# H A R M O N Y  C O B E L.

Harmony grew up in Salt's Neck, where she worked in the local Lumon ether factory alongside her friend Hampton. She later attended the Myrtle Eagan School For Girls, a private school located in the town Kier, PE, named after Kier Eagan's daughter Myrtle. Harmony Cobel attended school there as a child, and by the time she graduated, she became valedictorian of her class as well as a Wintertide Fellow. She grew up with the teachings of Kier Eagan, who was the founder of Lumon Industries. During this time, her mother Charlotte became ill and was put on life support under the supervision of Harmony's aunt Celestine. Charlotte later died while Harmony was away at school. Harmony grew up blaming her aunt for her mother's death, but according to Celestine, Charlotte chose to end her own life by removing her breathing tube.

After finishing studies, Harmony subsequently went on to work for Lumon at their Branch 501 facility. At some point before or during her time at Branch 501, she invented the Severance technology, a neuro-surgical procedure that would be pioneered by Lumon Industries, and which served to partition a person's memories into two streams of consciousness, effectively resulting in two people sharing the same body. This effect was mediated by a small chip inserted deep within the patient's brain, which controlled which identity was "awake" at any given time, and prevented either identity from accessing the other's memories. Those who underwent this procedure become known as the Severed, with the consciousness outside working facilities being called an "outie" and the consciousness at the working facilities being called an "innie" Although she invented the procedure, the credit for its invention would go to Jame Eagan, the current CEO of Lumon Industries. Harmony later became the head of the Branch 501 Severed floor, where she oversaw all of the severed workers, but she had little contact with the Board.

She essentially worked as the boss of the MDR (Macrodata Refinement) department, where Dylan G., Irving B., Mark S. and Helly R. works. She had a particular interest in keeping an eye on Mark S. outside of work as well, and she moved into the house next door to his under the alias "Mrs. Selvig." Outside of Lumon, she ran an independent business under her false identity. Petey K., eventually stopped showing up for his job at Lumon, after learning about the terrible conditions of the innies, and finding a way to reintegrate his severed identities again. As such, Cobel told Mark he would be the new department chief. Then she sent him to train the new employee that would take over after Petey, a woman named Helly R. Cobel would later meet with the board through Natalie Kalen. They talked about Petey, and Cobel said he showed signs of possible reintegration before leaving. The board insisted that wasn't possible and ended the conversation after telling Cobel to get MDR to their quarterly numbers.

Still upset with her working conditions, Helly burst into Cobel's office with her fingers in a paper cutter and threatened to cut them off unless they got her a video camera to record a message for her outie. Cobel had Milchick got it for her. Once the video was recorded, they went with her to the elevator. She left and when she returned, she had a message from her outie refusing to let her quit.

When news broke that Petey had died, Graner assured Cobel that the Board would understand and not blame her. When she brought up his reintegration, Graner reminded her that the board never acknowledged reintegration. She said they needed to get his chip and Graner told her his body was set to be cremated after his funeral. Cobel, as Mrs. Selvig, therefore went to Petey's funeral to retrieve the chip. While his mourners were distracted watching a video of him, she used a hand drill to get into Petey's head and removed it, taking it back to Lumon and giving it to Milchick to take to Diagnostics.

Graner came to Cobel's office and told him Petey's chip proved that he'd reintegrated. He knew the Board wouldn't like hearing that. Graner realized Cobel hadn't told them yet, but she just asked him to look for source signatures in the chip, so she could give it all to the Board at once. When Helly returned to work after her attempted suicide, Cobel ordered Ms. Casey to stay with her the entire day. When Milchick asked her about it, she said she was trying something new. Cobel was later watching Helly and Mark on a monitor when Graner came in and asked if she knew about MDR finding other departments. She quoted Keir to tell him she was letting them think they were free in order to control them. Graner didn't like that, but Cobel said he could talk to her when he figured out who hacked Petey's chip.

