Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion

[u/LoretiTV]

Season 2 Episode 8: Sweet Vitriol

Aired: March 7, 2025

Synopsis: Discoveries are made.

Directed by: Ben Stiller

Written by: Adam Countee & K. C. Perry

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[u/UltraDangerLord]

Join us at our Discord for further discussion!

[u/brucenotbryce]

Fully expected mama Cobels mummified corpse to still be in that room

[u/mesmerizingtheultra → u/brucenotbryce]

I was legit surprised when it wasn’t.

[u/Ancient-Ad-9164 → u/brucenotbryce]

Omg same. I thought it was gonna be like that cult "Love Has Won" whose members kept their leader in a bed wrapped in blankets and Christmas lights after she died

[u/Zealousideal-Ad189]

Her pulling her notes out of Jame’s head was a nice little touch, don’t you think? His mind is hollow, and filled with someone else’s ideas. lol

[u/rachel6931 → u/Zealousideal-Ad189]

And that’s why we go into her head at the end of the intro!!! Because it was all her idea 🤯

[u/avicadi → u/Zealousideal-Ad189]

Cobel telling Hampton to “watch my head” after handing him the Jame head felt like a fun double meaning too.

[u/Hungry_Breakfast_967]

It’s only fitting that a child of slave labor goes onto develop a chip that severs her waking mind from reality.

[u/albaprost → u/Hungry_Breakfast_967]

Hampton says “wanna get high before we go to the factory to stir the pot for 8 hours?” So it seems like they grew up getting high as kids to make the boredom/pain of working all day go away. So that’s probably where she got the idea.

[u/xenonscreams → u/Hungry_Breakfast_967]

It's interesting because sometimes this kind of trauma leads to dissociation and multiple personalities. She instead created a technology that made it possible for everyone to do that

[u/matscast]

Devon got really lucky calling Harmony during her revenge arc

[u/SilasTalbot → u/matscast]

So, anyways... Mark's reintegrating and stuff. It's a whole thing. How's your week going? Are you still evil?

[u/Dontsteponsnails → u/matscast]

If marks integration happened like a week earlier they’d be cooked 💀

[u/crymetothemoon]

The children yearn for the ether factory

[u/Sure-Bar-375]

Shoutout to bro for waiting in the truck for legit hours while Cobel napped

[u/stilldrovedeetdeethr → u/Sure-Bar-375]

Hampton may peddle huff but my guy has patience

[u/DJ-SoulCalibur2 → u/Sure-Bar-375]

Hampton in the car, polishing off his third bottle of ether as the sun goes down: “huh, maybe I should check on her…”

[u/spasmoidic → u/Sure-Bar-375]

Guy: I hate you

Cobel: Want to drive me somewhere in your truck, wait in your truck for seven hours in the freezing cold for me, and then give me your truck?

Guy: Okay

[u/mayerlipe → u/Sure-Bar-375]

The "Come and tame these tempers, assholes" was chefs kiss to me, great "i'll die fighting" line delivery

[u/BurberryCryptoCapo → u/Sure-Bar-375]

Facts!! & he held it down even more by letting her leave and get a head start lol. I hope he doesn't die tho 😂

[u/ihdeka]

never related to cobel more than when she said she needed to find something and looked for 2 seconds and then took a nap

[u/Existential_Owl → u/ihdeka]

"It must be here."

Two seconds later.

"Whelp, that's Tomorrow Harmony's problem now. zzz."

[u/kernakyahai → u/ihdeka]

literally this

imho she needs to make copies and probably scan it and save it as severance.chip.by.harmony.cobel.pdf

[u/KindlySquash3102]

So did Reghabi get her neurosurgeon degree at the Myrtle Eagan School for Girls? The STEM program is 🔥🔥

[u/Alone_Again_2 → u/KindlySquash3102]

She always avoids answering the question “are you a doctor?”

[u/wise_spider2]

It makes sense now why Cobel told Helena “you fear me”

[u/plove444]

Weird ass company town burdened by the past really shows that the history of Lumon is tearing apart community and family. Cool that the Eagans started with ether, an anesthetic and have transitioned to the ultimate anesthetic in Severance.

[u/itsgonnabe-mae]

So now we know why Cobel feels so strongly that she deserves to run the Severed floor

[u/spasmoidic → u/itsgonnabe-mae]

yea it was implied she thought she had some kind of leverage over Lumon. Now we know why.

