Only two episodes in and I can tell this season will be a lot more horror-inspired than the previous. I know Season One had its moments, but there are some seriously disturbing elements at play right now that are only easy to digest because they’re playing up the horror visuals with maximum campiness, which at times can completely cut the tension, and at other times make it so much more uncomfortable. The Cary/Kerry moments are the most visually upsetting.
The episode starts with addressing head-on what was strongly suggested at the end of episode one: David (Dan Stevens) is in fact in cahoots with Oliver (Jemaine Clement) and Lenny/Shadow King (Aubrey Plaza, for now). They discuss their plan to have David create a diversion, so they can break into Division 3 – and find Shadow King/Amal Farouk’s body? Gather information? Maybe I’m missing something but it seemed like they broke into Division 3 to do nothing except cause mischief.
Once inside, they easily slaughter some guards and then mess with Cary (Bill Irwin) while he’s working in his lab, late one night. This is where the campy horror elements start; you can see Oliver’s shadow lurking across the walls as a creeped out but clueless Cary starts to feel like he’s being watched. We’re later treated to some good, fun body horror when Lenny/Shadow King messes with Kerry (Amber Midthunder) and their combined powers. When they try to phase their bodies back together, Cary gets trapped inside of Kerry instead of the other way around – and his arm is left stuck outside of her chest.
There’s some good news here, and some bad news. Cary is MIA for the rest of the episode and Kerry has to become the answers guy. The good news: more Amber Midthunder! Kerry’s completely out of her element and shows some vulnerability and emotional depth you don’t usually get from her. Eventually, they figure out how to recalibrate themselves: by humming the theme song to The Banana Splits, a show they show the two of them enjoying as kids.
On one hand, I hated that the Banana Splits pop up in here at all because nothing scared me more than seeing those guys on my TV as a kid. On the other hand, the visual of child Cary and Kerry watching TV together was insanely heartwarming. Once they’re both free, there’s a touching moment of closeness between the two of them that hints at the enormous amount of love the two share. I could watch an entire episode about them and their relationship and still want more.
David gets a reluctant Kerry to help him use that weird tank again, this time so David can try to see into the future. It works, and he’s reunited with Future-Syd (Rachel Keller), who I now realize is missing an arm. She tells David that he’s not around in her timeline (“it’s complicated” is all we get out of her) and that after David kills Farouk a week from the present, something worse comes and kills everyone. The fact that both David and Farouk are dead is odd – are the two of them so connected that David killing him has negative consequences for himself?
Is it possible that without Farouk, David somehow becomes the bad guy? I don’t know, but there IS a quick possible allusion to this when David meets with Divison 3 middle-management Clark (Hamish Linklater). David accuses him of being the bad guy, to which Clark replies “Funny, I thought you were the bad guy.” Whether or not that means David plays a part in this “Days of Future Past” dystopian future, it’s clear that being at Division 3 doesn’t mean David is part of the team. They’re still on opposite sides of a conflict, and neither of them are being as forward about what that conflict is as they could be.
David’s attachment to Future-Syd is also interesting, considering how drawn he seems to her. Aside from wanting to know more about this strange future that he can help prevent, he appears to have a fixation with this specific version of Syd. It seems like something that might create conflict with him and present-Syd somewhere down the line, or at least distract him from his mission and worry too much about what he can do to help the future-Syd that will cease to exist once he fixes the timeline.
Lest you think I forgot about Jon Hamm’s narration, which seem to teach a lesson about delusion and insanity, the little slime trail left behind by the “delusion egg” from episode one is present in David’s bedroom as he goes to telepathically contact Oliver. It’s important to remember that David is living his own version of reality and basing everything off of his own idea of what the truth is. The plan that he has in his head – which is rapidly disintegrating thanks to Oliver and Shadow King breaking the promise not to kill, and realizing he’s less in control than he thought – may not end up coming to fruition the way he wants it to.
The big grassy field that serves as a meeting place in the astral plane between David and the real Amal Farouk (Navid Negahban) is a crazy cool visual. The shot of David walking up to the crystal ball and seeing his reflection upside down is as disorienting as it should be, considering how little things are making sense at this moment.
I can’t wait to re-watch this episode once we finish the season and see shots like that, or an earlier shot of David rising a staircase from an angle that makes it look like he is walking from left-right, and understand what these choices foreshadows in terms of characterization. And even if they’re just cool shots for the sake of aesthetic that have nothing to do with foreshadowing, that’s cool! They’re amazing feats of visual trickery that sometimes actually take my breath away.
At the grassy field he is finally face-to-face with Amal Farouk – not Shadow King, not Lenny, but Farouk. He tells David to “stop sitting at the kiddie table” and that David is the creator of reality. He also tells him, “You don’t need to trust me. But you will respect me.” He promises that helping him find his body is a debt that he takes seriously. David agrees to help, but only if he stops the violence. They mentally wrestle for dominance by literally wrestling, mentally. David wins, Farouk makes a promise, and I don’t trust him but I DO respect him.
The last big development is Melanie telling David that she regrets chasing Oliver her own life and never having her own dreams. This felt like the best place to bring up this comment: a striking visual element to this scene is the hexagon shapes on the window behind Melanie. I noticed earlier in the episode that Farouk’s glasses had a hexagonal shape to them. Considering the level of detail that goes into the set and costume design, I know this isn’t a coincidence. She advises him to run, which is something I think David needed to hear. He never signed up to work for Division 3 like the rest of them did; he is literally only here because Syd is. This is some Doctor Who-type character and plot development that I am really living for this season. There is so much “the girl who waited” stuff that I am very eager for them to explore.
It’s a superhero trope that never gets addressed as often as it should, and it’s so much more compelling when the people David or Oliver leave behind are superheroes in their own right. Melanie is brilliant, and snaps out of her drug-induced stupor long enough to shake down Admiral Fukiyama as he (or more accurately his androids, Vermilion) accuses David of withholding information. Syd, too, is a superhero. In the year without David she’s learned to switch between bodies on command and has even mastered switching bodies with a cat. David could easily leave with Syd and try to live a quiet life, but is that what either of them even want?
David finally lets Syd in on his secret: that future-Syd has told him to find Farouk’s body and help him retrieve it. She is cautious and dubious, reminding David that earlier in the episode Farouk taunted her by showing her a music box from her childhood that she finds upsetting. But ultimately she is trusting of David. They decide they need to find the monk who is hiding somewhere in Division 3; a monk who helped hide Farouk’s body and who was thought to be dead. And as the episode ends, we see that he’s… Just hanging out in that room with all the creepy teeth-chattering people? Alright, I guess I’m on board with that.
There are some heart-to-heart, human-to-human moments in this episode where David interacts with the rest of the Summerland gang that feel almost jarringly different than the rest of the tone. Maybe they feel like a traditional sci-fi show when the character development isn’t hiding behind all those breathtaking visual moments? They imply more relationship that we’re given the privilege to see, and leave me craving more. I want David to interact with Melanie, and Kerry, and Ptonomy (Jeremie Harris) more than we see him get the chance to! I want to see these characters live and have lives and not, like Melanie suggest, be burdened with having to overcome obstacle after obstacle thanks to their powers.
Legion Chapter 10 Rating: 9 out of 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN6QPmrNfH4
