Legion: Chapter Two

Legion slowed things down for us this past episode giving our collective minds a chance to reset and aborb what we learned from the first chapter.

Gone were the spacey and spinning 3-D graphics, the stop motion bombs and the weird and wonderful dance routines.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, that kind of thing costs a pretty penny and I'm sure Legion didn't want to blow it's season's budget before it got off the ground.  The money they spent in the first chapter was worth it however as it got a great number of us hooked on the show.

So, that's not to say we didn't learn anything from Chapter Two.  We did indeed, and a lot of it had to do with David's mind and it's capabilities.  

So let's get started, there three main areas of concern I'd like to cover and I think you'll find they overlap in many different ways.   

Lighting

Ah summer, or rather "Summerland" as we are to learn.  The new haven for David and his friends.  Legion went to great pains to paint this new location as bucolic, tranquil and inviting.  It helps of course to have Sydney along for the stay.  David and Sydney often had long talks together as Sydney sought to calm David's fears.  These talks were often accompanied by the soft filtered glow of the warming sun.  

You can almost hear the crickets.

Even as the chapter neared its end, Sydney often took David to a secluded area where they could talk things out and she could work on his frazzled nerves.  (Jumping about in one's memories will do that to a person.) The idea is to have David in a warm a nd fuzzy surrounding.   Someplace where he can live without threat and a place where he can truly find himself and get some peace.

Even at night there is a warmth to the artificial light.  Here David and Syd seek to reconcile David's onslaught of memories.  Note they are on a swing together which is a very child like activity.  David's building awareness comes from exposure to his memories, many of which include those of his childhood.

Ah, but not all those memories are happy ones.  Here his father is back lit which is rather ominous.  When David's mother was first revealed we couldn't see her face either.  I thought that odd and made a mental note as to why they were obscured.  Then David wondered aloud my very same thoughts!  

So, we'll have to put this in our pockets and see if there is some significance to this.  Were his parent's memories traumatic to David?  (Dad's book reading material left a little to be desired.)  Or is there something else going on?  Perhaps the parents will be revealed as someone we will come to know later on in the story.  This reveal may come as a plot twist to send our preconceptions of David's past on it's ear.

And speaking of being back lit.

Here, David has a memory with his ol' pal Lenny.  From this scene we learn David has a past with Lenny that exists outside the Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital.  Interesting!  I guess we'll have to learn more about their mutual past and how it came about they end up being "committed" together.  (Hallucinogens from the same "smoking frog"?)

I'm assuming the light coming through these round windows is natural sunlight.  However, it is not as warm as the natural light we saw from "Summerland".  Are we to understand this memory is more disturbing to David as the light is more harsh and muted?  The light is more focused also as if to say this is an important event or at least one worth noting.  

I'm thinking this memory is a stepping stone for David as it leads up to his "incarceration" at Clockworks.  Either that or it represents a time where he could find peace through drugs or at least a shared peace through his time with Lenny.


David's Mind

  

Woo, where to start here?

With a little help from Melanie Bird, David learned to dial back the dissonance that clouds his mind.  By getting David to calm down and concentrate his was able to focus on Mealnie's voice.  This may come with a price however.  At the end of Chapter One, David shook hands with Melanie.  Does she now have access or at least a measure of manipulation with David's thoughts?  We've yet to learn if Melanie has any special powers but this may be a clue.

 

Before I get too far into David's mind.  I should note that whatever constitutes a major event with David's thoughts and their manifestation in the world world makes a "sound" of sorts.  The first sound of came to the attention of the people at Summerland when Syd and David traded places.  The second must have come when David was undergoing interrogation in the safe room with "The Eye" in attendance.  (Pre-pool interrogation.)

The power of David's mind became evident when he went under memory therapy with Ptonomy Wallace.  (Milk helps with transition to the real world.)

 
David could experience his memories in a real world like setting along with Ptonomy and Melanie.  In fact, he was told he could communicate with the principles of the memory but was warned by "Pto" that it would change the memory.

Really? You can alter reality by changing your memories?  Maybe this is just exclusive to David but it seemed a little broad based to me.  We'll tuck this in out memory banks as well.

Ptonomy picked up o a couple of things during their memory sessions.  The first of which was that disconcerted look on David's face when Lenny's visage turned into that of the "Devil with the Yellow Eyes."  David wouldn't reveal to Pto what he saw but but Pto knew something was amiss.  Perhaps seeing the "Devil" is a clue as to what led David to be committed to Clockworks.

 
  
"Did you see that?" 

Ptonomy picked up on the glitch during David's memory of his therapy session with Dr. Poole.  It was characterized as a "time jump."  Did David leave the session or skip ahead in time when he was spooked by something in Dr. Pooles' closet?  I have a feeling we'll find out later.