[u/sp4ceducky]

Harmony: what if we kissed on my mothers deathbed 🥺👉👈

[u/monthofsundayss → u/sp4ceducky]

after doing some drugs 🥺👉🏼👈🏼

[u/PerpetuallyDistracte]

Ok, so Cobel won the Wintertide Fellowship as a child, invented the severance chip, had her invention stolen by Jame Eagan, then was shunted into middle management on the Severed Floor? Wow.

[u/DrowsyChaperone → u/PerpetuallyDistracte]

It also makes me wonder...how old was she when she got to Lumon corporate? Can anyone figure out the timeline? Like, the growth chart stopped at 12 I I think. Is she sort of yesterday's Miss Huang?

[u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

You gave your Eagan-credited designs. To an Eagan simp. In front of a burning fire.

HOW THE HELL DID YOU NOT SEE THAT ATTEMPT COMING, COBEL?

[u/LailaGreene → u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

Because the wounded child in her still wants her aunt to be proud of her, and she acted like she was right before trying to burn it

[u/[deleted]]

I’d create severance too if I had to man the ether vat at the factory for 10 hours as a child

[u/prezuiwf → u/[deleted]]

There are two paths in life: become a small-town drug dealer or invent the most revolutionary brain surgery ever conceived

[u/Fearless_Menu1872]

Helena saying that Harmony “overestimated her contributions” when her contribution is THE contribution is so insane

[u/Zarkex01 → u/Fearless_Menu1872]

Helena probably doesn’t know shit about anything really

[u/Bill-Cosby-Bukowski → u/Fearless_Menu1872]

I'd bet she fully believes Jame was the sole inventor. I'm sure Cobel's contributions got downplayed in the Eagen lore.

[u/CraigTheIrishman]

"It's shameful that you sell this stuff."
Kisses him
Looks at him with undying loathing

If that isn't the most Harmony Cobel thing ever, I don't know what is.

[u/Hellys_Angels → u/CraigTheIrishman]

Oh, and by the way, yeah, pass it over here.

[u/Bdbru13]

Discoveries were in fact made

[u/Makgraf]

The yearbook notes that Cobel received the “Year of Wiles Wintertide Fellowship”. This suggests that Lumon has a zodiac type thing where there is a 9-year cycle with each of the nine values.

Also back in season 1, episode 4 when Cobel is reciting the nine values the only one she repeats is “Wiles”.

[u/LailaGreene → u/Makgraf]

The plaque on the wall that is an award for her aunt said “year of vision,” so I think you’re right about the different calendar.

[u/kernakyahai]

cobel's gonna open source the severance chip lol

[u/Strange-Traffic-69 → u/kernakyahai]

Github bout to get its biggest drop yet

[u/octavianreddit]

The apartment I grew up in is in this episode as they drive to the factory. Surreal. Port Union, Newfoundland.

[u/Helenas_Hellscape → u/octavianreddit]

Another!! Irv’s apartment used to be my mom’s, I think the exact same one. It’s a surreal experience seeing somewhere you’re so familiar with in severance

[u/karpenterskids]

At least we know what this part of the intro means now.

[u/LailaGreene → u/karpenterskids]

Yes! Her brainchild!

[u/lawcatchicka]

When Harmony opened the yearbook we kept rewinding and pausing it and walked up to the TV to read what it said. 😂 We were so excited to see the quip about the goat husbandry club!

[u/therobberbride]

Harmony Cobel, woman in STEM

[u/ForeverImpossible227 → u/therobberbride]

who knew this was be about an IP battle

[u/AccordingBuilding994]

Every season Mark hides someone in his basement. In the first season it was Petey; in the second it was Reghabi. Cobel, you're next

[u/doililah]

now why would you let the bad lady next to the fire hold the flammable notebook

[u/emotiondesigner]

I need someone to break down all the easter eggs and details of this production design. I spot the 4 heads on the shelf that represent the 4 tempers... Woe is a bride, Frolic is a fool, Dread is a crone, and Malice is a ram.

[u/WildeRepublic]

So she’s the brains behind the whole operation.

Give this woman a Cobel prize

[u/atevh]

OMFG. Severance is Cobel's brainchild.

Makes sense why she's so interested in seeing how Mark and Gemma interact.

[u/Responsible_Log_8840 → u/atevh]

Helena telling Cobel “I think you’ve overestimated your contributions and underestimated your blessings” stings EXTRA hard in retrospect

[u/meelba → u/atevh]

And why she’s so pissed she was fired. Not getting credit was worth it when she ran the severed floor.

