We're discussing our theories for severance season two episode eight titled sweet vitriol. And what we're gonna ask the biggest questions like, what's going to be Harmony Cobell's role going forward in all of this here with severance season two? Is there a deeper, darker story between Cobell and James Egan and the Egan family altogether. Should Devin and Mark actually trust her going forward? I'm not sure why they're calling her.
Alfredo:And does the ether give us so much more clarity about what Lumen is actually doing behind the scenes? All that and more on a brand new episode of Unbinged starting now.
Vignesh:Folks, if you're watching the show, please know that we are gonna talk a lot about what happened on this episode and every episode prior, so we will probably spoil the absolute crap out of it. So viewer discretion completely not advised.
Alfredo:Guys, Lumen and Aether, a pairing that goes together like lamb and tuna fish.
Jagger:It's just Cocaine and waffles.
Alfredo:Peanut butter and ladies. Alright. Sorry. We're we're moving on. Lumen and Ether, man.
Alfredo:So, I'm the assumption here is assuming that Cobell is just eight years old, hanging out of her child labor spot, getting high as balls off the ether, and she's just like, you know what? What if we were like this every time we went to work? Is that the same vibe that you guys got here? Vague, what about you?
Vignesh:Yeah, man. I think so. I think, you know, this predates Lumen. Right? Like, Kier met, which Kier means that apparently.
Vignesh:Didn't know that. Googled it, honestly. Kiera met his, probable child bride, Imogene Matt. Could probably manage Yeah. A a a a vat herself with this ether stuff.
Vignesh:So, yeah. I think so. I got more thoughts on ether, but I'll let the other folks share a little bit first.
Jagger:I'm gonna be honest. It felt like to take that a step further, Alfredo, it felt like she created this out of trauma. She's like, this fucking sucks. I'm eight years old. How do I not bring this home?
Jagger:And that's what her mind went to work.
Kopfhamer:Hey. Tough time leads to innovation. So good on Lumen for creating a situation where children are coming up with medical breakthroughs.
Alfredo:Copy the fuck, man. You I you wouldn't be the one to look at this and be like pressure creates diamonds. That's what we're doing.
Kopfhamer:Baby. It's just terrible. No. It's horrible. It's horrible that they're making children, like, work in a, ether factory, like, goddamn.
Kopfhamer:But then also, like, a ten hour shift was normal. Like, I don't I pulled ten hour shifts, and I wanna die. So I can't imagine being an eight year old doing that.
Jagger:I've heard about it, cough.
Vignesh:Yes. I'm either.
Kopfhamer:Yeah. I
Alfredo:mean, what do you say?
Vignesh:Could it have been the opposite perhaps? Obviously, she probably hated the job, but maybe they were all just getting high at their job, so maybe she basically was severed at job the whole time. Like, all these children were basically severed. They came home, and they're, like, oh, I don't remember my work day. Don't know what happened.
Vignesh:Now I'm home. I'm growing taller. Yeah. I don't know. Who knows?
Vignesh:Right? Because I'll just say one thing. I was saying my ethers, obviously, we use diethyl ether or we used a lot more for anesthesia. And I used to think about severed as a cool concept, but I think about it. I've been severed a few times in my life.
Vignesh:Every time I've had surgery for one of my stupid orthopedic injuries, I was, you know, there were some any that probably went through all that. I don't know. So maybe it's like reverse trauma. I don't know. I'm with Jagger though.
Vignesh:I actually think his theory is right, but either way, kinda cool reveal.
Jagger:Don't give don't give Vig a stone fruit. He will bite straight through that motherfucker.
Alfredo:So I I had some thoughts here on the ether. And as as you're going through the town, and not only do you see the factory and but, like, just the saddest town in the world. In real life, it's it's not that sad. It's Newfoundland and Canada, and it's, I believe what was it? Fogo Island is what it was called.
Alfredo:They they were talking about it after the episode. But as you're going through the town, you see a building that says lumen ether. There is a miracle cure for man.
Vignesh:And as yeah. And as while as
Alfredo:I was going back, like, through all of our notes, I'm remembering that we have on, on on Milchik's
Vignesh:bike License.
