Review: Severance, "In Perpetuity" | Season 1, Episode 3
She oversees a severed workforce, but how fractured is Harmony Cobel?
The end of “Half Loop” certainly hinted strongly that “Mrs. Selvig” was a bit of performance from Harmony Cobel, but I was surprised when “In Perpetuity” answers the question so clearly. Once Mark leaves for work the morning after he moves Petey into his basement, and “Selvig” finishes her performance de-icing her front steps with a hair dryer, Cobel emerges to head to work, and makes a detour to Mark’s front door to inspect the gift left on his doorstep and pilfer through his things. It’s no longer a question: Harmony Cobel has not been severed, and she is acutely aware of both the outside and inside worlds Mark operates in.
In the short term, this creates a tense moment for a disoriented Petey, but I was surprised to see them “resolve” this mystery so early. But when Cobel returns to her office at work to find Lumon spokesperson Natalie—who Mark had seen as a talking head on cable news defending the company against criticism—the show’s decision to give us her point-of…