'Legion' Episode 2, Season 1 Review: "Chapter 2"

Image from IGN

By Darian Scalamoni

            Coming off a series premiere which I deemed perfect, it’d be hard to step up but “Chapter 2” was also a really, really great episode. It seems that each week we might be diving into a whole new show, at least that’s what the editing makes you feel. Noah Hawley increases the stakes and emphasizes just how powerful the main character, David Haller really is.

            Haller has just recently come to grips with the fact that he does not suffer from an actual mental illness yet, he’s an incredibly gifted and powerful mutant who is a telepath and is telekinetic. You can see just how much all of this is bothering him when we dive into his memories in order to see all that David could remember from his past. The episode displays this incredible realization that we can push memories to the back of our mind but the pain and trauma will always remain as you can’t detach yourself from them. It again plays into the humanistic elements in a show that is based around mutants and makes the audience feel connected to this character because you feel sorry for him.

            Ptonomy, another mutant delves into these hurtful memories along with David and Jean Smart’s Dr. Melanie Bird trying to find the key to the madness that David continues to spiral into. The “memory work” as they call it works to sort out moments from his past and work on them to make them less disorienting. It could be a problem for the viewer as it jumps back and forth in time adding another layer to an already convoluted program.

            The impact of the women on this show are also tremendous when seeing how much they play a part in David’s life. His sister, Amy, acts as his protective guardian. She’s constantly trying to make sure he can act normal and so David tries to be that with her. In the case of Aubrey Plaza’s Lenny, we see that she would indulge in his madness to do absolutely anything he wants. Her junkie impulses made her the rebel to which he doesn’t need to put on an act and just do whatever he pleases with ease. Syd, on the other hand, is a constant reminder that David can be better. Rachel Keller’s character makes him want to be a better person and get in control of his powers to not go completely off the rails. David calls his relationship with Syd the “romance of the mind” before actually coming to grips that he’s falling in love with who she makes him become.

            All of this is great and adds to the audience learning more about these characters but the complicated edits and lack of story until the last five minutes makes it hard for me to give this an incredibly high score. We learn that Amy is kidnapped by The Eye and so before David sets out to rescue her, Syd reassures him that when he finishes his training they can all go save her as The Eye is using her as “bait”. It feels good when learning of this information but takes a while to get going, hopefully we get a bit more story in episode 3.

8.6/10