Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Severance Season 2 Episode 8.
Apple TV+‘sSeveranceis full of complex characters, in part because so many members of the main cast exist as two drastically different versions of the same person, one inside Lumon and the other on the outside. Yet perhaps the most complex presence in the series is Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), the now-disgraced former head of Lumon’s severed floor.
At the beginning ofSeverance, Cobel was the villain. Sure, there was always the mysterious Board and the Eagans, who ranked higher than her, but those were faceless enemies, and Cobel was right there, running the severed floor and enforcing the oppressive rules. She even spent her time outside the office spying onMark Scout (Adam Scott)while posing as his quirky neighbor, further playing into Lumon’s deceit and posing more of a threat to Mark in particular.Even as she pulled away from Lumon, I felt it served her right at the time. As much as she believed Lumon had wronged her, she wasn’t on the receiving end of their worst deeds; more to the point, Cobel had been part of the problem.
However, Season 2, Episode 8, “Sweet Vitriol,” changed how I see Harmony Cobel.The episode explores Cobel’s past, revealing how her home, Salt’s Neck, has been impacted by Lumon and the personal loss that still haunts her. This storyline proves that her character is far more complex than she initially seemed, and I actually feel bad for her. If she stays true to her development and becomes part of the solution rather than the problem, Cobel could even earn the redemption arc the series has set up for her.
Harmony Cobel Has Come a Long Way in ‘Severance’
Cobel earned some distance from Lumon inSeason 1when they fired her, blaming her for the chaos in the office, especially after she made efforts to hide Helly R.’s (Britt Lower) suicide attempt. Yet even then, when she realizes that Mark’s innie used theOTCto communicate with the outside world, she goes running back to Lumon to tell them, proving that she wasn’t mad about what the company was doing as a whole but that they did it to her. It doesn’t exactly make her a decent person. Still, her actions get Lumon to acknowledge her and offer her a new position, but Helena Eagan (Lower) emphasizes that she won’t be returning to the severed floor. This triggers Cobel’s complaints that her loyal service isn’t being rewarded, soshe cuts ties with the company.
In some ways, she is right. Lumon didn’t do right by her, and stepping away from the company is a significant change for Cobel and maybe even a step toward her becoming a good guy. But Lumon did far worse things to others than it did to her — and Cobel even assisted in causing some of that damage (more than we knew, considering the latest episode reveals she inventedthe severed procedure). So, I saw her feelings of injustice as a sort of karma. She contributed to the innies’ oppression, and now she is on the receiving end of that feeling – albeit on a much smaller scale.YetSeveranceled me to rethink my previous position when it explored Cobel’s past.
The 10 Best ‘Severance’ Quotes, Ranked
“The work is mysterious and important.”
‘Severance’s Latest Episode Proves That Harmony Cobel Is Still Suffering
Previously, I didn’t spare any of my sympathy for Cobel because characters like Helly, Mark,Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) deserved it more, at least from whatSeveranceshowed us. Yet as Season 2, Episode 8 explores Cobel’s past, it reveals that Lumon’s betrayal of her is just the final straw in a long list of wrongs, starting with the destruction of her hometown of Salt’s Neck and how she was forced to work as a child in the company’s ether factory. Yet it somehow became worse when a young Harmony Cobel lost her mother.Lumon didn’t just deny her the chance to say goodbye but never gave her the ability to grieve. When Cobel arrives at her aunt Sissy’s (Jane Alexander) house, accusations are flying, but among them is the fact that Harmony was away at school when her mother died, specifically the Myrtle Eagan School for Girls — another institution run by Lumon.
Now that she is thoroughly disillusioned with Lumon, the Eagans, and everything they represent, Cobel is ready to grieve the mother she lost so many years ago. It’s heartbreaking watching her mourn her long-dead mother as she lies in Charlotte Cobel’s bed, keening and wailing. This loss is one more example of Lumon’s manipulation and exploitation. Harmony Cobel may be responsible for horrible things, but after seeing that,even I can admit to feeling bad for her in this moment.
‘Severance’s Latest EPisode Sets Up Harmony Cobel To Take Down Lumon
Cobel has been under the influence ofLumon founder Kier Eagansince childhood. Apart from her aforementioned work at the ether factory in Salt’s Neck, the height chart on the wall reveals that she left home at 12, confirming that she was very small when she began working. She was also top of her class and even becamepart of the Wintertide program, like Miss Huang (Sarah Bock). Cobel bought into Lumon’s entire belief system to the point whereshe even allowed the company’s current CEO, Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry), to take credit for her brilliant, though problematic, invention.
This level of trust and reverence toward the Eagans is hard to break away from, but Cobel has finally gotten herself free, realizingthe threat that Lumon represents. This division has been a long time coming, and by making her own choices, Cobel has proven that she can do better, especially if she devotes herself and her considerable knowledge of Lumon’s inner workings to help Mark put things right. I may have doubted her for a long time, butCobel has proven that she is not only capable of change but deserves to be one of the people to take down Lumon.
New episodes ofSeveranceSeason 2 premiere Fridays on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.
