legion chapter 6 Television 

Five Thoughts on Legion‘s “Chapter 6”

By | March 16th, 2017
Posted in Television | % Comments

“Chapter 6” was a disorienting episode of FX’s “Legion”, yet no less captivating than it had been to this point. To this point, Noah Hawley had done a remarkable job of crafting a mindtrip of a show that was unlike anything on television (and most movies, to be honest) without crossing the line into overindulgence. I fear that “Chapter 6” may have been a case of too much of a good thing having diminishing returns.

We’ll talk more specifically about that as we go along, but on the whole “Legion” is a better show when it’s able to sneak heavy doses of surrealism into what is ultimately a story about mutants tethering themselves to one another. “Chapter 6” was, from beginning to end, a relentless stream of surrealism: a visual and auditory spectacle to behold, but one with a disappointingly slight tether.

As always, there are spoilers below, so don’t read this column without having seen the episode, but thanks for the click either way.

1. Worker and Parasite

“Chapter 6” seemed to be actively working to make the viewer say: “what the hell was that?” after each scene, only really crystallizing itself by the end. There was so much going on with every character that I just wanted to cut through to the very simple, literal read of the episode before expanding out: Basically, it seems that The Devil With Yellow Eyes/Lenny/The Shadow King has control of David’s mind (and body?) and is using his immense power to psychically hold all of the principle mutants of the show in various states of limbo. It’s not explicitly stated, but it can be inferred that The Shadow King has crafted this limbo to look and feel like the Clockworks facility from the opening episode of the series. Lenny is definitely “in control” here, which is why she’s seen acting in the therapist role for literally every other character.

While some of the characters are merely being distracted by their own issues as revealed by Lenny (Ptonomy, who is stuck in limbo seeing visions of his mother dying, for one), others are being used as pawns or allowed to be agents of chaos (Amy is stuck playing a sort of “Nurse Ratched” role, denying David his cherry pie, while “The Eye” is basically allowed to be as menacing to our heroes as he’s always been). David Haller, however, seems lulled into a false sense of security. He likes it here, for now – which is likely an equal mix of The Devil’s unnatural hold over his mind, his wanting to surrender to the forces of Lenny that have been wearing him down all his life and the false notion that he can have something there with Syd that’s simple and free from the baggage of the “war” that’s being waged in the real world.

If you didn’t get anything else out of the episode (let’s be honest, there was way too much symbolism in this one), that’s all you need to know from a functional plot standpoint to make it to “Chapter 7.”

2. The Lenny Daylights

Let’s start with the weirdest sequence of “Chapter 6” which was also the easiest scene to analyze. Halfway through the episode Lenny goes on a gleeful tear through familiar areas of David’s mind, dancing to Nina Simone’s classic cover of “Feelin’ Good.” The Shadow King is feeling pretty free right now with the control he/she/it has over their mutant adversaries and this stylish sequence was a fun, if not completely overindulgent way of showing that. It was presented as something akin to a James Bond movie title sequence, Lenny appearing in silhouettes of black and deep red much of the time, and accompanied by multiple looping versions of herself. While not in any way subtle, it was a showcase for Aubrey Plaza (who had a terrific episode all around) and a side of her that we never get to see.

It also could be the reason why David seems to be remembering things wrong when he’s talking to Syd later: Lenny is running wild. It may not have been that enlightening of a sequence, but it was so entertaining that it’s hard to complain. I should also mention that this episode was directed by Hiro Murai, who most recently showed off his incredible talents late last year on one of FX’s other shows Atlanta (aka, the best show on television). For the most part, he stuck to the cinematography and palette choices we’ve come to know from Legion, but there’s no doubt that his eye for the surreal helped sell a lot of the symbolism and imagery throughout the episode.

Continued below

3. Oliver’s Moving Castle

One of the other trippy sequences of “Chapter 6” was the “abduction” of Cary by a creepy figure in an old-timey diving apparatus in the middle of the night, which was quite similar to what we saw David go through a couple episodes back when he ended up meeting Oliver in his ice prison of the mind. Early in the episode, a mostly disinterested or preoccupied audience of fellow mutants hears Cary claim that he’s seen a strange vision involving ice. Late in the episode, we see that this was the same ice “prison” that Oliver spends his days in. A preview for next week’s episode shows us that Cary does in fact have a sit down with Oliver, but for now, we only see Cary return from the ice prison wearing the aforementioned diving suit and beckoning Melanie to follow him. It seems a reunion between Oliver and Melanie is not far away.

4. The sonics, the sonics

Last time around, I praised the show’s ever-present sense of visual flair. This week, I really took greater notice of how great the show sounds. The horror and surrealism is really boosted by the careful touch of the sound design as much as the visuals, so much so that I would love to see a behind the scenes feature on how these sounds were conceived and achieved. When characters are in their various states of limbo, sounds buzz around the air adding to the off-kilter feel of the Clockworks facility. Sometimes it seems as though there is an almost imperceptible hum or white noise sound while these characters aren’t in control of their minds.

Lenny’s dance number was a great “sound moment” in the episode, but a lot of it was the way that the song slowly started to creep into the background before the sequence even started – almost like a spoken word narration before the music kicks in and Lenny lets loose. Finally, the most arresting and showy sound sequence of the episode was a chorus of crickets used to lull Syd to sleep, acting as a disarming agent that draws her eyes to a close. Paired with the surreal image of her softly and slowly drifting backwards toward her Clockworks bedroom, it was a brilliantly effective moment.

5. “I’ve abandoned my boy!”

It’s pretty clear at this point that Charles Xavier is going to end up being David Haller’s dad, whether they ever come right out and say his name or, god forbid, physically show him. The show keeps bringing up the fact that David was “adopted” and for them to keep doing that without any payoff would be unthinkable. That said, the show was just picked up for a 2nd season, so perhaps it could end up waiting until then? Either way, my guess is that this is going to be a Star Wars prequels situation where David was sent away by Xavier to protect him from The Shadow King, without anyone realizing that a piece of the King has been with David his entire life, trying to get in.


//TAGS | Legion

Vince Ostrowski

Dr. Steve Brule once called him "A typical hunk who thinks he knows everything about comics." Twitter: @VJ_Ostrowski

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