When Graner called to tell her that he'd found out the hacker was Asal Reghabi, a former Lumon employee, she told him to find her. At work, when Mark came to check on where Ms. Casey had gone, Cobel told him that she still had to face the consequences of failing to watch Helly as instructed, even though Mark had purposely distracted her and was in the Break Room. She then showed him the footage of them in other departments and reminded them they hadn't hit their quota. She revoked their hallway privileges until they met that quota.

Soon after, Cobel saw them walking in the hallway and sent Milchick to return them to MDR. She met them there and had Graner take Mark to the Break Room.

Outside of work, Cobel, as Mrs. Selvig, got a job as Mark's sister, Devon's lactation consultant, helping her breastfeed baby Eleanor. Ricken and Devon were immediately impressed when she got Eleanor to stop crying in seconds. Graner came to see Cobel at home to tell her that he'd found Asal holed up in a lab at Ganz College. She told him to let her know when he had her in custody. Cobel continued helping Devon breastfeed Eleanor and they bonded over stories. Cobel asked why Devon thought Mark severed and Devon said he'd just lost his wife.

Cobel went to work late that day. Natalie found her and relayed a message from the Board that Graner was dead. Cobel said that whoever killed him probably also reintegrated Petey. The Board denied that reintegration was possible, but Cobel had proof. Cobel said she was happy to share it with the Board in person. Natalie said the Board agreed to meet with her at the Eagan Family Gala the following week to discuss it.

As the MDR team got close to hitting their quota, Cobel and Milchick waited eagerly, watching on the monitor. Cobel told Milchick to prepare for them to finish and schedule an end-of-the-quarter wellness session for Mark. When they hit the quota, Cobel met with Mark, who told her Dylan would be staying for the waffle party. She said she'd make the arrangements and sent Mark to his wellness session, which she and Milchick watched. Milchick said it was a good sign that Mark and Ms. Casey didn't recognize each other because it meant the chips worked.

When Cobel returned to her office later in the day, she found Natalie waiting for her, holding two pictures of Helly's suicide attempt. The Board was angry with her for not telling them and also for spending time at Mark's sister's house. Natalie then told Cobel she was fired. Cobel asked if the Board was even really there and a voice on the speaker said, "yes." Cobel apologized for being rude and said she'd explain everything to the Board tonight. Natalie said the Board had ended the call.

Milchick then escorted Cobel out. When Cobel got home from work, she destroyed her shrine to Kier and cried on the floor until Mark came to her door to invite her to a party at Devon and Ricken's. She decided to go to the party in her own car. She arrived just in time to overhear Mark telling Devon he was contemplating a life change. When Cobel asked him about it, he said he was considering leaving his job at Lumon. She encouraged him to do it.

Cobel became suspicious when she noticed Mark acting oddly at the party. After Mark called her Ms. Cobel, she realized what had happened. Devon came to her and asked her to hold Eleanor. She agreed, but then she left Eleanor in another room and drove to Lumon, calling Milchick on the way to let him know that Mark and his coworkers had activated the Overtime Contingency, the switch that determines which consciousness is "active", meaning that it was, in fact, innie-Mark she had just spoken with. She went to the gala and confronted Helly, but was unable to stop her from going on stage and telling everyone that she was an innie and was being tortured at Lumon.

Cobel remained fired after the innies' coup. Helena brought her in for a meeting and said that her actions had saved them from disaster. As a result, they offered her a promotion to the new Severance Advisory Council. Cobel said if they really valued her expertise, she should be running the severed floor, so Cobel realized they didn't value her, they just feared her. Helena denied that, so Cobel agreed to consider their offer.

Cobel went back to the house where she'd lived as Mrs. Selvig, where she ran into Mark while leaving. He tried to ask her questions, but she just told him he was easy to sway and left.

