What I’m Watching: Legion

Legion: Season 2, Episode 4 “Chapter 12” (B+)

If there’s one thing that his show has never failed to be, it’s incredibly intense. After a few opening installments dealing with Farouk and the monk and Jon Hamm the narrator, we’re treated to one hour that was spent almost entirely within Syd’s head. She’s been one of my favorite characters since the start, and here we got to see that she had an incredibly miserable childhood that was considerably darker than previously indicated. David tracing through her birth to her teenage years to that fateful scene in the museum was an interesting way to make that journey, trying desperately to figure out what it was that he was supposed to learn so that Syd would wake up with him. On the outside, Cary was extremely distressed that they were still unconscious, and the sight of David with his hand over her head and the two of them frozen in place was a useful visual metaphor for what they were experiencing. Syd kissing the boy so that she could assault the three girls who tormented her was the first sign that her life was truly alienating in a way that she couldn’t continue to sustain, and, right before David finally understood, we saw the moment that changed everything. I couldn’t out where I knew the actress portraying Syd’s mother, Lily Rabe, from, and maybe it’s more from her physical resemblance to her mother Jill Clayburgh, or from her starring role in the film “Miss Stevens.” It’s also worth noting that her partner is Hamish Linklater, who plays Clark. The shower scene was disturbing but enormously informative, and I’m sure it’s something that will be referenced again soon. Free from the maze of her mind and reintroduced to the chaos of the real world, this episode could not have ended on a better note that the surprise reappearance of none other than an unexpectedly corporeal Lenny.