Legion, Season 2 [2018]
[originally reviewed as individual episode from June 2018 - July 2018]
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Legion, Season 2, Episode 1: Chapter 9
I had wanted to wait until the entire season of Legion's second outing is available before watching it, which is why it took some time for me to get this one out. It's not a show for everyone, because of its psychedelic nature and its unconventional 'mind-fuck' style of storytelling, but it's been a personal favourite of mine as to just how different a superhero-sci-fi story can be done. In the last few moments of the first season of Legion, Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King, has escaped with Oliver Bird's body in tow. Oh, and some weird-ass floating Pokeball kidnaps David Haller.
This episode starts off nearly a year after season one ended, and we're sort of thrown into this brand new setting alongside David himself. The way that the episode is framed and told is pretty awesomely done as both David and the audience is thrown into this disorienting mix. The last thing that David (and us, the audience) remembered is that paragraph above, and at the beginning of this episode, he's brought back. There are flashes of disconcerting images -- trees, dancing in a club, et cetera... and to David, it's only been a day, whereas for the rest of the cast it's been nearly a year.
And the first few scenes involves David's confusion as to what's going on. Apparently, in his absence, the mutants of Summerland and the shifty government people have formed an alliance, Division Three, which is shown to us in a neat little surreal infographic. One of their leaders is Admiral Fukuyama, a strange dude who keeps his head in a basket-like monk helmet, and uses three bearded ladies who speak in a singsong voice to talk to people. They're hunting the Shadow King, who, in turn, has been causing mass paralysis among humans, leaving them stationary status that do nothing but chatter their teeth. There are a lot of times where the intercom speaks of 'new symptoms' that are never fully explained beyond the implication that they are part of whatever weird malaise-plague that the Shadow King brings around with him, known as The Catalyst.
(The teeth-chattering thing is such a simple yet horrifying practical effect to add a degree of horror to this whole thing)
As David tries to walk around the base and meet his old friends -- Ptomony, Sid, the Loudermilks, Clark the scar-faced agent -- he keeps telling them that he doesn't remember anything from his missing year other than images. But we, the audience, are treated to at least a flashback to the vision David saw in the sphere, where through a weird bit of glow-stick charades, what appears to be a future version of Syd tells David to help Amahl Farouk find his body... the exact opposite of Division Three's mission statement, which is to prevent Farouk from returning to his body.
We get a bunch of other weird scenes, like "Lenny" and Oliver in a pool, or the disconcertingly long dance sequence near the end of the episode, and some hints that David might not be himself. And honestly? At this point, there is no real way to know if David's just getting some memory loss and is genuinely happy to see everyone again, or if he's in league with the Shadow King or have some sort of ulterior motive, and the happy-go-lucky stuff could've been a facade. Something that is probably meant to be symbolized by the parable of Chinese poet Zhuang Zi dreaming about butterflies (is Zhuang Zi a butterfly that dreams he is Zhuang Zi, or the other way around?) as well as the gloriously weird imagery of eggs, chickens, ideas and psychosis. Again, Legion builds up on tropes of unreliable narrators and psychedelic imagery, twisting them into a weirdly engaging episode.
And while David is filled with tropes of unreliable narrators and amnesia, the other characters are still equally interesting. Syd is a bit more assertive, for no small part due to Melanie's mentoring about how to survive when seemingly 'abandoned' by a heroic man. The Loudermilks, Ptonomy and Agent Clark have all settled in very well into their roles in Division Three. Melanie, meanwhile, is a wreck, remaining mostly in her room and inhaling the weird hallucinogenic smoke-drug that Lenny and David used in the past from a very, very fancy elephant inhaler thing as she hallucinates and rambles about how Oliver leaving her is some passive-aggressive way to control her.
Ultimately, this is a pretty crazy episode as usual, and while Legion is clearly not for everybody due to its... strange and unconventional storytelling methods, it's definitely a blast to watch if you're in the mood for some mindfuckery.
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Legion, Season 2, Episode 2: Chapter 10
It's another pretty strong episode of Legion, and one that delves a bit more into the huge uncertainty of David Haller's journey in this season. He's sure of himself now, he's sure of his allies, and he's exorcised the mysterious parasite, revealed to be another mutant, that has been fucking with his memories. But now he has to struggle -- is the mysterious future!Syd really his ally? He's in contact with the Shadow King to some degree, but how much should he trust the other mutant? The episode ends up being a bit more... mundane in some parts, as even putting David and Farouk into weird fencing uniforms and samurai suits don't really hide the fact that it's trying to exposit, but it's perhaps to this episode's favour. After such a huge shakeup of the status quo, this episode sorts of lays things somewhat in order. Whether this will make Legion more easy to follow or just a generic superhero storyline in the future is something to be seen.
Regardless, the interaction between David and Farouk is pretty interesting. David and Farouk apparently have had a deal before to help Farouk find his body, with the caveat of Farouk "not killing anyone" -- something he flagrantly disregards with impunity when he strolls into a Division 3 base. David later confronts Farouk in a field with a little stand, and basically tries to get Farouk to cooperate -- including, pretty hilariously, transforming into a tank to blast Farouk in a mental battle. Farouk is willing to play ball, but keeps reminding David that they are gods, so why do insects like the humans matter?
There are some interesting bits. David ends up convincing Cary/Kerry to boost the Not-Cerebro to send him through time, and basically they need the Shadow King to stop a bigger threat? Very X-Men plot. I approve. David also confides in Syd about all that's happening, and while Syd finds it a bit weird, she adapts relatively quickly, noting that, hey, they have to trust each other, right? Meanwhile, Melanie tells David and Syd to just bugger off and live in a nice cabin somewhere because 'the world is in danger, fuck it, someone will save it'.
There's the neat little parable of how ticks, dogs and human perceive the world (with some black humour when the kid in the parable steps into the road because 'green means go' and gets splattered offscreen), and who's to say that David's not being duped like that child in the parable? The question is, who is duping him?
Of course, it's not quite as simple as that. The Lenny persona begs to be let out from the mental amalgamation that is David Farouk and be allowed to die, which he expressly refuses to honour. The mysterious Admiral Fukuyama and the bearded robot-ladies (identified as 'the Vermilion') are still weird and I'm not sure who they are allied to. There is the weird black goo in David's room that we last saw... with the weird psychosis chicken from the previous episode? Future Syd even notes that David used to be 'so sweet', and that David in the future is not dead, but 'not here'... so maybe David becomes the mysterious threat that wipes out humanity? There is a continued talk about Farouk's body being hidden by the Mi-Go Monk, who is apparently hiding among the teeth-chattering victims in Division Three, which is... okay? The teeth dudes are still creepy as hell.
We've got a weird subplot where Carry and Kary get their body-swapping routine strangely mixed up thanks to Farouk-Lenny's spoon trick. Clark gets a bit more screentime in asking David some armour piercing questions. Overall, though, the focus of the episode is still David and his interactions with the people around him. The mysteries are peeled back a bit, the story and the world is expanded a bit, and it's pretty dang neat.
