, has very good reason to believe - that his innie has awoken in the real world. That means the innie has both a) participated in a prison break escape that Irv's outie would likely assume means the innie has received his message about the sinister testing floor elevator and begun investigating and b) seen the elevator paintings in the outie's apartment. Either way, the innie has now received the message.
While we don't yet know the goal of Irving's presence at Lumon, I'd argue that the basic outlines of what he's up to seem clear.
Irving B. is distressed that he keeps falling asleep at work (1x02, 1x05), yet he can't seem to stop himself (1x04). What does Irving dream of when he sleeps? Black sludge: oozing down the cubicle divider onto his keyboard (1x02), dripping from the ceiling onto his hand (1x05), sinister sludge - thick and black and viscous. This sleeping / sludge motif is a running theme, brought up over and over and over again in Season I. Dylan quips that Irv has been disciplined for dozing (1x02). Milchick catches Irv dreaming and says Lumon will deduct the time he spent dozing from his outie's paycheque (1x02). Irv finds black dirt under his fingernails at the melon party (1x02). He shares his shame with Burt during their courtship (1x04).
Meanwhile, Irv's outie is clearly conducting some kind of investigation of Lumon. He has newspaper clippings, an employee roster and even maps to other employees' homes.
And what does Irving's outie do in his free time? Irv's outie obsessively paints the elevator to the testing floor in thick, black, viscous oil paint while chugging coffee and blasting heavy metal music to keep himself up all night!
Once you see all those elements laid out, putting the pieces together does not feel difficult to me.
We know the subconscious mind persists between innie and outie.
It seems straightforward to me that Irv's outie is staying up all night guzzling coffee and painting images of the testing floor elevator to embed this message is his innie's subconscious, then trying to ensure the innie receives the message by causing him to fall asleep from exhaustion while at work.
As of the end of Season I, the messaging plan has succeeded, just not in the way Irv's outie intended! Instead of seeing the images that Irv's outie painted reflected in his dreams, Irv sees the medium his outie is using to paint!
In Season II, when Irv's outie says "my innie got the message" (2x02), he knows - or, at least, has very good reason to believe - that his innie has awoken in the real world. That means the innie has both a) participated in a prison break escape that Irv's outie would likely assume means the innie has received his message about the sinister testing floor elevator and begun investigating and b) seen the elevator paintings in the outie's apartment. Either way, the innie has now received the message.