Legion, Season 1, Episode 7: Chapter 7
Hoo! Last episode was a bit of a slight misstep, but this one finally brings us back to speed. If anything, it's actually brilliant in integrating both the exposition and world-building parts of David Haller's backstory in conjunction with the mental image of him literally putting himself back together after the damage that Lenny did to him.
The Clockworks fascimile in David's head has gone rogue. In addition to the Eye stalking poor Kerry, and Lenny interrogating Amy for 'that man' that brought David to her family, the other inmates, basically NPCs in a game, have gone amuck. Syd's still asleep, I'm not sure where Ptonomy is in all this mess, and David's stuck in his personal coffin. Things are dire, and I am struck by how thematic that the final battle is literally a battle in the mind. Of sorts.
Cary and Oliver, meanwhile, are still in that iceberg lounge thing and they have a conversation about the true identity of Lenny, where from a bunch of other clues (including the dog) they figure out the identity of the parasite in David's mind, a powerful mutant called Amahl Farouk. Known to Cary and X-Men fans worldwide as the villain Shadow King. Actually knowing who Shadow King was, it's a nice little bonus -- especially since the dude has never felt or looked as terrifyingly unsettling as he does here. Oliver and Cary are the more pragmatic problem-solvers here. They want to use Cary's weird head-band thing to do two things -- isolate the Shadow King and David, and to stop the bullets from hitting David when time resumes. It's not clear if he stopped time or if it's moving normally and the whole Clockworks stuff is just going at the very very fast speed of thought, and considering David's powers it could go either way. But to do either of that, they need to free David.
That's all a discussion in the brief flashback, because in the present time Cary shows up inside Oliver's scuba suit to rescue Syd, they communicate and Cary gives several pairs of 3D glasses that will help them see through Lenny's illusions? Okay then. That bit didn't quite made a lot of sense, but I suppose so.
Melanie is also running around the Astral Plane, but I'm not sure if she does anything before meeting up with Oliver and Cary, and Oliver has spent so long in the Astral Plane that he doesn't even remember Melanie. (Someone should've given him a quick crash course -- if David isn't aware of Melanie's backstory, Cary certainly damn well does). We also find that in the real-world, Rudy is dead and has been Mystique-replaced by the Eye. Does anyone remember Rudy? I actually forgot he existed at this point of the show. The death isn't dwelt on for too long, and neither is the real-world parts because they still can't do much.
Oh, and we get to see poor Rudy's soul-mind thing in Clockworks, reduced into a comatose drooling man in a wheelchair as Syd and Kerry run around. But that's not where the big revelations are, no. The big revelation is David... who has a conversation with himself. The British, rational, confident version of himself. Rational David reminds David Prime (that's what I'm going to call him) that, hey, they're not trapped in a real coffin, so let's make a big-ass lecture room with huge chalkboards. Then we get one helluva load of introdumps done in hilarious chalk-stick-men animation. It gives a full storyline about what David himself remembers, and while part of me is annoyed that I'm treated like a kid and shown the same information twice, the revelation is more like a summary of what the Shadow King has been doing, which different characters uncover different parts while David is just remembering. We also get some all-but-outright confirmation about Legion's parentage, if the brief glance of a wheelchair with an X-sprocketed wheel isn't enough. This also allows David to flex his 'manipulate the world my mind created' powers, and I do like how the British-accented Rational David is the most hilarious guide ever. Great job, too, to Dan Stevens for selling the various aspects of David Haller not just in this episode but throughout the season. Also the scene, I think, is necessary because of how David has never been sure about many aspects of his life. Earlier in the season Melanie had to tell him that all the strange occurrences are because of mutant powers and not madness. And now, he has to tell himself that Lenny isn't part of his powers, but the parasitic Shadow King.
David breaks out of his prison in a very awesome scene -- which really shouldn't be awesome, because it's just a man screaming and blowing up a CGI coffin, but the fact that David has finally, for-reals-now, taken control of his life and his mind, is well done. I'm not entirely sure just why Lenny killed the Eye first, but kill him he did, and in the real world the Eye's body is crumpled into a disgusting cube of body parts. As Lenny runs around and chases Kerry and Syd in a hilarious voiceless section set up like the old-timey movies, she also realizes what Team Oliver is trying to do, and speeds up time in the real world. Meanwhile David runs through some weird mental shit as he runs around the same series of corridors before he has enough and blows the illusion up with his powers.
Melanie and Cary put the headband on David. Rudy (who's apparently dying, not dead) manages to use his powers to stall mental Lenny a bit longer. In the Astral Realm, David charges Lenny. And when boom everyone returns to their proper bodies in the real world, David is once more in full control of his powers, vaporizes the bullets, and we get a glance of Lenny/Shadow King stuck in the mental coffin. Everything looks to come up sunshines and smiles. David and Amy make up, Rudy isn't dead, Oliver is walking around from his years-long slumber and making breakfast... but then Division Three shows up, lead by the burnt-face dude that David supposedly killed back in episode one. Which... is weird? I really don't buy that these guys are a threat to a Phoenix-tier reality-warping mutant like David, so back when I was watching it was absolutely weird and a bit of a downer. If anything else, the real threat here is Lenny busting a crack in her mental prison-coffin just as Division Three is about to fire.
Regardless, though, episode 7 of Legion is still a huge climax. Yes, what exactly happened -- Lenny dicks around and only manages to kill the one person the audience isn't rooting for is a bit suspect, and then David wakes up after the revelation and just wins -- isn't the most interesting thing in the world. But the battle in the mind, with David going through the themes that has been set up throughout the series, to embrace who he is, embrace the truth amid the lies, learn about his enemy's backstory... I thought that we probably could've intermixed the Oliver/Cary and David/David introdump to make it less repetitive. But the rest of the episode is kind of amazing. Add that to the amazing and insane lighting choices, silent-movie bit that actually worked, and the amazing, amazingly intense score? Yeah, I really like this episode.
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