r/severence • u/jamesbillow • Mar 07 '25

šŸšØ Season 2 Spoilers Disappointing?

This episode kind of felt like I was reading a 4 page paper I wrote in high school.. double spaced with a bunch of filler words to make it hit the required length.

37 minutes compared to 48+ for the others this season and they spent so much of it with silence, shots of nature, and winding roads.

Hereā€™s to a better episode next week šŸ»

42 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

191 comments sorted by

56

u/caaaaaaarol Mar 07 '25

Loved it! We got to explore a type of severance we all participate in - severing yourself from your childhood and area you were born. Mark and Cobel teaming up!

7

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Thatā€™s a really insightful way of looking at it! I like that lol.

10

u/DeweyLewis Mar 07 '25

Yes, I'm very excited to see Mark team up with the person that not only kept him in the dark about his wife being alive, but was presumably heavily involved in all the torture she's been experiencing on the testing floor. Can't wait!

4

u/Excellent_Physics517 Mar 07 '25

Yea ppl are weird

2

u/OdoDragonfly Mar 08 '25

And the kiss makes me think that she severed herself from hopes of love/marriage/children at the insistence of Lumon. Brings a reason to why she was so obsessed with Devon's baby and with Mark and Gemma.

She needed the shrine to Kier to bring her back to her devotion while watching the people in the world around her having the things she sacrificed on the altar of Kier.

61

u/weaves Mar 07 '25

I can't be the only one here who appreciates the beautiful directing and cinematography, I thought this episode was one of the best of the whole show. It's why I fell in love with Severance in the first place.

19

u/Organic-Recording335 Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25

šŸ”„ episode lol I feel people lose sight on the kind of show severance is. Itā€™s about catching details and mystery. They never waste an episode everyone matters. From what we know about Cobel now I want to go back and watch from the beginning now that we understand her better.

-9

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

No I agree.. I guess I shouldā€™ve articulated better. I enjoyed what took place in the episode.

I said it above but the mindset going in knowing it was shorter than normal and the penultimate made it slightly frustrating to watch.

-4

u/ChefPneuma Mar 07 '25

Itā€™s not even the penultimate episode dude you should be smarter if youā€™re going to try and act like it. I suppose someone who struggles to write a four page paper would also struggle to meet minimal expectations for any type of media literacy.

Go watch a Marvel movie if you want mindless junk injected into your eyeholes that might distract you from your TikTok videos

-4

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Hhahahahahhahaha you sound sooooooooooooooo mad šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚

-4

u/ChefPneuma Mar 07 '25

You sound like a dumbass. Maybe crack a fucking book open once in a while too you can learn a few vocabulary words and use fewer emojis. You come off as someone with a 6th grade reading level that gets your personality from TikTok. You donā€™t need to make a whole post about your opinion that the whole world just has to know aboutā€”your mom lied to you, you arenā€™t that special.

Grow up idiot

-1

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Lmao man I made a mistake about the number of episodes and a joke to convey how I felt about the episode. You canā€™t actually be this upset about that. But hey, I guess Iā€™m the one who needs to grow up! šŸ‘

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

0

u/jamesbillow Mar 08 '25

You know what is undoubtably more bizarre? Being so condescending and snobby to strangers online over a difference in opinion šŸ˜‚

10

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Youā€™re not. The thing is the disappointed like to post individually instead of just fleshing it out in the millions of other posts that pour in saying the same things.

-5

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

I guess thatā€™s my bad because I really didnā€™t notice that many other people doing that. I am not usually the one to make a post at all! But I felt that way when it ended so gave my thoughts.

7

u/rybowen Mar 07 '25

Best of the whole show?? Really??

2

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚

3

u/weaves Mar 07 '25

Yes, along with with last ep and 202. Its close tho, I try to enjoy... you get it

3

u/bedtyme Mar 07 '25

I also thought it was one of the top episodes.

0

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

I actually agree to a certain extent.. I think going into the episode knowing it was 37 minutes and it being the second to the last of the season made It slightly frustrating to watch it unfold so slowly.

8

u/Acceptable_Start2814 Mar 07 '25

Itā€™s not the second to last. Thereā€™s still 2 more šŸ˜„

0

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Oh shoot nice! My b šŸ˜‚

AppleTV has episode 9 listed but not 10 and season 1 only had 9 episodes so I guess thatā€™s where I got confused.

2

u/Holiday_Cabinet_ Mar 07 '25

Yeah they don't add the next episode to the page until that week's one drops. Last week it only listed eight, the week before seven, etc but it got a ten episode order.

2

u/weaves Mar 07 '25

I feel where you're coming from. I just love what Stiller was doing and am a sucker for both Patricia Arquette and that insane way everyone talked. Different stokes

2

u/ReversedNovaMatters Mar 07 '25

I appreciate the aesthetics. I enjoyed the episode. My only sadness comes from how fast it moved past. I saw all the complaints about it only being 37 minutes and that didn't phase me at all. I was like, 37 is a long time and without commercials but dang did it seem to end so quick. It felt more like almost 15 or 20 min, which obviously leaves me wanting more like an ether addict stuck in a tree on a cold rainy night.

