Review: Legion 2×05 – Chapter 13

The fifth episode of Legion season two puts the spotlight on Lenny as David learns the terrible truth about her return…

 

Aubrey Plaza’s demonic, charismatic performance as the Shadow King was one of the biggest highlights of season one, so while I have been enjoying Navid Negahban’s exquisite performance as the real Amahl Farouk, it’s been disappointing to see Plaza’s Lenny Busker reduced to his puppet, only appearing for a couple of minutes per episode. Thankfully, this was put right in “Chapter 13” which let Plaza stretch her legs once again.

Following on from the shock ending of “Chapter 12”, this episode slowly ekes out the real reason how she has miraculously returned in the flesh. The small-scale nature of the hour – mostly it just consists of Lenny being grilled in an interrogation room – allows us to get to actually get to know Lenny – or rather Lenore – as a person for the first time. Her tragic past is told, revealing a troubled childhood that gave rise to her life-long addiction problems. She’s eccentric and creepy, sure, but you have to feel sorry for a woman who’s basically been trapped in awful situations her whole life.

So how did Lenny return? And why are her eyes now blue? It turns out it’s all part of the Shadow King’s latest scheme to make David’s life a living hell. Her new body formally belonged to Amy Haller, David’s sister last seen in season one. The scene where Oliver psychically attacks Amy and uses that Division 3 gadget to transform her into Lenny is thoroughly distressing and disturbing, a throwback to the more overt horror stylings of the show’s debut run.

My question now is: why did Farouk do this when he had David on side? Now he’ll will have the full force of David’s wrath coming to get him? Whatever the reason, “Chapter 13” presents the Shadow King at perhaps his most evil – as it appears, he killed Amy’s sister in the most horrifying way possible. Whether there’s a worse evil out there or not, you can bet David is going to get his revenge…

 

 

X-Amining Legion:

• When Ptomony attempts to read Lenny’s mind, he has a vision of Admiral Fukuyama’s true face – and it’s this horrible reptilian creature. I’m not taking this as an actual reveal of what rests beneath that basket as the flashback to the delusion creature crawling in his ear suggests things aren’t as they seem.
• The most perplexing element of this episode for me is that dream that Amy describes to her husband. Clearly, she has received a vision of the Vermilion, the androgynous androids from Division 3 – but what does this mean? Does Amy’s consciousness somehow become the Vermilion’s shared artificial intelligence?
• This episode gives us our best look yet at where Oliver’s head is at in all this. It seems that he is mostly under Farouk’s thrall but, when flashes of his wife Melanie come back to him, he is able to exert a certain amount of free will. So what do we make of Oliver’s tease as to how he thinks he will kill the King – that one plus one does not equal two? Could it be to do with the fact that their two minds are currently sharing one body? Will Oliver use that against Farouk?
• On the other hand, what’s the betting that David will destroy the Shadow King once and for all next episode? And, if he does, will this bring about the dystopian future that Future Syd tried to avoid? Back in “Chapter 10”, she explained that, in her timeline, David killed Farouk in the desert next week. I wonder if the past few episodes have been set in such a short amount of time that actually nothing has changed and this final battle is about to occur.
• Jon Hamm’s new introduction for the weekly recap is perfect. “Apparently on Legion…”

 

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