Legion 2×02 Review: Chapter Ten

How is it possible that Legion gets weirder each and every week?  “Chapter Ten” threw us some curve balls and has really made us question the nature of our reality.  But I guess that’s kind of the point.

I think the biggest curve ball of them all from “Chapter Ten” is the realization that Lenny is a distinct personality from the Shadow King.  We did hear that this was a thing in an interview with Noah Hawley in IGN.  Those of us who pay attention to interviews may not be completely blind-sided by this revelation, but it’s still pretty huge.  It’s hard to say how Lenny became a separate entity and where she begins and the Shadow King ends.  It’s strongly implied that she is the same Lenny that died at Clockworks back in season one, but at the same time she has the false memories of “Benny” from before David arrived at Clockworks.  She’s not just Lenny.  She might not even be Lenny.  She might be sort of a tulpa.  Who knows?  It’s mind blowing.

The fact that Lenny is a separate entity seems to have been a minor point of “Chapter Ten”.  The larger overall plot was that Future Syd wants David to help Farouk find his body so that they can save humanity from a much more dangerous threat.  Whatever this more dangerous threat is has made Future Syd cynical enough to brush off the death of a few people and embrace what we once viewed as the ultimate enemy.  This solidifies Syd and David’s trust with each other.  David trusts future Syd, even though what she’s asking of him seems completely bonkers.  In turn, David tells Present Syd what Future Syd told him and she trusts him.  Once more, my happy couple is in step with each other.  I don’t want them at odds with each other. I want them to survive this show happily together.  We don’t get that very often.  Legion, please give me this.

The main teasers for “Chapter Ten” centered around David finally coming face to face with the Shadow King.  Strangely enough, that was one of the least gripping scenes in the entire episode.  I know it was supposed to be a monumental moment, but him wrestling Farouk didn’t hold up compared to the epic dance battle against Lenny and Oliver last week.  That’s not to say it wasn’t great to finally see him meet his nemesis.  This show is spectacular.  I guess when surrounded by overly spectacular scenes, just the simply spectacular stuff seems almost mundane.

Beyond the Lenny and Shadow King stuff, which were were a large part of the episode, it’s also pretty big to see Kerry and Carey get reversed.  It’s actually pretty painful to watch them in each others shoes.  Kerry doesn’t like navigating the world all the time and is clearly uncomfortable.  I just want to hug them both.  I’m ridiculously emotionally attached to Kerry/Carey and I hate seeing them in pain.  They may be ‘secondary’ characters, but their well being is important to me.  If either one of them dies for dramatic effect, I’m not sure how I’ll handle it.  I need them to survive.  There are plenty of characters that can be killed off that would upset me and I would continue watching, but their safety is paramount for my enjoyment of the show.  And I don’t say this lightly, because Legion is currently my favorite show on TV so it’d take something incredibly extreme to take it away from me.  Killing Kerry or Carey might be enough to do that to me.  I just don’t know.  Right now I just hurt for them.  And that’s okay, I guess.  At least they’re alive.

We’re off to an incredible start here.  While I can assume I have some grasp of what’s happening on screen, the idea that the overarching theme this season is delusion makes me question that I’m actually following what’s happening.  Maybe my assumptions about how Lenny came to be are incorrect.  Maybe a delusion has taken hold of me early on in the season and more likely ideas are being destroyed as the delusion consumes me.  That’s kind of the whole theme of the season, isn’t it?  Fingers crossed my delusions about Lenny don’t cause me to chop off any appendages, though.  That’d be rather unfortunate.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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