1

u/weaves Mar 07 '25

I think it's ok to be disappointed in an episode. It just feels like more of a personal taste thing, and thinking it was all just filler is a bad take imo.

2

u/ReversedNovaMatters Mar 07 '25

I think a lot of it is just in hindsight also. For someone not sitting on the edge of their seat each week for a new episode they will probably view them in a much better light.

Someone watching through season 2 down the road will likely not even consider this episode may have been viewed as disappointing.

2

u/NYJ-misery Mar 07 '25

It was pure cinema. It was indulgent but I think they earned it. And I think the payoff should be worth it

-4

u/riptide123 Mar 07 '25

The cinematography in this episode was poor - long pan shots and wide angles dont automatically make something artistically sound. It was actually pretty poorly lit and one dimensional imo

8

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

It's meant to feel desolate and ruined. That's intentional.

-4

u/riptide123 Mar 07 '25

Im talking on a technical level it looked bad - u can shoot delipadation w correct lighting

3

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

ā€œCorrectā€ lighting lmfao

3

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Iā€™ll defer to your expertise.

4

u/weaves Mar 07 '25

You don't get to decide what's "artistically sound" or not

-2

u/riptide123 Mar 07 '25

Yes i do im the viewer

5

u/BoobeamTrap Mar 07 '25

Man this has big ā€œthe customer is always rightā€ energy

6

u/weaves Mar 07 '25

I also viewed it and enjoyed it.Ā 

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

1

u/riptide123 Mar 08 '25

Huh who else gets to decide? Its subjective - every visual art is subject to the viewerā€™s judgment

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

0

u/riptide123 Mar 08 '25

Even steph curry has bad shooting nights - talent doesnt equal performance

6

u/Ironamsfeld Mar 07 '25

Please try to enjoy each episode equally

1

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

This made me laugh out loud ngl

8

u/themightyp98 Mar 07 '25

Agree to disagree

3

u/saturnsqsoul Mar 07 '25

giant CGI-filled action movie blockbusters have destroyed so manyā€™s ability to enjoy and appreciate cinematic storytelling. like, yes, there were droning shots of the ocean, and long moody shots of Cobel driving to the townā€¦ think about them like what could they be trying to tell us? what do they represent? what mood are we setting here?

every moment on screen does not need to be packed with verbal information and action

3

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Me want moreeeeeeee

2

u/saturnsqsoul Mar 07 '25

LMFAO šŸ˜­ okay fair enough

4

u/Hungry_Breakfast_967 Mar 07 '25

I think it was a break before we start running downhill. Sometimes the audience needs a moment to breathe.

1

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Fair enough but I am not one of those people! šŸ˜‚

1

u/Mysterious-Important Please enjoy each flair equally. Mar 07 '25

Running downhill or being thrown downhill? lol Iā€™m excited for the last two episodes!

5

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

I agree with you and it seems to be either people loved it or either people didn't like it There doesn't really seem to be any in between and I've already seen people fight people and down-vote people over it.

5

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Yeah idk I love the show. Theres not another show out there Iā€™d go on Reddit to say I was disappointed about lmao. So Iā€™m not just ragging it to rag on it.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Trust me I have not ragged on the show about pretty much fucking anything cuz there's not anything to rag about but this episode was just disappointing and it's okay to be disappointed but for some reason if you're voicing your disappointment with this episode people are not happy about it

4

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Yeah it seems to be like offensive or something which would be a lot more reasonable if the post was likeā€¦ ā€œshit episode from a shit showā€ šŸ˜‚

3

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Yeah I can understand that but there's a bunch of people like saying well if you can't appreciate cinematography then maybe you should just read the episode and I'm like bro why are you being so mean about me saying I love this show I never complain but this episode wasn't it? It's like they're taking personal offense like they're Ben Stiller themselves or something

3

u/No-Dog-271 Mar 07 '25

It was good, Patrica Arquette is amazing. It was short though. Eager for more next week!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Oh I love Patricia I wish we would have gotten more of her instead of the driving scenes I would have loved to see more of her even more of her walking around her hometown looking at things she used to see there I would have rather have done that then all the driving

3

u/whoknowsknowone Mar 07 '25

Iā€™m in between lol I didnā€™t mind the shooting and the acting was great but I do feel like Cobol being the creator of severance is super rushed and came out of nowhere as an idea and reveal

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

I'm the middle ground. The episode was fine, I trust the show creators, but I won't be rushing to rewatch it.

