Everything That Led to Ms. Cobel’s Decision in Severance Episode 8

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 8 of Severance Season 2.

From MDR's ORTBO to Irving and Burt's dinner party to Gemma's Lumon escape attempt, much has gone down in the world of Severance since Harmony Cobel was seen speeding away from Helena Eagan and her bodyguard in the third episode of Season 2.

But fear not Patricia Arquette fans, Episode 8, titled "Sweet Vitriol," brings Ms. Cobel back into the picture in a big way. The shorter-than-normal 38-minute installment opens with Harmony arriving in the bleak seaside town of Salt's Neck—the location we first saw her driving toward in Episode 3 before she doubled back to Lumon to take one last crack at restoring her position as head of the severed floor.

We quickly learn Salt's Neck is where Harmony grew up and is a former Lumon company town that's been chewed up and spit out by the industrial ravaging of its corporate benefactor. Many Salt's Neck residents are addicted to ether, which seems to have been introduced to the population by Lumon, but is now peddled by Harmony's childhood friend-turned apparent love interest-turned embittered townie Hampton (James Le Gros). The two clearly have hard feelings for one another, but a deep undercurrent of loyalty seems to remain. Harmony enlists him to drive her to the home of her estranged relative, Celestine "Sissy" Cobel (Jane Alexander), who raised her after her mother fell ill.

Read More: Severance Asks Big Questions About Love and Death. Season 2 Has Answers

Sissy is a "pariah" of the town and a radical Kier devotee who lives stringently by his nine core principles: vision, verve, wit, cheer, humility, benevolence, nimbleness, probity, and wiles. And it becomes pretty clear she made the life of young Harmony, who was forced to perform child labor at Lumon's local factory alongside Hampton, a living hell.

Harmony, furious after being fired by Lumon earlier this season, is desperate to gain access to her late mother's locked room, where she believes she'll find a valuable possession from her younger years. We know the breathing tube Harmony carries around belonged to her mother, Charlotte Cobel, who died while Harmony was away at the Myrtle Eagan School for Girls. Charlotte apparently hated Lumon and wasn't a Kier believer. Harmony accuses Sissy of ripping the tube from her mother's throat and killing her without giving Harmony a chance to say goodbye. But Sissy later insists it was Charlotte herself who took the tube out.

In what is likely not a coincidence, The Lexington Letter, a free companion e-book written by the creators of Severance to flesh out the world of the show, includes a brief aside about Lumon's "feeding tube devices" (a seemingly similar product) that reveals a Nashville newspaper once tried to print an exposé on them and was subsequently "sued into oblivion," going under six months later.

Harmony ultimately finds what she was looking for, a notebook of her Lumon co-opted designs, in an aboveground basement of sorts outside Sissy's home. We learn young Harmony was an industrious little worker who was handpicked by the Eagans to attend the Myrtle Eagan School for Girls and receive the honor of the Jame Eagan Wintertide Fellowship. Then, it's time for the big reveal: It wasn't Jame who invented the severance procedure, but Harmony herself. "Mine! My designs," she shouts at Sissy. "Circuit blueprint, base code, overtime contingency, Glasgow block. All of it."

Harmony explains she was told by the Eagans that if she ever sought credit for her work, she would be banished. And, as if on cue, a car that we can only assume belongs to a Lumon thug, shows up on the isolated road leading to Sissy's house. Harmony manages to escape in Hampton's truck, but we're pretty sure Lumon isn't going to let her off that easy.

As she drives away from Salt's Neck, Harmony finally talks to Devon (Jen Tullock), who has been repeatedly calling her throughout the episode. Upon learning that Mark (Adam Scott) has begun reintegrating under the guidance of Reghabi (Karen Aldridge), Harmony seems to quickly make a decision to help Mark and perhaps begin a crusade to bring Lumon down in the process.

Knowing Harmony is the one who invented the severance procedure in the first place, she may also be the only person who knows how to safely reverse it. However, given her personal investment in Mark and the completion of Cold Harbor, it also seems unlikely she'll be willing to give up a shot at fulfilling her life's work. At this point, Harmony's shifting loyalties may make or break the fate of not only Mark, but also Gemma and the rest of the innies. But we're going to have to wait to find out what her true intentions are.