Regardless, the interaction between David and Farouk is pretty interesting. David and Farouk apparently have had a deal before to help Farouk find his body, with the caveat of Farouk "not killing anyone" -- something he flagrantly disregards with impunity when he strolls into a Division 3 base. David later confronts Farouk in a field with a little stand, and basically tries to get Farouk to cooperate -- including, pretty hilariously, transforming into a tank to blast Farouk in a mental battle. Farouk is willing to play ball, but keeps reminding David that they are gods, so why do insects like the humans matter?
There are some interesting bits. David ends up convincing Cary/Kerry to boost the Not-Cerebro to send him through time, and basically they need the Shadow King to stop a bigger threat? Very X-Men plot. I approve. David also confides in Syd about all that's happening, and while Syd finds it a bit weird, she adapts relatively quickly, noting that, hey, they have to trust each other, right? Meanwhile, Melanie tells David and Syd to just bugger off and live in a nice cabin somewhere because 'the world is in danger, fuck it, someone will save it'.
There's the neat little parable of how ticks, dogs and human perceive the world (with some black humour when the kid in the parable steps into the road because 'green means go' and gets splattered offscreen), and who's to say that David's not being duped like that child in the parable? The question is, who is duping him?
Of course, it's not quite as simple as that. The Lenny persona begs to be let out from the mental amalgamation that is David Farouk and be allowed to die, which he expressly refuses to honour. The mysterious Admiral Fukuyama and the bearded robot-ladies (identified as 'the Vermilion') are still weird and I'm not sure who they are allied to. There is the weird black goo in David's room that we last saw... with the weird psychosis chicken from the previous episode? Future Syd even notes that David used to be 'so sweet', and that David in the future is not dead, but 'not here'... so maybe David becomes the mysterious threat that wipes out humanity? There is a continued talk about Farouk's body being hidden by the Mi-Go Monk, who is apparently hiding among the teeth-chattering victims in Division Three, which is... okay? The teeth dudes are still creepy as hell.
We've got a weird subplot where Carry and Kary get their body-swapping routine strangely mixed up thanks to Farouk-Lenny's spoon trick. Clark gets a bit more screentime in asking David some armour piercing questions. Overall, though, the focus of the episode is still David and his interactions with the people around him. The mysteries are peeled back a bit, the story and the world is expanded a bit, and it's pretty dang neat.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- While the Mi-Go Order is original to Legion (if anything, they're from the Cthulhu mythos) the Shi'ar is briefly mentioned by Cary as possibly being involved. The Shi'ar is a highly advanced alien race that's heavily involved in X-Men comics.
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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.
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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Legion, Season 2, Episode 4: Chapter 12
The fourth episode of Legion's second season is a bit more focused and a lot slower. It's basically the concept of the third episode -- the maze in the mind that we sometimes find ourselves trapped in -- minus all the superhero "hunt down the Shadow King while figure out the monk conspiracy" plotline. Sure, there's a bit of it going on in the background of the episode, but ultimately this episode focuses almost entirely on Sydney Barrett. It's an interesting bit as the 'maze' that Syd gets trapped in is basically the story of her life from her literal birth to her current age, giving us some neat Rogue-esque story of having to live without being able to ever physically touch someone without unleashing her mutant powers. And just as the audience has to relive Syd's life story reel over and over again, David, too, has to repeat the sequence like someone playing a detective video game, only to be told "try again" multiple times as he tries to 'get' what Syd wants.
And as David and us, the audience, looks through Syd's life as she starts life as a baby, grows up and has this whole speech about surviving, gets bullied, and dances around in a club, David and dream!Syd keeps returning to the art gallery and an igloo. David tries a couple of obvious solutions. Syd doesn't like to be touched. Syd is always left alone, but desires intimacy like the lovey-dovey couple around her at points in her backstory. Syd is afraid that David will hate her if he sees all the darkness within her. But it's all not true, and as David repeats Syd's story, he gets to see a bunch of extra scenes he doesn't see before...
And it basically paints a slightly uglier picture of Syd. The first morally ambiguous scene is a bully that harasses Syd and forces her to kiss him. Which Syd does, and when the body-switch happens Syd uses the body of the douchebag to beat the ever-living crap out of the three girls that have been constantly tormenting her.
But clearly, the biggest and most disturbing scene (which was implied in season one, but it's different to see it here) was Syd touching the body of her sleeping mother, and then walking over to have sex with her mother's boyfriend while in her body... and then when the inevitable 'switch' happens, the poor, confused boyfriend gets arrested for basically having sex with a fifteen-year-old girl. It's a dark, dark disturbing scene, yet seeing just how tormented Syd is and how she desires for any sort of physical contact, you can sort of sympathize with the girl even though her actions in both those scenes are pretty horrid.
I also would like to add the distinct directional decision to have Syd's mother never actually say anything to Syd. Syd's mother speaks to other people in the flashback, and it's most notable when Syd's mother pointedly ignores her for a bit while talking to her boyfriend, but throughout the flashback Syd's mother tries her best to communicate with Syd through touching, through gestures and through smiles. It's a neat way of showing how distant their relationship is, but it's still a relationship with some amount of love.
The moral of the story that ends up allowing Syd and David to wake up rolls back to the speech about survival and damage, and how all the suffering that the two 'broken birds' have gone through have caused them to truly become stronger. Syd makes the distinction of not suffering to better herself -- she just suffers to become stronger because, to her, life is a constant war. They can't be lovers, but they have to be fighters. Sure, getting to that point seems odd considering the scenes from Syd's life that's shown to us in the flashback loop, but it's a neat little conclusion to David and Syd's relationship. Through their final confrontation between David and Syd, and the fact that the two of them are trapped in a different sort of coma compared to the rest of Division Three, it's heavily implied that Syd wasn't even trapped and that she's doing it for David's benefit as a form of tough love.
Speaking of the rest of Division Three, apparently everyone else just wakes up, including Cary/Kerry and Agent Clark, so I'm genuinely unsure why we had that extra flashback last episode. Also, whatever happened to the cow? Oh, and Division Three has gotten their hands on Lenny, who proclaims that "I'm back!" Whether the Shadow King actually lets Lenny go from his weird hive-mind or it's some other ploy, I'm definitely curious. Ultimately, the episode ends up being fairly more slower-paced and might feel like a 'filler' episode of sorts, but on the other hand I do very much appreciate the additional focus given to Syd. One of my bigger complaints about Syd as a character is that she's such an enigma (especially post timeskip, where she's grown a little harder -- possibly explained by her "suffering makes me stronger" mentality) and this episode does more than its fair share to peel back the layers behind the woman that is Sydney Barrett.
And as David and us, the audience, looks through Syd's life as she starts life as a baby, grows up and has this whole speech about surviving, gets bullied, and dances around in a club, David and dream!Syd keeps returning to the art gallery and an igloo. David tries a couple of obvious solutions. Syd doesn't like to be touched. Syd is always left alone, but desires intimacy like the lovey-dovey couple around her at points in her backstory. Syd is afraid that David will hate her if he sees all the darkness within her. But it's all not true, and as David repeats Syd's story, he gets to see a bunch of extra scenes he doesn't see before...
And it basically paints a slightly uglier picture of Syd. The first morally ambiguous scene is a bully that harasses Syd and forces her to kiss him. Which Syd does, and when the body-switch happens Syd uses the body of the douchebag to beat the ever-living crap out of the three girls that have been constantly tormenting her.
