‘Legion’ Recap: The One Time He Said Too Much
Warning: This recap for the “Chapter 4” episode of Legion contains spoilers.
Everything’s unraveling — but in a good way — on Legion. As the team ventures out into the real world, they find that David’s memories are even more unreliable than they thought, and it puts them in more danger than ever.
The Plot
The show opens in a cube with Oliver (Jemaine Clement), Melanie’s lost husband. He is in a room that we later find out is in the astral plane. David is still in a coma, so Melanie sends Syd, Ptonomy, and Kerry into the real world to track down his old girlfriend, Philly (Ellie Araiza), and figure out the truth of David’s memories. They visit Dr. Poole’s (Scott Lawrence) office, then find Philly working as a real estate agent. Ptonomy scans her memories and finds where Dr. Poole is now; Philly realizes they’re looking for David and tells them that she’s being watched by Division 3. They find the lighthouse where Poole is at, but he’s been replaced by The Eye, who takes down Ptonomy, but when he touches Syd, they switch bodies. David, meanwhile, finds himself trapped in the astral plane where he meets Oliver, whose body is frozen (in a 19th century diving suit) in the real world. David leaves and meets up with Lennie, who helps him escape. He manifests in the real world in time to stop The Eye escaping with David’s friends, not realizing that Syd and The Eye have switched bodies. The Eye shoots Kerry.
Lenny or Benny?
We’ve grown used to not trusting David’s memories, but the closer we get to the truth, the more things change. At least some of the memories of the woman, Lenny, are actually of a man we’ve never seen named Benny. Ptonomy tells us early on, “The past is an illusion,” when Syd notices the curtains are different. But an entirely different person? Syd has met and interacted with Lenny, so we know at least some (there’s that phrase again) of Lenny and David’s relationship is real. But how much? Is she someone who he just mashed up in his memory? Or is she something else?
Related: Catch Up on ‘Legion’ With Our Recaps
“The One Time He Said Too Much”
Later, during the memory of the dinner party, Philly tells Dr. Poole there’s no evidence David ever had a past. We find out later — when Amy and Dr. Kissinger meet in the Division 3 prison cells — that David often talked to his dog, King, as a child. But he never had a dog. Is Lenny a construction of David’s mind/his power? When Lenny meets him in the astral plane, she pushes him to use his powers so they both can escape; at the very end, she appears like a video artifact in the real world. If Lenny is entirely a creation of David’s — and if he’s bringing them into the real world — that might mean that Syd’s sightings of The World’s Angriest Boy in the World might be real as well. That doesn’t seem like it will end well for anybody.
Cary/Kerry
One of the most interesting things about Legion as a comic book show — and represents one of the deepest understandings of that media ever brought to live action — is that not all of the mutants have impressive, laser beam-wielding, lightning-controlling, claw-popping powers. Many of them have dull or almost useless powers. Cary/Kerry, it turns out, are one person sharing a body. Cary is the superego, doing what needs to be done and Kerry is the Id, who only lives for excitement. Neither of them are super-smart or super-strong; in fact, they may be extra vulnerable if, indeed, the death of one means the death of the other. If this show is about exploring mental illness through the metaphor of mutants, think of how many other stories could be told about the other characters at the ranch and their neuroses as expressed as powers.
Related: ‘Legion’ Star Dan Stevens on Being ‘Confidently Weird,’ as the World’s Most Powerful Mutant
Finding the Funny
How great is it to have Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords as Oliver? Some directors like casting comedians in serious roles because they bring a sense of mania that adds an additional level of tension to the performance. Think Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love, or Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. Clement fits right into this already deranged world and might even seem more normal than the normals here.
Music Notes
Free jazz is an acquired taste; in the astral plane, doubly so. But Sonny Simmons’ “Metamorphosis” is the perfect choice for the swingin’ Oliver Bird.
That amazing fight/ballet is scored with a song by Feist, “Undiscovered First”, which is about exploration (the album was inspired by a non-fiction book called 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus). In fact, some of what Lenny says after the fight is memory, but the words, “Dreaming you’re a mountain climber,” are new and possibly a reference to the lyrics, “Is this the right mountain for us to climb?” from the song.
Legion airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
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