Initial impressions of Legion 2x06 (some spoilers)
- OK, before I get into the ep, I just wanna say this: I’m not sure why everybody seems so certain that Amy is dead. A lot of people have “died” on this show but that doesn’t stop them from hanging around and continuing to annoy David. And even if she’s not herself anymore and just an aspect of New Lenny’s personality, there’s still an infinite number of Amys in other timelines.
- That direct lift of an early scene from “A Clockwork Orange” was DOPE AF. The version in this ep features Old Homeless Man David. Check out the original:
Even some of the same dialogue! I bet that was a real treat for Dan (and Noah). But tbh this whole episode was like giving Dan an acting reward for being so good at keeping David mostly sweet and dorky up to this point.
- Speaking of Dan as an actor: he is such a generous actor and a team player. People who don’t pay attention often don’t even notice him. I was just listening to a podcast last night, in fact, where one of the (not brilliant, frankly) reviewers said that Aubrey Plaza deserves all the acting awards and then specifically called out “what’s his name” who plays David for not being that great at acting. Yes, I wanted to hurl things. Dan is not a William Shatner. He does not demand or seek the spotlight. But when it’s put on him, oh how brightly he shines. I hope that guy is eating crow tonight.
- Red and Green (and yellow to a slightly lesser extent) are very important symbols in this series. Whenever I see red I know that the Shadow King’s influence or presence is near, and when I see green or blue I know it’s a safe place or a seat of power for David. Yellow appears to be the midway point between them, maybe a place where they are both equally present, and Lenny in S1 and the Demon with Yellow Eyes reside there. So now the color thing is really coming into play in S2. If someone (Oliver/Melanie/Farouk/whoever) could convince David that Red is Green and vice versa, what would that mean, exactly? Uhhh, not sure yet.
- This episode proves that, whether David surrenders himself to the SK or not, he’s fucked.
- David can do bad, horrible things perfectly fine without the Shadow King controlling his body, as long as he is afraid, angry, and/or loses control of his emotions. A lot of the time SK just had to scare him a little and watch the fireworks. This makes me nervous in regards to things like “The World’s Angriest Boy In The World”, because as much as “our” David hasn’t been responsible for the murders he did in S1, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t kill people in the past because of his volatile nature.
- As much as Hawley claims this season is about “a sane man in an insane world” (and I’m sure that’s true in a sense), it’s impossible for David not to be mentally disturbed with everything that’s happened to him. The real question is, how did Floppy Hair Suburban Dad David get such a perfect, happy life? Probably in a much less than perfect way. In fact it might all be an illusion, a reality he made up for himself. It seems that timelines in which David doesn’t go horribly bad in one way or another are SUPER rare.
- I briefly referenced this above, but I get a strong feeling that Oliver has recruited Melanie to help him reeducate one of the infinite Davids to believe that “red is green”. You can see hints of this in many of the episodes, especially episode 1, where we see inside what we assume is Melanie’s mind because it contains the Minotaur, as well as a classroom where children are playing duck duck goose and a teacher is writing “roja =“ on a dry erase board. This might explain why Melanie is on the vapor drug. I’d have to do a rewatch of s1, but I got the impression that the vapor boosts psychic power, or maybe euphoria and mind alteration just naturally aid it. The Minotaur (whose head is hidden much like Fukyama’s) could be the Alternate Timeline David who she is putting through the maze in order to brainwash him. BUT, here’s a thought, what if the David Oliver and Melanie are training is actually OUR David? She’s always been convinced that he’s the only true weapon against the Shadow King. This is all sounding really convoluted, but this show is getting kinda timey-wimey in my opinion and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some major time travel stuff going on that Melanie knows all about because she’s certainly good at keeping her secrets.
- In the timeline where World’s Richest Man David lives in the future and Farouk has control over him, the vapor is red. I’m not sure exactly what this means but it’s definitely related to L/Benny and Our David taking vapor that is “always blue” (or maybe not. David doesn’t seem certain.) Drugs are a strong method of controlling David, either by prescription or illicit use. Even Office Space David (the younger version of World’s Richest Man David) sniffs White-Out, which miiiight be where the singing mouse came from?
- Seriously tho, all Davids be cray cray. Even Floppy Hair Suburban Dad David, I’ll bet you a million bucks.
- David and Amy’s relationship is deeply heartbreaking. It’s lovely how much they care about each other, but it’s soooo unhealthy how co-dependent they are. Amy’s life is always dominated by David’s many needs, to the detriment of her personal happiness and often her physical well-being, as we’ve just seen in the last episode, and David is incapable of coping with life without her. If anything ever hurts her, and I’m sure it always eventually does, he goes BLACK AS FUCK. It’s good that he has an emotional anchor, but he needs to be his own anchor (and PLEASE Syd, don’t become his replacement anchor, because you are both less than stable and that would be such a phenomenally bad idea).
- Farouk’s affection for keeping attractive, similar looking bi/lesbian ladies as his companions seems like a reference to the Vermillion. Hmmmmmm…