But clearly, the biggest and most disturbing scene (which was implied in season one, but it's different to see it here) was Syd touching the body of her sleeping mother, and then walking over to have sex with her mother's boyfriend while in her body... and then when the inevitable 'switch' happens, the poor, confused boyfriend gets arrested for basically having sex with a fifteen-year-old girl. It's a dark, dark disturbing scene, yet seeing just how tormented Syd is and how she desires for any sort of physical contact, you can sort of sympathize with the girl even though her actions in both those scenes are pretty horrid.
I also would like to add the distinct directional decision to have Syd's mother never actually say anything to Syd. Syd's mother speaks to other people in the flashback, and it's most notable when Syd's mother pointedly ignores her for a bit while talking to her boyfriend, but throughout the flashback Syd's mother tries her best to communicate with Syd through touching, through gestures and through smiles. It's a neat way of showing how distant their relationship is, but it's still a relationship with some amount of love.
The moral of the story that ends up allowing Syd and David to wake up rolls back to the speech about survival and damage, and how all the suffering that the two 'broken birds' have gone through have caused them to truly become stronger. Syd makes the distinction of not suffering to better herself -- she just suffers to become stronger because, to her, life is a constant war. They can't be lovers, but they have to be fighters. Sure, getting to that point seems odd considering the scenes from Syd's life that's shown to us in the flashback loop, but it's a neat little conclusion to David and Syd's relationship. Through their final confrontation between David and Syd, and the fact that the two of them are trapped in a different sort of coma compared to the rest of Division Three, it's heavily implied that Syd wasn't even trapped and that she's doing it for David's benefit as a form of tough love.
Speaking of the rest of Division Three, apparently everyone else just wakes up, including Cary/Kerry and Agent Clark, so I'm genuinely unsure why we had that extra flashback last episode. Also, whatever happened to the cow? Oh, and Division Three has gotten their hands on Lenny, who proclaims that "I'm back!" Whether the Shadow King actually lets Lenny go from his weird hive-mind or it's some other ploy, I'm definitely curious. Ultimately, the episode ends up being fairly more slower-paced and might feel like a 'filler' episode of sorts, but on the other hand I do very much appreciate the additional focus given to Syd. One of my bigger complaints about Syd as a character is that she's such an enigma (especially post timeskip, where she's grown a little harder -- possibly explained by her "suffering makes me stronger" mentality) and this episode does more than its fair share to peel back the layers behind the woman that is Sydney Barrett.
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Legion, Season 2, Episode 5: Chapter 13
I absolutely love how the recap for this episode starts off with "Apparently, on Legion" instead of previously as many TV show recaps start off as. Considering how liberal Legion plays with unreliable narrators, deception, illusions and reality warping tropes, it's a neat little touch that I absolutely appreciate in the part of an episode that people tend to overlook.
The entire episode revolves on this whole "apparently" thing, as Division Three members take turn to interrogate Lenny, who has mysteriously appeared and been apprehended at the end of the previous episode. Everyone lampshades how Lenny was merely a fragment in the Shadow King/David Haller's mind, and not an actual person with an actual body (anymore, anyway, with the real Lenny's body merged into a wall). Everyone tries to disorient Lenny, with the initial interrogation by the no-nonsense Clark taking place in a weird upside-down room. Lenny tries to paint herself as an escaped hostage who is just confused, repeating anecdotes about her gran-gran and keeps telling everyone that she's the victim and an escaped hostage who just wants to talk to David, but no one is taking any chances, which is neat. Everyone basically acknowledges that Lenny is being used as a pawn by Amahl Farouk in his weird chessmastering against Division Three, but to what degree?
Ptonomy's interrogation starts off with one of Legion's philosophy talks, with Ptomony giving this speech about past, present and future as he tries to figure out whose body has Lenny taken over since she doesn't really have a body to return to per se, especially since Lenny's eyes are different. With Lenny's mind being unreadable, Ptonomy's attempts to read into Lenny's mind ends up causing him to see a lot of weird shit, including the face within Admiral Fukuyama's basket-hat, that of a weird bug-eyed bird demon creature. Is this literal? Is Fukuyama an alien or a mutant of some sort? Is it a delusion planted by the Delusion Chicken (for lack of a better term)? This episode establishes that the weird oil-like Delusion Chicken seen earlier in this season isn't just a metaphorical term for the Catalyst disease, but what appears to be an actual entity that's worming its way into Ptonomy's mind, leading to another plotlines that this episode builds up a little.
Speaking of a different plotline, the B-plot running throughout this episode follows Oliver Bird and Amahl Farouk as they go on a journey through the desert, doing some grave-digging and unleashing a device that they have stolen a couple of episodes back from Division Three. The two of them keep talking about conspiracy, coincidences and patterns, and how humanity tends to look for patterns as a holdover from their days as hunter-gatherers. Their little side-quest ends up tying into the initially seemingly-unrelated Lenny interrogation, because as we follow Oliver and Amahl as they follow a weird submarine-car and discuss the morality of killing other humans (Amahl is fully in the camp of mutantkind being Homo superior), before the story shows Amahl Farouk's end goal just as David himself realizes what's happening. We also get the clear note that Oliver is actually not very happy being used as a pawn by Amahl, and promises to kill him in the future.
The final person to interrogate Lenny before we get answers is, of course, David, and we get some questioning as to just how much of their weird friendship/relationship is real. Lenny acknowledges that, yes, she's being used by a pawn by Amahl Farouk, but she doesn't really mean David any real harm, and is about as confused as David is as to the circumstances behind her resurrection. And, of course, the truth of Lenny's body eventually dawns on David as the episode cuts to the finale of the Oliver/Amahl road tour.
Because Oliver/Amahl arrives onto the house where David's sister Amy Haller is staying, and it genuinely plays out like a goddamn horror show. It's a bit of a shame that we've not actually checked in with Amy at all this whole season, because it does sort of lose a bit of an impact when I go "oh, right, this character exists", but the episode more than makes up for it by playing up some neat serial killer/horror scenes. After a bit of an ominous foreshadowing where Amy talks about how she's dreamed that she's got a mustache and talks about being the "Machine That Bleeds", apparently dreaming that she's part of the Vermilion, we go straight into serial killer territory as Amy's bodyguards, and subsequently her boyfriend, gets killed and turned into dust by Oliver-Amahl, and as Oliver-Amahl calmly washes his hands, it's clear that Amy is very, very much helpless.
Amy gets mentally manipulated onto the table and is sculpted into the body that holds Lenny's consciousness (jury's out if Amy's actually dead, though, or if some part of her psyche remains in the new Lenny body), and Oliver-Amahl sends Lenny-Amy to Division Three as a cruel, cruel distraction. Lenny and David, in Division Three, very appropriately freaks out as they figure this out. It's the possible death of a major supporting character, told through a pretty well-executed horror and mind-fuckery lens. Pretty good stuff here.
