We’re still a long ways away from Severance Season 3 being available to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription, but I’m already starting to question one of my core assumptions in the aftermath of Season 2, that Ms. Cobel is aligned with Mark Scout’s anti-Lumon stance. Considering everything that played out in the final three episodes of the season, I might have even put money on Cobel having permanently switched allegiances. But star Patricia Arquette throw it all into doubt.
Arquette shared quite a few opinions and musings regarding her expertly portrayed Severance character, and why the character’s Selvig persona seemed to be so terrible with her recycling habits. But I’m most intrigued and perhaps bothered by the Emmy winner’s comments after being asked if she thought viewers should be rooting for Cobel. According to the actress:
I don’t really care if they like you or not like you. I mean, people go through life making 'the bad guy,' making 'the good guy,' and then the bad guy’s the good guy and the good guy’s the bad guy. She just has to have her perspective on why she’s doing what she’s doing. We go through life looking at people in the certain way that we frame them, and then they say or do something, and we reframe them. And so I think that we’re going to do the same thing with Cobel.
Her comments are certainly merited, since there are plenty of projects out there that go that flip-flopping route with characters. Even Trammell Tillman's Mr. Milchick has earned grace points from viewers for the sporadic moments of empathy and sympathy that he displays, only to turn around and prove his Lumon allegiance in the next breath.
But then Arquette continues and makes a point to say that Cobel could go in either direction when Severance returns, throwing my hopes for Mark into disarray. Here's how she put it:
Cobel is at a very weird precipice right now where it’s like it really could go either way. She could go to supporting Mark and all those guys, sticking one to Lumon, or she could consolidate her power at Lumon, get more respect there and be in a more powerful position, like she had been at one point in time.
At this point in the show's run, I don't think I would ever expect Cobel to return to Lumon to try and get her job back, at least without Helena Eagan groveling on her hands and knees. Once she sped away from Lumon HQ after Helena's seemingly fatalistic invitation, only to go off and retrieve her notebook filled with designs for the Innies' chips, I thought Cobel would have remained headstrong about not returning to the company that ripped her creation away from her.
But now it seems possible that Cobel could once again turncoat against those siding with her if the situation becomes advantageous to her. Which is not good for either oMark or iMark, and will probably make life hell for several other people in the process.
Of course, I’ve had past theories about Cobel that didn’t pan out, at least not yet, just as others’ theories about Helena being in the finale were debunked, so I won’t be too surprised if my worries about her are all for naught once Season 3 is being played out. This is one of the rare cases where I can’t wait to find out if I’m wrong or not.
In the meantime, I’d love to see what’s up with the spinoff talks that Ben Stiller teased, and have roughly a few million ideas to talk out on that front.
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