Legion, Season 2, Episode 3: Chapter 11
This episode of Legion returns back to more psychedelic stuff, although I do think that the second season of Legion tries to embrace a more superhero-based tone. It's still insane, involves a lot of speeches about mental problems (some of which are a bit more suspect, like this episode's talk about mental-induced symptoms turning into a plague) and a lot of weird, wacky dreamlike symbolism. All the while, David Haller joins us, the audience, in trying to figure out what in the actual hell is going on. After the monologue about how perceptions and mental disorders can cause physical symptoms (which is true) which in turn can spread to other people (which is kind of bullshit in real life), we get to see the strange, inky malformed idea chicken-fetus crawl into Ptonomy's ear and mind. With the aid of all these reality-warping mutant powers in this setting, it's not a big stretch that simple thoughts can cause a catastrophic plague, as is the crisis that our heroes fail to avert.
David and cat!Syd begin this episode trying to track down the mysterious Mi-Go monk among the teeth-chattering afflicted, but instead unleashes the monk upon Division Three, causing a significant amount of its personnel to succumb to this Catalyst Illness. After a brief sojourn to meet Amahl Farouk, we learn that the Catalyst Illness is apparently caused by the Mi-Go monk, and Farouk is only deemed guilty by association since he's hunting the monk. It's an interesting bit of cat-and-mouse as the monks are technically good in that they're trying to keep the body of the evil Shadow King buried, but they don't care if a huge amount of humans should die in the process. Farouk, meanwhile, tells David that David's father (Professor X, for those who forgot) came into his culture and challenged his despotic rule, when all he wanted to do is to reign in peace and not cause some sort of weird world-ending apocalypse. Again, David's still trapped in choosing his allies, and it's pretty interesting.
Also interesting is Farouk painting himself as an oppressed good guy who just wants to be left alone, but circumstances have forced him to do things like leech on David to survive. He's clearly not a good guy and trying to get David to sympathize as 'fellow gods', but it's definitely convincingly portrayed as a character that might not be fully evil. Lenny being depicted as sort of dying of thirst and desiring freedom is also done very well, another layer to this mystery surrounding the Shadow King.
The main story in this episode is still rescuing his friends from the Catalyst Illness, however. With only Cary as the only sane person left, the two of them see Ptonomy, chattering away and held in place. David goes into Ptonomy's 'astral plane' and mind, and sees that the illness puts them in a weird illusory world where all their dreams are fulfilled. In Ptonomy's case, his eidetic memory means that he can't forget, so in his dream world he easily forgets things as he tends to flower in a gigantic garden-maze. David rips this fantasy out and the visuals of the garden blowing apart is definitely well done.
Far neater is the sequence when David and company enter Melanie's mind. Melanie has been robbed of her own life, with her biggest regret having given up her dreams for the sake of Oliver's dreams, and is this omniscient, omnipowerful godlike being in her fantasies, able to write anything and make it happen. Melanie's crazy fantasy is definitely well-done, asking her 'subjects' to type in what they want to do into a typewriter while she replies in huge words that manifest in pretty cool ways. Also, the weird geriatric goat-skull headed thing that briefly popped up in Melanie's drug-addled fantasy last episode is apparently a minotaur in Melanie's mind? Regardless, David, having paid attention to Melanie's regrets and ramblings through the past two episodes, quickly figures out how to get through to Melanie and frees her as well.
As his allies are gathered, David keeps getting flash-forwards (???) to Future!Syd writing the words "HURRY" as she seems to be taken away by a grey... thing, adding yet another sense of urgency to poor David's confusion and panic. Our heroes arrive in Fukuyama's room, finding that the monk has creepily crouched on the top corner of the room's ceiling, connected to a member of the Vermillion while Fukuyama and other members of the Vermillion are strewn around dead. The revelation that the monk is the cause of the Catalyst illness is surprising, of course, but far more interesting is the monk's argument with David, the 'weapon' that Division Three wants to use to destroy the Shadow King's body. David goes through the monk's mind, seeing the monk's life and the aftermath of what I assumed to be an attack of the Shadow King, and eventually where the Shadow King is buried... but he doesn't know where the monastery is.
And after a confrontation on the rooftop of the facility when David teleports him and the monk up for some mano-a-mano confrontation, the monk chooses to throw himself off the roof rather than let the Shadow King's body's location be revealed to David. Oh, and Cary ends up being re-absorbed into the chattering Kerry's body, presumably to break her free in the next episode? David ends the episode jumping into Syd's mind, with her maze apparently represented by a huge blizzard.
There are a lot of other neat touches here, like Kerry being completely confused about actual day-to-day living, having spent most of her life inside Cary (she doesn't know how to poop, for example), everything surrounding Cat-Syd, and the neat running gag of a cow appearing in all sorts of different parts of the trippy facility and the deadpan way everyone reacts to it. Overall, it's a pretty tense episode with lots of fun symbolism and lots of neat revelations. Legion is not an easy series to review, but by god it's fun to watch and a great exercise in seeing just how different a superhero story could be told.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- The term "astral plane" is often used in X-Men comics for any sort of mental battle done by Professor X, the Shadow King and other mental-manipulating mutants.
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