‘Legion’ Tries To Get Back To Normal For Its First Season Finale 

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‘Legion’ Tries To Get Back To Normal For Its First Season Finale

finale — and thoughts on season one as a whole — coming up just as soon as I’m thinking of growing half a mustache…

“I was just wondering: what am I without you?” –David

Eight episodes isn’t a long season even by the standards of 2017 prestige TV, and particularly for a show with as many moving parts as

. Still, given how much the show has focused on the life of David Haller and the question of whether he’s mentally ill, supremely powerful, or both, it feels more than a little unsatisfying to have David ask the above question of the Shadow King and realize that not only does he not know the answer, but that we don’t even entirely know who he is

his evil parasitic passenger. The season spent so much time on that either-or question, and larger ones about the matter of how much of what we were seeing is real, and on finding funky and memorable ways to illustrate those issues, that even with a strong lead performance by Dan Stevens, and even with the obvious chemistry between Stevens and Rachel Keller in the romantic scenes, David turned out to be more puzzle box than man.

was operating at peak weirdness — through much of that time-bending first episode, or the dreamy fourth chapter, or the utterly gonzo “Bolero” sequence last week — its form was so dazzling that its function, and the thin man at the center of it, didn’t much matter. When it went slightly more straightforward, like in the mental hospital interlude of “Chapter 6,” or the relatively conventional battle of good vs. evil in this climactic episode, then the hollowness of David, and of much of the story, becomes more of an issue. The season peaked with “Bolero” — the rest of 2017 TV is going to be playing catch-up with that one for a while — and almost anything that followed was going to feel a bit less than. And “Chapter 8” isn’t bad so much as it is… fine. But when your show at its best is so creative and surprising and audacious that it feels like something that was made in, by, and for the astral plane, a perfectly normal, competent ending to the story can’t help being a disappointment.

Part of the issue was the long opening sequence catching us up on all that Clark the interrogator had been up to since he got flash-fried at the end of “Chapter 1.” In isolation, it was a lovely idea (particularly the images of Clark’s husband and son simply lying in bed with him, waiting for him to heal), well executed by Hamish Linklater and everyone else, and fitting into a fine comic book tradition of stepping away from the story for a bit to give depth and humanity to even the most minor villain(*). But devoting close to seven minutes to it at the opening of a finale with a lot on its agenda, plot-wise, left precious little room for the kind of bizarre flourishes that had elevated so much of the journey getting us to this point. Much of what we did get that was stylistically notable were variations on past stunts, like a filth-soaked Lenny stalking Syd through the pristine astral plane hotel room instead of The Devil With The Yellow Eyes doing it (and The Devil popped up in that scene, too), or the images from the series-opening “Happy Jack” montage being purged of all influence by Farouk as Cary’s device went to work. All interesting in different ways, but none jaw-dropping, which is the standard

has set for itself, and that it has to find a way to keep achieving, or else deepen the characters and story enough that jaws needn’t continually drop for an episode to thrill.

"‘Legion’ Tries To Get Back To Normal For Its First Season Finale"

Yes – when they brought the injured Kerry back from the lighthouse, Melanie telepathically called out to David in the lab.

I’m guessing the orb is Shi’ar as well, and the “it” that Shadow King is looking for is something related to them (like a crashed ship).

Nah, they never revealed Melanie’s abilities.

I’m just glad Shadow King is keeping Lenny as his avatar. Kiwi Lenny will be fun for a while, but I’m the same way, I can’t wait to see what they can do with her. Like an evil version of Liv from iZombie.

And I did get so use to them avoiding Pink Floyd that my first reaction to the sequence was “hey, they used the scream from Breathe” instead of “hey, it’s Pink Floyd”

What a weird show and impressively shot. Can’t wait for S2. I loved David’s smug smile when confronting The Shadow King in the hallway.

Shadow King found the perfect host in Oliver, an obviously gifted psychic mutant with a memory swiss-cheesed enough that it will be easy to insert himself in all of the gaps.

Also, Shi’ar? My first thought was Mojo. It would be seriously ambitious but completely in-line with the bat-shit crazy of the show. An entire dimension of beings driven insane by our television broadcasts…? I mean, c’mon. That is fertile ground right there.

“as a result revealed the show to be a bit emptier than it had seemed at its frantic best”

I never did like the “crazy twist out of nowhere” tags – they’re completely unearned story-wise, and don’t allow the characters any time for big-picture processing of the events. I would have loved to see a conversation between Melanie and Cary about Oliver, or Clark back at D3 trying to convince them that there was a bigger problem than David. At least we know there will be a Season 2!

I agree with most of this. Thought Syd and David actually had very resonant emotional arcs in this episode, where as Jean Porter was the one big dropped ball of the season. Why is no one else reacting to this clearly traumatic incident that has occurred? Why does no one even acknowledge what shes going through? Her husband shows up after 30 years and no one else cares – seems like a missed opportunity.

Also, was anyone else confused by the transfer of powers in the scene where the shadow king escapes? What was that about? When did the Shadow King (or any of the people he inhabits) become telekinetic? Or did he keep David’s powers even after leaving?

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