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Sweet Vitriol

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"Sweet Vitriol" is the eighth episode in the second season of the Apple TV+ thriller series Severance. It was released on March 7, 2025.

Synopsis[]

A Lumon loyalist faces old demons while searching for a missing item.

Plot[]

Cobel drives along a winding mountain road to Salt's Neck.

Cobel brushes her teeth on the side of the road. She notices someone in a broken-down trailer nearby inhaling ether. Her phone rings. It's Devon, but she doesn't answer it. She gets back in her car.

Magnus is eating at the Drippy Pot Café and talks to Hampton about someone flipping a snow plow. Hampton gives him some ether and then goes back to the counter and talks to Rose, saying he likes her new hairdo.

Cobel pulls up to the Drippy Pot and goes inside. Everyone turns to look at her. She sits down and Hampton comes over and asks if she wants coffee. She doesn't and he tells her the tables are for paying customers. If that's the case, she tells him to buy her a cup of coffee. He pours her a cup and she says the town is older than she remembered. He says the market readjustment caused that. She needs a favor from him, but she can't tell him there. She asks him to meet her at the factory and leaves. Hampton asks Dot to close up for him and leaves.

Hampton drives out to the ether factory and parks his truck facing Cobel's car. They get out of their cars and he asks if she knows how messed up it is to ask him to come there. She asks him to drive her to Sissy's. He says no. If they're watching the house, they'll recognize her car. He asks her how much trouble she's in and she says enough. Sissy still lives by the nine, as Cobel assumed, and she's a pariah. Cobel says he can stay in the truck, but she needs to get something. He asks why he should help her with anything. She says they were friends once and old colleagues lift each other up. He says it was child labor. Cobel reminds him of Kier and Imogene meeting each other at the ether mill. And she knows Hampton is using ether. Cobel says he can help her or not, but she won't be his punching bag.

Hampton drives to Sissy's with Cobel hidden in his truck bed. Her phone rings again and she ignores Devon again. When he gets to Sissy's, he tells Cobel it's clear and helps her climb out. She walks up to the door and Hampton tells her to tell Sissy to drop dead. Celestine "Sissy" Cobel opens the door as Cobel approaches and tells her she's not welcome there. Cobel ignores her and walks inside anyway. She goes upstairs and finds her old bedroom bare, stripped of her belongings. Sissy threatens to call the police. She doesn't want Hampton there either, calling out his addition to ether. Cobel reminds her that she's the one who got him addicted in the first place. Sissy looks out the window at Hampton and asks Cobel to come down and tell her why she's there. Cobel tries to enter another room, but finds it locked. She goes downstairs and asks Sissy what she did with her things. Sissy admits she sold them to the poor. Cobel says they weren't hers to sell, but it's Sissy's house. Cobel asks if anyone has been there and Sissy tells her no one comes there. Cobel asks about phone calls and Sissy says Mr. Drummond called. Cobel asks what he wanted and Sissy asks what Cobel did. Cobel pulls out the phone cord and asks for the key to her mother's room. Sissy says the room will stay shut until everyone who remembers Charlotte sits with Kier. Cobel asks again for the key. Sissy refuses to fight with Cobel. Cobel asks what her mother's last words were. She knows Charlotte said nothing after Sissy pulled her tube out. Sissy slaps Cobel in the face. Sissy says she had gratitude in her eyes to be freed from her suffering. If she'd been a believer, she would have found solace in the nine. Cobel didn't have to listen to her wheezing every day like Sissy did. Cobel would have cared for her herself if she hadn't been at school. Sissy says that's where she belonged. Cobel laments not being able to say goodbye, but Sissy tells her her studies were more important. Mr. Eagan saw Kier in Cobel and there was no apprentice more industrious than Cobel. But she's become a disappointment. Cobel asks Sissy what Drummond told her. Sissy tells her to go back and beg for forgiveness. The Eagans will grant it. Cobel doesn't believe that they'll show her any mercy. She asks where the key is. Sissy looks down at her hands, where she's rubbing a stone. Cobel goes upstairs and Sissy says she'll only find pain up there. Cobel goes into Sissy's room and dumps out a box on the dresser. Then she looks through a cabinet, frantically searching for the key. Finally, she finds it and goes into Charlotte's room.

In the room, Cobel looks around and then hooks up the tubes to an old ventilator. She lies down in the bed and puts the tube in her mouth, breathing in and crying.

Cobel sleeps into the night. She startles awake when Hampton opens the door. Sissy's not happy he's come in to get Cobel. Cobel asks if he saw something. He didn't, but it's cold in his truck and he needs to get back. She says she has to find it. He asks what she means. She doesn't say, but asks for a minute to think. He tells Cobel he liked her mother. Cobel says he barely knew her. All he needed to know was that she hated Lumon more than he did. And at least she doesn't have to be with Sissy anymore. Hampton asks Cobel if she wants to get high. He pulls out a bottle of ether and pours some on a cloth, which he inhales from. He starts laughing and she takes the ether to do the same. She hasn't done this since she was eight. Hampton jokingly asks if she's ready to man the vat for ten hours. Cobel finds it shameful that Hampton sells ether. They lean together and kiss. Hampton doesn't think what she's looking for is there. Cobel knows Sissy wouldn't throw it away.

Cobel walks outside with Hampton following. Cobel enters a storm shelter on the property and looks around. She finds a book from Myrtle Eagan School For Girls and opens it. She finds a page about her getting the Jame Eagan Wintertide Fellowship and being valedictorian. She closes the book and continues searching. She finds a bust of Jame Eagan, given to her as a reward for the fellowship. She opens the bottom of the bust and pulls out a rolled-up book. She exits the shelter and tells Hampton to get the truck ready, ignoring his question of if she found what she was looking for.

Cobel goes back into Sissy's house. She tells Sissy she's leaving and not to tell Lumon she was there. Sissy says she'd never lie to a steward of the Eagans. Cobel tells her Lumon destroyed Salt's Neck and Sissy owes them nothing. Sissy says the town was nothing before the factor and asks Cobel about her own employment there. Everything she has, she owes to the Eagans. Cobel says it's hers, her designs. She shows Sissy her original designs for the severance chip. Sissy says Jame Eagan was the inventor. Cobel has heard that. Sissy flips through Cobel's work, which details everything. Sissy says it's extraordinary and asks why Cobel never spoke of it. Cobel explains she was told Kier's knowledge is for all and she'd be banished if she sought credit. Sissy moves to put the plans in the fire, but Cobel wrestles them away from her. She says she hopes Sissy dies as painfully as Charlotte did. Sissy tells Cobel that Charlotte removed the tube, not her. Cobel refuses to believe it. Sissy says Charlotte was a coward, more sick in the soul than the body. Cobel repeats that she doesn't believe it. Sissy thought Cobel was different. She tried to help her grow, but now she sees that Cobel is a weed just like Charlotte was. Hampton honks and yells that someone is coming. Cobel leaves the house and gets in Hampton's truck, leaving him behind as a car approaches. He welcomes them to come tame his tempers.

Cobel gets another call from Devon as she drives away. She answers it and Devon explains that Mark has been reintegrating. Cobel is surprised it hasn't killed him and asks to speak to him. Devon puts Mark on and Cobel asks him to tell her everything.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest Starring[]

Co-Starring[]

Notes and Trivia[]

  • End credits song is "Fire Woman" by The Cult.
  • The scenes in Salt's Neck were filmed in Newfoundland.

Gallery[]

Promotional Stills[]

Screenshots[]

References[]

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