Look out, Severance fans! There are two Cobels in town.
Season 2, Episode 8, “Sweet Vitriol,” saw Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) speeding home to a town called Salt’s Neck on a very important mission. After she parted ways with Lumon, the former Severed Floor manager returned home to retrieve a crucial item from her past that will predictably help shape her future.
Before she found it, however, she had to face off with a rival relative: Sissy.
Spoilers for Severance Season 2, Episode 8 ahead.
Played by Jane Alexander, Sissy is a cold Lumon loyalist sporting white hair, a long white nightgown, and a major attitude towards Cobel and Cobel’s old pal Hampton (James Le Gos) in Episode 208.
While we learn quite a bit about Sissy and her past with Cobel and late Cobel’s mother, Charlotte, Severance never explicitly states how Sissy is related to Cobel. Is she her grandmother? Sister? Cousin? Aunt?! Unclear! But fear not! Severance‘s very own Patricia Arquette set the record straight for Decider.
So who is Sissy on Severance? What’s her relation to Cobel? And what does Arquette have to say about working with Jane Alexander, the actor who plays Sissy? We’ve got answers.
Who Is Sissy On Severance? Patricia Arquette Breaks Down Jane Alexander’s Character
As noted in our Season 2, Episode 8 recap, we quickly learn that Sissy is the woman who Cobel blames for her mother’s death. Charlotte was an ether addict who needed a breathing tube, and Cobel believes Sissy removed the breathing tube from her mother’s throat while she was away at school, thus depriving her of a chance to say goodbye to her.
So who the heck is Sissy? In an interview with Decider, Arquette confirmed that Sissy (or Celestine “Sissy” Cobel) is her character’s aunt! And though the two characters have a tons of conflict in need of sorting, Arquette was thrilled to work alongside Jane Alexander.
“I couldn’t have hoped for two better actors to be working with,” Arquette said of 208 stars Alexander and Le Gros. “Jane Alexander was just a hero of mine. I’d grown up watching her and I’d never even hoped to have been able to work with her. We didn’t have a lot of time. We just had a much smaller skeleton crew. And we showed up on this tip of the world’s iceberg and had to jump in together.”
While there are still a lot of questions surrounding Cobel’s past and her relationship with Sissy, we do know that Cobel’s aunt is a major Lumon loyalist who was once awarded a plaque that reads: “QUARTERLY STRIVER, 4th Quarter Year of Vision – Youth Apprentice Matron.” We also learned that she’s “a fucking pariah” in Salt’s Neck, because still lives by Lumon’s nine Core Principles long after the company destroyed the town with the ether factor, which ultimately led to the ether addiction that killed Charlotte and Salt’s Neck’s current ether problem.
Season 2, Episode 8 also revealed that Sissy has an elaborate Eagan shrine in her bedroom, which may be even more intense than her niece’s. In addition to a Kier photo, it features small versions of the four tempers masks seen at the Waffle Party, Lumon newspaper clippings, candles, cards that represent the nine Core Principles, flowers, artwork, inspirational sayings, and more.
Though Sissy said Mr. Eagan “saw Kier” in Cobel and that no apprentice was more industrious than her, she had trouble believing that Cobel helped invent the severance procedure until Cobel showed her one of her old notebooks that contained proof.
“MINE!!!!!!! MY DESIGNS!!! Circuit Blueprint, Base Code, OTC, Glasgow Block — all of it!” Cobel said, waving the notebook in front of Sissy’s eyes. When Sissy replied, “Jame Eagan was the inventor,” Cobel sassily snapped, “So I’ve heard!” But her notebook told a different story…
As Sissy flipped through Cobel’s impressive severance-related designs, formulas, and findings, she said, “Extraordinary. Why have you never spoken of this?” Cobel claimed, “I was told Kier’s knowledge is for all — that if I sought credit, I would be banished.” In the end, Sissy proved her loyalties still lied with Kier, not Cobel — a fact that will hopefully only add more fuel to Cobel’s fiery revenge plot against Lumon.
Want more Severance insights, theories, recaps, and interviews? Be sure to check out the rest of Decider’s in-depth Severance Season 2 coverage here.
New episodes of Severance Season 2 premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.
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