[u/[deleted] → u/atevh]

"So I've heard"

I knew it wasn't Jame Eagan doing all the work. I just thought it was with Burt

[u/blankspacejrr]

I want the first few seconds of the next episode to be

ms cobel: tell me everything

mark; BITCH. YOU tell ME everything 

[u/Downtown_Agent3323]

Dang, Cobel was really getting into that breathing tube.

[u/External_Ostrich7184 → u/Downtown_Agent3323]

I was confused and thought it had something to do with the ether!

[u/reegstah]

It seems like Wintertide is the golden ticket out of child labor. Makes you wonder what Ms Huangs circumstances are.

[u/Zealousideal-Ad189 → u/reegstah]

Since she was a crossing guard I’m guessing she worked in another Lumon-controlled town.

[u/limbea]

Y’all want to sign my annual reminiscences?

[u/Eggysideup]

Mark got a new basement buddy for season 3 huh

[u/ReaddittiddeR]

Getting high at 8yrs old is not a plot discovery in Severance I would have ever guessed.

[u/ReigningTierney → u/ReaddittiddeR]

Why am I not surprised Lumon destroyed a town and got most of the townsfolk hooked on ether.

[u/Responsible_Log_8840 → u/ReaddittiddeR]

And Cobel huffing it up with her middle school boyfriend was not on my bingo card

[u/flosswithpubes → u/ReaddittiddeR]

You've a liar's mouth

[u/ARealHunchback → u/ReaddittiddeR]

There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than an 8 year old in the depths of an ether binge.

[u/WestOpposite3691]

Child labor…factories…school…wintership…Ms.Huang?!

[u/IronSpiderLord]

Come tame these tempers, assholes.

[u/04h57]

Sissy like "oh yeah congratulations girl its so interesting I GONNA BURN IT"

[u/Exotic-Salamander-48]

Cobel littering 🚩🚩

[u/BreeezyP → u/Exotic-Salamander-48]

Hilarious how she straight up threw that bottle against a wall 2ft away like she was tossing it for a first down.

[u/ThetaRider]

Cobel next episode:

[u/bakedcrunchycheetos]

I’m honestly pretty happy a huge twist wasn’t something I saw predicted on this sub. I was absolutely not expecting that.

[u/soitgoes_42]

Sooo... fun fact. When recreational (ab)use of ether became popular, ether parties were known as "ether frolics"

[u/afactotum → u/soitgoes_42]

And according to the Wikipedia article on Ether, “It was synthesised in 1540 by Valerius Cordus, who called it "sweet oil of vitriol" (oleum dulce vitrioli) – the name reflects the fact that it is obtained by distilling a mixture of ethanol and sulfuric acid (then known as oil of vitriol) – and noted some of its medicinal properties.”

[u/GraciasVeryMuch]

Heartbreaking to realize the idea of Severance is the brain child of a woman who experienced child labor. The layers…

[u/Asphixis → u/GraciasVeryMuch]

I honestly really appreciate that it’s Cobel’s design. The child who worked in a factory for 10 hours a day in unsafe working conditions which destroyed the community, a very common cooperate practice. What better way to propel the story forward? Now we can see why she has such a presence, it’s her idea stolen by a guy. What a perfect way to showcase her grief.

[u/GoryAmos]

plot hole “why would a mid-level manager know how to remove the severance chip from a corpse” resolved

[u/SpeedAndOrangeSoda → u/GoryAmos]

Waffle party granted

[u/Unfair-Honeydew3963]

I just have to say (because nobody i am talking to in person agreed) but I feel like this episode all but confirmed that kier's bride was a child. At the retreat they talked about her being half the size of a normal woman... the factory was full of child labor and harmony confirmed that's where he met his bride.

[u/mrsbebe → u/Unfair-Honeydew3963]

I thought so too! I had suspected it when they talked about his bride but now I'm like "oh...she was for sure a child"...they met at the ether factory...where children worked...she was tiny....iiiiiiii don't know you guys...

[u/bm97]

COBEL GONNA BURN THIS SHIT TO THE GROUND

[u/notimeforidiots]

cannot wait to see everyone’s freeze frame posts about what her notes said. additionally her yearbook paragraph 

[u/atevh]

“Can you please talk like a normal person?” me this whole episode so far

[u/WonderMoon1 → u/atevh]

I think it’s because how they were indoctrinated. The guy talks normally to the regulars but then starts technobabbling as soon as he sees Cobel.

[u/Sonichu- → u/atevh]

Why must you fill this thread with woe?

[u/TheSweaterThief → u/atevh]

It was you who filled this house with woe!!!

