Legion - 'Chapter 9' and 'Chapter 10'

Meet the new boss, substantially different from and way, way weirder than
the old boss (who talked to her coffee machine.)

I'm just going to say this now, and maybe we can assume it for the start of every other paragraph going forward in the second season of Legion: This is where things get weird.

We open with David, last seen being abducted by an orb, being recovered by Potonomy and Clarke from a nightclub full of catatonic people whose teeth chatter constantly. It has been a year since his disappearance, although he claims to remember nothing, and in that time Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King, has been travelling in Oliver Bird's body, leaving in his wake the psychic virus - known as the Catalyst - which leave people in this frankly unnerving state. David learns that the team from Summerlands are now working with Division 3 under the authority of Admiral Fukyama, a hybrid of human and machine who wears a komuso's basket-hat and speaks through a series of moustachioed gynoids, because of course he does. Their goal is to find Farouk's body and destroy it, thus robbing him of his powers.

Future Syd is more of a winter.

David reconnects with Syd, and Cary creates an isolation tank designed to help him locate the Shadow King. While searching for Farouk, David recalls the nightclub, a monk, and a three-way dance battle against Oliver and Lenny. David gives Syd - who is worried about losing him again - a compass that will always point to him, but although he promises no secrets he does not tell her that he does remember being taken, and that the orb was sent by a future version of Syd, still carrying the compass, who tells him to help Farouk find his original body.

David agrees to help Farouk, creating a distraction so that Farouk-in-Oliver can enter Division 3 in search of something. David insists that no-one get hurt, which Farouk disregards, disintegrating several guards and terrifying the children who are used as security because pre-pubescent individuals are immune to the Catalyst. He also does something to Kerry which initially prevents her reabsorption into Cary, then causes him to be partially absorbed into her. Admiral Fukyama and Clarke immediately become suspicious of David.

Creepy smile!

Unnerved by the loss of life, David has the Loudermilks - who are considerably thrown as, even when they manage to separate again, find themselves unable to recombine, leaving Kerry stuck living through the boring bits and apparently aging fast - enhance the tank to let him move outside of time, ostensibly to predict where Farouk will be, but actually to contact future Syd and ask for confirmation that he should really be helping Farouk. She confirms that he must, because what comes after Farouk, a plague, is worse, and they need the Shadow King to fight it. David finally comes face to face with what may be the true face of Farouk, who agrees to not kill anyone else if David will help him find the monk from his vision, the last survivor of the Migo Order, who were involved in hiding the Shadow King's body. David confides in Syd, who suggests that he do as her future self suggests.

In addition, each episode has a narrative essay on a psychological and philosophical topic. In 'Chapter 9', this considers the birth of delusions as an irrational idea that thrives in place of more rational ones to become a psychosis, considering the story of Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly and an allegory of ideas as chicks hatching from eggs. The delusion is a black, tarry mutant chick, which survives because Lenny crushes a healthy chick, visually suggesting that others can foster delusions by quashing rational ideas, although I don't know if Lenny represents Farouk in this instance, or the fact that Benny and Lenny both represented a deleterious influence on David in their own way. The tar chick also makes an appearance in the background of one scene, which is disturbing AF.

The show notes say 'to be read by Peter Jones, or nearest living equivalent.

'Chapter 10' talks about how ticks and dogs perceive the world, and how the human need to interpret the world creates umwelt, the individual perception of the world. This makes humans the only creatures able to go mad, and can be manipulated, for example by teaching a child that red is green and vice versa, then letting them loose on a pelican crossing. I don't know how current and accurate these sections are, but they certainly add to the uniqueness of the series, making it feel like a particularly grim reinterpretation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Also, did I mention there was a goddamn dance off? And the cyber-brained komuso with the moustachioed gynoids?

So, yeah, Legion continues to be the weirdest thing on television by a matter not of degree, but of kind. It remains compelling, although the new status quo - working for Division 13, Melanie Bird turned insular nihilist - takes a little getting used to. I think the most interesting thing about introducing the 'real' Shadow King - I'm not actually convinced yet that this is what his body looks like - is that we see him interacting with Lenny. This is the first confirmation that Lenny is really real, and also indicates that Farouk not only steals bodies and co-opts their images psychically, but retains entire personalities inside himself, including Lenny who wants to be free and - if at all possible - not dead anymore.