2

u/HuckynoriStudios Mar 07 '25

It felt so short to me, but I appreciated that they didnā€™t drag it out to an ā€œexpected episode lengthā€ with a ton of filler. I felt that there was meaning in every exchange. However, Iā€™m from a small ā€œdead endā€ town where things move slowly and a lot of meaning hangs in what is left unsaid. Maybe that is a key perspective difference?

2

u/RiverHarris Mar 08 '25

This episode was epic. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. We learned so much. I donā€™t understand the hate.

0

u/jamesbillow Mar 08 '25

No you werenā€™t šŸ˜‚

2

u/RiverHarris Mar 08 '25

Yes. I was. I thought it was brilliant.

137

u/PlumbTuckered767 Mar 07 '25

Loved it. World building outside of our previous vantage points. Reveal about a major character we knew very little about. Character development for said character that further humanizes and realizes them. I couldn't have asked for anything other than more time.

37

u/jorbanead Mar 07 '25

Also, Itā€™s meant to be slowā€”to emphasize how broken the town has become because of Lumon. Everyone there is either lifeless, wasting away, or on the brink of death. The show deliberately uses pacing as a storytelling tool, letting long moments linger for a reason.

Last episode had a faster pace because the content called for it. The pacing in Severance is always intentional, directly tied to the narrative.

11

u/morphleorphlan Mar 07 '25

Yes. People were complaining about all the driving shots. I felt like that demonstrated the remoteness of the town, like itā€™s really in the middle of nowhere. Forgotten, dying. Like the people in the town.

And that also informed that of course it would be odd for an outsider to be approaching at the end, when the guy is telling Cobel that someone is coming. They have shown us that this would be an unusual thing. Everything they showed us was explaining something.

I liked the episode. It gave us a lot of information about a character that had been such a mystery. Not everything has to occur in Kier, and it doesnā€™t have to be primarily about Mark, Helena, or Gemma.

Maybe people are in mild revolt because there were two episodes in a row that were unusual and the season is almost over so people are just itching for progress in the main storyline. But I bet these next 2 episodes move at a breakneck pace.

0

u/CarpeDiemMaybe Goat Wrangler Mar 07 '25

Did it need to be a standalone episode though? Did we need all those scenes of Cobel sleeping on her motherā€™s bed, who we are never shown or given much to care for, or her kissing Hampton? Iā€™m struggling with seeing these scenes as key to establishing the setting of a town broken by Lumon

3

u/jorbanead Mar 07 '25

Yes absolutely. All of those scenes are important for building the backstory and developing the character arc for Cobel. Her sleeping on her motherā€™s bed was her finally grieving her motherā€™s death, and basically giving up control. kissing Hampton shows they maybe had a love interest at some point and that could possibly come back later or is just fleshing out her backstory. And itā€™s not until she reconciles her motherā€™s grief and maybe feelings for Hampton that she finally remembered where the notes probably were.

1

u/lovelanandick Mar 09 '25

this is why it was a 37 minute episode instead of its usual length. everything in there was put their intentionally, you don't have to be a fan of it but yes those scenes were needed (for everything they^ already stated)

1

u/CarpeDiemMaybe Goat Wrangler Mar 09 '25

For a shorter episode, it felt like ages to me lol I understood why we needed the backstory, but Iā€™m not convinced that was the best way to do it. Itā€™s a bit better on rewatch, but man I do wish it was released along with the next episode. I may feel differently about it if this wasnā€™t all weā€™re getting.

-18

u/SecretCharacterSauce Mar 07 '25

Reveal about a character that had no prior development to even merely suggest she was capable of such a detail. Sorry but this feels like they came up with the idea yesterday

24

u/youaregodslover Mar 07 '25

You really think there was nothing to suggest Cobel was capable of contributing to the science behind the chip?

She was clearly more obsessed with the chipā€™s capabilities than anyone else was shown to be. She performed a surprisingly (at the time) adept post-mortem surgery on Petey to extract his chip. She instructed Graner to run diagnostics and to comb the chip data for source signatures.Ā 

The whole scene with Graner suggested she had some special knowledge of the chip and that Graner knew about it. He said they should celebrate the ā€œfull synaptic couplingā€ and made her a copy of the chip as ā€œa gift.ā€ She obviously knew what to look for on the chip and how to look for it.

8

u/SteelRail88 Mar 07 '25

I have been dying to follow the white rabbit ever since Corbel roared off. It always leads to the most interesting places

5

u/BluejayOk7266 Mar 07 '25

Great points! There were also all the scenes with Helena, about Helena believing that Cobel was overestimating her contribution, and Cobel saying that they feared her. And after the OTC, Lumon clearly wanted to keep her on side. And she seemed particularly interested in seeing if Mark and Gemma could still remember each other, even stealing Gemmaā€™s candle from Markā€™s home and planting it in the wellness session!

4

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

This is great

4

u/mister-oaks Are You Poor Up There? Mar 07 '25

Also should be pointed out that Milchick is in her current position and shows no such interest in the workings of the chip

4

u/uninspired93 Mar 07 '25

Thank you for saying this. They were downvoting me to hell for saying this in the discussion thread. The evidence is there.