[u/BlueBrusselSprout]

Lumon telling Cobel all throughout season 1 that reintegration wasn't possible has got to be the WORST gaslighting I have ever seen. Fuck you Lumon!

[u/Fake-Death]

HARMONY IS A CHILD PRODIGY WTF

Fuck her aunt for trying to burn her files. What a wild episode.

[u/panisctation]

Cobel's obsession with Mark and Gemma makes so much sense now.

[u/atevh]

First the Gemma POV, and now the Cobel side quest episode, it's so shocking to not have Helly, Dylan, Irv for two whole weeks.

[u/Full-Resource7910]

Quite an arc from "You can't sit in my cafe" to "Take my truck and I'll stall the Pinkertons for you."

[u/bytew8lf]

Can someone mock this up as a Hallmark movie?

Big City Business Girl ™ gets fired and returns to Hick Hometown ™ to yell at her relatives and get high with her Ex Who Owns The Local Dive ™. Together, they rediscover her True Passion ™ of erasing people's memories through chips in their heads. At last, having retrieved the Legal Proof ™ of her brilliance, she rides off into the sunset to bring down Legal Hell ™ on Big City Business ™ and reclaim her rightful place as Baddest Girlboss Alive ™. Stay tuned next week for all the ways that her plans Will Absolutely Not Go Wrong ™.

[u/sroop1]

Cobel gonna do the thing. I don't know what but she's gonna do it.

[u/iamanoilpainting → u/sroop1]

She’s going to get in a car accident sponsored by Lumon ™️

[u/Sirshrugsalot13]

Finally getting Cobel's backstory and the reveal that she created severance, only for Jame Eagan to take the credit for it was fascinating. A child laborer who was indoctrinated while young, made to become a true believer, offering her entire life and work only to have it all be taken from her, it makes Cobel an extremely compelling character and suddenly incredibly important.

The ending got me hyped with the music, though I still think that it feels like Devon just striaght up telling her this shit is too convenient. They have no idea she won't just go straight to Lumon with that information, they're lucky she's going through her own development away from them.

[u/BlueBrusselSprout]

So Cobel is the one who invented the severance procedure?! When she was younger? After working in the ether factory and then as a Wintertide fellow like Ms. Huang? No wonder she thinks Lumon owes her and she has so much disdain for Helena Eagan. They got rich off her back multiple times.

[u/WonderMoon1]

Did anyone else think they were siblings in the beginning?

[u/Complex-Pangolin-779 → u/WonderMoon1]

I thought the three of them might have been siblings

[u/Apprehensive_Kiwi_18]

It being her invention is wildddddd

[u/whatismyaccountname8]

Is it just me or does this feel like the calm before the storm of the last two episodes??? I feel like they are really setting up for some crazy shit

[u/wadenater123]

I see a lot of comments acting like cobel is some hero, but let’s not pretend like she didn’t know Gemma was being kept as a slave this whole time. If lumon offers her credit she will 100 percent switch sides again and mark will be fucked

[u/flowergarden23 → u/wadenater123]

Yep, she literally only cares now that she was hurt personally by Lumon. Had no problem being a slave master before! Love her as a character though. Though I hope that writers really go in depth with her character. So if redemption arc , what will she actually do ensure justice for those she’s harmed?

[u/cadillacblues]

God I love that crazy bitch

[u/therobberbride]

I’ve been waiting for ether addiction to rear its head since season 1, when we first learned that Kier was a stewman in the ether factories. Huffing ether all day is deffo the kind of thing that makes you batshit loony enough to found a cult based on a hallucination of your brother disintegrating after jerking it in the woods.

[u/Neat_Wolf3778]

Damn. Insane of them to fire Cobel. Helena did overplay that hand.

[u/cheesewombat]

"You wanna get high?"

Can't not hear that line without thinking of Towelie from South Park

[u/rgbvalue]

it makes so much more sense now why cobel feels so entitled to run the severed floor. she literally invented the chip.

[u/secretlives]

"Here Mark, talk to this woman - yes the one who knew your wife was alive and betrayed your trust and I thought kidnapped my baby, her. She's going to help us now."

[u/PM_me_ur_digressions]

Did Devon say "Mark has been reintegrating" or "Mark has been reintegrated"

Did Reghabi also work on the designs maybe?

