Legion - Chapter 24 - Review: Knowing That Everything That Exists Shall End

"I am God.", David candidly told the time demons on last week's episode of Legion. The whole crux of the final season story has been riding on David's ascension into villainy, as the end of season two proposed that he'll destroy the entire world!


But David found a solution in time traveler named Switch, believing he can solve everything just by changing the past, but so far the plight to get to this point has been nothing but a delightful and occasionally tedious journey, as David's humanity continues to slip, no thanks to being pushed due the alienation of his former friends, which some of that has to do with the bigger manipulation of The Shadow King: Amahl Farouk.

If viewers remember, during the second season Farouk encourages David to kill everyone else, suggesting that they, superior telekinetic mutants, are really Gods, and that there is no room in the world for anyone else so undeserving.

That narrative came home roost in this episode, as David decided after Switch was taken from him to launch all out war. The opening scene features David taking on Clark's husband and few vermilion, traveling on a highway in an armored vehicle. David pretty much kill's everyone except for Daniel, where David quickly figures out a workaround to Daniel's counter-invasive mind techniques by erasing his long term memory, in order to get the short term memory answers, revealing where Switch is.

At first this doesn't seem to of big a deal considering the Vermilion are androids, but what this does to these characters' lives, despite that Division 3 was the original enemy of the series, is still an emotional concept that to some may seem worse than death.

But David also in turn looses his series-long friend, Lenny, who has decided she wants nothing to do with David after what she experienced with the time demons and because he sends some of his followers somewhere else and it isn't clear if most of them perished or were relocated. She takes things so far as to commit suicide by stabbing herself in the neck and dying with David at her side. What makes the death more tragic, is that David showed a bit a of redeeming quality in last week's episode, when at her request, he let her feel her pain, which is something he didn't let Syd do at the end of season, which has served as one of Syd's excuses towards wanting to kill David.

And speaking of Syd, the episodes biggest twist comes down to her. Trying to keep Switch from David, Cary has Switch hidden in a special vault-like box in the lab on the airship. Syd makes a decision that if they go above Earth into outer space, they would probably be out of range for David being able to find them. But Farouk didn't like this plan and so naturally, reminding David to embrace his sense of Godness once again, he calls David to let them know where they are.

The battle on the airship is kind of disturbing, as David transports a few of his followers to gang up on Kerry, while he pretty much throws an emotionally distraught Clarke out into to space! But when David finally reaches Syd they begin to have a heart to heart. Syd begins to take responsibility for her mistakes by saying, she's not mad any more. She then tells David where Switch is, and even admits that she wants a second chance too, because she truly loves David, seemingly approving of the time travel fix.

David, disarmed lets Syd move close to him and she touches his face! The two immediately switch places and Syd in David's body, drags David in Syd's. She sees Kerry nearly defeated, but she uses David's powers to kill them and then explains to Kerry that she needs her to kill David's body asap!

But more frighting is that Syd discovers "Legion" from within and they figure out a way to silence her, so that when she switches back to her own body, she can't act. Kerry is also too late and David returns!

David goes to free Switch, but is confronted by Farouk. Farouk insists he loves David, but David is quick to reject him outright and states once again that he is going to change everything! David is able to teleport Switch out of the vault and she was able to open the door to the time between time and David pushes him though the doorway!

David gets ready to time travel, but Switch warns him about the time demons possibly becoming unstoppable, tries to tell David about her [android] dreams (which he dismisses), and forces him to face the truth about all of the death that he in part caused, which leads to an interesting musical number (What's so funny 'bout) Peac, Love, and Understanding from pretty much the entire cast, despite whatever state they were last left in.

Asking Switch if she feels more satisfied, they open the doorway to the hall of time and step in.

Stray Observations/Musings:

Well this episode kind of really murks everything up with a more official introduction to Legion! We had seen instances at the end of season two where a couple personifications of David turned up to play devil's advocate like the whole demon and angle on your shoulder trope. At the beginning of the season we saw them again, but through Switch. This however was a new ball game, with so many personalities willing to protect David at any cost, we can see even for David, how overwhelming, but also unmanageable this is! It adds another monkey-wrench to the whole equation.

It also gave Syd and even Amahl Farouk some credence in their alleged respected viewpoints, granted Amahl still proved to be quite treacherous, but it doesn't mean he doesn't love David, but rather his love is tunnel-visioned and promotes "Legion's" chaos.

Syd's treachery however was painful to watch, being viewer who felt she did do all of those things that she was starting to admit to. Despite that Syd might of meant all of things, feels like they mean nothing, considering that she hadn't come up with another solution other than to still want to kill David!

In fact the whole episode was full of characters that didn't believe a single word anyone else was saying, which is why it's final musical number (What's so funny 'bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding was somehow so fitting.

Although not quite a reveal, the idea the Switch might be android took another big step towards that direction. Switch dreams about her morning routine, somehow able to pass her father food, despite that he wasn't physically in the room, but the monitor of him, showed him receiving it non the less.

But what could this reveal mean? Well I think the passing food scene was quite telling. I think that the idea here is that not only is Switch an android, but that she is in fact passing information onto someone else, someone she deems a father-figure, but may not actually be her father.

It suggest that there may be yet another third party interference that somehow exists outside of time coming to inject themselves into the story! But who is this person and what do they want?


Clearly on aspect of it seems to be about experimenting with her time travel capabilities, as the tapes serve as instructions, but this all begs questions about if the creator actually ever time traveled himself, if there are other android time travelers, and/or if this more a social experiment, because morally, Switch constantly pushes for David to try and think about what he's doing.

Another possibility though is that perhaps this has all happened before and Switch is the one recording all the different histories David and she have created without knowing it, while someone else tries to harder and harder to get the reality they want?!

A really crazy plot twist though might be that Switch's creator turns out be one of David's parents! It would be a great way to cap off the story by showcasing that maybe the only reason this was all happening was because David's mother or father was in fact trying to save their son. Charles tended to be the one that had telepathic abilities like David and built machines, but Gabrielle has been left shrouded in much more mystery.

Another possibility though might be Cary. He's been kind of shelved and living in more of state of ignorance than usual.

There's also Melanie and Oliver Bird, who were last scene enjoying their cozy little life style inside the cube on the astral plane. Could of someone let them out? Was Oliver ever an engineer or an android-lover?

Lastly "another" Syd could be another possibility and almost something I could REALLY see the series doing, given the way the series often dances around her, but never really gets underneath whom she really is.


Is it really a coincidence that Syd was at CLOCKWORKS at the same time as David and nearly repeating the love story of his parents or is there something about the owner or creator of CLOCKWORKS (Syd or somebody else) that will reveal it's ugly head in relation to all of the androids and more specifically, Switch? 

Another theory to kind of go along with this, is perhaps the reason has so many personalities attached to him (in this version of X-Men lore), is because of all the time traveling?!

And one last observation was Legion's title sequence with sponges creating the letters on the ocean floor. While it doesn't seem like this related to episode in partiucular way, it did callback a lot Legion's nautical imagery, but especially things from season two weather it was doughnut submarine or the very Syd-esque pink and pearl-beaded giant bathtub drain plug uncorked in the desert. It just seems everything is pointing back to Farouk's manipulation and where David began to go wrong and wake up Legion from within...