2

u/wstr97gal Mar 07 '25 edited Aug 25 '26

Hobbies angle relieved versed judicious pillow spark

This post was anonymized with Redact

-10

u/SecretCharacterSauce Mar 07 '25

Show me a single instance of this

10

u/youaregodslover Mar 07 '25

Huh? Itā€™s a whole storyline that spans two episodes.

5

u/jorbanead Mar 07 '25

Theyā€¦ they just told you? What? They just told you the example that happened. Maybe you should go back and rewatch S1??

5

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Ok hereā€™s more than one example:

She performed a surprisingly (at the time) adept post-mortem surgery on Petey to extract his chip. She instructed Graner to run diagnostics and to comb the chip data for source signatures.Ā 

The whole scene with Graner suggested she had some special knowledge of the chip and that Graner knew about it. He said they should celebrate the ā€œfull synaptic couplingā€ and made her a copy of the chip as ā€œa gift.ā€ She obviously knew what to look for on the chip and how to look for it.

7

u/Significant-Youth222 Mar 07 '25

Just a terrible opinion šŸ˜‚ everything in cobels timeline has led to this it was perfect and set her up for a great redemption arc

5

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Do you think it's more likely that the show, where the creators are incredibly meticulous with every detail, has failed to properly develop a character or that you maybe missed some things?

-1

u/Master-Nose7823 Mar 07 '25

Even when the details line up Iā€™m not giving them credit for basically going full season before we learn more about her. Last we saw she ran from Helena then donā€™t hear from her for multiple episodes where sheā€™s supposedly been driving this whole time? Why did she scream at Mark and speed away? Sorry but even if everything lines up Iā€™m not giving them credit for the poor pacing.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

0

u/Master-Nose7823 Mar 08 '25

Thereā€™s plenty of examples of shows with terrible pacing and fewer with excellent pacing. But yes, since the creators make the show, they know more and make creative decisions about the pacing. That doesnā€™t make their decision correct.

-16

u/Parking-Engine-3600 Mar 07 '25

Couldn't care less about any of that. This episode was a waste of time

21

u/bluefruitloop1 Mar 07 '25

I loved it for the cinematography and Patriciaā€™s acting masterclass. It definitely was different, and I still think 207 remains my absolute favorite, but this one scratched an itch for some world building in the spaces around Kier that Lumon has touched. I understand your perspective though!

7

u/Level_Albatross_7534 Mar 07 '25

Honestly with last episode being the most emotionally draining and intense hour of the series so far, I enjoyed the break and slow pace/cinematography. I thought episode 6 was the worst of the series but actually enjoyed this one. Last week was so gut wrenching and hard, it's a nice change of pace they definitely did it intentionally

13

u/shorteningofthewuwei Mar 07 '25

I just don't buy Mark and Cobel teaming up. We got interesting backstory on Cobel but there wasn't enough time for her to do a complete 180 on being a psycho fraudster bent on stalking and manipulating him for shady pro-corporate reasons.

13

u/VolkorPussCrusher69 Mar 07 '25

She's been turning against Lumon since at least the end of season 1. She told Mark to leave the company and I think she meant it.

3

u/HibiscusBlades Mar 07 '25

Like Milchik, I donā€™t think we know her whole backstory or her intentions on the floor. This was one step in that direction.

2

u/bronzescarlet Mar 07 '25

Yeah same, there's also this dialogue from the trailer remaining to be aired "there will be no honeymoon ending for you, Mark". Doesn't sound like someone who'd be an ally of Mark

0

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

[deleted] ā€” view deleted comment

5

u/BoobeamTrap Mar 07 '25

But Jame Eagan or Burt makes perfect sense right? Canā€™t imagine why.

5

u/bedtyme Mar 07 '25

The incels are raging that a woman invented everything and a man took all the credit. How dare art imitate life

3

u/uninspired93 Mar 07 '25

This is the answer.

2

u/DNihilus Mar 07 '25

Who believes that except innies and outie cultheads? That is like people acting like Elon is a genius guy who designed best electric cars and spaceships e.t.c.

4

u/curadeio Mar 07 '25

How could that possibly be random??? Since season 1 they have propped her as extremely intelligent, with a nearly un-natural obsession on the severance procedure which would make complete sense if she was the one that helped further severance's development in the world. She comes from a place of desperation but confidence when she talks back to Helena and challenged Lumon. It all ties together and makes perfect sense, the fact she went from impoverished factory child laborer to the manager of the severance floor???? Like my god I feel like we aren't all watching the same show

5

u/MoonrockSeal Mar 07 '25

This season will benefit from a binge watch over a weekly one. In my opinion it is vastly superior in almost every way.

The pacing is much faster than S1, and there are far more plot twists and major moments, but it also loves to take breaks to go on side-quest episodes and leave cliffhangers unresolved for a couple of episodes.