The entire episode revolves on this whole "apparently" thing, as Division Three members take turn to interrogate Lenny, who has mysteriously appeared and been apprehended at the end of the previous episode. Everyone lampshades how Lenny was merely a fragment in the Shadow King/David Haller's mind, and not an actual person with an actual body (anymore, anyway, with the real Lenny's body merged into a wall). Everyone tries to disorient Lenny, with the initial interrogation by the no-nonsense Clark taking place in a weird upside-down room. Lenny tries to paint herself as an escaped hostage who is just confused, repeating anecdotes about her gran-gran and keeps telling everyone that she's the victim and an escaped hostage who just wants to talk to David, but no one is taking any chances, which is neat. Everyone basically acknowledges that Lenny is being used as a pawn by Amahl Farouk in his weird chessmastering against Division Three, but to what degree?
Ptonomy's interrogation starts off with one of Legion's philosophy talks, with Ptomony giving this speech about past, present and future as he tries to figure out whose body has Lenny taken over since she doesn't really have a body to return to per se, especially since Lenny's eyes are different. With Lenny's mind being unreadable, Ptonomy's attempts to read into Lenny's mind ends up causing him to see a lot of weird shit, including the face within Admiral Fukuyama's basket-hat, that of a weird bug-eyed bird demon creature. Is this literal? Is Fukuyama an alien or a mutant of some sort? Is it a delusion planted by the Delusion Chicken (for lack of a better term)? This episode establishes that the weird oil-like Delusion Chicken seen earlier in this season isn't just a metaphorical term for the Catalyst disease, but what appears to be an actual entity that's worming its way into Ptonomy's mind, leading to another plotlines that this episode builds up a little.
Speaking of a different plotline, the B-plot running throughout this episode follows Oliver Bird and Amahl Farouk as they go on a journey through the desert, doing some grave-digging and unleashing a device that they have stolen a couple of episodes back from Division Three. The two of them keep talking about conspiracy, coincidences and patterns, and how humanity tends to look for patterns as a holdover from their days as hunter-gatherers. Their little side-quest ends up tying into the initially seemingly-unrelated Lenny interrogation, because as we follow Oliver and Amahl as they follow a weird submarine-car and discuss the morality of killing other humans (Amahl is fully in the camp of mutantkind being Homo superior), before the story shows Amahl Farouk's end goal just as David himself realizes what's happening. We also get the clear note that Oliver is actually not very happy being used as a pawn by Amahl, and promises to kill him in the future.
The final person to interrogate Lenny before we get answers is, of course, David, and we get some questioning as to just how much of their weird friendship/relationship is real. Lenny acknowledges that, yes, she's being used by a pawn by Amahl Farouk, but she doesn't really mean David any real harm, and is about as confused as David is as to the circumstances behind her resurrection. And, of course, the truth of Lenny's body eventually dawns on David as the episode cuts to the finale of the Oliver/Amahl road tour.
Because Oliver/Amahl arrives onto the house where David's sister Amy Haller is staying, and it genuinely plays out like a goddamn horror show. It's a bit of a shame that we've not actually checked in with Amy at all this whole season, because it does sort of lose a bit of an impact when I go "oh, right, this character exists", but the episode more than makes up for it by playing up some neat serial killer/horror scenes. After a bit of an ominous foreshadowing where Amy talks about how she's dreamed that she's got a mustache and talks about being the "Machine That Bleeds", apparently dreaming that she's part of the Vermilion, we go straight into serial killer territory as Amy's bodyguards, and subsequently her boyfriend, gets killed and turned into dust by Oliver-Amahl, and as Oliver-Amahl calmly washes his hands, it's clear that Amy is very, very much helpless.
Amy gets mentally manipulated onto the table and is sculpted into the body that holds Lenny's consciousness (jury's out if Amy's actually dead, though, or if some part of her psyche remains in the new Lenny body), and Oliver-Amahl sends Lenny-Amy to Division Three as a cruel, cruel distraction. Lenny and David, in Division Three, very appropriately freaks out as they figure this out. It's the possible death of a major supporting character, told through a pretty well-executed horror and mind-fuckery lens. Pretty good stuff here.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Amahl Farouk refers to mutantkind as "Homo superior", the term that is often used by X-Men villain Magneto in describing mutants as the inherently superior evolution of mankind.
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Legion, Season 2, Episode 6: Chapter 14
This is a... different episode. It shows us several seemingly unrelated scenes before revealing that it's all different universes, different possible ways that the events of Legion could've taken place, if things had gone differently. I don't think Legion is the type of show to go straight-up comic book and embrace things like alternate earths and multiverses, and the way that this is done is ambiguous enough on whether this really is looking at different universes/timelines or, once more, if this is all just in David's head.
We've got several timelines, one of them showing David and Amy growing to a very old couple who live like, well, an old couple in a house, where Amy takes care of David like a man-child all the way until they're one foot in the grave. Another timeline shows David rising to power (albeit implied that this David never broke free from Farouk), working as a secretary and a coffee boy, before using his mind-reading to help his boss gain more power in business deals, eventually supplanting the boss... at the cost of his relationship to Amy, which sours. Another timeline shows David as reduced into some random hobo, that blew up a bunch of bullies, before eventually deemed as a mutant menace put down by Kerry and the rest of Division Three. Yet another timeline shows David as a somewhat mild-mannered, if neurotic, man who accidentally unleashes his superpowers when he is accosted by policemen, causing the death of Amy.
In the middle of it all, we've got a scene of David and Amy talking about the actual multiverse theory, there's a dancing rat, and there's a recap of the self-destructive David that ends up trying to commit suicide and gets admitted to Clockwork. It's a pretty interesting storyline and episode, if a little self-indulgent and I suppose it serves to make Amy's exit from the show far more than just a sudden "oh by the way this character from season one? She's dead. She's been dead." It's a bit weird to have this character focus for Amy -- who is consistently a caring sister for David whatever happens to him in these alternate timelines -- happen after she's gone, but eh.
One interpretation for this episode might just be that David is straight-up going through other realities and living in those Davids' shoes. The two pieces of dialogue that seem to be the center of conflict for David -- Farouk's insistence that David embrace his godhood powers and "what you believe is, will be" mentality, and Amy's gentle words telling David that "this isn't what is supposed to have happened, but it is". Ultimately we just find that all the alternate universe Davids aren't anywhere as happy as "our" David. It's a weird episode that leans a bit too much into weird symbolism, I'm not sure if this deserves the huge amount screentime that the show gave it... but making it anything but a self-contained episode would be way too erratic. Ultimately, though, while it is kind of a filler episode, it's at least a well-written and well-executed filler episode, showing us that it's healthier to grieve than to try and create another reality. Or something, I guess.
We've got several timelines, one of them showing David and Amy growing to a very old couple who live like, well, an old couple in a house, where Amy takes care of David like a man-child all the way until they're one foot in the grave. Another timeline shows David rising to power (albeit implied that this David never broke free from Farouk), working as a secretary and a coffee boy, before using his mind-reading to help his boss gain more power in business deals, eventually supplanting the boss... at the cost of his relationship to Amy, which sours. Another timeline shows David as reduced into some random hobo, that blew up a bunch of bullies, before eventually deemed as a mutant menace put down by Kerry and the rest of Division Three. Yet another timeline shows David as a somewhat mild-mannered, if neurotic, man who accidentally unleashes his superpowers when he is accosted by policemen, causing the death of Amy.
