Severance Season 2’s Worst Episode Echoes The Most Infamous Lost Story Ever

Praise Kier … or else. This article contains major spoilers for the latest episode of “Severance.”

How things can change in the span of a single week, eh? To this point, “Severance” has been nothing short of a revelation throughout its second season as the mystery festering at the heart of Lumon Industries has only deepened further and further. The romance between Mark S. (Adam Scott) and Helly R. (Britt Lower) is progressing at a rapid pace, we’re inching ever closer to figuring out what “Cold Harbor” is and what these corporate overlords intend to do with Gemma (Dichen Lachman), and, of course, there’s that whole question mark surrounding those pesky goats. What more could we ask for from a series that appears to be reaching new heights on a near-weekly basis and advancing the story in several unexpected directions? This week’s attempt comes in the form of an episode meant to resolve questions that, frankly, never needed to be resolved to begin with. In fact, the situation can’t help but feel a little reminiscent of what’s commonly considered one of the all-time worst episodes of “Lost.”

I know what you’re thinking: Literally just a week ago, we were lavishing praise upon “Severance” for taking a page directly out of the “Lost” playbook, and we stand by that. But if there were ever a show that exemplified all the highest highs and the lowest lows, well, “Lost” might as well be the poster child. We’re willing to extend a mulligan to what’s undoubtedly one of the most compelling sci-fi shows currently streaming and chalk this latest hour up to a minor misstep. Titled “Sweet Vitriol,” episode 8 is yet another one-off episode, largely eschewing the typical “Severance” structure by following the exploits of Patricia Arquette’s Harmony Cobel. Exiled from Lumon and unable (or unwilling) to return to the Lumon fold, the former floor manager embarks on a journey into her past as an acolyte of Kier Eagan … and, shockingly, the progenitor of all the severance protocols that the Eagans seemed to co-opt and take credit for.

That’s all well and good, but did we really need an entire episode filling in these gaps? Was anyone out there overwhelmingly concerned about Cobel’s backstory? Or was this all as pointless as that “Lost” episode explaining the origins of Jack’s tattoos? 

For a show that takes as many big swings as “Severance,” something like this was bound to happen eventually. If we had to choose between a production that plays things safe and stays relatively consistent vs one that dares to go there, even if it means whiffing every now and then, we’ll gladly take the latter any day of the week. It’s just a shame, then, that this latest episode ends up drawing comparisons to arguably the worst “Lost” episode of them all — not necessarily in terms of reaching the exact same lows, but certainly regarding the same misguided priorities that led us here.

So why this episode of “Lost,” in particular? “Stranger in a Strange Land” aired roughly halfway through season 3 and, in as obvious an attempt at scraping the bottom of the barrel as you’ll ever see, decided to focus on explaining one of the most meaningless lore details fans could possibly have cared about: Jacks upper-arm tattoos. Never mind that these were included as a character detail simply because they happened to be actor Matthew Fox’s actual tattoos and it didn’t make much sense to take the time to cover them up for every single episode. At that point in the series, the writers had established the use of flashbacks as a clever narrative tool to comment on our protagonists’ backstories and echo those themes in the present on the mysterious island. In this case, however, those well-intentioned goals backfired in a serious way and gave us an hour steeped in Orientalism, wheel-spinning, and just plain lackluster writing.

The equivalent in “Severance” would easily have to be a whole episode devoted to Harmony Cobel, as this one was. It’s not that we dislike the mere existence of the character or that the writers shouldn’t have opted for another format-breaking episode so soon after last week’s. Instead, it boils down to whether knowing the reasons behind Cobel’s allegiance to Lumon or her tragic backstory regarding her mother or even the reveal that she’s actually the mastermind behind the severance procedure actually changes anything. Like Jack’s tattoos, this feels like an answer to a question that nobody was ever asking in the first place. With only two episodes to go, even the slightest stumble this late in the season feels concerning.

New episodes of “Severance” stream on Apple TV+ every Friday.