What I’m Watching: Legion (Series Finale)

Legion: Season 3, Episode 8 “Chapter 27”

I wish I could be more satisfied with this finale, but there are a number of reasons that it left me unfulfilled. The first is that, weird as this show was, it should have been given more time to tell its story. After an eleven-episode second season, these last eight episodes felt rather rushed, and I didn’t find that this conclusion addressed every element of this show’s very multi-faceted universe. I’ve never understood the need for musical numbers, and the emphasis on Switch and her role as a time god or whatever she was supposed to be didn’t feel necessary to me. I knew Legion from his role in the X-Men comics, where he went back in time to try to kill Magneto and ended up killing his own father, who dove in front of his best friend to save him, creating the Age of Apocalypse, where Magneto formed the X-Men. That was never going to happen here, especially with no mention of the X-Men in this show’s universe, and instead we got a much smaller, insular world with Gabrielle feeling totally abandoned without Charles by her side. What was great about this finale was the last opportunity for Cary and Kerry to merge together and let her do the leading, and for Syd and David to have a chance to say goodbye to each other before being reunited. Charles striking a deal with the future Farouk was interesting, and I’m still not so sure what to make of his double identity throughout the show. Season one remains one of the most astounding television experiences I’ve had in a while, and it’s a shame that Aubrey Plaza played no role in this finale at all. It’s been wild if nothing else.

Series finale: B-
Series grade: B+
Season MVP: Navid Negahban as Farouk and Aubrey Plaza as Lenny
Season grade: B+
Series MVP: Dan Stevens as David and Aubrey Plaza as Lenny
Best Season: Season 1
Best Episode: Pilot