Alfredo:His his plate, his license plate, it says Remedium hominis, which is cure for man. So this has been the theme with cure and with Lumen forever and ever is curing them from something curing man from something. And so this started to lead me down this rabbit hole. What are they curing man from? Is it pain?
Alfredo:Is it the five tempers? Could it even be free will? Is it that you can kind of lose your inhibitions and not be worried about what they are? Is that what severance really is? Also, just wanna say diethyl ether, Dieter, anyone?
Alfredo:Dude, I I don't know.
Jagger:That you dropped in the group chat. Like, I did not know.
Alfredo:Was Kier just getting high and just jacking it? And that's and he was like, this seems like a great idea. He's like, this this Kobel chick, she's got the right idea.
Jagger:I mean, he broke one of the top rules of Biggie Smalls crack commandments. Don't get high on your own supply. Like, you you know how he was getting ripped and then just, like, busted knuckle babies. And he's like, my brother did it. You know?
Jagger:Like, you know, he just looks at a bot or an ether, and he's like, you know, Deeter's coming out tonight. Yeah.
Vignesh:Can we just can we just
Alfredo:imagine this right here? He's got Biggie playing in the background. Mags of ether just huffing it. In the other hand, he's just going to town.
Kopfhamer:Yeah. It's a deeter night tonight, baby. Oh.
Jagger:I know we try to do a moratorium of talking about, like, male genitalia, but they gave us a whole episode dedicated to it and a whole Bible about it. So, like, obviously, the patriarchy and whatever that symbolizes is relevant.
Vignesh:So maybe maybe a few other thoughts here perhaps since we're talking about this. Was this man getting high at whatever ether factory realizing that he, like, maybe he was bipolar, maybe he just created another character, his Dieter, and he named it that because it was the diethyl ether version of him. And that person was kinda cool. Right? He was having fun.
Vignesh:He was enjoying himself. He was having orgasms. He was, like, he was frolic. Where that's kind of weird.
Alfredo:Like the person that's an alcoholic that's like, I didn't have a problem with me. Everyone else had a problem with me.
Vignesh:I loved myself, and I was drinking.
Jagger:And so maybe
Vignesh:I don't know. Maybe he realizes that the cure is I don't know. Maybe the cure he tamed his tempers and tamed them all. Did he tame them by just ethering himself into the frolic guy?
Alfredo:Well, maybe it's the idea that while you're under the the literally under the ether, you let all of that out so that when you are out of it, you you you have tamed everything. You don't have and so that I think that leads us to severance and why they're doing it in the in the first place. So
Jagger:Releasing those inhibitions and letting the rain on your skin. So
Alfredo:Yeah. I like it. Well, guys, we're gonna keep talking about this a little bit more. But first, I just wanna remind everybody, you got a bunch of ways that you can enjoy this show, Unbinged. First, it's gonna be right here on YouTube.
Alfredo:So if you're watching this video, please take a second to like this video. Comment down below with your theories on this episode, your theories in the show overall, what you think about what we're talking about already. We're also gonna be talking about a few other shows. White Lotus season three, Daredevil born again, invincible season three. We've got a whole bunch of stuff that we are talking about.
Alfredo:We're also on podcast as well, Apple and Spotify. So if you're listening there, take a moment. Leave us a five star review and make sure you subscribe to the channel there. Now, guys, I will say this. Salt's Neck, the city, if there was ever an actual Cold Harbor, that seems like it is it.
Alfredo:So my question is this, and you guys might just throw this away. It's like just being like, ah, you're reading too much into it. Could this be the actual code name for what happens when you need to end or kill something? Because it would make sense that they would call it Cold Harbor instead of the actual name Salt's Neck because all these other rooms over at Lumen are based on real cities. Whereas this, I think, just it it seems like they're trying to hide this past.
Alfredo:It's it's something that they're keeping hidden, but it's it's kind of the looking back to our experience experiments, excuse me, where we messed up and learning from our mistakes, but let's hide this under a different code name. Jag, you you you seem to agree with that.
