‘Severance’ Season 2, Episode 8: 7 Things We Learned About the Mysterious Ms. Cobel

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Severance” Season 2, Episode 8.

There are endless questions around nearly everyone and everything in “Severance.” But if there was an award for Most Mysterious, that would indisputably go to Harmony Cobel, Patricia Arquette’s cold, intense, gray-haired boss. From her icy glares to her unsettling fascination with Mark S. (Adam Scott), Cobel felt like she was framed to be the villain throughout most of Season 1. But her actual backstory and path to Lumon Industries is far more complicated than that.

Written by Adam Countee and K. C. Perry and directed by Ben Stiller, “Sweet Vitriol” exclusively focuses on Cobel for 38 minutes as she hunts for an invaluable artifact in her hometown. Here are some of the most fascinating nuggets from that deep dive.

Harmony Cobel is from a mining town that was ruined by Lumon

The beginning of “Sweet Vitriol” sees Cobel (Patricia Arquette) returning to her hometown of Salt’s Neck. It’s impossible to know geographically where anything is in the world of “Severance.” However, the episode was filmed in Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador, meaning that Cobel is likely from the American northeast or even Canada (if Canada even exists in this show).

As the episode crawls through Salt’s Neck, the camera captures endless dilapidated buildings. One even has a faded logo for Kier Eagan’s Lumon, complete with the tagline, “There is a miracle cure for man.” Both Cobel and her friend repeatedly reference that Lumon “ruined” their hometown.

She was raised by her sickly mother and aunt in a home without electricity

The name of Cobel’s late mother never comes up in the episode. However, Cobel’s biggest face-off is with Sissy, aka Celestine “Sissy” Cobel (Jane Alexander), her former caretaker who is also presumably Cobel’s aunt. A staunch devotee to Kier and the Eagan family, Sissy is now known as the town pariah. Based on the aging wallpaper and oil lamps, it’s safe to assume that Cobel was raised in a house that is now falling apart — much like her hometown — and that she was largely removed from modern technology.

She had at least one friend

It’s difficult to imagine Cobel with any sort of social life, but she had one at some point. Though he’s initially reluctant to see her, Hampton (James Le Gros) helps Cobel up to Sissy’s house to search the place without Lumon knowing. By the episode’s end, they even kiss and he gives her his truck. Child labor, it’ll bond you. Speaking of .

Cobel worked in the local Lumon factory as a child and would routinely get high

Cobel and Hampton used to work in the local Lumon factory together as children. At one point, he even convinces her to get high with him in her late mother’s room. “I haven’t done that since I was eight,” Cobel says.

“Get ready to man the vat for 10 hours,” Hampton responds, causing her to laugh. All of those intense expressions and her chronic inability to smile suddenly make sense when you consider all the child labor laws that were being violated.

Ms. Cobel graduated as valedictorian and was awarded the Wintertide Fellowship

Ultimately, Cobel was able to escape her desolate hometown thanks to her intelligence and devotion to Kier. A yearbook (sorry — Annual Reminisces book) shows that she graduated from Myrtle Eagen School for Girls as its valedictorian. She was even awarded the Wintertide Fellowship in the Year of Wiles, an honor that presumably pushed her further inside of Lumon.

Her mother died while she was in school

It’s unknown exactly when Cobel’s mother died, but she was unable to say goodbye due to her classes. Sissy took care of her sister during her final years. Originally, Cobel believed that Sissy removed her mother’s breathing tube to end her suffering, an action she resents Sissy for taking. But right before she leaves Sissy’s house, her former caretaker says Cobel’s mom was the one to remove the tube, calling her a “coward” and a “weed.”

Jame Eagan stole the Severance invention from Ms. Cobel

So why was Cobel so desperate to return to this bleak place? It’s all because of a notebook hidden inside her Wintertide Fellowship trophy, a notebook that shows she was the one who developed the Severance program, not Jame Eagan. When Sissy asks her why she kept her invention a secret, Cobel says “I was told Kier’s knowledge is for all” and that “if I sought credit, I would be banished.”

But now, Cobel doesn’t seem to care all that much about banishment. The episode ends with her finally taking Devon’s (Jen Tullock) call as she speeds away in Hampton’s turck. When Devon and Mark (Adam Scott) tell her that Mark has been unsevered, she hunches over the steering wheel and demands that Mark tell her “everything.”

“Severance” releases new episodes Fridays on Apple TV.

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