Warning! This article contains spoilers for Severance season 2, episode 8.
Severanceseason 2, episode 8 takes place in Salt’s Neck, a town linked heavily to Lumon’s shady businesses and Harmony Cobel. In a rare bottle episode for the show, Harmony Cobel proved to be the only regular member ofSeverance’s ensemble castto appear, aside from the voice cameo from Mark in the dying moments. As the trueidentity of Harmony Cobelcame to light via reveals about her family,Severancedelved into a town in the middle of nowhere named Salt’s Neck.
Cobel was shown pulling up to the town after having last appeared inSeveranceseason 2, episode 3before entering a small café filled with older customers. The implied owner of the café is someone Harmony is familiar with, leading to several developments being revealed about Salt’s Neck. From its ties to Lumon andSeverance’s Eagan family treeto its links to Harmony Cobel’s past, Salt’s Neck proved to be a vital location in season 2, episode 8, if only due to how it developed one of the show’s leading characters into who she is today.
Salt’s Neck Was The Location Of A Lumon Industries Factory
Lumon’s Reach Is Evident
Despite being a town that is seemingly in the middle of nowhere, Lumon somehow got its claws into Salt’s Neck. After talking with her former friend in the café, Cobel tells him to meet her at the factory. This leads to a scene in which the two speak in the dilapidated ruins of a factory that has Lumon’s signature teardrop logo plastered to it. What the factory was used for remained undisclosed as ofSeveranceseason 2, episode 8’s ending, but it is clear that it used to - and still does - have a big effect on the infrastructure of Salt’s Neck.
Lumon Destroyed Salt’s Neck & Ruined The Lives Of Its Residents After Abandoning The Factory
Lumon’s Work In Salt’s Neck Was Disbanded
Upon meeting at the factory, it is shown to be in a state of disrepair. This, combined with hints from Harmony’s friend, Hampton, and her aunt, Sissy, confirm that the Lumon factory was abandoned a few years before the events ofSeveranceseason 1. After all, Harmony suggests this as a meeting place free from the eyes and ears of anyone who could be spying for Lumon, suggesting that no one ever goes to the factory anymore.
This fits with what has been shown of Lumon earlier inSeveranceseason 2. Many times, it has been mentioned that several branches of the company had to be closed down for one reason or another, with one being the aftermath ofSeveranceseason 1’s endingand the Overtime Contingency. Therefore, it tracks that Lumon can open up and disband factories quickly, with the one in Salt’s Neck apparently being one such location in which this occurred.
What “Overtime Contingency” Means In Severance & How It Works
The “overtime contingency” becomes the most crucial driver of Severance’s story towards the end of season 1, raising many questions about how it works
AsSeveranceseason 2, episode 8 makes clear, it is not only the Lumon factory of Salt’s Neck that has deteriorated. The entire town of Salt’s Neck is not in great shape, as Harmony sees and points out herself at various points in the episode. Harmony is shown first entering the location at the beginning of the episode, spotting a man doing drugs at an early time. Hampton is later revealed as the one who sells these drugs, likely as an escape for the various residents of Salt’s Neck who are suffering. This suffering is later explained to have been caused by Lumon and the aforementioned factory.
Lumon essentially abandoned Salt’s Neck, allowing it to become a town with little income and little hope for a better future…
Harmony tells Sissy that Lumon destroyed the town, which is connected to the factory. The factory gave Salt’s Neck a sense of infrastructure, likely providing a great deal of jobs and potential tourism brought on by Lumon’s many workers. However,Hampton mentions that the"market readjustment" -meaning the closure of the factory - meant the core infrastructure investments of Salt’s Neck were reduced. Lumon essentially abandoned Salt’s Neck, allowing it to become a town with little income and little hope for a better future, drastically affecting the lives of the people who live there.
The Cobel Family’s Connection To Salt’s Neck Explained
Harmony Was Once A Resident Of Salt’s Neck
The final reveal about Salt’s Neck inSeveranceseason 2, episode 8 is that the Cobel family is from there. Harmony visits a woman named Sissy in the episode, later revealed to be her aunt. The house has remnants of Harmony’s childhood in it, from markers on the wall for her height at different ages to her belongings being kept in a bunker-like basement.Harmony used to live in Salt’s Neck with Sissy and her mother - Sissy’s sister, Charlotte - with the former being part of Lumon’s Wintertide programand working at the factory alongside her attendance at a Lumon school.
What’s Wintertide? Severance Finally Explains Why Miss Huang Is Working At Lumon
In Severance season 2, episode 6, Milchick mentions a program named Wintertide to Miss Huang, begging the question of what this may be.
It is implied that Harmony left Salt’s Neck shortly after completing her education to work on Lumon’s severed floor. Sissy and Charlotte continued to live in Salt’s Neck, explaining why Harmony could not say goodbye to the latter before she died.Severanceseason 2, episode 8 makes it clear that Harmony does not come back to Salt’s Neck often, and her recent disillusionment regarding her Lumon beliefs mean she clashes with Sissy and acknowledges how the company she once pledged her life to has ruined her childhood town.
