David is now in the woods again with Bird and Ptonomy as they prepare for another session of memory work. As always, Sydney is in the room watching David and comforting him as he travels to fearsome memories of his past. Today, Bird, Ptonomy and David are visiting his kitchen incident as seen from the last two episodes. We get to learn a bit more about what happened on that day. David and Lenny are lying on the ground high on a vapor drug. David’s 10-month girlfriend of the time, Philly, comes home to see them both on the floor. Philly realizes David’s drug addiction is out of control and begins to fight with Lenny as she tries to take a cake away from her. Then the fight turns to David and he loses control of his powers.
This episode finally helps the audience piece together an important event from David’s past. The kitchen incident is a troubling memory for him and it is an example of how strong he really is. It was a nice payoff being able to piece together scenes from the last two episodes to finally create a consecutive sequence. It also gave us insight on what lead David to break up with his girlfriend and what possibly could have led to his stay in Clockworks Psychiatric hospital.
Bird and Ptonomy, then, try to continue the memory after the kitchen incident, but Ptonomy isn’t able to do so. He says it's because David isn’t letting him. David tells them that it isn’t him, but instead it is the Devil With the Yellow Eyes. However, Bird and Ptonomy still can’t see the Devil With the Yellow Eyes. The room starts to rumble and tear open and the three wake up from David’s memory. Instead of being back in the woods, they are teleported 600-feet away through solid walls. Sydney is now alone in the memory room. Bird tells David how she is concerned about their progress. Normally she would patiently explore memories, but they need to rush the process due to Amy’s kidnapping.
This hasn’t been the first time Ptonomy hasn’t been able to access David’s memories. David says that it isn’t him, but I feel like Melanie and Ptonomy aren’t so sure. This may lead to future conflicts if David’s memory defenses don’t lower soon. This session also showed how powerful David is. He was able to teleport three people through solid walls. If David ever gains full control of his power, he could be a serious asset against Division 3 and anyone who tries to harm him or the ones he loves.
After this memory work, David and Syd talk about their experiences switching bodies. David says he sometimes feels like he still has long hair and loses his balance. She reveals she doesn’t have side effects like David because she has been in so many different bodies. She then tells him she thinks souls exist because she is always herself, no matter what body she is in.
David is now back with Doctor Cary and is being hooked up to another machine. In order to monitor his brain, Cary asks David to think of a stressful memory. David has a flashback to a Halloween night from his childhood where he is trick-or-treating with his sister and his dog, King. When King runs away into a strange yard, David follows him only to discover the character from his nightmare book, 'The World’s Angriest Boy in the World.' The angry boy turns to look at David and then runs towards him. David’s flashback ends and he is in the doctor’s room again, but this time Lenny is sitting in front of him. Lenny and David begin to speak and while this is occurring, Cary can see David’s speaking center of his brain as active even though he isn’t really talking. Lenny tells David that Bird can’t be trusted due to all of her secrets. Lenny also tells him he needs to start worrying more about Amy because Division 3 is probably doing awful thing to her. Lenny starts to describe what sexual acts Division 3 could be doing to Amy and he starts to freak out. David levitates out of his chair and Sydney goes to calm him down, but is levitated off the ground as well.
Syd and David appear in Amy’s interrogation room as "ghostly figures." In this room, Amy is told that David doesn’t have schizophrenia, but special powers. Amy recalls how she always experienced strange things about her brother. Division 3 tells her David is a god with uncontrollable powers and they aim to turn his powers off before he hurts himself or someone else. Even though Amy feels extremely guilty, she still can’t help Division 3 because she has no idea where her brother is. While Amy is talking, the Eye slowly moves towards David and Sydney's "ghostly figures" and he reaches out to grab them, but they disappear. David and Syd emerge from a pond outside of Summerland as a group of students watch in amazement.
Once again, we are given just a glimpse of how powerful David can be. Not only did he project himself and Sydney a great distance, but he also teleported them outside the Summerland facility. During his time watching Amy in Division 3, the Eye mentions that Amy told her husband that living with David was like living in a haunted house. Does this mean that Division 3 has Amy’s husband? If so, is he still in interrogation or was he let go without any knowledge of where his wife is? Unfortunately, I can’t see Division 3 just letting Amy’s husband go with Amy still in custody. This could also mean that Division 3 has been monitoring Amy’s home ever since David’s escape from Clockworks.
