Legion – Chapter 15 Review
After
last week's disappointing episode that tried to do too much too late in the game with the Amy/David relationship,
Legion's "Chapter 15" offered a more satisfying course correction back to the main theme of the season: How do you solve a problem like an apocalypse? Was the episode a home run? Hardly. But it did manage to get the narrative more or less back on track following another detour.
Let's get into the main action of the episode: Insanity finally manifesting itself as a Big Bad, only to have David dispense with it in mere moments. I suppose there were audience members wondering what exactly crawled into Ptonomy's ear way back in the season premiere, and for those individuals, I certainly hope the payoff was worth it. It was a throwaway arc, in the grand scheme of things, something that was called out by David himself (in one of the show's most meta moments) when he told Insanity that the team has an awful lot to deal with at the moment and they just don't have time to deal with a giant black bug on top of it all. But, depending on what happens during Ptonomy's journey through the Mainframe, it's a great chance to actually do something with a character
Legion has never really known how to use.
All the mutants within
Legion have pretty solidly defined powers that can help out in a pinch. Ptonomy's exceptional memory is great if you need to know what happened on a specific day of the week, or if you need something memorized and recalled at a specific time (or, I suppose, if you need someone knocked out, but Kerry can handle that in a much more fun manner). And dreamwalking is always useful on a show that loves dealing with the metaphysical. But in the grand scheme of the series, he's clearly the most expendable and least developed character. Nothing against Jeremie Harris, who has done the best with the limited screen time and character development he has been given, but Ptonomy is just not an interesting character in a series full of them. That's why I'm hopeful that whatever arc is coming for Ptonomy inside the Mainframe actually lets Harris do something beyond talking quietly and wielding a big gun. However, judging from the uneven season we've had so far, that might be too much to hope for.
The brief moments within "Chapter 15" that actually addressed the main arc of the season were by far the episode's best. David firmly took himself off Team Farouk, punishing him for killing Amy (who, as we were reminded in a solid bit of mental warfare from Farouk, never seemed to truly care as much about David as David seems to about her). But, naturally, that meant taking himself off Team Future Syd (who remains a rather shifty character with rather murky motives). Dealing with future and past selves and the moralistic issues surrounding interacting with them is something that can become confusing rather quickly, but I did enjoy Syd trying to set boundaries between David and Future Syd (which, of course, David shattered immediately upon being offered the chance to sleep with Future Syd).
One of the highlights of the season has been Noah Hawley's choice to slow play just who and what Future Syd is, and how her plan can prevent the mysterious future from coming to pass. That being said, I remain unconvinced that David is actually the villain in the future timeline. After all, wouldn't that just be a tad too convenient for a show that traffics in the strange?
Final Thoughts:
-- The episode was very light on the supporting players, although watching the Vermillion attempt to corral the infected team members was pretty fun. It was also great to get to see Kerry kick some ass again.
-- We're more than halfway into the season and we've had precious little Jean Smart. I really hope Melanie gets something to do soon.
Pros
- Some forward plot movement
- The sequence with the Vermillion was fun
Cons
- Still too much style and not enough substance