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Legion Ep. 107 Recap & Review - 'Chapter 7'

Legion Ep. 107 Recap & Review – ‘Chapter 7’

For as serious as Legion takes itself, it never forgets to have a little fun. This week, the FX original series plays with all sorts of cinematic techniques to illustrate just how crazy bonkers the dream world, in which our players are trapped, is.

The show pays homage to a few classic horror flicks this week. The red-light halls of the reconstructed Clockworks invokes the 1977 horror film Suspiria: The sense that you’re trapped in a nightmare from which you can’t wake up. The escalating chaos and insanity of your surroundings. Lenny’s ever-present, creepy AF gaze always keeping at least one eye open while our main characters aren’t looking. If you’re going to draw inspiration from another body of work onto a project that always feels like you have one foot stuck in a dream world, Suspiria isn’t a bad way to go. It’s a classic for a reason.

Another, more obvious homage is John Carpenter’s They Live where special sunglasses reveal the darkest truths about the world. In Legion, Oliver makes several pairs of glasses that helps block Lenny’s psychic manifestations for Cary, Syd. The glasses strip away all the color and the craziness around them, and, at some point, all sound. And since the everything turns black and white, the show eventually evolves into a silent film, dialogue cards and all. It’s a bizarre and entertaining touch, especially where Lenny is concerned. Her hair is wilder than ever, as well as her actions. Aubrey Plaza fully embraces the dark weirdness of her character. I dare say, hers has been one of my favorite performances in 2017 so far. It certainly is a huge departure from her quirkiness on Parks and Recreation. Just give her all the awards!

The first few minutes of “Chapter 7” happen concurrently with the last half hour of “Chapter 6.” Oliver brings Cary back to his iceberg hideaway where they talk about their current predicament. It is here that Oliver reveals Lenny’s true identity: Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King. Farouk has quite a history with Xavier in the comics (more on that a little later), which seems to have transferred almost exactly into the world of Legion.

In the furthest recesses of David’s mind, David is locked away in a coffin. The rational part of his brain appears before David, and he’s British. What follows is a fantastic and inventive scene — David is literally gets to talk to himself. Together they work through all the vital information learned over the past couple episodes: David’s adopted. The monster living inside of him is not only a parasite, but a powerful mutant. The monster knew his father and seems incredibly pissed off with him. The Davids surmise that the monster wants revenge for whatever happened between Xavier and him, and then use David’s powers to achieve god status. All of this is depicted in a cute little chalkboard animation.

It’s not spelled out to us outright, but David backstory (and his condition as a mutant) fits perfectly into Legion’s themes concerning mental illness. His particular set of powers was passed down by his father. And because of what happened before David was born, Farouk seeking David out when he was an infant and then making him seem insane is another piece of baggage passed down by Xavier.

Speaking of David’s father, he’s identified in all but name but it’s pretty obvious now that it’s Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men. In the beginning of the episode, there’s a brief shot of his very distinct wheelchair (the one with the X-shaped spokes). In the animation, the David’s father is drawn as a bald man who touches his face in the same manner as Xavier does when he uses his powers. If that wasn’t enough, David also does an (hilarious) impression of his father that totally resembles Patrick Stewart.

Please, oh please bring Patrick Stewart in for a cameo!

With the help of Cary’s device, David has Farouk locked away in the same invisible mind coffin he was in previously, and he now has full use of his powers. For now, that is. Farouk is pretty pissed. He’s just as strong as David is, if not a little stronger. If David was able to figure out how to break free of his mental prison, Farouk will be able to figure it out as well. In fact, the final seconds of the episode shows that he’s managed to crack open his coffin.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

  • Walter, aka The Eye, is dead. It’s a bit of a shame, really. He turned out to be a totally menacing and evil character in his own right, especially toward Kerry. At least they gave him a pretty gnarly death to make up for the fact that he turned out to be an inconsequential villain.
  • The map room where Lenny questions Amy kind of reminds me of a colorful version of Cerebro.
  • What is Lenny looking for, exactly?
  • “My memory’s a bit… what’s the word… dishes?”
  • Oliver is a delight to watch. I suspect his eccentric characteristics were born long before he began spending years and years in complete isolation.
  • David had a few funny lines in this episode as well.
  • Rational David: [In Dan Steven’s real accent] “I’m you. Your rational mind. You’re having a breakdown — a stress response. Your power is kicking in to save you. It created me. You did.”
    Real David: “And you’re British?”
    Rational David: “Like I said, I’m your rational mind.”
  • “I am pretty, I am loved.”
  • “So… leave it on, then?” said David after Cary tells him that the device is the only thing keeping the Shadow King down at the moment.
  • Poor Cary and Kerry. Kerry is angry to the point of not wanting to look at Cary because he didn’t come back for her when Oliver came to get him. He left her alone for the majority of the episode, in fact. (“I needed you, and you left me.”)
  • That first guy from Division 3 is back, completely scarred from third degree burns he sustained from the first time the Summerland gang came to rescue David.
  • Oliver is awake!
  • Seriously. What decade are we in that allows tablet computers, email, and pay phones to exist simultaneously?

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Christina E. Janke

Christina is the co-host of “Intro to Geek” on Shauncastic and Editor-in-Chief at Agents of Geek. Her love of all things Mass Effect knows no bounds. She also carries an obsession with comic books, video games, and quirky television shows. Her heroes are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gail Simone. She hopes to be just like them when she grows up.