Sweet Vitriol might just be the weakest episode of Severance so far. After the dizzying heights of Chikhai Bardo, the show, with this new episode, puts you on tame grounds. Nothing really works. In Sweet Vitriol, Harmony returns to her seaside hometown to retrieve something from her house. As is typical for Severance, her mission cannot be straightforward; there's always some bizarre element involved in the proceedings. Hence, you get those silent, suspicious gazes directed toward Cobel when she enters a bar near the beginning. This town - Salt's Neck - has the same uneasy atmosphere you detect within the walls of Lumon. So, Harmony walks into a bar, meets an old friend, Hampton, and asks him to take her to her mother's house. Why can't she go by herself? Harmony doesn't want Lumon to find her. They can recognize her car and catch her before she can grab whatever she wants from the house. Fine.
After arriving at the destination, Harmony comes across her aunt, Sissy, who happens to worship Lumon. It's revealed that Harmony's mother has passed away, and it quickly becomes apparent that there is tension between Cobel and Sissy. Upon seeing Cobel, Sissy's immediate reaction is to order her to leave the property. Perhaps next time, Sissy should consider locking the doors if she wants someone to not enter inside. The characters argue while Hampton waits outside. Initially, Harmony searches her room, but when she finds nothing, she asks for the key to her mother's room. After more heated debates and huffing and puffing, she finally locates the key, opens that room, sees her mother's bed, and lies down on it. If this episode wanted to provide closure to Harmony, it fails to do so satisfactorily. Significant information is thrown around rapidly, and the characters are given no time to process what they have learned for the first time.
And what exactly is Harmony searching for inside the property? A notebook that proves she is the inventor of Lumon - the true mastermind. The book contains sketches of the severance procedure and chip. Sissy attempts to destroy it but is defeated by Harmony's quick reflexes. Go, Harmony. Nonetheless, did we really need a whole 40-minute episode for this? All Episode 8 does is tell us that Harmony is the real boss of the company. Everything else comes across as a footnote, a filler to just pad out the runtime. Sweet Vitriol has a sour aftertaste - it's bland and uninteresting.
Final Score - [3/10]