SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
This was an amazing first episode. It was captivating and thrilling, fun and funny. The opening sequence was evocative, especially the final shot of David hanging himself.
I love David and Sydney as individuals and as a couple. Dan Stevens (David) and Rachel Keller (Sydney) have very good chemistry and although David and Sydney’s love story was kind of glossed over by being delivered in a montage, it was still compelling and believable that the two of them loved each other. This episode did a good job of condensing information and effectively delivering it through visuals. So when Sydney went back for David and risked her life for him, I bought that she would do that (beyond him apparently already having been a target of the organisation she is working for) and it didn’t feel like it was forced for the sake of the plot and the narrative.
I liked Sydney from the group therapy session scene. Her demeanor and attitude drew me to her. Her entire speech about their apparent psychosis not being the case was when I realised she was a mutant and probably knew that David was one too. For obvious reasons she reminds me of Rogue. I didn’t expect her body switching power to be temporary and wear off on its own, though.
When the Interrogator was speaking about the girl who died, I thought he was referring to Sydney. It came as a surprise when it was actually Lenny (Aubrey Plaza). I forgot that this show was on FX and on at 10 PM, so I was not prepared for the gruesome shot of Lenny’s dead body stuck in the wall with a huge spray of blood surrounding it. Although, when their therapist and Sydney found the rooms without the doors, I was expecting to see someone stuck in the wall…just not like that.
The episode was a little hard to follow at times because it jumped around in time a lot and because of the nature of David’s powers and his tendency to retreat within his own mind. But it didn’t take away from the enjoyment of it and I was still able to understand what was going on overall.
I never questioned who the girl was with David in all of his flashbacks to his childhood or why she was there and I didn’t make the connection that the little girl and the woman that visited him in prison were one in the same. Nor did I put it together that she was his sister. I thought that she was his mother, in fact, but the only thing off about that was her apparent age.
This show is not what I expected it would be, but not at all in a bad way. From the one trailer I watched (the first one), I thought that it would be David in the psychiatric hospital being questioned by the Interrogator and the story would be framed as David telling him a story. Essentially, though, all of the footage in the first trailer is from this first episode. As the episode continued I started to think that it would be about finding out what happened in “the incident” and how, as well as looking for Sydney.
Both of these assumptions were dead wrong. It looks to be about these two organisations – neither of which we know the name of – working against each other toward some unknown goal.
I really enjoyed this episode and am looking forward to watching the rest of the series. Here’s to hoping it finds its audience and is not cancelled. But we’ll see how good the rest of it is compared to this.
Legion airs Wednesdays at 10 PM on FX.