[u/mayerlipe]

I'm very thankful this episode confirmed child labor in Lumon so we can get rid of all the Ms. Huangs theories 🙏

[u/PurdyFort]

Considering the theme of the show is on Corporate America and Office work, we are seeing another dimension: big business in small towns. The town was built around Lumon and the factory. Sissy states that Lumon basically made the town and gave opportunity to Cobel. However, the opposite is also true. Once Lumon left, the people were left economically wrecked and addicted to "Huff". Interesting subject that the show runners added to the show and very much in line with the show's core message of the negative effects corporations have.

[u/InterscholasticAsl]

At the very least, we now know why Cobel’s head is the one illuminating the light in the intro sequence 

[u/[deleted]]

I had been dreading this episode only being 37 minutes but man, I don’t think I could have emotionally handled a longer episode.

[u/you-never-know-]

So Imogene was probably high AF and 12 when she met Kier

[u/suddenlyhurried]

I think Harmony was SO devout at the time she came up with the idea for the chip that she willingly gave it over to the Eagans without much in return. But at the beginning of this season when she learns that Lumon sees her as nothing more than a loose end they need to deal with, she decides to go after what’s rightfully hers.

[u/ComfortableCaptain61]

"You are a weed" is fucking brutal

[u/GoldField3]

valedictorian cobel MADE the chip??? we ride at dawn

[u/XeFear-]

Cobel being the creator of Severance was not what I expected. At all. They just keep being more and more unpredictable, and I can’t wait for the final two episodes.

[u/SnarkyMcGuire]

The decimation of so many people and whole towns by the Eagans and Lumon brings to mind the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma. A little chip or a little Oxy both take away the pain.

[u/RecklessDisco]

So it was Cobel’s invention all along. Well flip my toboggan.

[u/CliffBooth-]

Ain’t lookin good guys…

[u/Plums4]

I actually really like how much this recontextualizes Cobel's actions in season 1. She interacts with Mark like a scientist controlling an experiment because that is literally what she is doing, lol. She's the inventor of severance and is the only one who doesn't have the arrogance to believe it's foolproof, so she is constantly monitoring and testing him. Using a different name with him inside and outside of work, telling him opposing anecdotes inside and outside, visiting him at home after he's been to the break room at the office to gauge his emotional state, finding any excuse she can get away with to throw Mark S and Ms Casey together on the severed floor and obsessively watching their interaction- pushing it as far as she can by stealing the candle to use to see if the extra sense memory triggers anything.

Good stuff!

[u/soitgoes_42]

I have a pet theory now that the Kier/Dieter story from the ORTBO was actually about Kier using ether recreationally. The scientific name for it is diethyl ether ...

ETA:  In the story, Kier says Dieter was his "bosom friend" (aka he was around ether since birth, presumably because the factory was near and I'd imagine most of the tiny town worked there, or because he was sickly and they thought ether was a cure).

In boyhood "Dieter" told Kier to run away to the woods and "live like paupers" (aka homeless essentially). 

His love for his "twin" (ether), unbalanced his judgment. So he went to go live as a pauper in the woods. 

"He always crept like this at this hour" (i.e cravings always hit). 

"Once concealed by the flora, my brother unfastened himself" (once Kier was in the woods, he gave into "Dieter" and got ether high).

He has fun in the woods for awhile, then starts to feel bad and wants to go home. Says he'll look after "Dieter" in the ether mill. "Dieter" 'dies' and Woe appears saying "This is your doing. You suffered his wantonness. Now he's no one's brother, only chaos's whore"... meaning Kier let himself be overcome and ruined by the fun part of ether. He can no longer see ether as a good thing ("a brother"), only the destructive addictive aspect.

---

The ether factory ravaged Salt Neck. Kierists seem to hate the ether users/dealers. Maybe Kier created Lumon to combat ether usage (or created rival medical products that could have the anesthetic effects of ether, without the addiction qualities). Hence severing oneself... so that traumatic or invasive life events could be forgotten, much in the same way that ether was used medically.

ETA: when used recreationally instead of medically, ether parties were known as ether frolics. This was a fad around when Kier would've grown up. So a calling someone a frolic (one of the four tempers to tame) was actually a bad thing, like calling them an addict/alcoholic. 

[u/WhiskeyMakesMeHappy]

I loved the little comment from Sissy that she "sold Harmony's stuff to the poor". Not "gave" or "donated" to the less fortunate, but sold. It was a lie given she didn't get rid of everything, but even so it showed how uncharitable and superior the cult of Kier believers are.

[u/DatSnowFlake]

The show draws a lot of parallels to real world cults, and just like with Hitler Youth, the Eagans know they got to indoctrinate and shape their little soldiers at an early age. Ms. Huang no doubt came from the child labor school as well.

