“Legion” Season One Recap and Review: “Chapter Four”

“Legion” poses a question: what is real and what is the story we tell ourselves to hide the truth? So what exactly is David hiding from his friends?

Last week’s “Legion” left David trapped in his own mind. Where do we go from here? Let’s find out!

Not-So-Short Summary

Welcome, Jemaine Clement! He’s no longer just a voice, but he is preaching to us about how we’re our own problems. He’s also introducing this episode.

David still sleeps, the stars speaking to him in a million different memory flashes. Ptonomy can’t find him anywhere in his memories, so they don’t know where exactly he is, somewhere on the astral plane (psychic projections to create a fake reality).

LEGION — Pictured: (l-r) Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy Wallace, Rachel Keller as Syd Barrett. CR: Michelle Faye/FX

“What was real–that was the mission,” Syd voices over as she, Ptonomy, and Kerry are sent to discover what happened to David before Clockworks.

Looks like David attacked his psychiatrist. But Syd takes it a step further: what if, when David came back, it wasn’t for money, but for a tape where he said too much?

They find Philly, David’s ex-girlfriend. Ptonomy searches her memories to find where David’s original psychiatrist, Dr. Poole, is. But they also find out from Philly that Lenny was actually Benny, a drug pusher and definitely the opposite of Aubrey Plaza.

Of course, it’s a trap when they find Dr. Poole! The doctor is actually The Eye, wanting to see David again. While he takes out Ptonomy, he doesn’t realize that touching Syd will make them switch bodies.

LEGION — “Chapter 1” (Airs Wednesday, February 8, 10:00 pm/ep) — Pictured: (l-r) Dan Stevens as David Haller, Rachel Keller as Syd Barrett. CR: Michelle Faye/FX

In the astral plane, David shakes off the voices to find himself in a glowing field, following a man in an old school scuba diving suit, aka Melanie’s husband. They arrive in wherever in the astral plane Oliver has been keeping his mind sane.

But in here, David is safe from the monster, the one with the yellow eyes. Too bad David wants to leave. He does need to find his way home.

He stumbles upon Lenny and isn’t having any of her games. Rather than her telling him the truth, she makes him get mad to break them out of there and for the briefest moment, Lenny becomes the demon with the yellow eyes.

David makes it out in time to crash the truck the Eye/Syd is driving, only to free the wrong Syd… to have them both change back into themselves (David pinning the real Syd under him) and then the Eye ends up shooting Kerry in the shoulder. It’s done very well, but man is it hard to explain in a recap.

Badass Moment of the Week

David’s attempt at using his mutant superpowers to escape Oliver’s prison. He tries a lot of hand motions that do nothing and even does a bit of a Professor X stance with his hand to his temple.

Best One-Liner

“Come back anytime. Wednesday’s karaoke night!” Oliver says as a farewell. Just as long as Bret shows up, I’m happy.

By the way, Amy is still being held a prisoner. She discovers Dr. Kissinger from the mental hospital. It’s cool that she admits she thinks she always knew he had powers and wasn’t actually sick.

We do find out that King, the cute beagle, was only ever part of David’s mind. That’s a little sad, but also a fun twist. This show just keeps throwing twist after twist and while it feels like it should be expected, every new twist just adds to the story. The way this episodes dodges each new plot point and handles them so well, it’s a crazy work of art.

Until next week, fellow Legion watchers!