Spoilers for Episode 2 of Severance Season 2 are ahead! If you aren’t caught up, you can stream the series with an Apple TV+ subscription and catch new episodes every Friday.
Ms. Cobel is an enigma. I can’t figure her motivations out for the life of me, and Episode 2 of Severance Season 2 only made me more confused. So, because her situations with Lumon and Mark were in flux at the end of Severance Season 1, I’ve been wondering what her next move would be, and being confronted by Adam Scott's character and almost running him over was not one of my guesses. However, that’s what happened, and hearing Patricia Arquette’s explanation about her character’s mindset at that moment has made me see her in a new light.
At the end of Episode 2, Mark drives home from Lumon and sees Ms. Cobel leaving her house. He immediately confronts her, asking who she really is and noting that he really used to trust her. Then, Patricia Arquette’s character tells Adam Scott’s outtie that he’s “so easy to sway,” as she realizes he decided to stay at the mysterious corporation they both have a history with. That’s when Mark runs in front of her car and starts rattling off aggressive questions to try and figure out what's going on.
When she doesn’t answer any of those questions, Mark asks if she knows something about Gemma. In response, Ms. Cobel, breathes, screams, honks her horn and starts driving away. It’s a deeply unsettling and ambiguous reaction. So, when I interviewed Arquette about her fantastic Apple TV+ show, I asked what was going through her character’s mind when this happened. In response, she said:
I think she's in conflict in that scene, because she's so angry at Lumon and she wants to reveal to him certain things. And I think she's also frustrated that she won't be able to continue having such a close connection to him and see how he's doing. But she's not all the way given up on winning back her position. Somewhere inside she's still still is loyal to Lumon in that moment.
I’ve always been very perplexed by Cobel’s relationship with Mark and Lumon. However, for the most part, I’ve assumed she’d stay loyal to the company, despite what they did to her. However, Arquette confirmed here that she does want to tell Adam Scott’s character what’s going on, and it seems like she cares for their connection, which I had never fully considered before.
That mixed with the meeting Cobel had with Helena at the start of the episode really sets up a juicy storyline for this character as she revaluates where her allegiances lie.
Speaking of that scene with Helena, in it, Britt Lower’s character thanks Arquette’s for her work and loyalty and asks if she wants to come back to work. Cobel responds by saying she wants an apology and to run the severed floor. They reach an impasse on this point, and along with saying she’ll think about Lumon’s offer, Cobel states:
You don’t value me. You fear me.
So, between this scene and her interaction with Mark, it’s clear that Cobel is trying to figure out her next move, and it’s so fascinating to have it confirmed that she’s not quite sure what the right move is.
I’ve always seen Cobel as a staunch and determined person, and I’ve always assumed she had a plan. However, her reaction to Mark and Arquette’s explanation about how torn her character is proves that that’s not the case. So, yeah, I’m seeing Ms. Cobel in a totally new light now.
I can’t wait to see how that understanding of her changes too as Severance continues to air on the 2025 TV schedule. If there’s one thing I know about this show, it’s that we all need to prepare for the most unexpected possibilities.
