What I’m Watching: Legion

Legion: Season 2, Episode 7 “Chapter 15” (B+)

After another cleverly-worded “previously on” introduction phrased as “ostensibly on,” I wouldn’t have expected an episode to ultimately make sense like this one did in the end, thanks in no small part to narrator Jon Hamm asking us, what have we learned? Future Syd’s conversation with Farouk about how he might not be the villain but might instead be the hero who stops David from destroying the world was enlightening if not entirely clear was very interesting since we rarely see anyone besides David, and since it followed Syd’s own expressed concerns about the nature of David’s relationship with her future self. Lenny snapping her fingers and reliving the pain that Amy was in was disturbing enough before we got to the many nightmares Ptonomy was experiencing. I don’t even know what to say about the mustachioed women multiplying and regenerating as Ptonomy and Kerry took them out, and what happened after the basket came off of Admiral Fukyama’s head. Fortunately, David showed up just in time to find the parasites in Clark and Kerry’s heads and pull them out, though he didn’t get to Ptonomy before he morphed into a terrifying giant spider. Who knows what will become of Ptonomy, now trapped deep inside someone’s mind, but the shift in pacing with David at the end of the episode was incredible. He seemed so irritated that the arachnid had chosen this time to attack since he was dealing with so much else, and managed to reframe the situation so that he was the giant and his opponent was tiny. Trapping it in a glass and popping it with his mind was a less comic ending, demonstrating just how destructive this immeasurably powerful mutant, currently on the good side, can truly be.