Cobel drove for a while and then turned around and drove back. She met with Helena and said they'd have to agree to her terms for her to come back. The first among those was running the severed floor, as she wanted to finish what she started with Cold Harbor. Helena wanted them to reset and called Natalie to set up a meeting with the board, but Cobel refused to go with Helena and instead got in her car and left.

Cobel went to Salt's Neck and had Hampton take her to Sissy's house, where she confronted her aunt about her mom's death and learned that her mom had pulled out her own breathing tube. While she was there, she also found the proof that she was the one who invented severance, not Jame Eagan. She told Sissy she was told she'd be banished if she told anyone. With the proof in hand, Cobel escaped using Hampton's truck. As she drove away, she took a call from Devon, who told her Mark had reintegrated. Cobel had her put Mark on the phone and asked him to tell her everything.

They arranged a meeting with Cobel. When she showed up, Devon asked her to take them to the cabin so they could talk to Mark's innie. She said it wasn't safe and it would be better to wait until dark. She had Mark call Milchick and feign illness to explain why he wasn't coming in to work. Once it was dark, they hid Mark in the truck bed, Devon pretended to be pregnant, and Cobel drove them to the birthing retreat, where she used coded language to get them access to the cabin. Once they were there, Mark's innie activated and Devon brought him to talk to Cobel. Devon asked if he remembered the last words he said to her and he responds, "She's alive." Cobel asked if he'd finished Cold Harbor and when he said no, she said that was good, because it meant Gemma, Mark's wife who was believed to be dead, was still alive and they could get her out of Lumon. She then explained to him what he would have to do in order to get Gemma out. It involved cooperation between him and his outie, so they played a message his outie had recorded for him and waited while the two of them had a back and forth conversation. When they couldn't agree, Cobel asked to speak to innie Mark alone. She told him that the numbers were his wife and every file he'd completed created a new innie for her. Cold Harbor was the last of those and after he completed it, he'd be done at Lumon as he'd served his purpose. She also told him that he and Helly wouldn't have a happy ending because he meant nothing to Helena (outie-Helly). Mark responded by telling Devon and Cobel to warn Mark against activating him again before his next shift at Lumon.

*****

Personality-wise, on the surface, Harmony presents as a dutiful, no-nonsense employee who is intensely loyal to the company's corporate culture. She is calm, controlled, and very much focused on maintaining the status quo. Her role as a severed supervisor in the department overseeing the workers who have undergone the procedure to separate their work and personal lives, gives her a considerable amount of authority. Harmony is efficient in her job and takes pride in her ability to enforce the strict boundaries of the severed employees, managing their behavior with a sense of order and precision.

However there's more going on beneath her composed exterior. While she enforces the company's rules with cold professionalism, there are hints of a deep, almost obsessive attachment to the institution she serves. Harmony's loyalty to Lumon goes beyond just being an employee; it's personal and emotional. She's not simply an enforcer. There's a level of zeal in her devotion to the company's mission, suggesting that she sees her role as part of a higher calling or moral imperative. This fanaticism toward the company is perhaps most apparent when she interacts with other characters, especially when her beliefs are challenged.

Harmony's personality is also marked by a level of subtle manipulation and control. She can be both authoritative and charming, trying to maintain her authority while also using her interpersonal skills to smooth over conflicts or manipulate people when needed. Despite her more rigid persona, she occasionally reveals a more human side at times, there's an underlying vulnerability and emotional conflict that suggests she might not be as fully aligned with the company's practices as she outwardly seems.

There are moments where she displays a softer, almost maternal side, especially when dealing with the severed employees. In these rare moments, she appears more empathetic, though still within the bounds of her professional role. However, these glimpses often clash with her willingness to uphold the harsh policies of the company, adding a layer of internal conflict to her character. Overall, Harmony Cobel's personality can be described as disciplined, intense, and deeply committed to the institution of Lumon, with underlying layers of complexity that suggest a more conflicted, even troubled, individual beneath the surface.