In the middle of it all, we've got a scene of David and Amy talking about the actual multiverse theory, there's a dancing rat, and there's a recap of the self-destructive David that ends up trying to commit suicide and gets admitted to Clockwork. It's a pretty interesting storyline and episode, if a little self-indulgent and I suppose it serves to make Amy's exit from the show far more than just a sudden "oh by the way this character from season one? She's dead. She's been dead." It's a bit weird to have this character focus for Amy -- who is consistently a caring sister for David whatever happens to him in these alternate timelines -- happen after she's gone, but eh.
One interpretation for this episode might just be that David is straight-up going through other realities and living in those Davids' shoes. The two pieces of dialogue that seem to be the center of conflict for David -- Farouk's insistence that David embrace his godhood powers and "what you believe is, will be" mentality, and Amy's gentle words telling David that "this isn't what is supposed to have happened, but it is". Ultimately we just find that all the alternate universe Davids aren't anywhere as happy as "our" David. It's a weird episode that leans a bit too much into weird symbolism, I'm not sure if this deserves the huge amount screentime that the show gave it... but making it anything but a self-contained episode would be way too erratic. Ultimately, though, while it is kind of a filler episode, it's at least a well-written and well-executed filler episode, showing us that it's healthier to grieve than to try and create another reality. Or something, I guess.
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Legion, Season 2, Episode 7: Chapter 15
This episode starts with a recap that begins with "ostensibly, on Legion". I like that. So, in the previous episode, we've had a very self-contained episode with David exploring alternate realities. or something. This episode continues the bigger storyline of the whole stopping-an-apocalypse-from-causing-a-dystopian-future deal, but of course, because it's Legion, we start off with another monologue psychology lesson about moral panic, spreading horror, rational concern becoming irrational fear and generally talking about how fear makes people do unreasonable things like burning "witches" on the stake. "Which is more frightening: fear, or the frightened?" The narrator ends the lesson, and I guess it sort of plays up to the themes of paranoia that takes place throughout the episode? I have to admit that while the Psychology 101 lesson segments has always been well-shot and gloriously atmospheric, it's also sometimes very vague andd doesn't fit quite as well into the episode as the show thinks it does.
The episode starts off with a neat confrontation between David and Farouk in... the astral plane or wherever they meet, where David calls Farouk out for killing Amy. Farouk gives a bunch of bullshit excuses like "don't you wish bad things happened to her" and "Gods make the rules", and David's demands that Farouk removes his mask gets Farouk to talk about how everyone wears a mask. This definitely has thrown a huge, huge wrench to Future Syd's plans to get David to help Farouk locate his body to prevent the apocalypse, what with Farouk having killed Amy and all. We get a weird moment where David gets trapped in a weird kiddie table by Farouk and sees Crazy Amy, before returning to the real world.
We get a brief, short but heartwarming scene as David and Syd talk and discuss the madness of the situation with each other, including the hilarious bit where they awkwardly dance about the subject of cheating on Syd with... future Syd, and setting hilarious ground rules ("no sex!") for when David meets with Future Syd again. There's an "I love you" thrown in for good reason, too.
Speaking of Future Syd, she gets to manifest to Farouk in this episode, implied to be because of the connection that David and Farouk has during their meeting earlier this episode. Future Syd tells Farouk in no uncertain terms that in her timeline, David Haller becomes a monstrous being, kills Farouk and fucks up the world, and while Farouk gives this whole spiel about how he works outside the rules, he also concedes the point that he wants to survive at all costs, and remarks on the delicious, delicious irony that "the hero is the villain, and the villain is the hero." Did Future Syd just convince Farouk to murder David? Honestly, Future Syd's motives are pretty gloriously enigmatic, and it's unclear what her ultimate agenda is.
But we cut away from all this time-travelling stuff for a more immediate and jarring attack on Division Three. Lenny's still in a jail, snapping fingers and begging for everyone to let her out (and also she randomly drops the bomb that Farouk rapes her every night? Yeeaaah). The mysterious delusion-ink-chicken is starting to manifest nightmares inside Ptonomy and Clarke, both of whom end up realizing that they're being affected by something -- mainly dreams of Fukuyama being a weird zombie-chicken-alien-demon thing. I don't think it's particularly clear what the nature of the Delusion Chicken is, whether it's something the Shadow King created or a malevolent entity of its own, but it's a neat little 'miniboss', if you will, for this segment. The corridor filled with the cracked ink-eggs of these Delusion Chickens are pretty creepy, though, and shows that the Delusion Chickens aren't just symbolic but actually manifests in reality. Maybe.
There's a weird segment where Syd... dreams that she's Fukuyama? And apparently there are moments where people go into Fukuyama's room and don't come out? Regardless, we get a very cool scene of Clarke, Ptonomy and Kerry facing off against the Vermillion androids, who have became hostile for some reason. We've got a great moment of red light/green light with Clarke, and the scene of Ptonomy and Kerry marching down the corridor and hacking and shooting the regenerating androids. Clarke and Syd arrive in front of Fukuyama, and seeing the monstrous alien-demon figure, is ready to fire... until David shows up, replaces Clarke's gun with a mop, and then begins ripping out the chicken parasite out of everyone, showing that everyone is apparently infected. David kills them all... until a particularly big Delusion Chicken pops out of Ptonomy. But David just does some reality warper thing and kills the fucker.
Ptonomy's physical body is apparently killed by the act of 'birthing' the giant Delusion Chicken, Alien style, but the Vermillion take Ptonomy into a mysterious tree and plugs him in, plugging Ptonomy into some 1010101010 digital world? Okay, the bit with Ptonomy is honestly pretty weird and not particularly well-developed, I think. The scenes with Future Syd are great, though, and all the storyline regarding the Delusion Chicken is actually surprisingly well-told considering the mysterious and possibly non-intelligent Delusion Chickens. It's weird, for sure, but weird is what I signed up for when I started watching Legion.
The episode starts off with a neat confrontation between David and Farouk in... the astral plane or wherever they meet, where David calls Farouk out for killing Amy. Farouk gives a bunch of bullshit excuses like "don't you wish bad things happened to her" and "Gods make the rules", and David's demands that Farouk removes his mask gets Farouk to talk about how everyone wears a mask. This definitely has thrown a huge, huge wrench to Future Syd's plans to get David to help Farouk locate his body to prevent the apocalypse, what with Farouk having killed Amy and all. We get a weird moment where David gets trapped in a weird kiddie table by Farouk and sees Crazy Amy, before returning to the real world.
We get a brief, short but heartwarming scene as David and Syd talk and discuss the madness of the situation with each other, including the hilarious bit where they awkwardly dance about the subject of cheating on Syd with... future Syd, and setting hilarious ground rules ("no sex!") for when David meets with Future Syd again. There's an "I love you" thrown in for good reason, too.
Speaking of Future Syd, she gets to manifest to Farouk in this episode, implied to be because of the connection that David and Farouk has during their meeting earlier this episode. Future Syd tells Farouk in no uncertain terms that in her timeline, David Haller becomes a monstrous being, kills Farouk and fucks up the world, and while Farouk gives this whole spiel about how he works outside the rules, he also concedes the point that he wants to survive at all costs, and remarks on the delicious, delicious irony that "the hero is the villain, and the villain is the hero." Did Future Syd just convince Farouk to murder David? Honestly, Future Syd's motives are pretty gloriously enigmatic, and it's unclear what her ultimate agenda is.