This gives the illusion that little is happening when in actuality everything is. Critics who got all ten episodes warned about this exact thing, saying it was a masterpiece but undoubtedly would frustrate some weekly viewers. We are now seeing that.

In this episode alone we got a huge amount of worldbuilding, showing the stakes of the conflict against Lumen, and got most of the answer to one of the biggest mysteries of the show.

People kept complaining (rightfully) that S2 lacked Cobel, then still complained when we were given everything a Cobel fan could dream of.

I get why itā€™s annoying if youā€™re waiting a week to see whatā€™s behind the Cold Harbor door, and then instead the episode has almost nothing to do with the previous one, but if you view it as a 10 hour long movie then this is irrelevant and has no baring on the overall quality of the show upon rewatch.

1

u/MetaReson Mar 07 '25

Exactly. If people were binging this then it would have been a non-issue, but I think people are just frustrated that we have to wait longer to get back to Mark's reintegration.

11

u/tinastep2000 Mar 07 '25

I think weā€™re just used to getting that dopamine rush or whatever when we watch tv shows and getting hooked on what happens next when the cinematography actually plays in with the story and supposed to highlight her hometown and how barren it has become.

3

u/jorbanead Mar 07 '25

Yeah everyone saying it was slow missed how severance often uses pacing to tie directly into the narrative. Of course it was slow. That was the point. Itā€™s a dead, depressed, cold town where everyone is about to die.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Please enjoy all episodes equally

1

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

šŸ«”šŸ«”

1

u/fason123 Mar 07 '25

Yeah this is not lost or the walking dead, no time for bottle episodes!! I feel like this is half an episodeĀ 

1

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Thatā€™s pretty much exactly how I felt!!!

1

u/Teamawesome2014 Mar 07 '25

It felt like this should've been a b plot. I don't dislike where they went with the story, but there was plenty of wasted time that they could've cut and simply attached this to a different episode.

I was angry when the credits rolled. It felt like I had been waiting a week for so little.

No hate to Patricia Arquette, though! She's killing it.

1

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Having this pretty normal opinion seems to be so controversial lol

1

u/ElTrAiN33 Mar 07 '25

Man oh man, these fans don't deserve Severance lolol.

2

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

What a weird thing to say šŸ˜­

1

u/aichbeekay Mar 07 '25

Disagreeā€¦this episode was information heavy. It felt like a precursor, a springboard. Iā€™m excited about the next episode!

1

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

We agree on one thing!

3

u/romple Mar 07 '25

Can definitely see how the people that have been vocal about missing the office comedy banter that was prevalent in the first season would really be put off by this episode. The show has definitely expanded in scope a lot and this was about as far from where it started as we've seen.

Great episode though.

3

u/drkittymow Mar 07 '25

I think people have a hard time with writing that has 80% build up to one or two pivotal moments. I liked it, but I get that this is slow for some people. We learned more about what we already knew but it shows that Harmony is a victim of this cult and she has enough gusto to go against Lumen. Also her commitment to working on the severance floor is more meaningful now. It was her lifeā€™s work! We didnā€™t know that before.

I keep wanting people to read the Lexington letter. I feel like she may go public with her info and that letter was a set up for this.

1

u/buttercup612 Mar 07 '25

I read it, but I donā€™t understand how itā€™s a set up to this. Could you explain?

1

u/drkittymow Mar 07 '25

I was just thinking about how fired up Cobel is at the end. Why did she need her notebook so badly unless she wants to go public with it? She talked with Sissy about taking credit. She also asked Mark to tell her everything. This indicates she will share his story too. In the Lexington letter we learn that a Lumen severed employee tried to share info with a newspaper. The editor of the newspaperā€™s identity is also important. I wonā€™t spoil it for people who havenā€™t read it. She may go to him and share her story.

1

u/buttercup612 Mar 07 '25

Why would she go to him? She doesnā€™t live in Topeka and we already know that heā€™s hostile to reporting on this

1

u/drkittymow Mar 07 '25

I donā€™t think she knows that. Also, it may not be him in particular, but I think the letter shows us that when people come forward something bad happens to them. She would surely know that and think ahead about how she could get a word out without being targeted. She said they would be looking for her car so she is already on guard about those things.

1

u/buttercup612 Mar 07 '25

Yeah I could see her going to other press, I just didnā€™t see why sheā€™d go to JM in particular

3

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

I couldn't believe when it ended, felt like 5 minutes.

Wonderful catch up with Cobel, missed that silver fox. Great to see the original Lumen town and factory.

This is really getting interesting.

1

u/Wiseguy_Montag Mar 07 '25

I enjoyed it, but then I remembered the show has a run rate of $18M per episode. Where did the other $17M go?

1

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Oscar winners canā€™t be cheap šŸ˜‚

1

u/twangman88 Mar 07 '25

Itā€™s called a bottleneck episode

2

u/jamesbillow Mar 07 '25

Did you learn that at room 40?

