Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Episode Discussion
Season 2 Episode 8: Sweet Vitriol
Aired: March 7, 2025
Synopsis: Discoveries are made.
Directed by: Ben Stiller
Written by: Adam Countee & K. C. Perry
I really really loved this episode, and I think it is bonkers that so many found it boring/bad/unnecessary! I'd rather skip the "dead girlfriend montage" of the previous episode.
Ether is short for the chemical name diethyl ether.
Di-etheyl. Et-her.
Dieter.
Keir was tripping in the woods, started to jerk off and blaming it on his other self was the establishment of his religion.
Wouldn't be surprised if he even fashioned a weird puppet of moss and roots while high, and started talking and joking with it
That was a really bad episode.
To each their own, but I disagree profoundly!! I found it essential to understand Cobel's character, and the potential reversal of her loyalties
With everything revealed about Cobel this episode, is it possible that she has a dormant chip in herself? I wonder if the risk of it being flipped is why she fled from her last meeting with Helena.
In season 1, on the security room wall, there is a Harmony S. (Selvig?)
Can they not remotely activate chips?
I loved the slow pace, even by Severance standards, accentuating the vibe of an isolated and abandoned company town. Felt almost like Koyaanisqatsi with all the scenic shots.
It was a nice change of scenery, from sterile, retro-futuristic Lumon to godforsaken Salt's Neck.
As picturesque as this turned out, it was tough to spend an entire episode with Harmony. I wish Mrs Selvig had made an appearance.
I have so many questions. If Cobel is that kind of a mastermind, why isn’t she higher up in the company? I feel like she must have done something to be degraded to manage MDR. But we get a little bit more insight into the child labour. Ms Huang must be in a similar fellowship. I don’t know if Cobel will be a reliable help to Mark. Was she in charge of having them meet?
why isn't she higher up
So if Cold Harbor really is the greatest project, then she's exactly where she wants to be.
I suspect Helena found a way to get Petey removed so she could sneak in. Then when Cold Harbor is complete she could say she was apart of the team (ignoring that she doesn't view her innie as a person, that's still true, Helly is just a tool used by her.)
So whatever Cold Harbor is, it's still part of Cobel's plan, using her technology. Her work on th project is viewed, by her, as a reward for developing the technology.
If course when they take that away from her...
She was groomed from childhood, they stole her invention and she didn't even want to claim it because she feared retaliation.
I thought that episode was excellent.
I saw a review on IMDB saying it could have been ten minutes, and I can't help wondering whether that person has watched any of the rest of the show until this point. The whole thing has been glacially slow, even if it doesn't really feel that way.
And by reserving an entire episode just for Harmony's back story, they didn't have to interrupt the main timeline.
I have watched all severance episodes, and some many times. This was undeniably the worse episode. The events that took place could easily have been a 10 minute side story from a different episode, but instead they made it an entire episode.
Yes, other episodes have been glacially slow, but in those we gain lots of insight into the universe, or at least we spend time with the characters we care about.
And by reserving an entire episode just for Harmony's back story, they didn't have to interrupt the main timeline.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. They interrupted the timeline by an entire episode, even more if we consider the last episode.
Like others here I still like the feel and aesthetics of the show but the pacing is odd to me.
What made it excellent for you?
Overall, I am fascinated by how they manage to make the pace both slow and suspenseful at the same time. But in this episode, the suspense was completely missing for me, and the revelations felt very on the nose.
I don't really know, but something about it had me gripped.
I'm ADHD as fuck so very rarely watch something without having my phone in my hand. Didn't do that with this episode.
Honestly couldn't care less about kobel, boring episode, boring revelation, im glad it was only 30 minutes but even then i was skipping all the dead space.
That episode should have been reduced to 1-2 scenes.
We're getting an extra episode when compared to last season so I'm not complaining.
They made an interesting creative choice to avoid basically all of their main characters and film a slower paced episode. I don't think that was a good idea. The discovery about Harmony's past was interesting though.
The last few episodes have all been a bit low on content. I really love the vibes so I'm still enjoying the series, but they've been teasing mark reintegrating since episode 3 and it's starting to drag. If season 2 ends without any answers I'll be pissed.
My wife is pissed that we haven’t gotten any further with Mark being reintegrated for awhile. I think the last episode about Gemma was definitely needed and provided amazing backstory. Same with this episode. I just get mad with how they tend to drag certain things out. It’s a beautiful show and I’m sure it will pay off in the end.
Yep, the episode was a whole lot of nothing apart from the last bit.
Strange, a bit filler-y but at least nothing/no one interrupted while Cobel searched and the backstory is now clearer.