Jagger:Yeah. A % that you're not you're gonna name it after other places where a lot of things are happening. Or, one was named after Loveland, Colorado, right, like, right next to me and then Wellington. So I don't know. But you're not gonna name it right where your dirty laundry is.
Jagger:It's like like, you you're gonna name a project. Here's where I wipe my boogers under my desk. Like, no. That's embarrassing.
Kopfhamer:That that's where your shame is. So, like, obviously, there's not gonna be
Jagger:a room called salt Salt's Neck. But just looking at a shitty cold harbor,
Kopfhamer:you know, that that I think that works. I don't know if it's intent well, I don't know if it's coincidence or just unintentional, but there is symmetry there. I'm just not sure if it it really means anything deeper. But it I don't know. The the way you describe it I'm afraid.
Kopfhamer:I'm more on your side. I just didn't put much thought into it, to be honest.
Vignesh:Well, I didn't think about it until Alfredo said it, but Right. The person who was running and leading the severed floor was Harmony Cobell. Right? She was a leader of the floor. Testing floor.
Vignesh:I'm gonna count that as, like, severed and below, so part of that. And if she's the one naming these rooms for whatever reason, there's, like, a random Indian city called Lucknow that's there too. But, like, if she's naming them, maybe, yeah, maybe she doesn't wanna call it Salt's Neck. But also, who knows? I mean, it looks like they live in a frozen town.
Vignesh:Yeah. It could have been the cold, Cold Harbor could have been that frozen like, when they had that Orpbo episode, that frozen lake or whatever they were on could have been a cold harbor. Who knows? But, no, I like it. I mean, the the show writers, have been very and show runners and writers rather have been very meticulous about how they've crafted everything.
Vignesh:So maybe maybe that's I don't know, man. You might be on to something.
Alfredo:Thought thought here. At first, I was thinking that maybe the Ort Bow was not actually an Ort Bow. It was in some sort of a simulated Outdoors. Outdoors. But what if it was back at Salt's Neck and they still have something in that area?
Alfredo:Because one of the things that the the showrunners were talking about is that Lumen and Severance has been all about basements and what's hidden through these levels. Right? Like, what if there still is a whole bunch of underground stuff over there where they do have surveillance on that city? Because, I mean, they had roots in Salt's Neck for a long time. What if that's actually where the Orpah was?
Alfredo:They're like, no one goes out here. We can use this. Let's take them out here to this area. I think that's very possible. I might be
Vignesh:reaching, but
Kopfhamer:I think it's possible. The only sorry. I was just the only thing that would make me hesitate to agree with that is the fact that it's over 200 miles away from Lumen headquarters. So they only had a weekend to get them to and from somewhere that's 200 miles away. A three hour drive, dog?
Kopfhamer:More than is it there? Total total
Alfredo:Yeah. Let's do the math. You're driving 70 miles per hour.
Jagger:It's not egregious. I'm not gonna do that math because that shit's working, and I gave that up. That's why I podcast for money. But,
Alfredo:Math is silly.
Jagger:Exactly. To kinda piggyback and reinforce your theory, Alfredo, I really love this episode compared to others because I've again, I just related to Cobell, but I also just related to the town. Whether you're in some, like, shitty, you know, Northeast or Pacific Northwest, wherever this is at, or Midwest, This is what companies do, man. And I really love what the what the main writer and creator said of this show. These companies come in, and they will boss Hawk from Dukes of Hazard your resources.
Jagger:And a lot of times now, it's not so much your natural resources. It's the people. They'll come in to a place with very low income, with very shitty economies, and, like, here's all these jobs. And then they become the economy. And then then your whole town is in on it.
Jagger:And another thing on top of that, it's twofold because another thing like, I'm from a town like this. The churches do the exact same thing. A lot of these megachurches, yeah, they'll be in some major cities, but their real money are all the satellite spots that are on these little bump fuck Middle America places. And Lumen became both church and economy. So it's it's it's pretty alarming.