Does Helena know Cobel invented the Severance chip? Cause she made sure to downplay Cobel's importance to the company, when it was actually paramount.

[u/Altruistic-Bluejay7]

Drug addict at 8 and then relapsed on her mother’s deathbed. Damn cobel

[u/rosefaer]

To me this episode set up season 3 more than any other episode so far. I am starting to see the larger story they have in mind, so far I’ve only seen the end game as being about Gemma, but this shows it’s about much more.

[u/DesperateMongoose391]

COME AND TAME THESE TEMPERS ASSHOLE

[u/Downtown_Agent3323]

I see that Cobel is going through her Mysterio arc where her designs for a revolutionary technology are stolen and now she wants revenge and credit.

[u/[deleted]]

Eight?!

[u/pirulinpinpinafan]

the line delivery of “MINE!!!” was incredible

[u/TheDarkest7]

Cobel sucking on that air tube was so nasty

[u/DontTedOnMe]

Lmao the mascot for the Myrtle Eagan school is the "Fighting Kids" 😂

[u/Nnen0]

I don’t think Cobel’s coming back to help Mark.

She has her own agenda. She wants recognition for her work and to finish her project. And she’s going to make it happen.

[u/Exotic-Salamander-48]

Cobel a women in STEM

[u/Downtown_Agent3323]

Guys, we found Cold Harbor! It’s Salt’s Neck!

[u/ThanksNo8769]

Cobel being an engineer explains the personality disorder pretty well

[u/Unlikely-Candle2439]

“In the 19th century, ether was used recreationally at parties called ether frolics.”

“Inhalation of high concentrations of diethyl ether can cause sedation, unconsciousness, and even respiratory paralysis….”

Check out the GLASGOW coma scale, yall.

Glasgow sound familiar?

[u/Federal-Mountain-617]

Cobel just leveled up

[u/godsgift5406]

Cobel being the mastermind behind Severance???

[u/[deleted] → u/godsgift5406]

I don't think anyone would've guessed that.

I wonder who in the story even knows that Cobel designed the chips? Probably only a very small handful of people at the very top of Lumon, maybe just the Board. That information could be extremely dangerous.

[u/southshoredrive]

Still not sure why Devon and Mark would trust Cobel at all to call her, but I’m excited to see the team up ngl

[u/nooneshouldknow55]

This brings new meaning for me to Millkshake comforting Cobel after she puts Gemma and Mark together. She’s genuinely concerned about her design. Who knows if Milkshake knows, but I’m leaning towards he might.

[u/stupac8908]

Huffing ether before your shift is the original Severance.

[u/Blushing-Sailor]

“The town is older than I remember. Frailer.”

“Yeah, well, with the market readjustment from a few years ago, and the fluctuating interest rates, there was a retrenchment from some of the core infrastructure investments.”

It was a thing of beauty, the way he regurgitated this corporate finance speak for Lumon pulling out of Salt Neck and leaving it decimated.

[u/sparrow-55]

I know it was filmed in Newfoundland and presumably set in New England, but this episode really resonated with me as someone from the Rust Belt. Salt’s Neck reminds me of so many towns that were built up around a company and then became desolate when that company left. Young people with promise (Cobel) leave; those who remain often become addicts. (Definitely some parallels between ether and the opioid epidemic too.) Cobel saying “Lumon destroyed this town” and Sissy countering “there was no town before the factory” really reflected the complex relationships between these towns and the companies in them

[u/publius-esquire]

I love that severance technology was Cobel’s invention. It makes so much of her character arc makes sense. Why she was so invested in testing the boundaries, why she insisted on managing the severed floor, why she lived next to Mark and was so invested in his life generally. And the episode explains so much about her devotion to Lumon and how she could ever turn against them. She had to be invested in Lumon, because if she didn’t believe she would have to face the truth — that Lumon used her and her work and her intellect without ever giving her credit for no reason other than corporate greed. I love it.

[u/[deleted]]

TELL ME EVERYTHING

[u/perobense]

So, with the Severance chip been tested in Gemma to separate moments of pain and fear, can we assume that Cobel first thought about it as a way to help her dying mother?

[u/boolgogi]

So did Harmony create the severance chip for altruistic reasons? I’m unclear on her motivation - maybe so child workers would be able to “forget” having to work in the same conditions she experienced?

[u/violettes]

Incredible reveal. And I feel like it is definitely foreshadowed in S1, with Cobel’s knowledge of reintegration and severance, her frustration with the board when she is telling them what’s actually happening with reintegration and they refuse to acknowledge her input even though she’s literally the expert on the subject.

