"Chapter 20" is the first episode and third season premiere of Legion, and the twentieth episode overall.[1]
Synopsis[]
David gains a following.
Plot[]
Our first scene is a montage depicting a young girl with a narration about time travel and it's application. The girl goes through her morning routine, eating breakfast, talking with her father remotely. She begins to see interesting and cryptic symbols throughout her day. All of them referring to time travel ultimately, and the number 89.1. She tunes to this on her radio and is met by the voice of Lenny Busker. (Remember in the last episode, David rescued her from Division 3). The girl listens and hears David's voice saying "Follow the bus". We also see that she makes use of some sort of time manipulation. The next day we see her pounding the pavement, and she sees a red double decker bus and follows it… which leads her to a non-descript alley…with a door that has a familiar symbol above it. She's brought to a shifting, fluid "clothing store". She speaks to the clerk and tells her that she's looking for …someone named Salmon. (She picks this because of the images of salmon and fish she's seen through her day).
It's currently 11 minutes in and there hasn't been a musical interlude.
Cue the musical interlude.
She's pointed in the direction of a clear tube that leads from the 'store' and into a very smoky, den filled with a very eccentric, hippie, drugged induced group. She looks around and is met, and lead by a pregnant women.
We finally see David and he's seeming to be levitating in a very zen like posture. The woman (Salmon) tells our main character here about what David's been doing…creating a sort of dreamscape. She inquires about all of the imagery she's seen through her day, and Salmon tells her to focus and be patient. She looks around and sees various images that would delight Timothy Leary.
As she wanders, we learn her name is Jai-yi, but is immediately redubbed as "Switch". As we get more shots around this odd house, they seem to have an almost diefying vibe towards David. She's eventually led to a room where Switch is told to wait for "she". The Clock on the wall is 11:11. Eventually the door opens…. And Lenny enters….hammer in hand. She asks what "Switch" wants…and this confuses her as she states that it was someone else who was looking for her. She tells Lenny that she wants to see David personally.
Lenny relents, and Switch is brought to a small house porch, where David comes out and greets her. David has seemingly embraced and expanded his powers to helping others who are having mental and assumingly, psychic problems. He's able to guide, relax and ease them. He reads Jai-yi's mind and projects her to her bed room. He relates his story of his prior years about the mental hospital the 'monster' the shadow king. He asks her how she is…this upsets her, and she begins to spill her backstory.
She then again asks him, what is this all about, and why she's been contacted through the visions. She see's a quick image of Syd…and we begin to see that David is planning something with time travel to return to save Syd and his friends. David speaks of his real father (proff- nevermind…) how he fought with Farouk, which resulted in him inhabiting his son's body. (That would be David)
Meanwhile,outisde Division 3 storms the house. (Recall that D3, led by Clark have been lied to by Amahl Farouk. Clark and D3 were indeed helping and friends with David trying to help bring Farouk to justice, but have been lied to and are not hunting David, thinking that he is responsible for the end of the world)
She get the jump on David and Jai-yi and we see our favorite sword wielding bad ass Kerry, slice off David's arm. (She and Cary are still under D3 control as well.) This triggers David to lash out and pretty much vaporize Cary and Dust the other squad members. All of this comes to an end when Syd enters from the rear and shoots David through the chest…
This causes Switch to induce her time traveling abilities, and 'rewind'. She quite literally 'walks back' the clock by 1 hour. She's introduced to Lenny again they have their conversation, and meets again with David and she warns him that he's about to be ambushed. They move outside, and see the house is under attack. To the credit of the people here, they're all doing actually pretty well. But David strolls through and wrecks shop on the D3 guys, once again dusting poor Carry…and likewise he's shot again by Syd. This causes Jai-yi to go back again…this time by 2 hours.
She's visited by Farouk before she can reconnect with Lenny and David. (Presumably, when David fled with Lenny, he left Farouk behind with D3, but he was able to escape and manipulate them to turning on David.) Farouk was attracted to Jai-yi when she used her time manipulation to help David. He asks her why this is, and she relates that he is a robot. This is a reference to her father who ignored her at times with his obsession with robots.
We see Farouk rise in anger and frustration and storming through Division 3's new flying battle ship. We get a proper introduction to all of David's (former) teammates, Kerry, Cary, the Vermillion trio, and lastly…a repurposed, robotic version of Ptonomy.
Clark and Farouk meet and he tells Clark about Jai-yi and her time travel abilities…this worries him greatly. They discuss their options and ponder how to beat someone who has the ability to undo whatever is done…They plan another operation to storm the facility with David and Farouk tells Syd to remain, but she demands that she attend. Kerry outfits the group with some anti-brain wave tech.
We see the same scene play out, this time from the perspective of D3 and Syd and it plays just as it has the last two times. We see this go round that they drop a bomb of sorts onto the house which seems to remove it from this plane (or time)….
Cast and characters[]
Main Cast[]
- Dan Stevens as David Haller
- Rachel Keller as Sydney Barrett
- Aubrey Plaza as Lenny Busker
- Bill Irwin as Cary Loudermilk
- Navid Negahban as Amahl Farouk
- Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy Wallace
- Amber Midthunder as Kerry Loudermilk
- Lauren Tsai as Jia-Yi/Switch
- Hamish Linklater as Clark Debussy
Guest Starring[]
- Vanessa Dubasso as Salmon
Co-Starring[]
- Ben Wang as Kenzo
- Wally Rudolph as Squirrel
- Dan Cathcart as Dora
- Margaux Brooke as Eloise
- Keir O'Donnell as Daniel Bohr-Debussy
- Rachele Schank as Vermillion #1
- Marikah Cunningham as Vermillion #2
- Tiffany Feese as Vermillion #3
- Amir Aboulela as Butler
- Bill Chott as Teacher
- Samantha Cormier as Manson Girl #1
- Mary Ann Raemisch as Manson Girl #2
- Megan Hensley as Manson Girl #3
- Ming Lo as Headphone Voice
- Orono Noguchi as Orono
- Harry Young as Band Member #2
- Emily as Band Member #3
- Tucan as Band Member #4
- B Scott as Band Member #5
- Ruby Mitchell as Band Member #6
- Soul as Band Member #7
- Robert Strange as Band Member #8
Trivia[]
- The band Superorganism made a cameo appearance during the episode's musical sequence where they performed their song "Something for Your M.I.N.D.".
Episode Transcript[]
Gallery[]
To be added
References[]