Legion, Season 1, Episode 6: Chapter 6
So yeah, we spend nearly the entire episode in the mental institution. It's the most stupid 'obligatory episode' ever and it never ever really works, not for the least that it's never going to be the big grand revelation for all the fantastical things that has happened in the show. Like, no, no one's going to believe that Smallville or Supernatural will end with the revelation that everything you cared for is just mass schizophreniac minds at work. But Legion? It's a show that has a justification for it, and the fact that it's quickly established to the audience as an illusion in David's headspace is definitely well done.
In a neat twist of one of my most disliked tropes, Lenny, under the guise of the lead psychiatrist, tries to convince everyone present that, yeah, they're all mentally ill. But, of course, as powerful as Lenny is, she can't give a perfect representation of something because it's David's mind after all. Syd feels like she's in a dream but not really, she sees David's bedroom door and weird stuff manifesting at a particular point in the Clockworks hospital (accompanied with eerie music). But Syd -- who gets to be main character of the episode, has trouble convincing David of anything at all because no mutant powers are active in the imagined Clockworks, and David's just wanting to get better and get through his therapy, because he has gotten a balance between his mania and depression. So, uh, he apparently has bipolar disorder in addition to schizophrenia? I'll buy that, he's had some mood swings over the past few episodes. Lenny-induced mood swings, still, but hey, Dream!David doesn't know that. In any case, Syd tries to figure out that they're in an alternate reality while David keeps telling her that, no, don't let the delusions win.
Everyone gets a therapy session with dr. Lenny, which is entertaining but ultimately doesn't go anywhere. Lenny just dismisses all their delusions, and poor Ptonomy doesn't even get to do much in this episode after the interview with Lenny.
Oh, also, after that moment when everyone goes to sleep (including a sad moment where Cary and Kerry are puzzled as to why they literally stick together all the time without any real justification) Lenny pulls off all the stops and goes into an insane dance number. Whyever for? I dunno, but it works in the context of the show. Madness is the name of the game.
Oliver Bird, having spent the past few episodes in the literal periphery of both viewers and characters, apparently can travel into people's dreams with his Scooby Doo scuba suit, and I'm not sure if it's his mutant power (I'll assume it is) or that he's also a psychic like Lenny and David, and manages to successfully spirit Melanie Bird and Cary away to try and help things out in the physical plane -- where they find that everything's frozen in time, but at the same time they can't Quicksilver their way out of this.
This leaves Kerry alone, and god, in one of the creepiest yet simplest moments of the show, we have the Eye in all his glorious creepiness starting to stalk Kerry. Also, Syd sees this gross-ass weird... organ... thing and this causes the Devil in Yellow Eyes to transform and kidnap Syd and shove her into the bedroom and put her to sleep with earphones, but not before David notices and notes that something is wrong.
Lenny starts giving a monologue to David about how she is a fungus, a parasite, clinging to David, not caring about anything but the power David can grant him. Usually she'll move on from one host to the next, but with David the sheer power he has makes her want to cohabitate, something she's quickly losing patience for. Lenny tells David huge hints about his father, a holier-than-thou type that hides him away to keep him safe, and apparently Lenny's just sick of all this cloak and dagger stuff. She doesn't care anymore about David's self-esteem, his desire for love, his desire for relationships, and in her words, "all I need you for is your body." She shoves David into this strange coffin in the deep recesses of his/their/her mind. With everyone in trouble, the episode leaves at a cliffhanger. It's a bit unclear just who is responsible for this bizarre Summerland bit, whether it's David or Lenny, or a little bit or both -- Lenny's motivations are a bit muddy, which I think is one of the weaker bits of the episode. But more importantly, Lenny has taken the advantage, shoving David down and taking over. I guess the reasons she's not done it before is because it's easier to allow the host to keep doing what it thinks it wants to do? I dunno. It's a bit weaker than previous and upcoming entries in my opinion. So.
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