But we cut away from all this time-travelling stuff for a more immediate and jarring attack on Division Three. Lenny's still in a jail, snapping fingers and begging for everyone to let her out (and also she randomly drops the bomb that Farouk rapes her every night? Yeeaaah). The mysterious delusion-ink-chicken is starting to manifest nightmares inside Ptonomy and Clarke, both of whom end up realizing that they're being affected by something -- mainly dreams of Fukuyama being a weird zombie-chicken-alien-demon thing. I don't think it's particularly clear what the nature of the Delusion Chicken is, whether it's something the Shadow King created or a malevolent entity of its own, but it's a neat little 'miniboss', if you will, for this segment. The corridor filled with the cracked ink-eggs of these Delusion Chickens are pretty creepy, though, and shows that the Delusion Chickens aren't just symbolic but actually manifests in reality. Maybe.
There's a weird segment where Syd... dreams that she's Fukuyama? And apparently there are moments where people go into Fukuyama's room and don't come out? Regardless, we get a very cool scene of Clarke, Ptonomy and Kerry facing off against the Vermillion androids, who have became hostile for some reason. We've got a great moment of red light/green light with Clarke, and the scene of Ptonomy and Kerry marching down the corridor and hacking and shooting the regenerating androids. Clarke and Syd arrive in front of Fukuyama, and seeing the monstrous alien-demon figure, is ready to fire... until David shows up, replaces Clarke's gun with a mop, and then begins ripping out the chicken parasite out of everyone, showing that everyone is apparently infected. David kills them all... until a particularly big Delusion Chicken pops out of Ptonomy. But David just does some reality warper thing and kills the fucker.
Ptonomy's physical body is apparently killed by the act of 'birthing' the giant Delusion Chicken, Alien style, but the Vermillion take Ptonomy into a mysterious tree and plugs him in, plugging Ptonomy into some 1010101010 digital world? Okay, the bit with Ptonomy is honestly pretty weird and not particularly well-developed, I think. The scenes with Future Syd are great, though, and all the storyline regarding the Delusion Chicken is actually surprisingly well-told considering the mysterious and possibly non-intelligent Delusion Chickens. It's weird, for sure, but weird is what I signed up for when I started watching Legion.
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Legion, Season 2, Episode 8: Chapter 16
After the previous episode deals with the bizarre side plot of the delusion oil-chicken babies, this one hops right back into the "find Farouk's body" storyline, and sometimes I wonder if the second season of Legion would've been a lot more tighter if the subplots are a little trimmed. This episode is... partly good and partly bad, I suppose. We start off with the sudden introduction of yet another complication to it all as Ptonomy finds himself as part of the strange Matrix machine that Fukuyama and the Vermilion are connected to, being a literal ghost in the machine as he ends up getting a huge, huge series of introdump that I really felt could've been done a bit better. Apparently, Fukuyama is a bit of a strange mutant (maybe?) of his own that wants to create a mind that's immune to telepaths like the Shadow King, David Haller and presumably Professor X, and that apparently is the construction of the computer system mind that Fukuyama is connected into. Oh, and as an extra bit of complication, after the fight with the Mi-Go Monk earlier in the season, the Mi-Go monk is, like Ptonomy, connected to the mainframe.
And it's Ptonomy who connects himself and takes control of a Vermilion, in order to talk to David. The connection goes two ways, it seems, and Ptonomy ends up finding out the location of Farouk's body -- a location called Le Desole. It's a fun bit where David basically tells the Ptonomy-Vermilion to fuck off, and this information is apparently the catalyst for David Haller to crack his fingers and become a bit of a chessmaster... although not before having an argument in his own head about the 'party' to select, to use a gaming term. And as we see David's chess pieces, we get to see Lenny, Car/Kerry and Clarke leading the Vermilion drones. And it's pretty cool even before the episode shows just what David does with it. What little scattered scenes we get shows Lenny breaks out of the jail as David manipulates events to get her jail door cell to open; Cary and Kerry standing next to a burning car, and Melanie Bird whacking Clarke in the head mid-badass walk, throwing Melanie's whole allegiance into a bit of a confusion.
Syd and Clarke also get a fun little conversation about the fact that Syd's dating a mutant that can destroy the world if he gets a bit upset, about how sometimes David has trouble telling what's real and unreal, and if there's even a proper guideline for being normal. And whatever happens, Syd is going after David, and arrives in Le Desole via parachute. "I'm on your side, asshole." she says, and she's not going to be left out of this climax.
Meanwhile, Oliver-Farouk meets an old woman who appears to know of Professor X, getting the information of the location from her mind before killing her -- although surprisingly enough we get a tender moment as Farouk allows the woman to have a hallucination of driving down the desert before killing her.
The rest of the episode sort of shows off Le Desole as the two pairs of Oliver/Farouk and David/Syd wanders through the desert, and its unique properties -- it's some magic fantasy shit because apparently the desert in the place changes, sometimes by the hour, moving around the monks' temple and thus the location of Farouk's tomb. In addition to that, there's a significant amount of mind-fuck as Syd and David find a tent with their own corpses. I'm not sure if it's just a strange part off the world, or if there's a powerful mutant behind it all, but it does lead to a fun, trippy scene.
It's a shame, though, that the episode's disjointedness is sort of wrecked by several factors -- I'm not really feeling the Ptonomy-in-the-mainframe plot, nor the events that led up to it. And the bodyless narrator segment talking about psychosis in this episode is particularly long, doesn't actually fit into any thematic significance as it goes from a pretty cool bit ("the shadows that the people in the cave seen are real to them, even if the shadows are not technically real") but devolves into a pretty banal and honestly insultingly simple speech about how "PHONES ARE DESTROYING THE HUMAN SOCIETY" about how narcissists basically don't care about how other people in the internet feels. That just seems like an argument that's apropos of nothing, doesn't have any real significance for the story and just felt shoehorned in.
And it's Ptonomy who connects himself and takes control of a Vermilion, in order to talk to David. The connection goes two ways, it seems, and Ptonomy ends up finding out the location of Farouk's body -- a location called Le Desole. It's a fun bit where David basically tells the Ptonomy-Vermilion to fuck off, and this information is apparently the catalyst for David Haller to crack his fingers and become a bit of a chessmaster... although not before having an argument in his own head about the 'party' to select, to use a gaming term. And as we see David's chess pieces, we get to see Lenny, Car/Kerry and Clarke leading the Vermilion drones. And it's pretty cool even before the episode shows just what David does with it. What little scattered scenes we get shows Lenny breaks out of the jail as David manipulates events to get her jail door cell to open; Cary and Kerry standing next to a burning car, and Melanie Bird whacking Clarke in the head mid-badass walk, throwing Melanie's whole allegiance into a bit of a confusion.
Syd and Clarke also get a fun little conversation about the fact that Syd's dating a mutant that can destroy the world if he gets a bit upset, about how sometimes David has trouble telling what's real and unreal, and if there's even a proper guideline for being normal. And whatever happens, Syd is going after David, and arrives in Le Desole via parachute. "I'm on your side, asshole." she says, and she's not going to be left out of this climax.
Meanwhile, Oliver-Farouk meets an old woman who appears to know of Professor X, getting the information of the location from her mind before killing her -- although surprisingly enough we get a tender moment as Farouk allows the woman to have a hallucination of driving down the desert before killing her.
