Legion 2.01.
Apr. 4th, 2018 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAnd the most original, wildly experimentel tv series to be based on a Marvel property is back! Now, given that one distinct feature of the early episodes was the question as to whether our pov character in those episodes was insane or not, and whether anything he and thus we saw was real, I was wondering how the show, having answered that quesiton, would avoid feeling more conventional in its second outing. Not to mention that one of the two cliffhangers the first season left us with felt like it would be tricky to follow up without repeating an s1 storyline, and the other was bizarre even for this show. But of course I was very curious indeed to find out how Legion would tackle these challenges. And the answer, other than "with aplomb", is...
...to start with, with a time jump of approximately a year, after which David is found (not in a metal box OR IS HE?), claiming not to remember anything after being zapped into the device. That the Division 3 headquarters he's whisked off to where the rest of the team by now is working are so surreal they make Twin Peaks look normal doesn't help assuring the audience this is really happening, but for now, let's say it is.
Anyway, thus the season opener sets up two connected questions: 1) what happened to David after being zapped and before being found?, and 2) is he lying when he says he can't remember, and if so, why?
At the end of the episode, the second question is answered in a way, that, true to form, poses new questions: David is indeed lying, and he does so because after being zapped, he encountered a future version of Sydney who communicated with him, and what she has to say also answers the question as to how s2 would avoid playing out the hunt for the Shadow King as a rerun of season 1. Mind you, if I were David, I'd be at least considering that Future Syd isn't Future Syd but the Shadow King/Lenny/Faroukh messing with him, which is the more likely explanation (and thus probably not the real one, but hey, definitely worth considering). Also, I want some in-universe explanation at some point whether that people zapping device actually exists and if so, who had the technology to build something like this, oh, and wile we're at it, if the Division 3 headquarters are real, the multiple Admiral Fukayama (name? spelling?) achieving their status also sounds like it needs technology beyond what appears to be currently available in this 'verse.
But the true charm of the season opener is that it really holds true to the visual inventiveness of the first season. The sequence with the chicken and the egg(s) set up the visual in David's mind later beautifully (meaning it is creepy as hell when you see the black drops). The teeth chattering frozen people (courtesy of the Shadow King) are appropriately creepy as well. Melanie's rant to Syd about "our men" was at once deeply sad and blackly humorous (the woman spent decades on the run trying to free her husband, who thereafter first could hardly remember her and then ran off/was kidnapped (depending on how you look at it) with Evil McEvil. That Syd later uses the phrase "he's my man" re: David is quite ominous in this regard. And speaking of Syd, that body switch with the cat was both cool and creepy.
Meanwhile, at least Cary and Kerry are fine, though Cary, you should talk with Hank McCoy about professional risks when building an amplifier to boost the telepathic powers of this type of telepath. Involuntary dancing is the least of it.
Since the s1 finale made me care about Clark, I thought his encounter with David was great. Complete with well used switches between profile (character looks normal) and frontal (you can see all the scarring courtesy of the David-caused burning). But also Clark's little speech with the ice cream (and the fact he brings up amnesia is, like evil twins, such a cliché is pretty confident storytelling).
As for the big question: if future Syd is indeed future Syd, why would she advise David to help the Shadow King find his body, whereas Admiral F. has just declared this would make Faroukh even more powerful? Possible answers, not mutual exclusive, and none of them "the guy is just misunderstood"; the few appearances in this episode have him, in both Lenny and Oliver form, as evil as ever:
- reuniting the Shadow King with his body is not only the only way to get him out of Oliver's, or any other host's body
- maybe the moment of reunion with his actual body is the only time he's vulnerable enough to be killed off for good?
- Division 3's overlords are Up To No Good and want that power for themselves, and thus they can't be allowed to get their hands on it?
...to start with, with a time jump of approximately a year, after which David is found (not in a metal box OR IS HE?), claiming not to remember anything after being zapped into the device. That the Division 3 headquarters he's whisked off to where the rest of the team by now is working are so surreal they make Twin Peaks look normal doesn't help assuring the audience this is really happening, but for now, let's say it is.
Anyway, thus the season opener sets up two connected questions: 1) what happened to David after being zapped and before being found?, and 2) is he lying when he says he can't remember, and if so, why?
At the end of the episode, the second question is answered in a way, that, true to form, poses new questions: David is indeed lying, and he does so because after being zapped, he encountered a future version of Sydney who communicated with him, and what she has to say also answers the question as to how s2 would avoid playing out the hunt for the Shadow King as a rerun of season 1. Mind you, if I were David, I'd be at least considering that Future Syd isn't Future Syd but the Shadow King/Lenny/Faroukh messing with him, which is the more likely explanation (and thus probably not the real one, but hey, definitely worth considering). Also, I want some in-universe explanation at some point whether that people zapping device actually exists and if so, who had the technology to build something like this, oh, and wile we're at it, if the Division 3 headquarters are real, the multiple Admiral Fukayama (name? spelling?) achieving their status also sounds like it needs technology beyond what appears to be currently available in this 'verse.
But the true charm of the season opener is that it really holds true to the visual inventiveness of the first season. The sequence with the chicken and the egg(s) set up the visual in David's mind later beautifully (meaning it is creepy as hell when you see the black drops). The teeth chattering frozen people (courtesy of the Shadow King) are appropriately creepy as well. Melanie's rant to Syd about "our men" was at once deeply sad and blackly humorous (the woman spent decades on the run trying to free her husband, who thereafter first could hardly remember her and then ran off/was kidnapped (depending on how you look at it) with Evil McEvil. That Syd later uses the phrase "he's my man" re: David is quite ominous in this regard. And speaking of Syd, that body switch with the cat was both cool and creepy.
Meanwhile, at least Cary and Kerry are fine, though Cary, you should talk with Hank McCoy about professional risks when building an amplifier to boost the telepathic powers of this type of telepath. Involuntary dancing is the least of it.
Since the s1 finale made me care about Clark, I thought his encounter with David was great. Complete with well used switches between profile (character looks normal) and frontal (you can see all the scarring courtesy of the David-caused burning). But also Clark's little speech with the ice cream (and the fact he brings up amnesia is, like evil twins, such a cliché is pretty confident storytelling).
As for the big question: if future Syd is indeed future Syd, why would she advise David to help the Shadow King find his body, whereas Admiral F. has just declared this would make Faroukh even more powerful? Possible answers, not mutual exclusive, and none of them "the guy is just misunderstood"; the few appearances in this episode have him, in both Lenny and Oliver form, as evil as ever:
- reuniting the Shadow King with his body is not only the only way to get him out of Oliver's, or any other host's body
- maybe the moment of reunion with his actual body is the only time he's vulnerable enough to be killed off for good?
- Division 3's overlords are Up To No Good and want that power for themselves, and thus they can't be allowed to get their hands on it?
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