Rachel Bellwoar reviews the second episode of Legion…
Legion‘s pilot was about experiencing what it’s like to be consumed in David’s mind. An observer’s distance in episode two brings more work for David but a guilty relief for viewers. What’s remarkable is realizing how much of this episode is a rehash of images and events from the pilot, and how badly jumbled they were the first time around to never feel like repetition.
‘Chapter One‘ ended on David being rescued from Division by Syd and Dr. Bird (Jean Smart). Shady government people are enough of a cliché that they don’t need a team name but the tangible title, Division, after so much fog, is a lighthouse beacon. The statement of what they want—to control and, if unable to control, kill people who are special like David and Syd—mostly confirms what we already know, but marks a major change from having to take every insight with a grain of salt last time. The one curve ball is the making of the Eye (Mackenzie Grey) into a real person. When Division interrogated David the Eye didn’t show up on camera, so could be supposed to be imagined. Now he’s reintroduced as Division’s bloodhound, hunting down David and Syd.
That David hasn’t been imagining things, and what that actually means, is a major point this episode tries to bring home. Dr. Bird is adamant that David doesn’t have schizophrenia. The voices he hears are from telepathy and her major job will be stopping David from seeing his powers as mental illness. Dr. Bird asks him to single out one of the voices he hears by picturing a volume dial in his head. We see that dial take up the screen but instead of a hand reaching out to turn it, David appears. The dial is bigger than him and those mixed proportions are evident of the challenge his telepathy poses. He’s built his ‘illness’ up in his head as larger than life.
Dr. Bird’s treatment plan is memory work. With the help of memory artist, Ptonomy (Jeremie Harris), David is able to sit in on his memories and finally figure out what’s real and what’s not. Self-censorship holds him back, with small time glitches that Dr. Bird asks him to go back and fill-in. According to her the Yellow Demon he sees means something, and not that David is crazy, but David isn’t ready for all these revelations. No longer an observer, he joins his younger self on the other side of the room. Ganged up on, the room shakes and young and present David cover their eyes in unison. David’s powers are too strong. There’s nothing Ptonomy can do to change course.
Before treatment starts, David asks Dr. Bird whether they have time for all this. Division is hunting them down and memory work is David’s means of learning to use his powers, and finally find some stability. Then again, coming from the power figure dressed in white, who sees David as the key to ‘the war,’ maybe ‘with a grain of salt,’ is the best way to read such kindness.
Something keeps drawing David back to his older sister, Amy. Where his parents’ faces appear blurred or angled away from him in memory, David’s sister’s is clear. The first memory he revisits is running through the fields with her, in an idyllic, home movie style memory from ‘Chapter One.’ For David, realizing this is Amy, when young David calls out to her, is a revelation. He hadn’t known before. His memory was that untrustworthy.
During an MRI he’s told to think of someone he loves and it’s not his girlfriend, Syd, but Amy who he pictures. It’s also not memory but the present. Somehow David is able to pick up on Amy looking for him at the hospital. As when David was looking for Syd, the hospital secretary says they don’t have any records of him. With the ill tiding techno music building in the background, Amy gets called crazy and picked up by members of Division.
Armed with their bait, will Amy’s kidnapping push David to break past his memory’s firewall? David might not be feeling better after ‘Chapter Two’ but the retreading of memories is a smart way of slowing down without losing impact. Usually shows like to start off easier but Legion went the opposite route. In helping viewers unpack ‘Chapter One,’ you appreciate that opening more.
Rachel Bellwoar
Originally published February 16, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