  

I don't think we've seen the last of this either.

Ptonomy thought it strange a father would read this to his son.  Agreed!  Was David's father trying to program the susceptible David or was he just trying to give David an outlet for what he perceived to be his son's anger issues?

Apparently, it wasn't very therapeutic as David carried his anger issues into his adulthood.  For example, there was the infamous incident in the kitchen involving the swirling debris and "Philly" David's poor ex-girlfriend. (Also, an instance that may have led to his "committment"?  We'll find out.) 

Ready to get to the good stuff?

Cary Loudermilk  (one of two "Kerry Loudermilk's" which was pretty funny) asked David to think of something happy or someone he loved during the MRI session.  David thought of his sister and the above is what happened.

Wow.  David can launch himself through time and space to be with his sister.  Perhaps it was the moment of stress or danger that Amy felt.  She was definitely thinking of David and it proved to be the connective tissue for David.  That's at least what I am assuming.

Amy seemed to hear David but I'm not sure she could see him as we did.  She did call to him but she seemed a little confused.

It was an an amazing moment.  Here's how it was characterized for the MRI

Totally nuts.

The elder Loudermilk exclaimed, "That wasn't a memory."  Nope it wasn't.  It was a reading of an actual physical event in time and space.  Unfortunately, Loudermilk left the examination room which led to a panic attack for David which was manifested like this.

The "Devil with the Yellow Eyes"  appears.  This appearance was also preceded by a low snarling and a subsequent growling.  Maybe this is the connection with the mysterious Dog from Chapter 1 I wondered about in my first post for Legion.  Either way, David was in an extreme moment of stress and what happens in an extreme moment of stress?

  
This.

The physical transportation of solid matter through time and space.   Not just David himself, which might have been just a projection, but the actual movement of matter.

Awesome.  Even Melanie Bird didn't know what to think of it.  

Note to everyone, don't get on David's bad side.



The Importance of Being Amy

 

Amy is important, or as we say in these parts, "wicked important".
  
She seems to be an emotional touchstone for David.  There is the familial connection to be sure but it seems to go beyond that.  Does Amy have powers too?  I'm leaning towards no.  But, she seems to be a beacon for David that he can connect to across time and space.

Hmm, maybe she acts as an amplifier also.  There's the incident with the MRI machine and David's "projection"  to Clockworks where Amy sought out David.  Of course, it could be all David's emotions.  He seems to have trouble keeping them in check.  (Duh!)

We know Amy was in the right place because we can see the repairs still being done in the aftermath of the "Syd event".  

 
There's the subsequent confinement by "The Eye" also. 

He seems to roam the hallways of Clockworks and he was the one carving the little dog in Chapter 1.  We also see the dog outside the main entrance to the Clockworks facility.  A clue to the "Devils" origins now that we heard that snarling during the MRI exam?

 

Naturally, David wanted to go to Amy.  (No astral projection without stress?)  Syd convinced him otherwise.  I'm not sure she is really helping but her intervention seemed to reset David.  

There was this too.

Why was "The Eye" out of focus during his interrogation of Amy?  (Ugh,, leeches.)  They were both in the same field of focus for the camera but Eye was definitely fuzzy.   A nice cinematic touch to be sure but there has to be a reason.  Is he "out of reality"?  That is to say he can move in and out of it something akin to David's powers?

I love the "Amy connection".  It should serve as a great plot device.  It will reveal more about David and his mysterious past.  Too bad David couldn't go to her but that would spoil the next six episode I'm sure!


Odds and Ends

We simply must have to see more of Lenny/Aubrey Plaza.  Especially if they are going to pair her with images of Larry Fine one of the original Three Stooges.  So who is the third stooge if David is, let's say, Moe?

 Is it the Blue-Eyed Frog?  Where can I get one of these???  Doubtlessly illegal.  Sigh.

Did everyone see the  "Square hole in the round peg" t-shirt that David was wearing at the start?  Definitely a commentary on him.  Especially since it was ass backwards from the square peg in the round hole saying.

What else is David?

An Angel?  Is that a "Halo" formed by the light in the elevator?

This is what they appear to be saying when Syd put the brakes on David's rescue mission.  I think we all know David is one of the good guys.  But close to being a Deity?  That would be telling.

(BTW, scroll up to the picture of David "dialing down" his senses and we get the same imagery.)

Here's one of my favorites.  Amy being held in a place where time stands still.  At least metaphorically.  Take a look at the clock behind her head.  No hands.  Poor Amy!


So, I need to wrap this up.  The show is becoming uber-fascinating and I can't wait to see what happens next.   I'd also like to ask you all what you think of the inclusion of GIF's to the blog.  Like?  Dislike?  It's a new toy.

Comments always welcome!


Oh wait one last thing...

 Bill Irwin.  Yay!