Legion: Chapter Five

Chapter Five of Legion opened up peacefully enough.  

It certainly didn't end that way.  Well, maybe it did.  We'll get there.

The opening sequence seemed to be a study in duality or the power of two.  Everything had something to do with couples.  We had David and Syd with their usual dockside chat.

Cary Loudermilk waited for his wounded symbiotic half to return safely.  It was clear he felt empty inside without Kerry.

David had his psychic link with Melanie.  But moreover, it was a discussion over her missing half.  Her husband Oliver.

David's new found knowledge of the Astral Plane left him a bit arrogant.  He seemed to taunt Melanie with this new knowledge and the fact that he had talked to Oliver.  Melanie, of course, was left without her other half and David seemed to press his advantage over her now that he was complete and she wasn't.

David had found a way to create his own reality.  A place where he and Syd could be together.  Oddly enough, this union left David edgier and perhaps a little mean spirited.

Maybe his arrogance came from Making Syd happy.  It wasn't exactly Syd's "first time" but David and Syd could finally share and this "completeness" left David a changed man.

If only things were as sweet as they seemed.  (Yeah, bugs crawling all over your fresh strawberries is never a good sign.

As much as this episode was about the "power of two" or one person completing the other.  I think we all know it was too good to be true.

Pictured above we find the happy couple reveling in their new found bliss.  David is wearing a black shirt with a yellow triangle on it.  He wears it throughout the episode.  (Unless he's in the "white room" enjoying the fruit of his new union.)

I think the triangle is heavily symbolic for this episode.  It, of course, has three points.  So, as much as the power of two leads to happiness, there is always a third point that adds another dimension (no pun intended). 

It is this third point or party we need to be worried about.  Legion seems to have branded David with this triangle to remind him, and we the viewers, that there is always something lurking beneath.

The triangle is one the oldest symbols known to man.  The ancient Greeks used it as their symbol for Delta and was considered, metaphorically, as a doorway.  (No surprise for this show.)  It can symbolize masculinity pointed in one direction and femininity pointed in the other.  The triangle is closely related to the number three which is associated with wisdom.

All these traits figure heavily into this show.  Doorways to other dimensions. The masculinity of David.  The femininity of Syd.  The wisdom gained from new found power and the mind, body and spirit connection.

Sadly, for David the "spirit" in his trinity is one of deep malevolence.

Soon after David and Syd enjoyed another rapturous interlude, it wasn't long before that spirit of darkness came to call in the form of Lenny.  

She told him what he wanted to hear and intoxicated with her words, he was off to rescue Amy.
 


Road Trip! 

There was something odd about this whole effort to rescue David.

First, it came on the heels of an argument involving Syd and Melanie and Ptonomy and Melanie.  Syd professed her priority is now about her "man" and she didn't give a shit about what Melanie wanted.  Ptonomy accused Melanie of acting selfishly in that she was only motivated in bringing Oliver back.

Melanie seemed defeated and willing to go it alone.   

But the next thing you know the rest of the Scooby gang is going along for the ride!  What suddenly changed their mind?  They seemed so divided in one instant and then ready to march together into the gates of hell the next.

Also odd, scroll up to the image of Rudy at the wheel of the car.  The steering wheel is on the wrong side.  At least for America and that's where they are.  (Isn't it?)

In the above image, Syd is now wearing her red skirt.  Where did that come from?  Previously she was dressed in all black.  Does she slip on the skirt when she goes out to kick butt?

This all seemed unusually edited to me.  The allies suddenly getting together again.  The slips in continuity with the red skirt and the odd side of the steering wheel.  Strange.

Were they slips?  With Legion you never know.  They could be playing with their reality or they could be playing with ours.  

It keeps us on our toes.

Things could be better at Division Three.  (Hey, three, like in a triangle.)

The security staff has taken a beating (a little callback to the "Philadelphia Experiment") and the Scooby gang manages to trace David's movement through the facilities video recordings.

David is wreaking havoc and playfully exterminating anyone that gets in his way.

That's not all they see.  

Alternately, David is either pictured as himself or the Devil that lurks beneath.  It is a frightening image.  Especially seen in negative or heat signature.

See what I mean?

They stumble across Brubaker who is half embedded in the floor.  He's a little wiser for his experience.

He confessed Division Three thought they were prepared for David.  He knows now they were oh so wrong.  David did not come alone and what came with him wore a "human face".

Just a little scary.


The First Big Reveal

Team Summerland manged to exit D3 without any harm and made contact with Cary to report their findings.  (Awesome comm link by the way.  An eye in the sky!)  Cary, for his part, has been going over the tapes of his MRI treatment of David and made a big discovery.

Cary imparts their mistake in their treatment of David.  He's not like the others.  First of all, there have been "others"?   Maybe Oliver is an "other".  What happened to the others they treated?  Certainly not as powerful as David.

