Legion Review: Chapter 17 (Season 2 Episode 9)

Legion Season 2 Episode 9, “Chapter 17,” prepares for the end by spending time with underutilized characters.

There are things that Legion does well and things it really does not.

For instance, one thing it has done rather well is getting you fully on the side of and invested in its two leads, David and Syd. That’s an important thing for the show to do and shouldn’t be overlooked. On the other hand, Legion does an abysmal job with any character that is not either of those two and that seems to be the main point of “Chapter 17.”

That doesn’t necessarily excuse its treatment of certain characters such as Melanie or Ptonomy (who is absent from the episode altogether). But in an effort to focus more heavily on some of these tertiary characters, it works to provide a richer tapestry than would normally exist.

A lot of the focus goes towards Melanie and her descent into what appears to be madness with her getting high and losing her belief that anyone or anything is real. While what we get of her is great, this idea that Melanie has lost her grip on the real world and those around her feels abrupt and incongruous to the rest of the season.

Compared to this version of Melanie, the version of her we’ve seen earlier in the season has seemed fairly lucid and somewhat disaffected, but certainly not mumbling through the halls like a lunatic. So while her turns on this episode are interesting (especially as she’s talking to Kerry about whether her or Carey are real) it could’ve been seeded better.

Speaking of which…

“Chapter 17” finally lets the two “siblings” shine in a way that they’re rarely allowed to in other episodes. Between the aforementioned conversation with Melanie and the ensuing caper once they realize David’s plan, we get a lot of fun with these two, but also a great deal of insight.

If nothing else, we learn something new of Kerry, which is that her understanding of the world is almost on an autistic level.

The idea that Carey or herself might not exist is ludicrous to her because they do exist. She’s someone that believes she can physically stop Death from taking Carey because that’s a world she gets. Figures of speech and the arbitrary parts of life confuse her though.

It amounts to an interesting twist on a character that hasn’t always been defined very well. Even still, she’s a character that’s most successful depending on her interactions with Carey — and those interactions are golden.

They work excellently together as an ensemble, and that’s mostly due to the chemistry between the actors.

Similarly to Kerry, the idea that Carey might not exist one day is unthinkable because of how strongly we associate the two of them together.

“Chapter 17” does an excellent job of giving us a look at characters we don’t always get to spend very much time with, and it’s all for the better — especially with only two episodes left after this.

What did you think of this episode of Legion? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Legion airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX.

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