In our Severance season 2 episode 8 recap of “Sweet Vitriol,” we find a wavering Lumon loyalist — the terminated and nearly reinstated severed floor manager Harmony Cobel — facing old demons while searching for an important missing item. It seems to place her at the center of Lumon Industries’ mysterious technologies, and could be important to her return (or revenge).
Last week’s episode gave us the backstory of Mark S.’s wife Gemma, aka Lumon Industries’ Ms. Casey. With it came a deeper look at what’s really going at the company. This week we see some Lumon backstory, centered in Cobel’s dying hometown, site of a long-shuttered Lumon ether factory.
Severance season 2, episode 8 recap: ‘Sweet Vitriol’
Last week’s episode seven, “Chikhai Bardo,” was visually stunning, intellectually challenging and jarringly unfamiliar. It took its title from a transitional experience in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, referring to the “moment of death” prior to rebirth. It explored Gemma (Dichen Lachman) undergoing testing in the bowels of Lumon in various rooms with place names (all except the mysterious and crucial Cold Harbor). And it hosted surprising guest stars: Robby Benson as Dr. Mauer, the scary Lumon dentist who whistles “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and Sandra Bernhard as a scary Lumon nurse, Cecily.
Photo: Apple TV+
In episode eight, “Sweet Vitriol” (only two more to go), the show again leaves Mark S. (Adam Scott) and the Macrodata Refinement crew. It goes to the bleak place where former severed floor manager Cobel (Patricia Arquette) came from. “Salt’s Neck” appears to be a dying Lumon company town on the wind-whipped rocky shores of what looks like furthest Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. One of the shorter episodes, at 37 minutes, this spooky side trip gets direction from actor Ben Stiller, who serves as executive producer on the series and directs several episode in each of the first two seasons.
Harmony’s homecoming
Photo: Apple TV+
After speeding away from Helena Eagan (Britt Lower) and then Mark when last we saw her, Cobel returns to distant Salt’s Neck, a bleak, snowy coastal town where she grew up. The community has deteriorated since Lumon’s ether mill closed, with many residents now addicted to ether. She seeks help from Hampton, an old acquaintance who now runs a coffee shop and sells ether to local addicts. Their conversation reveals they were both child laborers at the Lumon factory — a disturbing insight into the company’s exploitative practices.
Hampton reluctantly agrees to drive Cobel to her aunt Sissy’s isolated home on the outskirts of town. Cobel wants him to drive so Lumon people, who might be watching the house, won’t recognize her car. He hides Cobel under a blanket in the back of his truck.
Family tensions
Photo: Apple TV+
Upon arrival, we meet Celestine “Sissy” Cobel, Harmony’s elderly aunt who still devoutly “lives by the nine” — a reference to Kier Eagan’s Nine Core Principles. This devotion has made her a pariah in the now anti-Lumon town. The interaction between aunt and niece is immediately tense, with Sissy declaring Harmony “not welcome.” Harmony bursts in anyway, searching for something.
Coming up empty in her now-bare childhood bedroom, she demands access to her dead mother’s locked room. A heated exchange reveals painful history: Harmony’s mother was anti-Lumon, and Sissy apparently disconnected her life support while Harmony was away at school. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Harmony says, with grief and rage in her voice.
We learn that Harmony was deemed exceptional by Lumon. She served as valedictorian at the Myrtle Eagan School for Girls, part of the prestigious Wintertide Fellowship (like the young Ms. Huang we’ve seen this season), and Goat Husbandry Club President. Sissy insisted Harmony’s education was “more important” than being with her dying mother, revealing how thoroughly Lumon indoctrinated Harmony from childhood.
The real inventor of the Severance procedure?
Photo: Apple TV+
Cobel eventually finds what she came for: her old journal hidden in the base of a Jame Eagan award bust. This leads to the episode’s shocking revelation — Cobel is the true inventor of Severance technology.
“Mine! My designs! Circuit blueprint, base code, overtime contingency, Glasgow Block, all of it!” she declares, showing pages filled with diagrams for pre-severed brainwaves, formulas and a chip design identical to what’s implanted in severed employees to her aunt.
Sissy, still loyal to Lumon, insists that “Jame Eagan was the inventor.” Cobel reveals she was forced to stay quiet about her invention or face “banishment” from Lumon, despite their motto that “Kier’s knowledge is for all.” When Sissy attempts to burn the journal, Cobel rescues it before storming out. The last thing Sissy tells Harmony is that her mother pulled out her own tube. Sissy says Harmony’s mother was a coward and she says Harmony’s the same.
A new alliance might form
As Cobel prepares to leave, Hampton warns that vehicles are approaching — likely Lumon agents. He lets Cobel take his truck while he stays behind to delay them. Headlights approach as he mutters, “Come and tame these tempers, assholes.”
Driving away, Cobel finally answers a call from Mark’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock). Devon reveals that Mark has been reintegrating with the dangerous help of Dr. Reghabi (Karen Aldridge). This news surprises Cobel. She asks for Mark and he gets on the line. As she drives back toward Kier with her reclaimed Severance designs, she demands, “Tell me everything.”
Severance season 2 episode 8 recap: What it all means
Photo: Apple TV+
According to hour Severance season 2 episode 8 recap, this episode fundamentally changes our understanding of Harmony Cobel. Rather than just a fanatical middle-manager, she appears to be the brilliant mind behind Severance technology — with credit stolen by Jame Eagan and Lumon. With her loyalty to Lumon already fractured after being fired, this revelation of their betrayal appears to complete her transformation from devoted servant to potential ally of Mark and Devon.
The episode also exposes more of Lumon’s dark history into the present: It uses of child labor, it builds and abandons company towns and it indoctrinates exceptional children through the Wintertide Fellowship program.
As we enter the final two episodes of Season 2, Cobel stands at a crossroads with her original Severance designs in hand and newfound knowledge of Mark’s reintegration. Her decision to help or hinder him will likely play a crucial role in the season’s conclusion. And it will show if Devon’s instinct to involve Cobel proves wise or disastrous.
Previous Severance recaps:
- Season 2, episode 7: An enlightening Severance finally tells Gemma’s story
- Season 2, episode 6: Mark S. risks all as Severance bonds are tested
- Season 2, episode 5: Severance: Innie Irving’s last words take on new meaning as Mark breaks through
- Season 2, episode 4: Irving B. takes a brutal stand in the icy Severance wilderness
- Season 2, episode 3: Severance boldly sends Mark S. back to his Lumon beginnings
- Season 2, episode 2: Lumon deals with Severance outies in Overtime Contingency’s aftermath
- Season 2, episode 1: ‘It’s been a minute’ since we felt that Severance vertigo
Watch Severance on Apple TV+
Severance season one and season two’s new episodes now stream on Apple TV+. New episodes air on Fridays (though they’re usually available the night after 6 p.m. PT).
Apple TV+ is available by subscription for $9.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. Customers who buy a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
After launching in November 2019, “Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 471 wins and 2,090 award nominations and counting,” the service said.
Apple TV+ is home to more than 200 exclusive movies and TV shows (including breakout soccer comedy Ted Lasso). The service also offers documentaries, dramas, comedies, kids shows and more.
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