Legion “Chapter 11” Review- Navigating the Maze
When it comes to storytelling and intricate narratives, Legion is quite ambitious. We are three episodes into this second season and you can feel that the show is building to something epic. Almost like a snowball building to some impending doom that will probably be something we don’t even anticipate. On a weekly basis, Legion introduces new concepts and a mind-bending story only to up the ante so to speak with the following episode. While there hasn’t been a great deal of furthering the story in a physical standpoint, we are no closer to finding the Shadow King’s body, but we are closer in understanding the hows and whys of it all. To a degree. It wouldn’t be Legion if we had all the answers.
One answer we did get last night concerned everyone’s favorite random Monk and the chattering virus that seems to follow him around. Through a discussion with Farouk we were given more hints on David’s father, Charles Xavier, and how he defeated the Shadow King. Once Farouk was defeated his body was given to the monks who buried him in an egg-shaped coffin, got to love how eggs seem to be one of the running themes of this season, and buried him in the safest place they could think of. Underneath their monastery. Turns out this wasn’t the greatest of ideas, who would have thought, as soon after this burial a loud, building shaking beat rose from the ground causing the teeth chatter virus. What followed was a number of monks committed suicide while others developed the teeth chattering virus. It appears that the Monk that David is following was the only one to escape the monastery unharmed… sort of. While he appears to have maintained his sanity he now is a carrier of the virus spreading it where ever he is. Much like the introduction with the cheerleader and the random tick that spreads through her town.
The pursuit of the Monk is vital in locating the body of Farouk, in order to save the future David needs to find the body in some perverse reversal of the Heroes slogan, but the Monk isn’t making it easy for him. For the second week in a row, Division III is brought to its knees by an attack this time coming in the form of the teeth chattering virus. The children soldiers, who Division III hired because they were supposed to be immune, are manipulated in protecting the Monk with some sort of Pied Piper sorcery, while others members of Division III either die or are consumed by the constant chattering of their teeth. Melanie, Ptonomy, Kerry, and Syd all fall victim to the Monk’s presence.
David, along with Cary, enters the mindscapes of each of their friends and navigate the maze that leads to their freedom. Each maze, or mind, represents each person’s deepest desires. For Ptonomy, a man who remembers everything, his maze is a place where he gardens roses only to forget immediately what he’s done. A safe place where he doesn’t have to be himself. Melanie is a choose your own adventure game that involves a minotaur (the same from earlier this season) where she doesn’t have to be at the forefront for once. We never find out Kerry’s as Cary re-enters her before being apprehended by the children and the episode ends as David tries to free Syd. Each maze is a personal representative of the person hiding within it.
All this time Future Syd is sending David a message to “hurry” making me trust her even less and adding almost a ticking time clock to the episode. When David finally confronts the Monk, he teleports him to the roof before the Monk can reveal that David is indeed working with the Shadow King, we learn that David is a weapon. A weapon Division III wants and a weapon that the Shadow King is currently using. It’s at this point David’s best lead to finding the body of the Shadow King throws himself off the roof seemingly killing himself. Or did he? I’m starting to wonder if the cow that kept showing up throughout the episode had something to do with the Monk. I haven’t fully pieced together that theory but I don’t think we’re quite done with the Monk just yet.
Some quick thoughts before I leave you.
- We got some payoff with Syd and the cat as she was able to switch bodies with the feline again in order to safely spy on what was happening within Division III.
- I absolutely love Cary. His admonishing of the cow in the lab was one of my favorite scenes of the night. I also love how deeply he cares for Kerry.
- Lenny is a mess. I kind of felt for her as she begged David for help and attempted to dramatically kill herself with a gun that shot bubbles.
- The X-Men easter eggs this season have been tremendous and is really shaping the broader sense of this universe. I can’t tell you how badly I want a Patrick Stewart appearance.
There you have it Geeklings, what did you think of this week’s Legion? Do you think the Monk is actually dead? Can David rescue Syd from her maze? Is it possible that Future Syd is actually using David as a weapon? Sound off in the comments. If you’d like to talk more Legion with me you can find me on Twitter @iamgeek32. Keep on question reality my friends and I’ll see you all next week!
Images from FX
Kevin Carey is an
unapologetic geek who strongly
believes his mind works much like an episode of
Community. Has a strong love for pop culture that focuses on
TV, comics, movies,
and books. Kevin also enjoys writing fiction and has self published a short
story to
Amazon. While awaiting his Hogwarts acceptance letter, Kevin lives on
Long Island with his cat and extensive
Pop Vinyl collection. You can find him here on Fan Fest, at his blog I Am Geek, or the I Am Geek Podcast spreading geekiness to all.