The rest of the episode sort of shows off Le Desole as the two pairs of Oliver/Farouk and David/Syd wanders through the desert, and its unique properties -- it's some magic fantasy shit because apparently the desert in the place changes, sometimes by the hour, moving around the monks' temple and thus the location of Farouk's tomb. In addition to that, there's a significant amount of mind-fuck as Syd and David find a tent with their own corpses. I'm not sure if it's just a strange part off the world, or if there's a powerful mutant behind it all, but it does lead to a fun, trippy scene.
It's a shame, though, that the episode's disjointedness is sort of wrecked by several factors -- I'm not really feeling the Ptonomy-in-the-mainframe plot, nor the events that led up to it. And the bodyless narrator segment talking about psychosis in this episode is particularly long, doesn't actually fit into any thematic significance as it goes from a pretty cool bit ("the shadows that the people in the cave seen are real to them, even if the shadows are not technically real") but devolves into a pretty banal and honestly insultingly simple speech about how "PHONES ARE DESTROYING THE HUMAN SOCIETY" about how narcissists basically don't care about how other people in the internet feels. That just seems like an argument that's apropos of nothing, doesn't have any real significance for the story and just felt shoehorned in.
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Legion, Season 2, Episode 9: Chapter 17
Episode 9 is a bit of a "once more, with clarity" deal in regards to the climax of the eighth episode, in that it puts everything in context. First up, though, is the huge sudden whacking of poor Clarke in the head by Melanie Bird, and we get a flashback to thirteen days ago, where we get a brief recap of Melanie's only other major role in this season -- talking to Syd about how men controls women by absence. I really wished the show writers didn't need to hammer down that, yes, Melanie has been acting out of character throughout this entire season, broken by Oliver leaving her. And, anyway, Farouk-in-Oliver has apparently been controlling Melanie throughout the entirety of the second season, insidiously by promising a possible reunion in the future. Thus Melanie's implied heavily to be the Shadow King's actual mole as opposed to David Haller being an unreliable narrator.
We do get an acknowledgement between Melanie and Oliver that really feel like the sort of psychedelic nature that Legion loves, talking about "how do I know if I'm real" and all that, and especially in the conversation between Melanie and the very literal-minded Kerry... but ultimately I still think that this plot twist about Melanie could've definitely been done a lot better. Maybe cut out everything about the oil chickens or Fukuyama's computer mind, and focus a bit more on the actual main plot? I dunno.
The other big focus in this episode is Lenny, who goes to a crazy drughouse, is greeted as the Cornflake Girl, goes on a drug-addled orgy before being confronted by the ghost of Amy, who's not quite gone yet. Time will tell if Amy's actually living in Lenny's mind the way that Farouk and Lenny are in David's mind, or if Amy's a true hallucination. In any case, Amy acts as a creepy version of Jiminy Cricket, asking Lenny over and over again if she's a good person, and if she really is going to abandon David after all the talks about how she loves David.
Meanwhile, Kerry and Cary are going on, trusting David's plan to bring the car to a bar, and the two of them have some neat scenes -- Kerry really doesn't understand figures of speech and the pair really aren't exaggerating when they said Kerry only manifests to beat people up. Cary, meanwhile, acknowledges his own mortality, but Kerry's hearing none of it, because she claims she's going to fight Death itself should it claim Cary. Of course, all of this introspection gets interrupted when Lenny arrives, finally deciding to help out in David's master plan thanks to Amy's words, and she gets into the car that Kerry-Cary have prepared... for it to disappear in a flash of bright light and end up in the desolate desert.
Overall, it's a decent episode, all things considered, and one that's genuinely pretty exciting considering the fact that this is the most proactive we've seen David and Division Three in their fight against the Shadow King, and we're counting down to a huge climax.
We do get an acknowledgement between Melanie and Oliver that really feel like the sort of psychedelic nature that Legion loves, talking about "how do I know if I'm real" and all that, and especially in the conversation between Melanie and the very literal-minded Kerry... but ultimately I still think that this plot twist about Melanie could've definitely been done a lot better. Maybe cut out everything about the oil chickens or Fukuyama's computer mind, and focus a bit more on the actual main plot? I dunno.
The other big focus in this episode is Lenny, who goes to a crazy drughouse, is greeted as the Cornflake Girl, goes on a drug-addled orgy before being confronted by the ghost of Amy, who's not quite gone yet. Time will tell if Amy's actually living in Lenny's mind the way that Farouk and Lenny are in David's mind, or if Amy's a true hallucination. In any case, Amy acts as a creepy version of Jiminy Cricket, asking Lenny over and over again if she's a good person, and if she really is going to abandon David after all the talks about how she loves David.
Meanwhile, Kerry and Cary are going on, trusting David's plan to bring the car to a bar, and the two of them have some neat scenes -- Kerry really doesn't understand figures of speech and the pair really aren't exaggerating when they said Kerry only manifests to beat people up. Cary, meanwhile, acknowledges his own mortality, but Kerry's hearing none of it, because she claims she's going to fight Death itself should it claim Cary. Of course, all of this introspection gets interrupted when Lenny arrives, finally deciding to help out in David's master plan thanks to Amy's words, and she gets into the car that Kerry-Cary have prepared... for it to disappear in a flash of bright light and end up in the desolate desert.
Overall, it's a decent episode, all things considered, and one that's genuinely pretty exciting considering the fact that this is the most proactive we've seen David and Division Three in their fight against the Shadow King, and we're counting down to a huge climax.
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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.
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.
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Legion, Season 2, Episode 11: Chapter 19
Yeah, that was a bit of a clusterfuck of an ending, isn't it? I'm not going to complain about the opening fight scene, where apparently someone on the Legion production staff apparently watched a bit too much JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, had David and Farouk's mental abilities manifest as what can be best described as shape-shifting CGI Stands, and the two of them straight-up have a music battle and sing out loud as they fight. It's insanely surreal, and honestly quite appropriate for such a mind-fuck show like Legion. The resulting scene ends up erring more on the side of hilariously silly than epic, mind you, but I'd be damned if I said it didn't entertain me. Oh, and Lenny gets to help, using her sniper rifle to shoot the Choke and disabling Farouk long enough for David to get the upper hand.
We get David finally manhandling Amahl Farouk man-to-man, until Syd arrives with the head of the beheaded minotaur (whatever is that thing?) and holds a gun on David. Apparently, since the previous episode, Syd has been thoroughly set into the "David is the true villain" camp, although, again, the show doesn't really deliver this particularly well via pacing or emotional development. Sure, David does look pretty deranged now, but Syd has also just ripped the minotaur's head off, whatever the minotaur is. David rightfully calls Syd out that she might be lashing out due to her own abandonment issues, while Syd goes on a rant about how David sometimes doesn't even know about truth and lies, attributing David's general confusion to his psychosis. And then there's a gunshot.
David then finds himself in the childhood room where the delusion-is-an-egg video is played over and over (did it just imply that David -- or one of his personalities -- caused the whole delusion egg chicken demon bit? Or is it just a weird distraction?), while David argues with two other Davids about how he's deluding himself that he is inherently good. There's the same argument between whether David's craziness and unique way of viewing the world is thanks to real schizophrenia or godlike mutant powers, and at this point it seems frustratingly like repetition. None of it really end up mattering (seemingly), though, because Lenny takes the show to knock Syd's gun off-course, and Syd seemingly gets shaken out of her trance and is all fine and happy with David. Lenny and Farouk are both captured, and Cary has a weird science-thing that negates Farouk's powers.
