Legion - Chapter 4

"Welcome to the Twilight Jazz Zone. Nice.(1)"

Shit gets real this week, as the team leave the safety of Summerland in search of clues which could help them retrieve David, who has actually done what so many characters threaten to do and literally vanished up himself; mentally at least.

Intercut with flashes forward to the capture of the field team – Syd, Potonomy and Kerry – David falls into his mind and finds himself in a suspended crystal chamber along with a hepcat type who talks to the audience and may(2) be Miranda's 'late' husband Oliver trapped on the astral plane while his body is frozen in an old-fashioned diving suit because of course it is. David and Oliver discuss jazz, but David refuses to hang out with Oliver in the astral plane, waiting either for rescue or for two more lost souls to form a barbershop quartet.

Amy Haller, meanwhile, is being held by Division 3 in a cell adjoining that of Dr Kissinger, David's psychiatrist from Clockwork. Neither is entirely sure why they are there.

Syd and Potonomy visit the office of David's therapist, Poole, and scan its memories. Syd begins to suspect that David's immense power may have allowed him to remove and replace his own memories for reasons unknown. Potonomy suggests that David is unstable, the first allowance that he could be both an immensely powerful telepath and mentally ill. Next they talk to David's ex-girlfriend Philly, or rather Syd talks and Potonomy scans her memories to try to fill in the gaps in David's recollection. They discover that David's pre-institutional drug buddy was not Lenny, but a man named Benny. At the end of the interview, Syd reveals that she knows David and asks if Philly has any message for him. "Tell him they're watching," is the reply.

As they travel to visit Poole, Syd talks to Kerry about her existence. It turns out that she lives inside Cary, a fierce, combative and entirely independent persona, although she only emerges for 'action' and only ages when emerged. Cary admits to Miranda that he doesn't know what would happen to Kerry if he died of old age. Poole proves amenable to talk, but during the interview he suddenly reveals himself to be the creepy-looking Division 3 agent known in the credits as 'the Eye'. D3 commandos open fire, and the Eye – who in addition to being able to look like someone else is apparently bulletproof and can render someone unconscious with a touch – pursues the team upstairs.

Is it just the hair that I don't trust?

Kerry jumps out of a window and subdues the first wave of commandos, but is beaten down by a second as Cary feels every blow. The Eye incapacitates Potonomy, but Syd high fives him as he tries to use his power on her, and her own power trumps his, swapping their minds and allowing her to knock him out and take custody of all three prisoners. Unfortunately, slicked-back-hair Lenny-of-the-mind – who I'm pretty sure is not on David's side, even if regular Lenny-of-the-mind is, and who may specifically represent Benny, but I can't be certain – uses David's powers to show him what appears to be the Eye taking Syd away. This goads David into returning to his body and teleporting to rescue 'Syd'.

This is where things get really weird, as he pins Syd-in-the-Eye, only for Syd-in-the-Eye to turn into Syd, while the Eye-in-Syd turns back into the Eye; that is, instead of their minds switching back, their bodies swap to match the minds, which I don't think is what happened before, but means that the Eye ends up with a gun and shoots Kerry. As Cary falls to the ground in Summerland, we close the episode, and I'm left wondering if Syd wasn't right when, at the start of the episode, she asked Potonomy if they could still be in David's mind.

First blood? Well, apart from actual Lenny.

As much as a gritty series needs the threat of death, I'll admit that I hope that Kerry/Cary isn't and/or aren't dead yet, because that would suggest that characters are only as durable as their secret origin is secret, and that discussing one's mutant nature is the kiss of death, which is a terrible cliche. Regardless, Chapter 4 of Legion does a lot to remind us of the physical stakes after a couple of weeks of purely cerebral peril by taking some of the characters out of the safety of Summerland and into the world where Division 3 awaits them. The show continues to be fascinating, disturbing and disconcerting, not least because – if the field team are indeed operating in the real world – then Chapter 4 suggests that reality is almost as malleable and uncertain as David's memories. The cutaway transition of Poole into the Eye is much, much more unsettling than any CGI morphing effect, hinting more strongly that in some way bit was always the Eye sitting in that chair, we just didn't notice.

(1) Also, holy shit, that's Jemaine Clements under that haircut.

(2) I say may because who know what is real in this series? Not Dan Stevens, apparently, who was given decidedly limited script access in order to maintain the appropriate air of complete bafflement.