While David remains lost, Ptonomy, Kerry, and Syd go looking for answers about the memories they saw while in his mind.
Spoilers within spoilers within spoilers within…
I Don’t Know What I Just Watched
To get at the root of this week’s plot, our hero is lost and his friends go searching for answers. They fall into a trap set up by the bad guys and the hero returns just in time to save them all. It is a simple narrative Legion twisted into a story about empathy and fear, violence and human nature as Oliver (the elusive husband to Melanie Bird) explains to us in the prologue.
Reality
The real-world recap is simpler to start with if you don’t think they could still be trapped in David’s mind. I don’t think they are because I don’t know how Legion is going to deal with the implications of that revelation. It also makes my head hurt to think about it.
David remains comatose after his last Memory Work session, but his brain is fully active. Melanie is convinced David’s memories are the best way to save him and she sends Ptonomy, Syd, and Kerry out to find Dr. Poole and Philly for answers. Searching the doctor’s office, it becomes clear to Syd and Ptonomy David assaulted Dr. Poole when raiding the office. He went to destroy the tapes of the sessions because he had said too much, and attacked his therapist to keep the secret.
Next stop on the truth trail is Philly. Ptonomy searches Philly’s mind and finds where Dr. Poole has been since David attacked him. Syd goes for the more direct approach and starts asking about him. The first big revelation we learn from this conversation is Lenny was not the drug pushing best friend of David’s. That was a man named Benny. Philly’s message to David if they find him, “they’re watching.”
Another revelation we get comes at the hands of Amy Haller still stuck at Division 3. Her cell neighbor is David’s doctor at Clockworks. The two of them talk about David and how they both knew he was never mentally ill. Also, King, David’s dog he always talks and dreams about, was never real.
The more Syd learns about David, the more she wonders if she fell for the real David, or “the idea of him.” Echoing Oliver’s prologue, she asks herself “who are we if not the stories we tell ourselves?” (Seriously deep for a TV Show about mutants).
Going even deeper, we learn more about Kerry and Cary’s body sharing. Despite Kerry’s parents being Native Americans, Cary (a white man) was the one who was born and is clearly the alpha of the relationship. Kerry comes out to fight and only ages when she is separated from Cary. Syd is horrified for Kerry having no ownership of her own body, but Kerry doesn’t seem to mind. She loves Cary. “He makes me laugh. I keep him safe.” Back at Summerland we see the love is also shared as Cary misses his other half and worries what will happen to her when he dies.
Ptonomy, Syd, and Kerry follow Philly’s memory to Dr. Poole and get caught in a trap set up by The Eye and Division 3. As Kerry is fighting for their lives against the government goons, we see Cary feels all she feels. Including the major beating and eventual bullet from The Eye. Syd cleverly saves them all by body switching with The Eye and pretends to take all of them back to Division 3. The plan would have worked too, if it wouldn’t have been for Lenny.
The Groovy Ice Cube Lounge
David is in the astral plane, a dimension “somewhere between memory and a dream.” There he meets Oliver Bird, who traveled too far onto the plane and is stuck. He has made himself a hangout spot and is happy to have someone else to talk to. David wants to find his way out, but Oliver makes a case for David to stay. “The Monster… can’t get you in here” Oliver assures David as the Yellow-Eyed Blob hangs-out just outside the ice.
David still chooses to leave and Oliver shows him the door. Lenny comes to taunt him needing David to get them both out of this hole he put them in. David doesn’t trust his friend who seems to be side stepping his questions about why she is there. But Lenny is getting impatient and shows David The Eye standing over his friends menacingly. Of course, Lenny knows The Eye is actually Syd, but the plan to make David angry works and they are back in the real world. He unknowingly frees The Eye and Kerry is shot as a result.
Thoughts and Questions
Like I said, I think everyone is back in the real world and not still stuck in David’s memory, but there are some odd instances that counter that idea. Syd continues to see The Angriest Boy, though it could just be a residual memory from her time inside David’s mind. Also, Philly’s earrings look like the ladder David travel’s up to enter Oliver’s Lounge. And Summerland looks unusually empty.
Why is the female Lenny taking the place of a male Benny in David’s memories? Who knows. Guilt about her death is my big guess. Lenny could be another representation of the Yellow-Eyed Blob inside David’s mind. And now it is out.
King, David’s boyhood beagle, not being real makes me wonder if Lenny/Yellow-Eyed Blob is not Mojo, but the Shadow King. It is a monstrous being that exists in the astral plane who shows up when David is angry or afraid. The name of the dog can’t be a coincidence.
Every episode I tell myself Legion can’t possibly get more strange or trippy, then the next one somehow tops it. How is “Chapter 5” going to top this?
Till Then!
About the author: The Nerdling has an unhealthy obsession with books, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Wars. She finds hockey to be the best sport in the world (Go Dallas Stars!) and is working on her first novel, but mostly glowers at a blank screen. You can find her on Twitter @nerdlingstale