By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Wednesday’s Legion season finale.
Legion‘s mutant hero David finally got rid of the monster that’s been torturing him since childhood and took full control of his powers… but don’t expect him to save the world anytime soon.
In Wednesday’s action-packed season finale, David — with the help of Cary’s makeshift halo device — fought off an ambush from Division 3 and finally extracted the evil parasite known as the Shadow King from his brain. But the parasite (in the form of Lenny) simply attached itself to Melanie’s unfrozen hubby Oliver, with the two happily driving off together to “someplace warm.” Plus, in a post-credits scene — did you keep watching? — an evil floating orb zapped David, trapping him inside the orb and flying him off to an undisclosed location. So David can’t even have one moment of triumph, huh?
“We wanted to keep the pressure on,” Legion creator Noah Hawley told reporters during a conference call this week. “‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire’ is a pretty good approach to storytelling.” Hawley also wanted to follow in the “proud tradition” of Marvel movies’ post-credits scenes, he says, and “give people the feeling of watching the credits, to let them absorb the complete story they just watched, and then tease them as to what Chapter 2 is going to be.”
Another tease the finale delivered: that sight of Oliver driving off with Lenny in the passenger’s seat. Hawley says that Season 2 will see David going toe-to-toe with the Shadow King, in the form of Oliver: “There’s going to be something very complicated about going to war with yourself, really… we’ve now created a villain for David that is worthy of building a whole story around.” And yes, he confirms that guest star Jemaine Clement, who plays Oliver, is “rather critical to our story” in Season 2: “I’ve spoken to Jemaine, and he’s excited to come back, so I think we’ll see a lot of him going forward.”
Will we be seeing Professor X anytime soon, though? His name hasn’t been spoken aloud on Legion yet, but it’s been heavily implied that, as in the comics, David’s birth father is the famous founder of the X-Men. “Any person who learns they’re adopted is going to have those questions and want to seek out those parents,” Hawley concedes, adding, “That’s definitely something we’re going to approach.” But introducing Professor X as a character on Legion would require “a corporate conversation” with Fox’s movie studio, which controls the X-Men rights: “I haven’t really dived into that quandary yet… but I certainly need to start thinking about it.”
Hawley also explained the thinking behind the finale’s opening scene, which portrayed Clark the Division 3 interrogator (Hamish Linklater) in a surprisingly sympathetic light, showing his painful recovery from David’s attack in the premiere: “I thought it’d be very interesting to start this episode from his point of view, so he’s not just a horribly burned villain walking on screen. He’s a person who has lost something, and is struggling to hold onto his humanity. Now he has a much more sympathetic energy to him… in his movie, David is the villain.”
Season 2 of Legion will likely expand to ten episodes, Hawley says, rather than the eight that Season 1 had: “My feeling with the first season, because it’s such a complex show, was that eight hours was the right amount. Now that the show has its identity… we have the opportunity to broaden it a little bit.” And he’s hoping to launch Season 2 next February… but that’s on top of all the work he’s currently doing on Season 3 of FX’s Fargo, where he’s also the showrunner. “All that means a lot more work for me in the immediate future,” he admits, adding with a laugh: “But I have nobody to blame but myself.”
Now it’s your turn: Give Wednesday’s Legion finale a grade in our poll, then drop your post-finale thoughts in a comment below.
Man this show is so good. Can’t wait for season 2.
I’ve tried hard to enjoy this movie, still think it’s stupid show with stupid plots. Sorry guys.
This show is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen! Such an interesting, fast paced, mind blowing story!! Great job writers and actors!! Season 2 needs to be on the air soon!! Cant wait!!
That was such a satisfying end to the season! He got the Shadow King out, but now he’ll have a new challenge next season, in escaping the orb & tracking down “Oliver”. Love love love this show!
Once Lenny/Farouk pulled Syd into the white room and said he’d kill David before leaving, I knew Syd would be the one to pull Farouk out of David. I figured Syd would be the season 2 big bad, but Oliver as the new carrier of Farouk makes sense. I’m glad I was wrong, and glad Kerry and Cary have reconciled. But I really wish David had been able to have at least one good day without stress or drama. Maybe a moment to visit with Amy as David only….and not David/Farouk. Speaking of Amy…….ugh….where’d she go???
