Originally published March 30, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
Rachel Bellwoar reviews the season finale of Legion…
If Legion‘s season finale could be summed up in one sentence it would be a lot of confident people trying to show each other up and subsequently getting publicly knocked down. Nobody’s power is secure. Farouk starts the name calling early with Lenny’s “Hey kid,” reminding David that she’s preparing to make a comeback. Dr. Bird calls the Interrogator “kid” when she warns him he’d, “…better learn to fly like a bird because the age of the dinosaur is over.” Last seen, and assumed to have perished, in the pilot, Clark the Interrogator has been recovering from third degree burns he suffered when David escaped. A big point is made out of showing he has a life outside of the job (though his husband works for Division Three, so it’s not completely separate) and a family who loves him. As humanizing as this is, and genuinely nice to see, none of this information sheds light on his standing loyalties. David incapacitates his men effortlessly. We spend all this extra time with Clark but when he ultimately agrees that Division Three and David should work together, we’re no more wiser to knowing whether he’s telling the truth.
This extra time spent with Clark makes a difference, too, because a lot of the plot points set-up last week get rushed. Ptolemy barely has a part since his memory work was dropped. Cary and Kerry’s discord has to be hashed out in front of the Interrogator because they aren’t allowed a private scene to themselves. Beyond being unfair to a relationship we’ve come to care about, and Kerry’s right to be upset, it’s glaringly inappropriate. You never intentionally reveal personal weakness to an opponent. A scientist would know better.
That Oliver and Dr. Bird are kept apart is more of an interesting narrative choice. They do have a scene together but it’s Melanie remembering a conversation they recently had about going out to dinner. Standing on the balcony alone with this memory, Melanie isn’t wallowing about Oliver’s amnesia or being overly clingy at having him back, and it makes Farouk’s possession of Oliver later pure manipulation. Saying Melanie’s name beforehand, like he’s having a break through, is a kiss of death for Oliver—one below Legion‘s standards to succeed to.
The big sequence of the night has Farouk jumping bodies to escape David’s mind. There’s not necessarily a flaw to this jumping but the longstanding lack of constraints on Farouk’s powers, and the speed at which the switches go by, make it easy to accept. In Syd’s body, Farouk takes control and touches Kerry. Kerry is the fighter, so it’s a logical choice. But what’s the fake gun shot Farouk-Kerry pulls on Dr. Bird, that knocks her out? And when Kerry and David charge, is it Syd and Farouk? And Syd’s power is temporary. What exactly prevents Farouk from ending up back where he started, inside David’s body?
When Syd wakes up she asks David, “Did we win?” “Does it look like we won?” he responds. It certainly doesn’t after the end credits scene, where David gets sucked into a floating orb and Syd’s left hanging with not much to do in his defense. The world wrecker, David, has been brought down as easily as everybody else but by who, and why, is a cliffhanger for season two. Farouk is gone before we knew what a Shadow King was, and it’s kind of disappointing that the main cliffhanger isn’t based around him. Since we don’t know who this orb sender is we can’t feel very strongly about it, and Legion deserved to close with a bang.
Rachel Bellwoar