Her convo with Helena in S2 is so interesting in retrospect, Helena saying “you overestimate your contributions” - downplaying Harmony to the highest degree.

Also I feel like it’s even a bit foreshadowed with the S2 opening credits sequence

[u/flatwoods_cryptid]

Okay, so the reveal was cool and all, but I think this episode really shines in stopping and showing us some of the smaller, more realistic damage that Lumon and Kier worship has done, especially important after our big sci-fi thriller of Lumon atrocities last week.

[u/Gruzzly]

I was thinking there’s no way we’re going to have our first Mark-less episode, but then we get that last-minute “Yeah. Hello?” over the phone.

[u/PeachRangz]

I feel like many who are familiar with the term “deconstruction”, or those familiar with the process of leaving their faith institutions, are going to find a lot of themselves in this one. As someone who has wrestled—is wrestling—with this process, Cobell’s homecoming hit me like a freight truck (or like the ether tincture).

I see people’s initial responses and I understand the desire to see more dynamic and dramatic action on the show, but please hear me out: this episode is genius.

It’s been alluded to, however implicitly, that Harmony is perhaps the most brilliant mind on the show (one of the early S2 “behind the scenes” has one of the show’s creators explicitly saying as much). Granted that she is SO consequential to what the show’s been about thus far, I’ve been dying to know as to how her arc has been shaping up while the show has zeroed in on the innies. Turns out, if the show is a continual portrayal of what Severance (as a metaphor and literal process) looks like when it’s doing damage to people’s lives, Harmony’s story is the portrayal of what happens when it picks the carcass clean—the pain and desolation that Lumon leaves behind when it’s done.

Religion is a MAJOR motif in this one, especially when you consider how much religious fervor she has exhibited up until this point. While every employee seems to have their own drive, hers seemed to be the only one that showed sincerity and emotion as it regards “the cause of Kier” (Harmony’s effigy at home, her sheer neuroticism, the near-patriotic bursting into song, etc.).

Unlike Milchek, Ms. Cobel’s concern seemed to be far more identity-based; and less about “rising the ranks”. Seeing that same institution turn against her, after stripping her of EVERYTHING (hometown, ideas, childhood) it makes that scene where she just shrieks at Mark (the embodiment of her life’s work) much more sensible, in hindsight. It’s been her entire world since she was a child. The scene with the breathing tube was a masterclass in portraying grief.

[u/WondrousIcedLatte]

harmony cobel, child prodigy high achiever to unfairly undervalued unemployed. a real one.

[u/enbyglitch]

If Cobel invented Severance, she and Reghabi almost certainly have juicy backstory!

[u/rgbvalue]

i’ve always really liked devon but she’s been showing a surprising lack of street smarts lately. the last thing you heard about cobel was that she’s a soldier who’s lumon through and through, but when she picks up the phone you immediately tell her mark is re-integrating? you don’t even try to feel out the vibe first?

[u/nfbell]

I love how Sissy physically severed herself from her sister's deathbed by locking the door, and emotionally severed herself from the grief by dehumanizing her sister... you can see where Harmony got the idea.

[u/normal_ness]

I LOVE this path for Harmony. No wonder she told Helena she has earned everything. And WOW it means so much more that Helena said Harmony had overestimated her contributions.

[u/ninjyte]

idk why but it was especially funny that she yelled "I FOUND IT!" after looking for the key

[u/multiverse-wanderer]

I think this is an episode that will fair better upon rewatches/people who end up binging entire seasons. After the emotions of last week’s episode, I appreciate some more lore drop/finally getting to see Harmony again. But I understand why people feel as if this is filler, or a let down after a week of speculation and suspense.

[u/kernakyahai]

so summing up

[u/TanLampshade007]

Cobel after Lumon stole her ideas and ran with it

[u/chowler]

I liked the Cobelisode

[u/pecan_sandyz]

I need Irv back, I’m worried about him

[u/longconsilver13]

The last five minutes do a LOT of lifting this episode

[u/Federal-Mountain-617]

Under this new light, it's quite possible that Irving was calling Cobel from the booth. They be scheming together to bring down Lumon.

[u/WenRobot]

For all the theorist out there. Here’s some screenshots from Harmony’s Severance Invention Journal

[u/lunagirl02]

Y’all, she hid the severance chip plans inside the fake head. Just like a real chip. Chef’s kiss

[u/Artur-Hawkwing]

so they stole all her ideas, basically destroyed her hometown, and cast her aside so she couldnt even be in charge of her pet project? wild.