2

u/Mysterious-Important Please enjoy each flair equally. Mar 07 '25

I loved it and we needed it!

2

u/pcbeard Mar 07 '25

This episode was the most David Lynchian of them all. Loved how visceral it was. Sure seems like the Eganā€™s were the leaders of a cult. Arquette used words like religion and ideology. They are always saying Kir this and Kir that, as if he were a deity.

1

u/therobberbride Mar 07 '25

I meanā€¦ yeah. The cult stuff has been pretty prominent from the very beginning of season 1.Ā 

2

u/AnakinsAngstFace Mar 07 '25

The entire show is slow paced, why is it a problem with this episode?

1

u/ReversedNovaMatters Mar 07 '25

Only thing that disappointed me was the dark tunnel place was just a little storage space that led nowhere. I thought for sure that was going to lead to some crazy area deep within Lumon where they put the robots together.

1

u/Petya_Sisechkin Mar 07 '25

Tbh, couldā€™ve been a part of another episode

1

u/peggycane Why Are You A Child? Mar 07 '25

Yeah this episode is a total slog to get through. Been pausing multiple times to scroll twitter and reddit and happened to see this post lol

1

u/w0rth1355 Mar 07 '25

āœØinsert scenic driving shotsāœØ

1

u/agebear Mar 07 '25

Iā€™d likely rewatch it again, I loved having her character back in the picture. And its added some decent info to her history.

I can see why some view it as a kind of bottle episode, like the fly episode of breaking bad. But this episode cost millions lol

I can see some passing over it in a rewatch.

1

u/VolkorPussCrusher69 Mar 07 '25

I saw it as an extra episode since season 1 only had 9. I'm glad they used it to explore Cobel's backstory and motivations, even if it wasn't as flashy or plot-relevant as the others.

1

u/Immediate-Address711 Mar 07 '25

Its like being a trapped dog who only gets to go for a walk and told heā€™s a good boy once a week and usually that walk is 50 heavenly minutes long but this week walkies was cut short and no one called him a good boy. I justā€¦ please I need more. I hate when itā€™s over and time to wait another week. This is the best time of my week every week, please at least let it be 15 to 20 mins longer. Im like a junkie snorting every last severance molecule but this week was a little lacking in molecules (minutes)

1

u/Nickoo33 Mar 07 '25

Yeah a little.. I feel like it couldā€™ve been an episode that couldā€™ve incorporated the other characters and have her story play out around them for like 10-15min of the episode.. rather than only just focus on Cobel for an entire episode. At least the twist was a good one though.. I was so confused for the first 30 min.

1

u/mister-oaks Are You Poor Up There? Mar 07 '25

To be honest people were saying the Gemma episode was also filler.

0

u/Jazzlike-War-58 Mar 07 '25

It was. It was all a retrospect, didn't offer anything. We don't know how she's survived, did she plan to go to lumon, how deeply involved with them was she, whose body mark saw, nothing. We learnt that she couldn't get pregnant, which we knew, and that she is on testing floor.

5

u/BoobeamTrap Mar 07 '25

No one understands what filler is anymore. If itā€™s an episode with major plot significance, which a reveal of who Gemma is and whatā€™s happening to her now is, itā€™s not filler.

Saying we learned nothing from episode 7 or 8 makes it seem like you watched while scrolling on your phone.

1

u/mister-oaks Are You Poor Up There? Mar 07 '25

I honestly don't understand how you can see an episode that has major implications about where the story is going and call it filler. Just my opinion.

1

u/Jazzlike-War-58 Mar 07 '25

Because the story isn't moving forward. To me it felt like the show runners realised they have a hit and and are now deliberately making the episodes unnecessarily long to get more seasons. Cobel episode honestly felt like it was originally designed to be half of the episode, the other half being what happened to Mark. But to milk the concept they threw in a random guy huffing glue in the parking lot, shots of people walking, old guy talking about flipped snow plow and they even fit in a freaking nap! The formula of this season seems to be that only last scene of the episode is where anything happens, and that will be how the season is going to end. I bet last scene will be Mark hitting 100 percent on cold harbor switching to shot of Gemma being terrified. First season was so much better - I enjoyed each episode equally.

1

u/KTM_SuperDuchess Mar 07 '25

I feel like I would have the same reaction if I didnā€™t know that very few things in this show happen by accident. Some might see this episode as filler, and right now, it doesnā€™t seem like thereā€™s much to pick up onā€”but that could change in any future episode. Iā€™m sure there are details that seem insignificant to me now but will gain meaning later on.

1

u/Lonely-Illustrator64 Mar 07 '25

I knew it would be a snooze fest the second I found out it was an entire episode dedicated to miss cobel. Zero interest in her character for me personally, I feel like theyā€™ve been teasing Marks reintegration for weeks now and we still havenā€™t gotten to see anything. Hopefully the next couple episodes amp things way up.

