Legion: Chapter Two
Starring: Dan Stevens, Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin, Amber Midthunder, Katie Aselton, Jean Smart
Director: Michael Uppendahl
Writer: Noah Hawley
Legion: Chapter 2 focuses on what happens after David’s escape from the government agency and swimming pool situation. With Syd and some new formed acquaintances, they venture on a boat to Summerland, a facility for Mutants who must “do the work” in order to dive into why they can really do and help with the war that’s coming. (Sidenote: They travel to the glorious cover of Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads. This show slays on music guys.)
Chapter 2 is a bit of a slower episode, but it’s so good and really dives into a little more about where David’s memories connect to his childhood, Lenny, Amy and, more importantly, his father. David is JUST as confused, even more so, than everyone he’s around. The episode is even more dedicated to the beginning work that has to be done with David in order to get his head okay again. To kinda single out different voices so that he CAN use them and not be an atom bomb. A very important moment of the episode was in the beginning where David is talking to
Melanie Bird, a psychiatric therapist who wants to help “make [David] whole again”. She’s very much a positive influence on him, but also gets easily frustrated when she doesn’t think she’s being trusted. While in bed, David is hearing a buttload more voices than normal. Summerland has him hearing A LOT more than he’s used to. Melanie teaches him to focus on one single voice that’s calling out to him and turn the others down with a giant volume knob. It’s his first glimpse of him not being “sick” but him actually having telepathy.
It’s hard to gage the sense of trust for Melanie Bird because I want to so badly, but I side-eye her every time she gets frustrated with David. She seems to be doing everything in a two-fold operation. 1) She seems like she’s using David for her own purposes, but also really trying to help him concentrate on a future where he can tame the voices. 2) She needs him just to win the war for Mutants or whatever her master plan is. Melanie’s aim is simple right now with David, “We look back, we find your powers and what triggers them.” She says it with such heartfelt conviction that I want to believe her… for now. It just makes me cringe when she says “we can make you whole again.” Ptonomy Wallace is another mutant I want to trust badly cause he’s just so damn cool and has the best fashion. His is the power of memory art. He goes into memories and, dude even remembers his own birth.
With Melanie and Ptonomy, David starts to remember things about his childhood and we get a little more about his father, who was a astronomer, but also used to read David a childhood story called The Angriest Boy in the World. This story of the book is about a boy who kills his mother when she doesn’t listen to her. The retelling of the story from the shadow figure that is his father immediately triggers David and causes him to have a panic attack and claustrophobia when he’s back to the present. I’m in constant awe of how they handle David’s different triggers within his mental illness. This story carries loads with it and they lean on David to not only carry them out, but they’re very good at writing them within the story.
Another interesting and pre-cool character we’re introduced to is Bill Irwin’s character Cary Loudermilk, a brilliant scientist and father to Kerry Loudermilk, his daughter, who we aren’t introduced to much yet. It seems like all the pieces of this cast is coming together, or all the people who will help David along the way at least.
On the romantic front, Syd and David’s relationship continues to be the sweetest thing ever. David gets antsy because he wants to hug her so badly, but Syd says that it makes her feel uncomfortable. I love that the boundary is not only respected, but, according to David, they’re having a “romance of the minds.” This can’t last forever. I call it right f*cking now that something bad is going to happen to Syd. It’s way too sweet and showrunners like to see people hurt.
An important thing in the episode is David’s dad. In the show, he was told that his dad was dead, but we never see his face in any of the scenes with baby David. There’s something insanely cool about how they shadow David’s dad. If we’re all familiar with the history of Legion, we know that his father is Professor X, but it’s also shady the way they want to bring that into the story. It might comes down to David actually learning about his father and his legacy as he comes to terms with his own powers, which is going to be the heaviest burden to bare.
Verdict: Keep watching! Legion is shaping itself to be something that people can go back to again and again. It’s getting masterful in it’s storytelling. Even though this is a bit of a slower episode, it doesn’t pull any punches in confusing you, but never losing your focus on what the real story is. I’ve watched the episode about three times in order to find clues and more. I already have so many theories about what’s going to happen with David and Syd, but also hope that they’ll be alright in the end! Until Wednesday! 😀
