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Legion 2.5 Review – ‘Chapter 13’
Loading...Legion is a rare show indeed. When a massively burned mutant waltzes into an upside-down room to question a girl recently returned from the dead—and that’s not even the craziest event of the week? We know we’re onto something amazing. Noah Hawley’s Legion gets better and more challenging with each passing week. It would be impossible to top last week’s adventure into Syd’s mind, but that doesn’t make this week any less compelling. Spoiler for Chapter 13 follow, such as they are.
“Apparently on Legion,” is a hilarious way to phrase the ‘previously on’ scenes, since the word ‘apparently’ is used to describe the show more than any other. We aren’t sure what’s happening all the time. But there are always clues that can be interpreted in any number of ways. So we can’t definitively say what happened, only what we think may have happened based on what we saw and heard. So what IS apparent on Legion? Well, Lenny died and her spirit/soul/essence/whatevs was used to mess with various people per the Shadow King, Amal Farouk’s, wishes. Lenny wanted to come back, but Shadow King isn’t going to allow that…unless he wants to.
Lenny’s real name is Lenore. This is news to all of us, since the Lenny Busker from the comics is a dude. Lenore is a family named, specifically a criminally negligent drunk our Lenny affectionately called Gram Gram. This returned Lenny is questioned and studied by Clark, Ptonomy, and eventually, David. Nobody trusts her. Why would they? Until she displayed how hard she was jonesing for drugs, I didn’t trust her either. But I know she’s not the Shadow King. And I know she doesn’t want to work for him, which isn’t the same as saying she isn’t under his control. The question of the day? How did this occur? How could a girl who died in a wall suddenly come back?
The other story this week revolves around Oliver and Farouk trying to find the body that the monks hid. Can we discern all the symbolism inherent in Dead Sea Donuts? Probably not. They find a body, and a device. That’s some device, too. Funnily, most of the tech on the show (not the orb that steals David away, but everything else) looks highly ordinary, even antiquated. This thing looks like a police scanner for speeding, only like a teenager built it in the basement of a Radio Shack. But it works! What it does it—well, I’m getting ahead of myself. And what’s this about a sunrise unlike anything you’ve ever seen?
As we revisit Ptonomy’s condition, we’re reminded about perception and how the human mind works. We see things in patterns, sometimes desperately, delusionally so. We love patterns, crave them, use them to stabilize our world and our psyches. Ptonomy has those crawly guys in his head, and they’re impacting his sleep, his work, and basically his whole deal. But he doesn’t seem to realize this, other than knowing that something is amiss. We also see Oliver remember Melanie this week. I have to wonder what’s going to happen to these two crazy kids. My own need for patterns leads me to ship for someone on every show I watch. On this show, it’s def Melanie and Oliver. Yeah, I know…it’s a recipe for pain.
We know that the Shadow King has a plan. We also know that Lenny woke up from “the absent place” in a hole in the desert. It’s not very pretty. In the end though, this week isn’t about Lenny, or Ptonomy, or David, or even Farouk. The main question is How Did Lenny Come Back. Now that we have the answer, we realize that this ep should have been called something more like What Happened to Amy. Because damn.
When the scene changes from Division 3 to wherever Amy and Ben are living now, we know it spells disaster. Even so, it took me an absurdly long time to understand what was happening, what all the screaming actually meant. Amy had “that dream again.” She dreamed she had a mustache…which sent me screaming into my DVR to see if I could pick out actress Katie Ashelton as one of the mustacchio’d chicks. That would have been amazing. But no…no dice. Still, Amy and Ben are both feeling intense dread that something awful is about to happen. Sure enough, Ben answers a knock on the door. Apparently, he was turned into a pile of rubble. Amy is…well, normally that would look like straight-up magic, but here we’re talking mutant powers. She can’t defend herself, can’t plead for her life or escape. Farouk, as Oliver, transfers Lenny’s spirit/soul/essence/whatevs into Amy’s body. Leaving Amy…well, probably dead. But who the hell knows on this show. Maybe she’s really a cross nurse at Clockworks for all we know.
David’s anger about Amy is a little surprising. Obviously they’re buds and we know she and David had a good relationship all things considered. But it just seemed like something too normal, too expected. I dunno, just off. It felt off. It makes perfect sense to be wary of Lenny’s return, but if it’s her fault for coming back, then it’s also David’s fault for asking. However you parse this, use of a version of “Don’t Come Around Here No More” was delightfully apt.
In the end, we’re back to where we were. Farouk is looking for his body. David wants to stop him, or help him, or kill him, depending on a zillion other factors. It’s kind of amazing how difficult it is to follow this show, and yet every week I leave feeling intrigued and inspired rather than frustrated and annoyed. The show asks big questions, what is morality and why should it matter whether or not we have it. Is it always wrong to kill a human? Is it ever? What is the nature of dread? What does silence, real silence sound like? Is it okay to get a 9-year-old girl drunk on vodka and citrus soda? It sounds delicious, but probably not, right? What about the Machine that Bleeds?
No word this week from Syd, Cary and Kerry, or Melanie except briefly when she appeared in Oliver’s mind. In the first season, most of the major characters appeared in every episode. I think I prefer doing a deeper dive into certain people and stories even if it means leaving others out. Lots more Legion to come, and it looks like Keith Gordon will be stepping in to direct an episode later in the season. Whether you love Stephen King movies, thought Dexter was awesome, or just find “Back to School” hilarious, everybody can find something to like about Keith Gordon.
See you’s next week!