Vignesh:No, man. I love that. I I I was just so much attention to detail throughout this episode. We'll get into this a little bit later too, but you can really see what Lumen's done. Right?
Vignesh:Like, I didn't realize at first what that first kind of bus was doing when Harmony was out littering after she was brushing her teeth with the bottle, but, like, he was literally getting high too. He was really littering. Literally. Literally. That's what she yeah.
Vignesh:You know? So they truly, like, have wrecked this town. I live in the Rust Belt, and that's what this was. I'm writing my notes as I'm watching this. I'm, like, man, Lumen really, like, Rust Belt took the crap out of this place.
Vignesh:Mhmm. I mean, it more ghost town than anything. I don't know how people are living. Clearly, our our lady, Sissy, we haven't talked about her much. I mean, she's living in this the eighteen hundreds like the way Kiheiara did.
Vignesh:Right? Like, there's, like, no electricity. She's got oil lamps for everything. The wooden stove. Like, I mean Yeah.
Alfredo:That's Well, she's the town pariah because she's really
Vignesh:the living by the night.
Alfredo:Still, quote, live by the night. You know? Human
Kopfhamer:in yeah.
Vignesh:Little human in She's got
Jagger:this house is pure.
Alfredo:Yeah. Except for the Hobbit hole that she has out in the side.
Kopfhamer:Oh, yeah. Like, literal literal, like, skeletons in your basement.
Alfredo:Uh-huh.
Vignesh:So Did anyone else think there was gonna be
Jagger:a literal skeleton?
Kopfhamer:Killed throughout her time in Lumen.
Jagger:Yes. Yeah. How many kids died under her care? Go ahead. Cough.
Jagger:Sorry.
Kopfhamer:I was just gonna say, how many kids do you think died under her care either from, like, ether overdoses or just neglect? Because I'm thinking dozens.
Jagger:My thing is direct or indirect. Obviously, she worked for Lumen. Indirectly, she's implicated for a lot, probably. Right. But, like like, directly, probably just the trauma of Harmony Cobell and her boyfriend brother.
Kopfhamer:I don't know.
Vignesh:Oh, boyfriend brother? It was weird.
Alfredo:It was one of the things questions.
Vignesh:Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.
Kopfhamer:Former child soldiers, basically, is what it that's basically the relationship. Together. Yeah.
Alfredo:Well, so, like, that led me to ask more as I was watching this episode. I think we kind of get a little bit of solace that he may not be related to her, but Hampton. And, like, I was sitting there thinking, okay. Is this a brother?
Kopfhamer:To not.
Vignesh:No. Is it a lover?
Alfredo:And he says colleague, and it's like, you know, colleague and then it seems like former lover or someone at least of interest through so long. I don't know, man. There's still some weird feelings through this show that, like, could Mark be a descendant of the Egan's is honestly, is Harmony Cobell a descendant of the Egan's? This led me to more things, especially when she goes down into that little Hobbit hole, the basement starts going through all of her old stuff and seeing the yearbooks and seeing her pictures with Jame Egan where he's a lot younger, and she's sort of coming up through her adolescence. And nothing there nothing that has happened in this show tells me that it would be above Jame Egan to have some sort of a child bride like relationship with her.
Alfredo:He's probably very attracted to her intelligence, her loyalty, and she really didn't have anyone in her life. So that I think that there's a weird sort of, I'm gonna say it, predator type attitude with the Eegans, especially the men. If we're gonna talk about how Keir Egan, you know, quote, meets Imogen at the factory, There's a lot going on there, man. Did he meet her as a child? Did he drugger with ether?
Alfredo:He talks all about how the employer employee relationship is even better than that of Romeo and Juliet and that Shakespeare himself likely enjoyed his publishers more than the love between Romeo and Juliet. Like, there's some very weird stuff here that I think could get dark. I don't, and I hope that the show doesn't go there, but I think it might be implied.
Vignesh:To be
Jagger:honest, the predator thing, the only the only side of predator that we haven't had at this point is sexual. So, like like, to me, that's just like the last infinity stone. So, like We saw that.
Kopfhamer:We saw it with Helena. No. That's Helena though. Straight up Helena. You're right.
