I was thinking recaps would help unraveling the intricately knotted plot. If you don’t enjoy unreliable narrator storytelling, this is probably not the show for you.
That said, the show has been very good at giving cues as to what is real and what is not - the not-real-world stuff tends to have dramatic and stylized lighting, crazy camera action, and is presented in a disjointed manner. For example, the weird lighting of the White Room.
This last episode is the first exception I can recall to that - Dr. Lenny’s Clockworks institute was happening in the astral plane/David’s mind, but in general it was shot in their ‘real world’ style. The cues that something was off were very subtle - absence of people in the hallways, for example.
They did use visual signals to indicate that the Door Into David was weird - when Syd approached, there was bright light from the baseboards of the walls, for example. And, of course, when Dr. Lenny went on her Interpretive Dance of Victory or when Oliver showed up, everything went surreal as per usual unreal sequences.
So, they’re giving signals to help unravel what is real and what is not. But if you don’t like trying to sort those out, this is probably going to be a really frustrating show (despite it’s awesome visual (and musical) aesthetic).
OTOH for some of us it is half the fun of the show! It is not a show best enjoyed by letting it passively flow over you. Actively having to determine what is real and how much to trust what we experience as reality to be reality, which is the crazy-making world that David of course has been experiencing his whole life, is part of the puzzle.
This stuff isn’t my forte so I’m going to rewind to check something; how about if each week we are experiencing one characters state of mind, one of this defined group. This week it was Lenny, last week Syd, the week before the Dr Woman, etc. There are shared experiences, shared understandings, and so shared memories, though each character has their own version of those events, presumably encouraged by medication. Obv each has ther own fears, insecurities layered into that, as well.
If so, with 2 epi’s left, it will have to be drawn together very soon …
Finally saw the latest episode today.
Now I might be reading too much into a scene, but up to this point every member of the “team” has a power/ability:
David - psychic abilities — telepathy and telekinesis
Syd - the ability to switch bodies
Cary/Kerry - sharing the same body. He’s the brains she’s the brawn
Ptonomy - memory artist
but does Melanie have any?
I realize that what was going on the last episode was all under the control of Lenny, but that scene of Melanie watering flowers as they grew automatically made me question if she does have an ability.
Melanie has not shown herself to have any mutant powers, at all. She’s always talked about mutants as if she was not one of them. Her husband, Oliver, however seems to be a powerful telepath of some kind - able to access the astral plane.
I might be remembering wrong but I think I remember her communicating with him telepathically in chapter 2 after coaching him through how to focus his telepathic power and later saying that his telepathic power may be greater than hers.
In Chapter 2, Melanie got David to learn to focus on only one voice in his head - hers, at the time. He heard her voice in his head in the same way he later heard Syd’s: by reading her mind.
Melanie has made several comparisons between David’s growing powers and her husband’s. And if she was a telepath like David and Oliver, she’d be able to get to the astral plane to see her husband, which she obviously can’t.
Well that was a fantastic episode with many (many) reveals! Absolutely fantastic way to do info dumps / exposition and how incredible was that silent film like hospital scene at the end! I’m sad that next episode is the season finale, but what an amazing first season!
Right, well any time you want to talk about that do go ahead because, atm, I see a lot of people saying how great it is and no one talking about any arcs, structures, characters, or developments generally - it’s like a bunch of high school students nodding at Jackson Pollock.
As far as the characters go, I think most of them have had good development arcs. And quite a few of them came to a culmination in this episode, it seemed. (Except poor Walter, who got Worfed to show how badass the Shadow King is, despite all the creepy development they put into The Eye.)
Oliver started to come back to reality from his flaky astral trip, while Melanie was able to take it slow with him despite what seemed like her earlier pathetic needyness for her husband.
Cary became assertive here, just as Kerry started drawing away from him.
Amy finally leveled with David and accepted he has powers and may not be crazy.
Syd is now confident and bold, in contrast to how she started the season.
And David, of course, finally stopped being a victim and is trying to take charge of his life.
Even Rudy got his moment of self-sacrifice, though he’s only been a peripheral character. Kind of weird that Ptonomy didn’t play more of a role here, since he’s been pretty central to the story all season.
It was a wonderful episode. I’m certain one of the writers is an opera fan, those silent film intertitles were done in exactly the same fashion as in the 2012 Pesaro production of Rossini’s Ciro in Babilonia, I recognized them instantly.
Not worth debating but I also think I remember Melanie communicating with Carey telepathically as they explored the aftermath of David’s “rescue” of his sister. My understanding was that going to the astral plane volitionally and under control is not something any telepath can do … only ones of the level of David and Oliver … and likely David’s father. But in any case her powers other than nurturing are not so important or strong.
Anyhoo, on to this chapter.
Meh.
Seemed like having stylistic fun for the sake of the fun but all too pat. Purty enough but ending up like a cupcake that’s all frosting.
Was the house where the bullets were being fired in the real world or in the astral plane?
Oliver was doing his mumbo mamba jumbo musical shield which I would think he can only do in astral plane. And David “awake” turning Syd away and catching the bullets seems astral plane. But the halo was placed there and was then still on as the story progressed.
And if Oliver could musically create a shield by himself why did he guide Melanie there? Especially when he did not remember who she was? Or say we’d need all of the friends to save them?
Carey having left Kerry alone and not being torn up over it … Kerry’s not alone in thinking wtf? It seems inconsistent with the character they built. And characters evolving consistently with who they have been is important to this show.
Are they still in astral plane?
Rational self with British accent (really?) gets David self to exposit what everyone knows and suddenly David has the power to contain Lenny/Shadow King? Really? If that is it then it is really pretty disappointing.
I hope the finale gets chewier because right now my sense that they established some interesting themes to think about and pretty much dropped them in favor of stylistic fun and games.
That was fun. A tightly delivered expository pre-climax to set up the battle royale in the season finale.
I read the linked-to-above article from io9 that explained the name mentioned in the last episode’s previews for this episode. They showed a pic of the comic book introducing the Shadow King when he encounters Professor X. I remembered that John Byrne artwork immediately from one of the last issues I got before I started spending my money on music. His appearance was based on Sidney Greenstreet’s character in Casablanca.
Like I said, I stopping staying current with the X-Men soon after, but according to that io9 article the SK is a good choice as a Big Bad for Legion.
Loved the British accent for rationality. Enjoyed the titles. Loved Jemaine Clement’s humor. Do we know why he doesn’t recall Melanie? Simple byproduct of Cryo?
Also: what was Oliver/Jemaine doing to unlock the SK’s hold on that static scene?
This show needs to be rewatched in a binge. I predict its word of mouth will pick up when the full season is available, and that S2 will see a lot more buzz. The show is packed with acting talent and takes (and to me, pulls off) risky stuff, within scenes and how it has kept the Big Bad arc fuzzy.
Last note: Aubrey Plaza has what I call Allison Janney eyes. When she tilts her chin slightly down and looks up, it’s such a powerful look. She uses it during the silent bits so well - it adds that touch of Joker crazy that fits.