After watching the group of young mutants reacting to David and Sydney’s emerging from the pond, it makes me really curious about Summerland. In the past, we have only gotten glimpses of what Summerland is but we do not have a full picture. Is Summerland training mutants to fight, helping them control their abilities, giving them a safe haven, or a combination of all three? I hope the show goes a little more in-depth about Summerland, its motives, and some of the students there. It would also be interesting to know what the other students think of David. David has made himself known when he teleported into the pond and teleported a huge MRI machine, from Chapter 2. Do the other students fear him or is this a recurring situation with so many young mutants learning to control their powers? Hopefully, we will get to see more of Summerland and it’s students in the upcoming episodes.
Bird tells David that he can’t use his powers like that again, in that form of "ghostly figures" watching Amy. Bird fears that they will be ready to kill or follow David next time he does that. To gain Sydney and David’s trust, Bird tells the story about Summerland. Summerland used to be a horse ranch that was inherited by Bird’s husband in the 40s. Bird’s husband went looking for young mutants to fill Summerland with. He came across Cary and Walter, a.k.a. the Eye. Bird’s husband discovered that Walter didn’t want to help mutants, but hurt them. Bird reveals she wants to help David so he can be healthy and happy, but she also wants to use him to win the war against Division 3. However, Bird is having trouble helping David because his brain is blocking memories. In order to lower his brain’s defenses, Bird decides to sedate him during their next memory work session. Sydney wants to join Ptonomy, David and Bird during memory work, but David is uncomfortable with it. David says he doesn’t want Sydney to see inside his head because he is afraid she won’t feel the same about him afterward. David tells Sydney that he loves her and Sydney says if he loves her and she loves him, then that's all that matters. David says something very interesting: he says that everyone in Summerland is saying that he is sane, but questions if they are right about that.
David’s statement about Summerland being wrong about his sanity is very intriguing. David’s comic counterpart is well known for his insanity and his multiple personalities are part of what makes him such a powerful mutant. Right now, Bird’s main goal is to "cure” David and make him sane again. This makes me wonder if David’s mental state will ever be normal or if he will ever learn to control his powers. If this show is renewed for a second season, how long will David try to control his powers until the audience grows bored of him trying again and again to take control? This conflict is working extremely well now, but I’m afraid it will soon grow old.
Something else that was interesting was the scene where Melanie and David talk about their relationship. Right before Melanie wakes up, she is plagued by dreams of the Devil With the Yellow Eyes. This could be a result of her switching bodies with David. If David sometimes loses balance and feels like he has long hair, it is quite possible that Melanie has reoccurring traits of David.
David, Bird, Sydney and Ptonomy begin more memory work to discover what landed David in Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital. Due to David being sedating, his consciousness is a child inside of the memory. Also, as a result of being in a dream, Sydney is now able to touch other people. Sydney kneels down and hugs a child David. Syd and company are now inside David’s old therapist’s office. David is seen breaking into the office and starts stealing so that he can sell items for drugs. Inside of the memory, things start to get violent. Sydney sees cracks in the wall that are flooded with red light as hands emerge from the cracks. Yet, Ptonomy and Bird can’t see anything strange. Sydney and childhood David start to freak out and when David runs away, Sydney follows. 'The World’s Angriest Boy in the World' and the Devil With the Yellow Eyes chase Sydney and child David. Just before the Devil With the Yellow Eyes gets Sydney, she wakes up. She tries to wake the others up, but is only able to awaken Ptonomy. Meanwhile, Bird is in David’s childhood home alone where she can see David’s parents and their faces for the first time. Bird heads upstairs and find the book, 'The World’s Angriest Boy in the World' and she starts reading the book but suddenly the book snaps shut on her hand. As Bird fights to free her hand, the Devil With the Yellow Eyes rises from the floor behind her. Bird is able to free her hand from the book, but it is severely disfigured She screams and is woken up. Unfortunately, David is still asleep and being haunted by endless nightmares.
Overall, this was a satisfying episode. Instead of completely focusing on David and sometimes Sydney, we got to see more of supporting characters like Bird, Lenny and Amy. One of the biggest reveals of this episode is that Sydney can see David’s nightmarish figures, including the Devil With the Yellow Eyes and 'The World’s Angriest Boy in the World.' This is a result of David and Sydney’s switching bodies incident. I think this is a great reveal because it will help strengthen their relationships. Also, Sydney can now convince Ptonomy and Bird that it isn’t David who is trying to stop them from digging around his brain, but possibly something bigger than him. Could these imaginary figures be part of David’s multiple personalities?
LEGION is going strong. There is still room for improvement, like focusing on a wider range of characters, but overall I feel like the show has been handled very well. Right now there are so many loose ends and doors that have yet to be opened, so I hope that the writers don’t try to cram everything into this season. Hopefully, LEGION will be picked up for a second season so the writers and audience can take the time to fully explore Summerland and David’s mind.
Written by James Philbrick, LEGION Beat Writer -- Click to read James' posts
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