Kopfhamer:Did that with mine. She did. So we have evidence that the vegans are fuckboys.
Jagger:And that was at least weaponized. So, like Mhmm. Yeah. Look like, to me, if they're if they're willing to go solo to weaponize sex like that, then what is to say they won't, you know, frolic or whatever? Like, give in to just being a fucking gross man in power.
Jagger:Like, to me, that that's just right there. So the Cabell thing, I really I really buy into it because it kinda sounds like the Egan. He's like, hey. This is a nice shithole to make my poison in. And then he's like, oh, wow.
Jagger:This is a nice girl to fuck. And that let's I kinda got those vibes that he was, like, fucking her aunt maybe or trying to. Because, like, may like, maybe it's the whole attraction. It's like, man, auntie, you don't think I'm God? That's why I love you.
Jagger:You know? Or, or excuse me, her mom because I don't know. It's just it seems a little bit weird.
Vignesh:It could be. I I don't know if they're going down there. I mean, it's certainly we have precedent for this. Right? Like, cult, we know these, like, single male leader of a cult with this harem of followers that, you know, he sleeps on.
Jagger:Everyone ever There's
Vignesh:certainly possibility. I don't know how that builds or advances the story as much, because I think we have plenty. And we're gonna talk about it later, I'm sure. But, like, I think we already have plenty of motivation to try and figure out what Harmony Cobell is gonna do moving forward. I don't know that they need this angle.
Vignesh:It certainly could be there. Lots of weirdness has been implied. I don't know if y'all remember the bingo cards when they go through, like, the perpetuity wing and, like, one of those things, like, unexplained to death and all these little things written on the bingo. Like, we know there's weirdness about I don't know if we need this level of weirdness too, but it could be there, man. There were so many details in the I mean, I'm out here taking I sent you all a bunch of screenshots.
Vignesh:Right? Screenshots of, like, what they have in the room, what they have in the mother's room, what they have in the little Hobbit hole, like, the, you know, the stuff they've written under her valedictorian stuff or the winter tide fellowship and all that sort of thing. So it's it's a lot. I just think this might be a step too far that the writers might not go. But the president is there.
Vignesh:I think it would totally fit in with the world view of the Lumen key and Egan's as a corporate structure entity, but also as this, like, mythological cult.
Alfredo:So let me just
Kopfhamer:say And even Look.
Jagger:Let's say it's like I
Kopfhamer:just wanna say it's Yeah. It's subtext. It doesn't have to be overt, and I think that's on purpose. They're keeping it as subtext because you're right. Colts this is a through line with cults in real life that the male leader, like Vic said, sleeps with all the young women, and it's gross.
Kopfhamer:But I think what really, what we're focusing on is the wrong thing because that is the subtext. The overt thing that he raped her of was her invention. Knowledge. Took the credit
Vignesh:Mhmm.
Kopfhamer:Of her work and pass it off as his own. He pulled a Edison. He pulled an Elon where he's the one taking credit even though he didn't do any of the work. So his name may be on the building, but the work was from one of his underlings who he completely threw under the bus. And then we saw even his daughter, Helena, threw Cobell away at the beginning of the season.
Kopfhamer:And now it makes so much more sense why Cobell would be so focused on Cold Harbor, so focused on finishing her project that she had that, like, I'm the most important person. You have to bring me back. Like, to me, I was like, she is just egotistical to the nines. But now it's like, no. She straight up invented this entire procedure from a to z by herself.
Kopfhamer:So, yeah, she rightfully has that anger.
Vignesh:Dude, super super agree, Matt. I was gonna say the same thing because, yeah, I think this recontextualizes so much of Harmony Cobell in season one.
Alfredo:Yes. I feel
Vignesh:like I need to go back and watch it. Like, I remember her arguing with the board about, like, reintegration not being possible and, like, all these people arguing with her about stuff. And she's like, what do you know, brah?
Kopfhamer:Her getting PD's chip makes so much more sense now. Like, at these shows, why would she be the one? Yeah. But, like, now it makes so much more sense that she's the one to do it.