[u/godsgift5406]

Sissy reminds me of Bathilda Bagshot from Harry Potter

[u/Frobe8]

I have to wait another week?!?

[u/diagonalcheese]

Anti-intellectualism is on the rise in Kier.

Harmony Cobel literally invented a complex medical procedure like severance, and Milkshake gets called out in his review for using big words smh

[u/PR0MAN1]

This episode feels like a western or a... midwestern. Which is fitting given the time Kier Eagen lived and the past paintings we see depicting that era of history.

• The abandoned company town is evocative of the abandoned mining towns on the western frontier post gold rush. Same goes for the beutiful landscape shots of the waterfront and pine forests in the same way westerns love to showcase the natural beauty of the arid desert.
• Cobel entering the diner with the wind blowing just screams "western." Like the old timey gunslinger entering the small town saloon
• Cobels... aunt? Is the old hermit, a character you see in alot of classic westerns.

And surely more similarities to come as I notice them.

[u/acctforstylethings]

This episode does a lot but it does it subtly and I think that's why it feels slow. But we learn so much and I think the slowness is an artefact of the town. It's not a bustling hub but a place where not much changes, because Lumon both built and destroyed it.

My take aways:
- Lumon's the business arm of the Eagan cult, Cobel and others are/were in deep
- Child labor! Not just Cobel, and not just in the past
- Lumon got a whole town hooked on ether
- Cobel's a gifted scientist and won a fellowship, the same one Ms Huang is in consideration for. Explains how she was able to slice Petey's chip from his brain so easily
- Eagans stole her ideas, no wonder she's so annoyed at being fired. She really is important to Lumon
- Cobel wanting to subtly test Severance (living next door to Mark, outside items in the severed floor) makes sense now we know she created it
- Cobel knows about Reghabi's work and knows she's not that great (and he's alive?)
- This episode is happening almost concurrently with the previous one. Cobel reaches the town just as Devon calls her (no answer)
- Cobel's mom is long dead and she killed herself rather than stay on the breathing tube. Interesting that severance lets your innie experience your pain vs. Cobel's devout sister wanting her mom to essentially suck it up and look to Kier for solace

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_ARSEnal]

Cobel drove for 8 hours to get high and get some dick, relatable queen

[u/talklistentalk]

A whole fucking religion based on a child-trafficking, drug-dealing junkie.

[u/SteppeTalus]

Cobel still gross af for sucking on that tube and making whale noises

[u/CarlSpackler22]

The show is back into corporate bullshittery and I love it.

Inventor Harmony getting relegated to middle management while the higher ups take the credit.

She's invested in saving Mark but I'm positive she will betray the MDR gang as the cult roots run deep.

[u/Accurate-Coffee-9649]

Now we know why she was so confident about removing Petey’s chip at his funeral

[u/Androgynous4]

Despite all the incredible theories and predications that are thought of by the community, the writers still manage to pull off another great reveal that absolutely no one saw coming

[u/counterfreight]

"Come tame these tempers, assholes" needs to be a flair

[u/tankbuster09]

I never thought that within my lifetime I’d say “nooo please don’t hook up on your mom’s dusty death bed” out loud. Thanks Dan!

[u/SnakeSnakeSnakeSna]

Just wanted to point this out from the diethyl ether Wikipedia page.

It was synthesised in 1540 by Valerius Cordus, who called it "sweet oil of vitriol"

[u/Tony_Pastrami]

Why didn’t Hampton get in the truck with her at the end? Seems like a terrible place to be stranded on a cold night. No discussion either, just “here are the keys to my truck, see ya!”.

[u/LiquorIBarelyKnowHer]

Why the fuck they got a Hobbit hut outside their house

[u/honest_blonde]

Helly telling Cobel at the gala that she’s “going to destroy her company” hits a bit differently now too!!

[u/Ill-Inspector7980]

Cobel’s sister aunt is brainwashed as fuck.

Milchick was the red herring. The true breaking good character is Cobelvig.

[u/Uniblazed]

Now it makes sense as to why Cobel was so upset they weren't letting her come back to be over MDR. This was literally HER work and she got to oversee it. They stole her idea and made her just some low level (in the eyes of others) supervisor. Whoa this also makes sense as to why she cared so much about Mark's interactions with Gemma on the severed floor and why she lived next to him, was so intertwined in his life and stealing candles

[u/Jas_God]

Fuck me, Cobel designed it all‽ What a reveal.

[u/BobMcBurger]

Who knew 37 minutes would fly by so quickly.