Legion - Chapter 8

Levitating badass.

And so it ends, as it began, in weirdness.

David literally brushes aside the threat of Division 3, opting to negotiate with his former interrogator Clark – who gets a moving montage at the top of the episode detailing his recovery from the attack on the pool, and showing us his relationship with his husband and adopted son – as he calmly assumes a near-unassailable leadership position at Summerland. Kerry is still mad as hell at Cary, Oliver doesn't remember who Melanie is, and Division 3 are watching through an implant in Clark's destroyed right eye.

Melanie explains to Clark that David is a world-breaker; he changes the rules and makes the Divisions and their paramilitary forces irrelevant. However, Syd reveals the existence of the Shadow King when David suffers an attack. Cary tries to expunge the King, but it proves resistant, threatening to kill David even as it is destroyed and contacting Syd telepathically to offer a deal. Syd uses her power to take the King out of David, then transfers it to Kerry when the latter tries to stop her. Kerry/the Shadow King kicks the crap out of pretty much everyone, until David confronts them and ejects the King. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of the fight, with pretty much everyone unconscious, the King gets into Oliver's mind and takes off.

We end with Clark recognising that perhaps the Shadow King is a unifying mutual enemy and Oliver and 'Lenny' heading south in search of something or someone. Then in a stinger, Division 3 sends a drone which teleports David into some sort of pocket space inside itself, which is pretty messed up.

Legion has been the other superhero show, a unique entity, and even in its big action finale it doesn't let up on that front. The battle is uniquely twisty. Cary and Kerry's reconciliation after she gets possessed and beats the snot out of him is touching, and very little outside of the opening ten minutes of Up is as heartbreaking as the semi-amnesiac Oliver remembering who his wife is moments before being possessed by the King. This is the show that we need in the face of the utter drabness of Iron Fist and the continuing sine wave of quality that is Agents of SHIELD to remind us that Marvel is still in the game, TV-wise. If there is a weakness in the series it is that David essentially became less interesting as he became more in control, but in that respect the stinger turns that on its head and leaves us with the prospect of a Season 2 not entirely overshadowed by David's awesomeness, but with the same balance of power and vulnerability as we've seen this year.