Jagger:And and, like like, you and I know you already kinda said this, but it was right at the first episode kind of where she's like, I should be running the severance floor. Like, I know it. Right. And, like, and the way she kinda said the quiet thing out loud, you know, or or or gave the subtext, it's kinda like in church when you're not allowed to say certain things, but you learn how to say certain things. She you know, she's like, she wouldn't say, like, I you know, I invented this gangster shit, and this is the motherfucking thanks that I get, you know, to quote Ice Cube.
Jagger:You can't say that because they'll they'll they'll kick you off the island. But you could definitely yeah. You could definitely imply. And it just shows just how more dangerous it is. And I don't know if you guys felt this, but this is really a show of just how everyone are just kind of ants Mhmm.
Jagger:In in a in a jar being shook up by the Egan's. Everyone are just kinda victims. Whereas, like, season one, you hated Cobell. Here, you could still she's still a villain or an antagonist, whatever you wanna label it, but she's just a victim like Mark as any as anyone else. You know?
Vignesh:Mhmm.
Alfredo:Jack, I think that imagery goes even further, and I was thinking this in the last episode when Mark accidentally brings Gemma ants instead of plants.
Vignesh:Plants.
Alfredo:And all I was thinking was, like, you know, the ant tunnels were is so reminiscent of now the hallways in Lumen where Gemma is, like, trapped. And everywhere she goes, it lights up, and it's it's it's so reminiscent of that. And so your your your your thought of them just being ants in the jar. Absolutely. That's that's what we're seeing there with Lumen.
Jagger:And now you know, like, probably every one of them have been plucked out of little shitholes. And it's like, you wanna see you wanna meet God? And, like, well, yeah. I'm poor.
Kopfhamer:You know?
Alfredo:And by the way, did you guys notice in the yearbook for or or excuse me, the reminiscence?
Kopfhamer:Annual reminiscences. Yeah.
Vignesh:Yeah.
Alfredo:Reminiscences. Reminiscences. Yeah. That looking back at it and the soccer team, which by the way, the fighting kids, which is a goat, not actual children fighting, it's like
Kopfhamer:Could be both. Goats. Could be they
Vignesh:they didn't see
Kopfhamer:the mascot. We didn't see the mascot, so it could be a little chill shirt.
Vignesh:I think it's hockey. I love hockey, though. But
Kopfhamer:show child,
Vignesh:are we? Because she's a she's a captain of the field hockey team in addition to being the president of the Go Husbandry Club. So I think it was field hockey, but yeah. Sorry. Carry on, Alfredo.
Vignesh:Sure. But whichever. But one
Alfredo:of the one of the schools that I mean, you see them that they went up against. Kier, you see all the different cities, not names of schools, but because it is all the same, school for girls, but it's all the different cities in which they have their their facilities at. And one of them was Gans,
Vignesh:I believe. Right? That was what
Alfredo:it what it was. And Gans College is where Mark and Gemma were both teaching. So I don't think it's something where they where they were employed at a Lumen based facility, but Lumen already had roots there. And I think that's it's just connecting more dots for us, and it's just we're going Pepe Silvio and just keep attaching the strings all over the board, and we're we're getting there.
Jagger:And this is why and granted, you guys came in a lot easier than I thought you were. A lot of people complained, well, this is a weak episode. We got answers, guys.
Kopfhamer:Yeah. Are
Jagger:we at yes. Are we at the point of society where all we want is to be edged? It's just like we finally know, like, like, we we finally know that all of them are basically child laborers that have been brainwashed since they were at, let's say, the bare minimum six years old. About eight, Harmony Cobell was huffing fucking ether in a factory. So let's just say push that number to six.
Jagger:We know now that it wasn't created. It was probably created twenty years ago, but we don't know that that it was created by, Jane or Kier or whatever. How long this was gonna be developed. We have so many answers and everyone just like, well, it was just all about Cobell. And I'm like, well, Cobell's gonna come in like the fucking wolf for Quentin Tarantino and fix shit.