What in the world was that orb thingee at the end of the episode??? Can I just say that would have been a fantastic way to introduce Professor X? He zaps David….takes him off somewhere…..”Hello David….I am your father.”
A few other favorites in this episode…..the Pink Floyd song choice.
David contemplating what he is without Farouk in his mind.
We saw Lenny, Farouk, and the Angriest Boy poof away, but why didn’t we see King the dog poof away?
It was bittersweet that Oliver remembered Melanie shortly before he was taken over by Farouk.
And I love Jemaine Clement! “And boom goes the dynamite!”
I’m guessing that the orb was The Eclipse that the D-3 general ordered to be sent.
The General said ‘send in the Equinox’ but the Equinox in the comics was a person……a villain that can control ice and fire. I’m thinking this was something else.
Maybe it was Mojo?
In the comics, Mojo didn’t have advanced technology right?
Not only was Clark the Interrogator more sympathetic this week, he was also one of the few to actually get a good shot at Oliver/Farouk/Shadow King.
So huzzah for that!
Loving the show and I feel like I’ve been following along pretty well for the most part, but I have a few question that perhaps I missed or wasn’t paying attention and need to rewatch:
Who is Farouk? I honestly can’t remember. Is Farouk the real name of the Shadow King/Devil with yellow eyes or is he someone else?
Have we seen what Melanie’s powers are? I kept blanking trying to remember what they were while I was watching this episode.
Also, has it been officially stated if Lenny is based on a real person David has known? I remember them saying Lenny was actually Benny (a man) a few episodes back, or was that just the Shadow King distorting David’s memory. I’m loving Aubrey Plaza’s performance and I hope she returns, I’m just really confused on who Lenny actually is. Was she really a junkie at Clockworks who befriended David and David’s mind attached her to the persona of the shadow king?
Farouk is the name if the demon. Lenny is Farouk’s distortion of David’s memories and the human form it seems to prefer to appear as. I don’t think Melanie has powers. We never saw or heard of any. She’s in this because of Oliver and her belief in caring for the mutants.
I am still wondering that myself. Was there a body in the wall or was that just a trick of the mind like how Clockworks was when Farouk trapped them all there?
Like Carla mentioned above, Lenny/Farouk is the distortion of David’s memories. Benny was the junkie, then Lenny was the patient at Clockworks. David became close to Lenny at Clockworks so Farouk used that persona and placed her in other memories that she was never a part of. So Syd did kill her. Syd even apologized for it later. Well, that is at least how I understood it. You never know with this show!
No, Farouk is just the name of the previous host of the shadow king, a middle eastern very fat man , telepath, that got defeated by professor x (The shadow king makes the hosts he controls really fat and disgusting.He is really greedy). His name is Shadow King.
Melanie has no powers.
Seems likely that Lenny, Benny, King the dog and the angriest boy are all shadow king’s personas to mess with David and not based on real people. Syd saw Lenny dead because she had David’s powers and mental state at the moment ( seems like part of the shadow king got inside her or he made some “link” to her).Other people seeing him were his powers. But its quite strange the way Lenny was acting the first episodes… The twist works but looking back its a bit strange. Probably the shadow king was just messing with David so he would look insane (he sees Lenny, others see Benny) and pass time while leeching off his powers and weakening his defenses.
Fox controls the movie rights. They had to get permission from Marvel to do tv shows with the X-MEN characters.
Season finale was so good. Glad David got the Shadow King out of his body thanks to Sydney. Not good he haves control of Oliver. Poor Melanie after just getting her husband back. Sucks what happened to David at the after credits scene. Hope they’ll find him soon in season 2. Happy season 2 will have 10 episodes.
I actually liked 7th episode way more than finale, but overall the season was amazing, its in top 5 of my tv shows now.
I really love this show and I believe that it attracts a very niche horror/supernatural fans. It is the type of viewers that appreciate cerebral, esoteric writing that often had a cacophony of linear concepts …as opposed to a Wham, Bam, Pow, and high tech gadgetry superhero/mutant stories. Of course that can be fun, but for me not nearly as intriguing, thought provoking and character driven I found it fascinating as I did I loved sense8 and OA.
loving this series best of all the DC at present! hurry up season 2!!!
David got caught in a pokeball.