TV Show Review

TV Review: LEGION: Season 1, Episode 3: Chapter 3 [FX]

dan stevens legion chapter 3

Legion Chapter 3 Review

FX‘s Legion: Season 1, Episode 3: Chapter 3 sends David Haller (Dan Stevens) and company on an internal quest inside his own mind.

The best thing Legion has going for itself is the slew of unanswered questions. Chapters 1 and 2 provided us with a very ‘in your face’ introduction. In those episodes, Legion cleverly used the building blocks of uncertainty to forge the show’s foundation. It used David’s own point of view to create a false sense of on-going reality.

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Chapter 3 is a more flushed out, follow-up. Instead of continuing the tackle the very specific things happening in David’s mind we fall back into the role of the audience. Spectators with a slightly less intimate view as Dr. Melaine Bird (Jean Smart), and Ptonomy Wallace (Jeremie Harris) continue to probe into David’s memories in order to heal his mind.

But is it in this attempt we discover again that David is more than a telepath. He is able to move things, teleport things. We learned this in Chapter 2, but in Chapter 3 we discover the list now includes people too.

In this episode, we see the voices in his head, in the shape of Lenny Busker (Aubrey Plaza), goat David into reaching out for his sister. David accidently opens a tear in the fabric of space. He sends himself and Syd Barret (Rachel Keller) to the hideout where his sister, Amy Haller (Katie Aselton) is. The moment feels like a throwback (or flashforward if you will) to the Doctor Strange movie when Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) moved through the astral plane.

As the mind probe continues, Syd Barret joins the group. We discover that the body swap between David and Syd in Chapter 1 may have caused some unintended side effects. Syd appears to be able to see the Yellow Eyed Monster, whereas Melaine and Ptonomy cannot.

The fact that Syd is able to see the Yellow Eyed Monster is a major significance. Prior to that moment, the Yellow Eyed Monster made a very public appearance during the probe session but Melaine and Ptonomy were not aware.

Because Syd can see the Yellow Eyed Monster there are a few questions that can be asked. Is this a temporary side effect of their body swap? Is Syd a bigger significance to David than Legion has yet to explore? It is more than likely that their relationship will act as the center that the show’s plot settles around.

The fact that David’s sister is currently being held against her will poses an interesting possibility. David is still quite fractured, power-wise, and it seems like a stretch that he will be able to make himself whole in time to rescue his sister. The stakes are high for David. Aside from Syd, Amy is really the only thing that seems to draw David’s powers out of him.

Naturally, Divison 3 will probably use this to their advantage now that they have witnessed another side of his powers. Their next move will undoubtedly be to draw him out again by using his sister as bait. Given what we’ve seen of his abilities so far it would be problematic for either side.

Technically, David is still stuck in some weird coma state surrounded by voices. It appears that no one else seems familiar with his particular type of ability. He could be stuck in that state for some time.

The creepiest thing so far in this show is the life-sized version of the character from The Angriest Boy in the World book that has made several guest appearances in the series so far. Whatever that character represents is probably what is holding David back from answering a lot of questions and from finding out who he really is.

Ptonomy posed the best question to David so far, “What are you?” With any luck maybe next week maybe we’ll be able to answer that.

Leave your thoughts on this Legion Chapter 3 review and this episode of Legion below in the comments section. Readers seeking more TV show reviews can visit our  TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page, our TV Show Review Facebook Page, and our TV Show Review Google+ Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

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Eming Piansay

**Fired for illegally republishing FilmBook articles on another website. Though not a salary employee, Emilya betrayed the trust we'd placed in her. When we found out, her employment was terminated effective immediately.** Emilya is a writer from San Francisco. She went to S.F. State for her undergraduate degree in Journalism, and she also holds an MFA in film editing. She's the former managing editor of YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia. Currently, she manages the literary blog Tea & Fiction.
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