Legion S02E10 Review: Enjoying The Madness

Legion, Season 2, Episode 10: Chapter 18

Season two of Legion is an odd beast. I really wished that they had gone straight to just exploring the main themes of the season -- the duality between David and Farouk, with the whole "who is the real villain" deal that really only gets explored in this episode in any depth. The season was filled with so much weird side-stories and honestly overly indulgent standalone episodes that didn't quite worked and didn't really pan out when the season is viewed as an entire piece. Most egregious would be the delusion-chicken-oil episodes and everything regarding Ptonomy and Admiral Fukuyama, neither of which goes anywhere.

And this episode just ramps up the weirdness factor, starting off with David with his comic-book-Legion hair gelled upwards while he hovers in a hut, a montage of Syd thinking over and over about how "I'm going after him", before walking out to a big-ass creepy hole in the ground, a rabbit attached to a hook that acts as bait, and a huge pink sink plug next to it. None of this is really explained beyond some vague these-mutants-can-warp-reality nonsense, and there's a moment when things cease to be surreal quasi-imagery and just look silly.

Speaking of silly things and pointless side-quests, Syd gets abducted with the rabbit-on-a-hook and placed in an underground chamber where we then proceed to have Melanie (really Farouk controlling Melanie, although it's one of the show's more obvious plot twists) talk on and on and on about how men are evil, how David's in love with his god-given purpose, and just keeps showing Syd how David is evil, or at least fucked-up enough in the head to enjoy torture. One of the themes throughout this season is whether David really is a sane man with superpowers that thinks he's crazy thanks to sharing his mind with a parasite... or if he is really crazy. The problem I have, though, is that Melanie Bird has been such a non-entity this entire season, and even in the rare occasions that she does anything (like episode 9), it's either being manipulated by the Shadow King or just repeating the same old tired "men try to manipulate women with love" one-track mind. And the revelation that the huge scenes she had in this episode is just her being taken over by the Shadow King? Yeah, not a very good showing for poor Melanie, huh?

Meanwhile, David confronts Oliver-Farouk, and driven mad with the thought of Syd being abducted by the Shadow King, begins to torture Oliver. He thinks Oliver is Farouk, of course, and we get a montage of him zipping from one fantasy to the next as he drills into Oliver's knee, and we get that glorious Dan Stevens crazy face as he definitely shows off someone who isn't completely forced to do what he's doing to Oliver. Of course, manipulation is the name of the game, and the Oliver that David is torturing is really Oliver (albeit "made" to taunt David) and not Farouk-using-his-body. The show chickens out of having David straight-up kill Oliver, sadly, but the damage is done and David's curled himself up into a ball at the end of the episode, musing about how he is worried about how much he enjoys being evil. Meanwhile, Syd is just afraid at the constant showcasing that David Haller actually does enjoy the psychosis and she might be denying that darker side of David just because of her own love.

The Syd storyline is another that doesn't necessarily work that well for me, because throughout the season Syd has been more or less stable and shown to be pretty competent, but ten minutes of listening to Melanie talk and being shown some visions (albeit extremely skewed towards David's crazier parts), she seems to be against David? I thought that was a character shift that didn't quite felt earned.

The rest of the storylines featuring the minor characters are a bit more fun, but doesn't quite have the heavy characterization moments. We've got fun bits with Lenny teleporting into the desert, pulling out a big-ass fuck-off sniper rifle from her suitcase and meets a bunch of box-headed monks around the sinkhole. Carry and Kery follow suit, and then Kery kicks some ass while fighting against the box-headed monks (presumably those of the same Mi-Go order, although this bit isn't really made clear) that swing around bolas that make people go dizzy? The scenes are badass, but feel frustratingly like distractions. A bit more sensible is Agent Clark arriving with the Vermilion drones and a big-ass tuning fork called the Choke that can apparently neutralize mutant powers, which is part of David's huge chess plan to take out Farouk.

Add in the weird minotaur from Melanie's delusions, which is certainly creepy, but apparently is also a tangible monster that Melanie-Farouk can just power-up like a video game boss, and then sic upon the Vermilion drones that are sent into the temple? And then Syd and Kery kick its ass off-screen? Yeah, it's weird.

Cary, meanwhile, finds Oliver's body with David sitting nearby and confessing everything he's done to Cary, with David reiterating how scared he is of himself... but not scared enough to lead to a final confrontation with Amahl Farouk. Farouk, who has jumped host from Oliver to Melanie back to his real body, walks into the sun, one-shots all the Division Three mooks, causes the Vermilion to do the most non-plussed retreat ever, and telekinetically tosses the Choke away. Of course, David Haller, seemingly embracing his madness, pops up behind Farouk with a grin and a "boo", setting the final episode. Shame the episode itself sort of speeds through scenes that need some actual screentime,  and spends too much time on gratuitous action scenes and weird surreal imagery that ends up feeling more distraction than tone-setting. Sadly, this imbalance of tone and pacing will continue to Legion's final episode.