The cast and creatives behind Severance sit down to unpack the eighth episode of Season 2 "Sweet Vitriol" for Inside the Episode. In this edition, they begin to uncover the inner workings of Ms. Cobel through Lumon's influence on her hometown.
In Severance, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself.
In season two, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.
Season 2 reunites its ensemble cast of stars including Emmy Award nominee Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Michael Chernus, Dichen Lachman, Emmy Award winner John Turturro, Academy Award winner Christopher Walken and Academy and Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette, and welcomes new series regular Sarah Bock.
Severance is executive produced by Ben Stiller, who also directs five episodes this season in addition to directors Uta Briesewitz, Sam Donovan and Jessica Lee Gagné. The series is written, created and executive produced by Dan Erickson. Severance season two is also executive produced by John Lesher, Jackie Cohn, Mark Friedman, Beau Willimon, Jordan Tappis, Sam Donovan, Caroline Baron, Richard Schwartz, Nicholas Weinstock. In addition to starring, Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette serve as executive producers. Fifth Season is the studio.
In Severance, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself.
In season two, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.
Season 2 reunites its ensemble cast of stars including Emmy Award nominee Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Michael Chernus, Dichen Lachman, Emmy Award winner John Turturro, Academy Award winner Christopher Walken and Academy and Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette, and welcomes new series regular Sarah Bock.
Severance is executive produced by Ben Stiller, who also directs five episodes this season in addition to directors Uta Briesewitz, Sam Donovan and Jessica Lee Gagné. The series is written, created and executive produced by Dan Erickson. Severance season two is also executive produced by John Lesher, Jackie Cohn, Mark Friedman, Beau Willimon, Jordan Tappis, Sam Donovan, Caroline Baron, Richard Schwartz, Nicholas Weinstock. In addition to starring, Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette serve as executive producers. Fifth Season is the studio.
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TVTranscript
00:00I need you to drive me to Cissus.
00:03No thanks.
00:05I need to get something.
00:10So this is the episode where Harmony Cobell goes home.
00:14This is where she got her start.
00:17Lumen pulled a lot of natural resources from this place,
00:20one of those being the people.
00:23I think Cobell is one of several promising people
00:26who were sort of co-opted and taken away from this town,
00:29and it was left gutted.
00:31And so she is for the first time going back
00:34and seeing what their effect is on the real world
00:37and what they leave in their wake.
00:39The town is older than I remembered.
00:42Frailer.
00:44That was really interesting to get to explore
00:46a whole different world with that
00:48and learn about Cobell as a human being
00:50and what the source of her pain is.
00:54We get to see some of where Cobell has come from
00:57and this very strict structure that she came up in
01:01and what happens to people who rebel in this lumen culture.
01:05You are not welcome here.
01:08How do you find sympathy for a character like Harmony Cobell?
01:11For something like that, you have to go back to when she was a child
01:15and ask the question, who hurt her?
01:17You know, who brought her into this?
01:19So we knew that Sissy was going to have to be
01:22this seemingly irredeemably lumen person,
01:25and Jane Alexander fits so perfectly into that world
01:29and she just immediately got the character.
01:32Such a disappointment you've proven to be.
01:36Patricia is such a brilliant actor.
01:38She is fearless, she'll take chances.
01:41She's playing such a cold, mysterious character in the show,
01:44and to see her in a totally different environment when she goes home
01:48and her not being in charge
01:50and how she's being treated like the little girl that she was by her aunt,
01:54you see that vulnerability and you see where the toughness
01:57and the hard exterior comes from.
02:00There's aspects of Harmony that people are not really aware of
02:05and part of that is her sentimental past.
02:08I think when you have ideology blending with religion or structure,
02:13sometimes you really like that as a kid that grew up in chaos,
02:17and yet you may have complicated feelings
02:19because within all of that chaos there still may be love.
02:23And I don't think that's really something Harmony wants to look at.
02:30We were tasked with finding a coastal town where Cobell grew up
02:35and Jess, our cinematographer, brought up Newfoundland.
02:39Jess had done a film years ago in Fogo Island
02:42and she's like, we've got to go see Fogo Island,
02:44and Ben and her and I did.
02:45We went up with Ryan and everyone just loved it.
02:47There was a lot of crazy changing weather, lots of wind,
02:51but I thought it was nice to work with a different environment.
02:55It was really incredible filming that, just the landscape itself.
03:00It was just so cinematic.
03:02We were at this place in the world that was so hostile of an environment
03:06and it was interesting that Harmony had grown up there.
03:09It was so cold and icebergs are floating by.
03:12I felt like it was very much in keeping with Harmony's inner landscape.
03:18Basements are always a big thing on this show.
03:21There's always this sense of what is hidden underneath the floorboards
03:25and what are we keeping tamped down.
03:28And for Cobell, I think that's a big part of it,
03:30is realizing that she's been used by the Egans
03:33and that she hasn't been given her proper due.
03:36My designs!
03:38Circuit blueprint, base code, overtime contingency, Glasgow block, all of it!
03:44And so that combined with the pain that she's seeing
03:47that they've caused to her hometown and to the people that she used to love,
03:52these are things that are slowly turning her.
03:54I'll see you around.
03:58But we're still not sure what exactly she's planning to do.
04:02So listen, Mark has been reintegrating.
04:04Tell me everything.