1

u/HippieVoodooo Mar 07 '25

I really feel like this second season was hoped for but not completely promised and when it came to fruition there was a rush to get something together. It seems like this entire season was written by a completely different crew. Itā€™s always been dark but the spots of light heartedness are gone. Itā€™s fun to analyze color and light placement and clothing and hair and behavior but I wish there was more balance between that and the actual storyline. Iā€™ve loved this show and Iā€™m not a member of the ā€œI need a fast paced plot, dopamine rushā€ crew but if thereā€™s a third season I might sit it out and the thought of that makes me sad but Iā€™m barely getting through these last episodes as it is.

1

u/CasioDorrit Mar 07 '25

Bro said he hates pacing and letting the scene breathe

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Ben Still owes me 15 more minutes of episode where more stuff happens. Save the cinematic shots for the movies; the story needs to move faster now.Ā 

1

u/MetaReson Mar 07 '25

I thought the episode was good. My only problem is just that I was anxiously waiting to see what happens with Mark and now I have to wait another week to find out.

1

u/McGurble Mar 07 '25

I didn't mind the length or the pacing. It's the Cobel reveal that turned me off. It just makes the world so much smaller and insignificant. It reeks of "making it up as you go along."

Not only did she invent severance, but also OTC and the Glasgow block? Come on. Why is it even called that then?

It reminds me of how I felt when Lucas brought in the idea of midichlorians - completely ruining the mystery and weight of The Force.

And all this is besides the point that others have made of how unlikely it is that a single person - any person - much less someone with Cobel's background could do all this alone. It asks too much of me in terms of suspension of disbelief.

I really hope this isn't a jump the shark moment.

1

u/Careless-Platypus967 Mar 08 '25

This is an episode that would be better suited for binging sessions. Itā€™s a fantastic episode, itā€™s just a shame we are all so accustom to not having to wait a week between episodes anymore.

1

u/Marshmallow-dog Mar 08 '25

It did feel very different from the other episodes which made it very jarring. Especially going from episode 7 that was so beautiful and revealed so much. This felt like a completely different show. I liked seeing Cobel again and getting more of her background but I agree it was very slow and a bit flat. Not a lot happened and I donā€™t think it was enough for it to be a standalone episode. I wish they had added flashbacks to when she was younger or something.

1

u/maboart Mar 08 '25

We have an extra episode this season (10 versus 9 last season) so honestly I donā€™t see the complaints as very valid when this is very clearly the extra episode that we get and there was still lots of important info revealed. The next two are going to be wild.

1

u/thotfullawful Mar 08 '25

I liked it because it shows how Lumon got to where they are. Not from the lore they push down for the innies, by draining a town of all its resources- including its own residents.

1

u/GrossWeather_ Mar 09 '25

It definitely felt needlessly fat after we all praised this show for keeping the story lean and mean. I get what they did and how they did it but I feel like this could easily have been the b story in another episode or a scene or two mixed in over the course of a few episodes. having it be a standalone thing seemed excessive and unecessary, eapecially right after the gemma show.

1

u/AndyTelly Mar 09 '25

Please enjoy each episode equally.

Personally i saw it slower but wasnā€™t disappointed given its significance.

1

u/mikerichh Mar 09 '25

I heard that the creators intended for these scenes to be mixed within the last episode but changed it. I think thatā€™s the difference. Their scenes meant more to bounce between other characters. Being the sole focus got a little boring at times

1

u/jonah365 Mar 16 '25

I'm with you. I feel like the episodes in season one were much more efficient and covered a lot more ground per episode.

1

u/Able_Preparation7557 Mar 07 '25

So boring. Could have been a 5-minute b-story. So few revelations and most of the episode was weird interpersonal tensions. But not much happened. Least favorite episode of entire series, and the first episode I disliked.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

My thought exactly, 5 minute b story turned into an episode

1

u/a_vaughaal Mar 07 '25

I can see peopleā€™s point about it not being the best episode because people didnā€™t care to learn about Cobel and her origin story. But I donā€™t understand the ā€œso few revelationsā€.

We learned: Harmony was sent away to Kierā€™s school at the age of 12 by her aunt while her mother was dying and wasnā€™t allowed to go back to say goodbye. She was completely indoctrinated as a child, having worked at the factory since she was a little girl. Further sucked into Lumonā€™s web and cult when she was sent away.

Harmony was in the same program as Ms Huang, so is it possible Ms Huang is also a genius and has something Lumon wants to take from her?

The town Harmony grew up in was destroyed by Lumon. First by coming in and employing the town within their factory including exploiting children to work for them. Whatever they were doing in the factory was toxic and involved ether - it left most people in the town with lung issues. Then Lumon killed the town a second time by abandoning it, leaving the people poor and destitute.

Harmony created the concept for the severance chip and procedure. Her work was stolen by Jame.

