FULL SPOILERS FOR LEGION: CHAPTER 2!!!
Legion’s second episode hit the breaks after last week’s brilliant first episode. That’s not to say it had bad pacing, as it did a good job of moving the story along. Opening the episode with a haunting but melodic cover of Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere,” we see David now being transported to Summerland by Syd and the others who helped rescue him last week. The majority of Chapter 2’s goal was to establish David’s character even more with memories, and also give us a glimpse as to what exactly David’s powers really are.
Pretty much the whole episode takes place in Summerland. From physical standpoint at least, as most of the other locations take place in David’s head. From what we’ve gathered so far, Summerland is sort of a safe haven for mutants in the world, coming to the conclusion that mutants in this universe aren’t very well known and most likely feared. It seems the government created a secret organization known only as Division 3, who’s main goal is to either take in mutants, or kill them. As for as Division 3 is concerned, we’re not given much more information than that, other than that they are a looming threat and there’s a so called “war” coming. David is the supposed key to winning this war.
Some other characters are given more development as well. We learned that one of the other mutants that was following David last week is Ptonomy. Ptonomy’s “gift” is a photographic memory and the ability to see people’s memories. Summerland’s leader is Jean Smart’s Melanie, who we met at the end of the pilot episode. Melanie doesn’t seem to have any powers that we are aware of yet, but its only the second episode. Ptonomy and Melanie set out to discover the extent of David’s true powers by exploring his memories. Its these scenes of David’s memories where some of the show’s brilliant visuals are on full display.
I was really impressed by the scene in which David, Melanie, and Ptonomy are visiting a memory of David’s therapy session, to which Ptonomy can fast forward and rewind on the fly, all within the same camera shot. Once again it seems the show is still continuing its trend of constant jump cuts and fast editing to really get us in David’s mind. Maybe once, or if ever, David gets control of his powers, the continuity of each episode may actually be normal.
Pretty much the majority of the episode takes place in David’s memories, but we also got some nice heartwarming scenes between David and Syd. Dan Stevens and Rachel Keller have some really good chemistry together, considering the context of their relationship, as David isn’t even allowed to hold her hand. Its nice to see a love interest for a main character that doesn’t forced. Another shout out goes to some moments of good humor between David and “Cary.”
I’m getting a lot of vibes of Fargo so far, as at times it’s dark and odd, but then can be pretty funny as well. One of the main antagonists, The Eye” even looks like a character straight out of Fargo as well. That hair. The tone has been captured perfectly so far. Its clear that Dan Stevens is the right pick for this character. It isn’t an easy character to play as well, especially if anyone knows much about Legion’s comic roots.
The episode ended with a nice cliffhanger that showed David actually using his power in order to see his sister Amy through his mind. Considering David is the son of Charles Xavier, this wasn’t too surprising. It seems Division 3 has sought out to kidnap Amy in order to bait out David. Syd and Melanie clearly understand this and instead of letting David go off on a suicide mission, they decide to help David train even more. I’m definitely excited for next week!
Some questions that still need to be answered from the first 2 episodes:
What can David actually do? Or better yet, what can David NOT do?
Why are they covering David’s father’s face. Is that really Professor X or someone else who pretends to be David’s father?
What does Division 3 actually want from David?
Just what exactly is that demon in David’s hallucinations that looks like something out of Resident Evil?
What in the hell is that blue drug called Vapor?