Jagger:We need that context. Like like, this was so necessary to have all this. So I don't get why this still isn't a 10 just because it isn't exactly what we need. You know?
Alfredo:Jack, I had the same conversation with someone that was I'm worried that season two is not gonna give us the answers. And I'm like, bitch, you don't want the answers. You get the answers, it's done. It's done. Yeah.
Alfredo:Over.
Vignesh:What you
Alfredo:want is you want the carrot on the stick. You wanna keep being teased. You wanna keep having mystery. You want rich storytelling, and that's what they're doing for us. They're now expanding the world beyond the walls of Lumen, beyond the city of Kyre, beyond the characters of Mark and Gemma.
Alfredo:And we I I love that. I'm still very much in on this show, and I I want more. I want more of what Cobell is doing, and I'm very curious as to how they're gonna tie this back in. So, guys, I wanna ask you, Vig, I wanna ask you. What is the next step that we see from Harmony Cobell here?
Alfredo:How what's gonna be her role going forward? Could she actually just go all in against Lumen and help Mark, Devon, Regavi, all of them?
Vignesh:I don't know. I don't actually know that she's gonna officially pick one side or another. And I'm not trying to say she's gonna play both sides against the middle. But I think that to take your season one primary villain antagonist, whatever you wanna call it, and give them this rich backstory with incredible world building to the point where you'd now have to talk about this. Like, is she gonna side with Mark and help him reintegrate to get Gemma back?
Vignesh:Maybe not. She did all of this in the first place.
Alfredo:Or because She's their Anakin. She's Lumen's Anakin. Could be could be. Yeah.
Vignesh:Could be. Could be. Could she be the could she be the Lumen's Anakin and, like, bring them down because of her own ego? Possible. But this is also her life's work, and it is hard to fight the brainwashing that you have.
Vignesh:And we know, like, I mean, she had a Right. She she would, like, she had this thing with the nines that she would, like, pray to. She had a whole shrine. Obviously, she tore it down, but like, that sort of stuff is hard to come away from. She might go back.
Vignesh:So I think a new central tension for Cobell is, what do I do? Do I actually help Mark get his wife back? Am I gonna repent or not? And I don't know that maybe she does a little bit of both. I don't know.
Vignesh:But the fact that we're able to do this, I agree with Jagger. I agree with Alfredo. There are ways in which this was the weakest episode for me. It's still a nine and a half. The weakness and maybe, Cough said he wants to talk a little bit about some criticisms.
Vignesh:I think there's different stuff they could have done. But this is still an outstanding episode. I think they did a wonderful job talking about all this stuff. And I'm don't know what Cobell is gonna do. But the only thing I will say, I wanna ask a question for y'all really first is, where do we think Mark is in all of this too?
Vignesh:Because I actually think maybe she could Devon calls so many times, because I think her and Mark are, like, talking more. And maybe in the next few episodes, we'll see what happens. But I think that Mark is actually gonna this was Devon's idea. Right? Devon said, I have another idea.
Vignesh:I think that's what this was, and I think Mark's on board now.
Jagger:It's life I just don't know which
Kopfhamer:way to go. On the couch. Mark's still, like, basically out of it on this couch.
Vignesh:We don't know that. Think about the number of times she called. There were three phone calls. Yeah. Three phone calls across Right.
Vignesh:A whole day's work.
Kopfhamer:But still, she maybe He just had, like, a traumatic brain. Like, he just had a traumatic brain episode and passed out and hit his head. So I think it's safe to assume he's still very out of it at this point. He's recovering. Yeah.
Kopfhamer:Yeah. He's still recovering.
Vignesh:Well, we'll
Alfredo:find out.
Vignesh:We'll find out. But why would he willingly talk to her? And why would femininity cost him?
Jagger:He he Ragabe left.
Kopfhamer:The sister handed the phone to him was like, just talk, and he didn't know what
Vignesh:it was.
Kopfhamer:We'll find out. She goes say everything. Yeah. Exactly.