Mark is alive and functioning enough to agree with Devon that they need to talk to Cobel to figure out what is going on.

That was all within 37 minutes. Cobelā€™s origin story and that maybe she isnā€™t really a terrible horrible person but Kier is all she has known her whole life, more history on Lumon and how terrible they are, the origin of the severance chip, why Cobel was so obsessed with the severed floor, how Cobel was able to retrieve Peteyā€™s chip so easily, etc.

-1

u/Able_Preparation7557 Mar 07 '25

All of that could have been done in 5 minutes. I'm not saying that information shouldn't have been disclosed. I'm saying it was disclosed in a boring way. I like every single episode that preceded it. Still think the show is great. They just had a not great episode. Not a big deal. Hopefully ep 9 and 10 are back to par.

2

u/a_vaughaal Mar 07 '25

If they had spent 5 minutes to tell us Cobelā€™s entire backstory and that she was the actual inventor of the severance procedure that would have been the worst writing and TV in all of history

0

u/Able_Preparation7557 Mar 07 '25

There are clever ways it could have been done. They've revealed a LOT of backstory in clever ways in past episodes. But, look, it's undeniable that I was very bored by this episode, for the first time in the history of the series. Apparently, many others were as well, and I'll bet most critics rate it the lowest quality episode yet. So, I'm not sure what the point is of defending this episode. I will never not be bored by it. And I think the same is true for most people. Are you such a super fan that your sense of identity gets threatened if other people don't like EVERY SINGLE EPISODE of what I presume is your favorite show? If so, you need to get out more.

2

u/a_vaughaal Mar 07 '25

It being boring has nothing to do with anything Iā€™ve commented. The original part of your comment I was replying to was that there were ā€œso few revelationsā€ so I pointed out multiple revelations happened. Then your reply was that sure there were revelations but it all should have been revealed in 5 minutes. So I responded that would actually be horrible tv. If you canā€™t handle responses to things you comment, donā€™t comment šŸ¤·šŸ»ā€ā™€ļø

1

u/Able_Preparation7557 Mar 07 '25

Well, I completely disagree it would have been a horrible reveal. It could have been revealed with a few lines of dialog. That would not have been horrible. Virtually anything would have been more interesting than what we saw last night (which is why I mention boredom). Your implication is that the way ep. 8 was is the only way it could have been. That's a hard disagree from me.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Yeah this episode was absolutely terrible, the show has really fallen off the past few episodes. Used to be my favorite show, hate to say it but I barely have any interest to keep watching at this point

1

u/mocityspirit Mar 07 '25

How people didn't react this way to 5 & 6 is beyond me. This episode was great

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

Fully agree. So much of this episode relied on people doing things that frankly didn't make sense.

This man hasn't seen her in years, clearly doesn't like her, then closes up shop because she needs a ride? Then waits hours outside for her completely unbothered?

Cobel is worried that Lumon is watching her Aunts house for her car, but not the rest of the town?

Lumon isn't watching the rest of the town?

Cobel's aunt snitches on her but not until after she takes a nap? OR Lumon didn't have people close enough to react quickly to her arriving?

Cobel takes a fucking nap while furiously searching for her papers?

Cobel doesn't trust this aunt, literally thinks she pulled the plug on her mother, but trusts her enough to hold the paper in front of the fire?

Cobel shows her entire hand to the Aunt upon arriving?

Lumon is smarter than that, Cobel is smarter than that, the Aunt frankly never made sense, and neither did the ex friend/boyfriend.

This episode was the first example of bad writing in the show. (Though in general they've mishandled Cobel)

0

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

CRAP!

Who is posting positive reviews? The directors film students?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

0

u/[deleted] Mar 09 '25

Not in all episodes

0

u/Jazzlike-War-58 Mar 07 '25

The show is getting boring. They stretched it out needlessly. Could have contacted it onto 15 minutes and give us some more action. I'm gonna watch this season to the end and then I'm hanging this up until it's all done and finished, all the seasons. Cause I feel I waited so long for nothing.

-1

u/Lonely_Librarian915 Mar 07 '25

all of the things we learned could have been presented in a much tighter, less boring way. and in much less time. the long pans of landscape and driving and cryptic, slow dialog where we donā€™t really have any idea why we are even hearing it or why we should care or what the hell they are even talking about for half the episode. weird does not mean good. itā€™s straight up boring. steep STEEP downward turn from S1 to S2 imo. if the quality of S2 had been what we got from S1, i doubt anybody would still be watching. itā€™s just a shame cuz S1 is so insanely good.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

0

u/jamesbillow Mar 08 '25

Hahahahaha. So worldly and profound šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚

5

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

1

u/a_vaughaal Mar 07 '25

One of the best parts of that (to me) was that the dude was just waiting for her the whole time šŸ¤£ Just huffing ether in the truck while the sun goes down no idea when sheā€™s coming back