More confirmation that this grotesque evil isn't David but a separate entity. 

Burrowed into David's brain?

How did it get there?  Was it instilled there by David's parents?  Could it have been through all that "Angry Boy" book reading from his Father?  Was the book some sort of ritual that weakened the susceptible David and allowed the monster in?  Were the parents dupes of the Devil or willing disciples? 

Then there was this stunner, the Devil inside David was actually an older mutant.

This opens a can of worms.  The Devil was once a mutant like David and the rest at Summerland.  Is David like this mutant?  Will David's expanded powers lead him to become a "Devil" in the future?  Do the expanded powers need to feed on others because one body or being isn't enough?

What transformed the original older mutant into the parasitic Devil we now know him to be?

There is a lot to digest here.



Homeward Bound

Syd has a brief interlude back the white room.  All is not sweetness and banjo music.

In fact, there is this.

And this.

 
Who invited King and the Angry Boy to the party?

 

While Syd has her brief meet up with David back in the White Room, she takes a peek through the telescope to see where David has brought Amy.

Back to where it all started.  Home.

David presses Amy for information.  He knows she has a secret and he is getting a little impatient.  Anger and frustration well within him and we get another visitor.

It's Lenny and she starts to speak for David.  In fact, she becomes quite persuasive.

The Second Big Reveal

Yikes, I don't know why it didn't occur to me David wasn't part of the biological family.  I think I just assumed his crackpot parents were looking to continue their mutant legacy and perhaps widen David's powers with the "Angry" book.

Now it seems David must have come from a wholly different mutant family. So this poses many different questions.

• Did the adoptive parents know of David's background?  
• If so, why did the take him on?
• Were they working for Division Three all along and trying to nurture him? 
• Were they working for Summerland? Is that why they didn't lash out at Melanie in the memory/dream before?
• Did they decide to go it alone and dear old Dad was passing down a family traditon of reading, "The World's Angriest Boy in the World"? 
• Was The Devil inside Dad and Dad a mutant?
• Or was the book somehow left for Dad and it provided a gateway for The Devil?

Remember, the book ends with Mom getting her head chopped off  and we've yet to deal with that.

Plus, it's important to note, now we know that The Devil is and "Older Mutant" which means it has a past.  I wonder how much we will learn of that?  Flashbacks?  A dedicated episode?  Or a season cliffhanger?

Before we reach the final chapter, we revisit Cary and Kerry back at Summerland.

 

It seems Cary has been working on a device to "isolate the entity".  And look, it's shaped like a halo or circle like what we've seen throughout the series.

Do you think it will make an angel out of the The Devil?

 

Hell Is Where the Home Is 

Our intrepid rescuers have reached the home site and are getting the silent treatment.  They've crossed a boundary where only one voice can be heard and unbeknownst to them, they have been followed by "The Eye".

 

 

As in any good horror movie the gang splits up. 

Syd follows The Angry Boy upstairs and runs into a catatonic Amy and the perverse and evil creature that is Lenny.  (Looks like Aubrey Plaza can really do bad girl!)

In a comic sequence Cary Loudermilk rejoins the Scooby Gang.

Close call Cary, you might have have lost your head.  I wonder if this is an omen of things to come.  Mom lost her head in the book!

As the rest of the gang joins Syd, The Eye that has taken the form of Rudy lets loose a fusillade of bullets toward David.

"David, The White Room now!!!"

Good thing David listens to Syd.

That was close.

It's over right?  Safe and sound?

Nope.

The Devil shows his true face.  ( I guess that is his true face.  Some sort of weird perversion of Fred Flintstone.)  He begins to stalk Syd about the White Room.

 

Syd is freaking out.

David isn't much help as he is nearly catatonic himself.  He looks extremely panicked and is shaking all over.  Even with his immense powers he is seeminly helpless in the presence of The Devil.

  

Syd falls to the bed and shrieks to David one last time.

 

And it worked.

David can still hear Syd and suddenly we are elsewhere.

Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital?

That's what it seems like.  Mostly everybody is dressed up in the attire appropriate for that place.  They all are sitting in a group session and Lenny seems to be holding chair.

So whose dream/memory/reality is this?

David launched them there but Lenny is running the group.  Why Clockworks?  Is this a safe place for David?  Or does The Devil exert enough control to influence the setting and the role of the therapist?

Why is Rudy in a wheelchair?  Is it because The Eye took him over and is now present too?

Everyone seems to be along for the ride and no one is aware they don't belong there.

This should be interesting.

 

Hey look,  Eugene Wong is back.  Also known as "The Man in All His Clothes."  He's making a puppet out of his sleeve.

Now where are we going???!!!



(Sorry about the changes in font size.  It has something to do wit "Blogger" and I haven't been able to fix it.  It comes and goes and manages to drive me crazy.)