Legion – S1E7 – Chapter Seven

Previously on Legion, “Chapter Six”

After an episode that didn’t work for me on any level, Legion returns with one that contains everything I love about the series. I will, once again, try to make sense of this mind fuck of an hour of television.

Let’s get this straight for those not paying attention: Both David and his parasite are powerful as fuck. When you realize that damn near everything that happened in this episode had to be created and maintained by each of them, you really appreciate their abilities. Oh, and Oliver and ain’t no slouch, either.

Cary and visits Oliver in the astral plane and learns who (or what) they’re dealing with exactly: Amahl Farouk a.k.a. The Shadow King. Oliver has created glasses that will help those trapped in TSK’s prison see beyond his tricks. First, Cary recruits Syd, who gathers Kerry and Rudy; the latter is mortally wounded in David’s childhood home while the others are frozen upstairs. While Oliver attempts to break down the power keeping them frozen, Cary tries to place his device on David’s head in order to contain The Shadow King.

They’re able to get pretty far because Lenny (TSK) is distracted by interrogating Amy. She’s looking for something David’s biological father (a mutant in a wheelchair; wonder who that could be?) had when he delivered David to his adoptive parents. Amy has no idea what she’s talking about.

David gets help from his rational mind (who just happens to be British) to work through his shit about being adopted. He realizes his biological father fought The Shadow King, won, and possibly gave his son up to keep him safe. Of course, we know this didn’t work because it’s been leaching off of David’s powers since he was a child, making him sick.

Armed with the truth, David is able to break free from his mental prison, destroy the reality TSK created, and catch the bullets about to kill him (and Syd) with his bare hand. David then returns them all to Summerland. Well, minus Rudy, who sacrifices himself to keep Lenny from killing Kerry and Syd; and The Eye, who’s turned into a human pretzel by Lenny. Though, they bring Rudy’s body with them.

The reunion is bittersweet all around. Kerry is still harboring ill feelings towards Cary for leaving her to be terrorized by The Eye (and Lenny) when he left with Oliver. Melanie is clearly overjoyed at having Oliver back from the astral plane, but he doesn’t remember her so all she can do is watch and wait. With the threat of Division 3 still looming, Amy can’t return home. Speaking of Division 3, they descend on Summerland, led by The Interrogator, who is very much alive, if a little charred.

Oh, and Lenny, The Shadow King, The World’s Angriest Boy in the World, The Yellow-Eyed Devil, etc. is busting out of the mental prison.

X Files 

I could watch Oliver orchestrating his mental shield while David storms through the rooms of his mind over and over again. In fact, I did just that. The music, the effects, and the increasingly manic look on David’s face were all perfection.

Jean Smart is superb; all the love, sadness, joy, and grief she displayed with just her face was amazing.

I’ve been lukewarm on Aubrey Plaza as Lenny, but she was terrifyingly good in this episode. She was like Beetlejuice meets Freddy Krueger while stalking Syd and Kerry, and the absence of dialogue (instead we got silent movie title cards) should have made it comical, but it was still creepy as hell.

What the hell is she/it looking for?