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Ever since her introduction in Severance‘s Season 2 premiere, new Lumon hire Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) has been bombarded by a storm of fan theories. Is she a robot? A clone? Why else would a child be on the Severed Floor unless something truly dastardly was going on?
Now, viewers can put their theories to rest, because “Sweet Vitriol,” the eighth episode of Severance Season 2, finally confirms why Miss Huang works at Lumon. And while the answer isn’t as sci-fi-heavy as robots or clones, it’s still fairly sinister.
Miss Huang is basically a Lumon intern, just like Harmony Cobel once was.
Credit: Apple TV+
“Sweet Vitriol” focuses on Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), so we actually don’t see Miss Huang at all in this episode. However, we do hear a phrase that links the two. On Jan. 22, the Lumon LinkedIn page congratulated Miss Huang for being “this quarter’s Wintertide Fellow.” Those words pop up again in episode 6, “Attila,” when Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) tells Miss Huang, “You cannot graduate from this fellowship until I have deemed you Wintertide material.”
Based on the word “fellowship,” the exchange with Milchick implies Miss Huang is some kind of intern at Lumon, while “Wintertide” is the standard she must aspire to. But Severance leaves the specifics of Lumon’s fellowship up in the air until episode 8.
In “Sweet Vitriol,” Cobel’s Aunt Sissy (Jane Alexander) mentions Cobel’s own Wintertide Fellowship as a badge of honor bestowed by Jame Eagan (Michael Siberry) himself. Later, as Cobel looks through her yearbook for the Myrtle Eagan School for Girls, she finds a photo of her accepting the Wintertide Fellowship from Jame. The text below the image states, “Harmony Cobel’s outstanding dedication to the Nine Core Values has earned her the distinguished honor of being selected as the Year of Wiles Wintertide Fellow.”
So there you have it. When it comes to Miss Huang, there are no clones or robots at play. Just a highly prestigious Lumon internship for people who have been brought up within the cult of Eagan and Lumon, like Cobel was.
That reality is disturbing in and of itself, though. If Miss Huang’s upbringing was anything like Cobel’s was before she landed the Wintertide Fellowship, she would have essentially been raised by Lumon, molded to fit their standards. Plus, there’s the constant reminder that this is “child fucking labor,” as Cobel’s old flame Hampton (James Le Gros) so aptly describes his and Cobel’s time in the ether factory.
(The ether mill is also where Kier Eagan and his twin Dieter worked as children according to the story told in “Woe’s Hollow,” meaning child labor is just another messed-up pillar of Lumon Industries.)
Seeing the way Lumon manipulates children with systems like the Eagan schools and the Wintertide Fellowship serves as a stark reminder of its insidious reach throughout the world. The company isn’t content just controlling adults: It has to get its hooks in future generations too. With Miss Huang, we could be seeing a future Cobel — but look at Cobel’s life now. Look at how Lumon chewed her up and spat her out. Please, someone break Miss Huang out of Lumon’s grasp so she doesn’t end up the same way. Let her go play her theremin in peace!
Severance Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, with a new episode every Friday.
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“Severance” reveals that Ms. Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) share a prestigious Lumon fellowship.
