Rachel Bellwoar reviews the sixth episode of Legion…
Back to Clockworks. Back to known diagnoses and med cycles. ‘Chapter 6,’ instigated by the Yellow Demon, is a digression back to where Legion started. It’s a lie, that transplants David’s new allies from Summerland and makes them patients, but is it a lie that’s hurting anybody? When it’s so easy for the show to flip tables, is it any less conventional that the Yellow Demon be their therapist?
The question of anybody getting hurt comes up during Kerry and Cary’s “session” with the Yellow Demon’s resting face, Lenny. At Clockworks they don’t share a body, and actually make a joke about how that would be crazy, but they do believe they’re the same person. Does that belief need to be disproved? If they’re not hurting anybody, is there any reason they should be convinced they’re different people? When Kerry and Cary get separated Kerry feels vulnerable to the Eye, but dependence on another person happens when people are close. Were they brother and sister, or boyfriend and girlfriend, nobody would suspect Kerry for having these feelings.
The Yellow Demon is evil, so making the leap that Lenny’s plot is unequivocally evil’s the right reflex, but David is feeling better in this lie, too. He’s found peace, the kind of peace where he can read books, and paint, and grow closer to his girlfriend, Syd. The one thing he can’t do is eat pie. His sister, Amy, is mean in this version of Clockworks, a nurse who singles David out by taking his pie. We’ve seen Amy tease David with food before—the cupcake in the pilot—but is this cruelty grounded in truth or a response to last episode‘s confession that he was adopted? The Yellow Demon was David’s strongest advocate for rescuing Amy but if the point of a fake reality is keeping David comfortable, why make Amy spoil his zen?
For that matter, why does the Yellow Demon save Syd? Syd was about to be shot. She dreams of that moment and the bullets are frozen in midair. Bringing everyone to Clockworks was the Yellow Demon’s way of trying to butter David up, so he’d be willing to combine powers. Their joint venture against Division 3 surpassed everyone’s expectations. She had to at least try and keep that alchemy going.
A fake reality without Syd wouldn’t have passed inspection for long but a fake reality with Syd is crumbling slowly. She realizes something is wrong and eventually David will, too, seeing the door she’s been describing and the bugs on her pie. Food is where bugs appeared last time, on the strawberries in David’s fake room. Illusions can’t seem to remove every kink.
Lenny gets the music video treatment but, because we know she’s behind Clockworks, her break into a racey Funny Face routine seems prepared to show her red colors.
Oliver is starting to sneak people away, but will everyone get out in time? David wanted to stay in this lie. With the Yellow Demon motivated by some beef with David’s real father, that option has expired.
Rachel Bellwoar
Originally published March 16, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