Unfortunately, the rest of the episode, acting as more of the meat of the episode disguised as an 'epilogue', is pretty damn... inconsistent. I've always praised how Legion pushed the limits of storytelling conventions, but the second season pushed it a bit too hard and instead of being refreshingly weird, it devolves into just a bit of a weird mess.
Take the random "three years later" bit, with Oliver and Melanie with a slight memory loss in the Ice Cube, talking about 'poor Syd' and 'David's Turn' and stuff like that. Wasn't very necessary, honestly, especially with cryptic FutureSyd already being a constant presence throughout the entire season. (Who, honestly, may or may not be the real Syd but no one involved with her even questions her). Or the likewise not-quite-necessary slideshow about "what if the fools are the sane ones", when Cary repeats it in monologue in the exact next scene.
And also the bit where Farouk seemingly finds a brief enough moment where part of his power-nullifier crown malfunctions, and he speaks to a rat who then crawls through the building to speak to Syd, just to throw in a layer of ambiguity on whether David and Syd's sex is consensual or if Farouk makes Syd think it's rape. And that rape bit is pretty... unnecessary, yeah? Again, without getting too political, it's a weird shoehorn into the story so late in its run, and the whole sexual-encounter-under-possible-mind-control, thrown with a huge shade of did-he-didn't-he, just feels emotionally manipulative for no real reason other than shock value. There certainly wasn't a shortage of horrible things that David does in the name of his crusade, like, y'know, the whole torture of Oliver. Add the many, many hints that this might all just be Farouk playing both David and Syd, and it's just a layer of frustration to it all.
Yes, the season has had this theme of "what if David is the real villain?" but the show doesn't really do the legwork involved to really make this journey compelling. And especially not when it's dropping huge hints that David might just be misunderstood once more.
Anyway, the season ends with David being captured in a forcefield, with David's "treachery" being put on trial. Apparently Fukuyama and the Vermilion have listened to Farouk and Syd's stories about how David Haller becomes Legion, World-Killer, in the future, and have decided that David has to stand trial for his future crimes... and also they let Farouk walk around unsupervised in the trial... just because? Yeah, no wonder David flipped out, goes crazy, has a huge argument with Syd ("you'll let them kill me if I don't turn into something clean and easy?"), goes out with a defeated "I'm done" when he realizes that he's not even sure if he's guilty of the date-rape with Syd, then breaks out with Lenny.
Turning David Haller from a misunderstood protagonist to a maybe-villainous-main-character is a brave move and one that I would happily follow this series through. But on the other hand, it's done so insanely sloppily in this episode with a climactic confrontation that honestly is only salvaged by the always intense performances of Dan Stevens and Navid Negahban... but this is a chunk of the series that really feels like they dropped the ball more than anything by the very inconsistent motivation and character development for Syd and David. Hopefully season three will be better?
We get David finally manhandling Amahl Farouk man-to-man, until Syd arrives with the head of the beheaded minotaur (whatever is that thing?) and holds a gun on David. Apparently, since the previous episode, Syd has been thoroughly set into the "David is the true villain" camp, although, again, the show doesn't really deliver this particularly well via pacing or emotional development. Sure, David does look pretty deranged now, but Syd has also just ripped the minotaur's head off, whatever the minotaur is. David rightfully calls Syd out that she might be lashing out due to her own abandonment issues, while Syd goes on a rant about how David sometimes doesn't even know about truth and lies, attributing David's general confusion to his psychosis. And then there's a gunshot.
David then finds himself in the childhood room where the delusion-is-an-egg video is played over and over (did it just imply that David -- or one of his personalities -- caused the whole delusion egg chicken demon bit? Or is it just a weird distraction?), while David argues with two other Davids about how he's deluding himself that he is inherently good. There's the same argument between whether David's craziness and unique way of viewing the world is thanks to real schizophrenia or godlike mutant powers, and at this point it seems frustratingly like repetition. None of it really end up mattering (seemingly), though, because Lenny takes the show to knock Syd's gun off-course, and Syd seemingly gets shaken out of her trance and is all fine and happy with David. Lenny and Farouk are both captured, and Cary has a weird science-thing that negates Farouk's powers.
Unfortunately, the rest of the episode, acting as more of the meat of the episode disguised as an 'epilogue', is pretty damn... inconsistent. I've always praised how Legion pushed the limits of storytelling conventions, but the second season pushed it a bit too hard and instead of being refreshingly weird, it devolves into just a bit of a weird mess.
Take the random "three years later" bit, with Oliver and Melanie with a slight memory loss in the Ice Cube, talking about 'poor Syd' and 'David's Turn' and stuff like that. Wasn't very necessary, honestly, especially with cryptic FutureSyd already being a constant presence throughout the entire season. (Who, honestly, may or may not be the real Syd but no one involved with her even questions her). Or the likewise not-quite-necessary slideshow about "what if the fools are the sane ones", when Cary repeats it in monologue in the exact next scene.
And also the bit where Farouk seemingly finds a brief enough moment where part of his power-nullifier crown malfunctions, and he speaks to a rat who then crawls through the building to speak to Syd, just to throw in a layer of ambiguity on whether David and Syd's sex is consensual or if Farouk makes Syd think it's rape. And that rape bit is pretty... unnecessary, yeah? Again, without getting too political, it's a weird shoehorn into the story so late in its run, and the whole sexual-encounter-under-possible-mind-control, thrown with a huge shade of did-he-didn't-he, just feels emotionally manipulative for no real reason other than shock value. There certainly wasn't a shortage of horrible things that David does in the name of his crusade, like, y'know, the whole torture of Oliver. Add the many, many hints that this might all just be Farouk playing both David and Syd, and it's just a layer of frustration to it all.
Yes, the season has had this theme of "what if David is the real villain?" but the show doesn't really do the legwork involved to really make this journey compelling. And especially not when it's dropping huge hints that David might just be misunderstood once more.
Anyway, the season ends with David being captured in a forcefield, with David's "treachery" being put on trial. Apparently Fukuyama and the Vermilion have listened to Farouk and Syd's stories about how David Haller becomes Legion, World-Killer, in the future, and have decided that David has to stand trial for his future crimes... and also they let Farouk walk around unsupervised in the trial... just because? Yeah, no wonder David flipped out, goes crazy, has a huge argument with Syd ("you'll let them kill me if I don't turn into something clean and easy?"), goes out with a defeated "I'm done" when he realizes that he's not even sure if he's guilty of the date-rape with Syd, then breaks out with Lenny.
Turning David Haller from a misunderstood protagonist to a maybe-villainous-main-character is a brave move and one that I would happily follow this series through. But on the other hand, it's done so insanely sloppily in this episode with a climactic confrontation that honestly is only salvaged by the always intense performances of Dan Stevens and Navid Negahban... but this is a chunk of the series that really feels like they dropped the ball more than anything by the very inconsistent motivation and character development for Syd and David. Hopefully season three will be better?
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