Legion 2.02.
Apr. 11th, 2018 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which I wonder whether the show hasn’t make a wrong creative decision in the long term, though what do I know? I keep getting surprised anyway.
By which I mean: making Faroukh’s/The Shadow King’s original body also his core persona, with Lenny downgraded to one of his masks who argues with him and wants a body of her own now. I mean, on the one hand, it makes mythological sense. Faroukh is a male name, and he once upon a time was a human being before starting with the body snatching gig, plus it explains what eventually becomes of the hosts like Oliver (and would have become of David had David not managed to eject the Shadow King from himself) – once their physical body is used up, their minds end up as personae the Shadow King can adapt, and presumably Lenny was the one before David. Moreover, it provides the Shadow King with a potential weakness. I mean, David asking about whether or not Lenny was a a separate, real person earlier is probably a hint that he’s about to figure this out, and he could exploit this to defeat the Shadow King this way (which wouldn’t be the same as killing him) – say, an inner war between the Lenny and the Faroukh personae, with it up for grabs as to whom Oliver (and potential other previous hosts) would side with. In fact, right now I’m pretty sure this will eventually happen, since Faroukh demonstrated to Lenny that providing her with an extra (mortal) body has its inevitable downside. (Especially since I guess Lenny, on her own, is without the mutant power Faroukh has.) She might end up going for Faroukh’s original body since if I recall my X-Men mythology right most powers are coded to the physical body.
The reason why Im not sure whether or not this was a good creative decision is purely Doylist, not Watsonian: male Faroukh/Shadow King, a middle-aged man, is, well, a standard evil overlord. (No offense to the actor.) Whereas Aubrey Plaza as Lenny/Shadow King last season burned the screen and managed to both tremendously entertaining and chillingly evil, and their shared scene in this episode doesn’t convince me otherwise – she’s the far more original and charismatic supervillain. So if we end up with mostly the Faroukh persona on screen from now on, and eventually his body, never mind whether or not Lenny manages to come out as the dominating one, and little to no more Audrey Plaza, it will be not solely this viewer’s loss.
(Incidentally: there’s also the aspect that male Faroukh comes across as a middle Eastern bad guy versus white and blonde David, which, well.)
(All this being said: given that last season’s big realisation was that David isn’t mentally ill as such, he’s a mutant infested with another mutant parasite since toddlerdom, it’s fitting that now it turns out his arch nemesisis and life ruiner is himself (due to his own body snatching mechanism) a case of multiple personalities. There’s a certain elegance to this.)
Juxtaposed to all of this are Kerry and Cary, who manage a „two people in one body, and occasionally two“ existence without this being a parasitical one, and help each other instead of exploiting each other. The Shadow King messing with their ability to meld and separate at will throws them in a crisis, but they manage (so far) by listening and supporting each other.
David trusting the Shadow King to keep their word regarding no more killing in the first place is probably the greatest „nope, don’t buy it“ on my part in this crazy, surreal series. I mean, why the hell would he ever have thought they would, given, well, a life time experience? Trust in Future Syd only explains so much, especially since he still has little guarantee Future Syd is real. (I note he couldn’t read her thoughts in the future. Otoh the fact that she has lost one of her arms speaks against her being another persona, not to mention that her avoiding the subject as to whether Future David is dead or alive makes genre wise me conclude in the future, HE’S the big bad responsible for the near wiping out of humanity. That’s currently about the only reason I can think of why she would want to keep the Shadow King alive instead of letting present day David kill him; I guess she’s counting on him killing David, and this realisation will throw current David, whose raison d’etre is I Trust In Syd,, into an existential crisis that could (but doesn’t have to) turn him into the Future Evil Overlord.
The scene between Clark and David was great again, and I must say, I’m rooting for Clark here, who is rightly pissed at the deaths of his people yet and correctly suspects David yet is also smart enough to know there has to be a reason, which he needs to figure out before getting anywhere.
By which I mean: making Faroukh’s/The Shadow King’s original body also his core persona, with Lenny downgraded to one of his masks who argues with him and wants a body of her own now. I mean, on the one hand, it makes mythological sense. Faroukh is a male name, and he once upon a time was a human being before starting with the body snatching gig, plus it explains what eventually becomes of the hosts like Oliver (and would have become of David had David not managed to eject the Shadow King from himself) – once their physical body is used up, their minds end up as personae the Shadow King can adapt, and presumably Lenny was the one before David. Moreover, it provides the Shadow King with a potential weakness. I mean, David asking about whether or not Lenny was a a separate, real person earlier is probably a hint that he’s about to figure this out, and he could exploit this to defeat the Shadow King this way (which wouldn’t be the same as killing him) – say, an inner war between the Lenny and the Faroukh personae, with it up for grabs as to whom Oliver (and potential other previous hosts) would side with. In fact, right now I’m pretty sure this will eventually happen, since Faroukh demonstrated to Lenny that providing her with an extra (mortal) body has its inevitable downside. (Especially since I guess Lenny, on her own, is without the mutant power Faroukh has.) She might end up going for Faroukh’s original body since if I recall my X-Men mythology right most powers are coded to the physical body.
The reason why Im not sure whether or not this was a good creative decision is purely Doylist, not Watsonian: male Faroukh/Shadow King, a middle-aged man, is, well, a standard evil overlord. (No offense to the actor.) Whereas Aubrey Plaza as Lenny/Shadow King last season burned the screen and managed to both tremendously entertaining and chillingly evil, and their shared scene in this episode doesn’t convince me otherwise – she’s the far more original and charismatic supervillain. So if we end up with mostly the Faroukh persona on screen from now on, and eventually his body, never mind whether or not Lenny manages to come out as the dominating one, and little to no more Audrey Plaza, it will be not solely this viewer’s loss.
(Incidentally: there’s also the aspect that male Faroukh comes across as a middle Eastern bad guy versus white and blonde David, which, well.)
(All this being said: given that last season’s big realisation was that David isn’t mentally ill as such, he’s a mutant infested with another mutant parasite since toddlerdom, it’s fitting that now it turns out his arch nemesisis and life ruiner is himself (due to his own body snatching mechanism) a case of multiple personalities. There’s a certain elegance to this.)
Juxtaposed to all of this are Kerry and Cary, who manage a „two people in one body, and occasionally two“ existence without this being a parasitical one, and help each other instead of exploiting each other. The Shadow King messing with their ability to meld and separate at will throws them in a crisis, but they manage (so far) by listening and supporting each other.
David trusting the Shadow King to keep their word regarding no more killing in the first place is probably the greatest „nope, don’t buy it“ on my part in this crazy, surreal series. I mean, why the hell would he ever have thought they would, given, well, a life time experience? Trust in Future Syd only explains so much, especially since he still has little guarantee Future Syd is real. (I note he couldn’t read her thoughts in the future. Otoh the fact that she has lost one of her arms speaks against her being another persona, not to mention that her avoiding the subject as to whether Future David is dead or alive makes genre wise me conclude in the future, HE’S the big bad responsible for the near wiping out of humanity. That’s currently about the only reason I can think of why she would want to keep the Shadow King alive instead of letting present day David kill him; I guess she’s counting on him killing David, and this realisation will throw current David, whose raison d’etre is I Trust In Syd,, into an existential crisis that could (but doesn’t have to) turn him into the Future Evil Overlord.
The scene between Clark and David was great again, and I must say, I’m rooting for Clark here, who is rightly pissed at the deaths of his people yet and correctly suspects David yet is also smart enough to know there has to be a reason, which he needs to figure out before getting anywhere.
