‘Legion 2×08’ Review
Legion is a show that follows its own rules, even if that means that the flow of the story can be somewhat slow. Now that the end of the second season is approaching though, things should be speeding up a bit. That is if the show decides that is to be true of course.
With David (Dan Stevens) looking for revenge and Amahl Farouk (Navid Nagahban) in search of his body, the race is on as to who will get there first. With David using his friends to help him discover the hiding place of the body, will Farouk have some tricks up his sleeve to get there first?
This episode of Legion feels almost like a more traditional television show this week, as the pace of the story telling speeds up somewhat. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have time to learn more about characters like Admiral Fukyama (Mark Oka) of course, and we see just how he came to be.
The important thing though is that in learning about Fukyama this leads to David learning where the body of Farouk is held. This leads to David setting up his heist like plan to get the body before Farouk can.
The episode does well in setting up the chase that is now on, showing us how David learns about the body, and how Farouk does too. The Shadow King appears to be one step ahead, but as always this can be misleading. What we do see that is important though is the similarities of David and Farouk in their obsession over the body.
At this point in the story, we are dealing with two characters who are working towards an aim out of pure selfishness. They don’t really care about the people around them, we are even told this by the latest educational segment about Delusion, this time Narcissism.
Now that we are entering the end game, we already know that David is a danger, and people are starting to realise that there is more to him. Farouk doesn’t hide the monster he is, he is just too self-obsessed to care about anything else but his love of life. He uses people up and enslaves others to take part in his schemes, and in the end only he’ll be the winner. The audience hopes that David will not become like this, but how do we know he won’t?
Even with more of a focus of making the story progress, this doesn’t mean that Legion doesn’t bend the rules of what we expect from a television show. We are told the story from the real world, the world of dreams and even the world inside the computer that is now Admiral Fukyama. Part of the story is told in the form of comic book panels mimicking the way that comic book artists portray journeys like David and Farouk are going through. We can rest assured that Legion will never be just an average show.
Legion is somewhat of an experience, we never know what to expect this week. Sometimes the show can feel like it gets a little too dreamy, and not tell enough of a story, though still be very entertaining. Thankfully this week, the story hits the pace of the chase we are partaking in as David and his nemesis finally get near the body of the Shadow King.
***** 5/5
Legion airs on Fox TV in the UK on Tuesdays.