Jagger:It's like I don't think we need a galaxy brain it. Like, Regavi is the only one who knew anything about this. So now Cobell is the only other one that he knows outside of Lumen about what he is doing. It is literally, like, the his only option at this point. Because, like, to to me what's clear is that they're going to help each other.
Jagger:It is opportunity and it is motive. Like, Cobell has both right now, opportunity and motive. Like, Mark, he like, opportunity like, it's not even a a a question now. He's about to fucking die in the middle of his living room. He's gotta call something at this point.
Jagger:So and and and to kinda push back on what you said about, you were completely right about breaking free, especially from cults. And there's it's probably still gonna be hard for her for her. But it's actually seeing the impact of what Lumen has done after being removed from her community so long. We see how much her relationship with her mother mattered. If her mother was willing to pull out her fucking tube to die, then live in that house within that cult, that kinda just says it all, you know.
Kopfhamer:Maybe I'm not sorry.
Vignesh:This is the last thing I'll say about this, but I think that might be too easy. These folks are such incredible writers that I think they're gonna prolong this tension in conflict. Oh, it's
Alfredo:definitely gonna be cool.
Vignesh:They're gonna I think she has to she we have to see her be of two minds and to struggle with the decisions and thought she's making. Yes. I suspect she's probably gonna help our guys out a little bit and help out Mark and maybe Gemma. But also, I mean, this is her life's work. It I don't think it's that easy.
Vignesh:She's a three mind. She's got her life's work. She's got Lumen, and she's got Mark. And I think this is gonna be it's it leads to, like, really captivating potential for what they could do. Sorry, Koff.
Kopfhamer:We what you're what you're forgetting, though, is they already showed us an example of a diehard Luminite with any Irving literally going to the other side. Like, let's burn this motherfucker down. And that's where Cobell's at. She is that rage inside of her that she wants Lumen to pay. She wants Jane Egan to pay.
Kopfhamer:And you're right. The central tension is, will she be able to go through with that, or will she succumb to the brainwashing, to the propaganda, to the, hey. We need you on our side because you are important. So I think that's gonna be be right. The the finale, I think, we're gonna get presented with that Cobell's choice, if you will.
Kopfhamer:But until then, she's pissed, and she wants retribution.
Alfredo:We're we're likely going to have that struggle. Yep. We're we're likely going to have that internal struggle with Cobell for quite a while. I think they would be, doing a great disservice to the character for her to just make this switch so fast. But I will say this is that we have seen her that when she is emotionally scarred particularly by Lumen and the Eegans, she will make rash decisions.
Alfredo:And right now, she is very, very angry, thus the name of the episode, sweet vitriol. Now, Koff, I know you had some some yeah. Go, Vic.
Vignesh:No. I was gonna say Koff. Koff and I kinda talked about this. I knew about this because I'm an absolute history of medicine nerd. But tell us more, Koff.
Vignesh:Sweet vitriol, what did you learn?
Kopfhamer:Sweet vitriol also means ether, not just the emotion of vitriol. So hooray. Yeah.
Vignesh:Sweet oil of vitriol is another day for ether.
Alfredo:Nothing ever just has one meaning in this show.
Vignesh:Nothing. Exactly.
Kopfhamer:Everything everything's a double and triple triple entendre.
Alfredo:The good old triple entendre.
Vignesh:Well, boys, this was a good one.
Alfredo:I think that, this was it listen. It may have just been a world building episode for Severance, for Lumen, for Harmony Cobell, but this was a good one that gave us answers, connected the dots, and honestly, I had a lot of fun talking through these theories with you guys. If you've been watching or listening, please drop your questions in the comments down below, your theories that you have. Tell us what you think about what we've talked about so far. And like I mentioned, we're gonna be back again discussing severance next week, the White Lotus season three, daredevil born again, invincible season three.
Alfredo:We've got four shows going on right now. We're also available on Apple and Spotify. So, please, before you you step away from this video, take a second, give us a like, comment down below, and make sure you are subscribed to Unbinge. As always, I wanna thank you guys for watching and listening all the way through. For myself, for Vig, for Jagger, for Koff, we love you.
Alfredo:We thank you. We'll see you next time. Adios.
