Okay, I totally called at least one of these plot twists.
A couple of weeks ago I made the prediction that the reason future Syd wanted Farouk to get his body back was because future David had turned evil and no one else could stop him. Turns out I’m a genius (to no one’s surprise, really), as the newest episode of Legion — “Chapter 15” — confirms this theory.
That’s not all we get, either. No, Noah Hawley has a lot to throw at us with this episode of Legion and it’s all pretty exciting.
Jon Hamm leads off with some more narration about the idea of fear and, more specifically, how people respond to fear. Sometimes the things people are afraid of aren't actually real — like witches — but the response they might have severe consequences — like witch burnings.
That sets the stage for what we see later on in this Legion episode, as we first return to Farouk.
Now that Amy’s dead, David’s pissed. He calls another meeting with Farouk and more or less tells him that the two of them are done. Farouk casually tries to defend himself, saying he’s been inside David’s mind all this time and knows the way he *really* felt about Amy, but David isn’t taking any of it.
Farouk’s response is the chilling part though. He’s not concerned or even upset — he’s just disappointed. He tells David that he’s sending him back to the “kiddie table” while he goes on to do bigger and better things. The two will reunite, he assures David, but only after he gets his body first.
We see the first step in Farouk’s plan, as he’s built some kind of car. Apparently, this car can travel through time or dimensions or something like that, but it brings him to wherever future Syd is hanging out these days.
That’s where they lay it all out. Future Syd comes clean about needing him alive so that he can kill David — who’s the reason that the world, in her timeline, is now destroyed. Farouk likes this idea, noting that the hero has become the villain and the villain now becomes the hero and tells future Syd that they’re going to do great work together.
This can’t be good.
Speaking of future Syd, she’s been on the mind of both present Syd and David a lot lately. David figures he should go to her for help, but Syd is starting to get a little concerned — and even somewhat jealous.
After talking it out, they figure out some guidelines for how David should interact with her. It’s a great moment only because they point out the absurdity of the whole thing. Neither of them, obviously, have ever had to deal with this kind of situation before, but they’re still trying to work through it together. That’s true love.
Present Syd then goes to check on Lenny while David goes to talk to future Syd. Lenny is being weird again, to which present Syd pretty much disregards. She thinks she’s still operating under the Shadow King’s rule and she can’t be trusted. Lenny basically agrees, saying that the Shadow King would repeatedly rape her when she was trapped in his mind.
Present Syd really doesn’t know what to do with this information so she just straight up leaves.
David and future Syd aren’t having a great conversation either. David tells her that he can’t help Farouk anymore — he just hates him too much. Future Syd passive-aggressively acknowledges this, saying that she should have never asked.
They, too, leave in an uncertain manner but now that we know that future Syd and Farouk are teaming up this departure is a lot more sinister.
Speaking of sinister, something bad is going down in Division Three while David is away. Remember when that tiny alien creature went inside Ptonomy’s ear? It’s back and it’s ready to attack.
Apparently, this creature is the embodiment of fear (which brings us back to the Jon Hamm narration) and will place nightmares in people’s minds. The creature thing shows Ptonomy about good ol' bucket head, and then he makes him spread eggs to Syd, Clark and Kerry.
You guessed it, they all get aliens in their ears too.
They all get the same vision: bucket head is evil and can’t be trusted. To the show’s credit, I didn’t fully understand what was going on at the moment and totally bought into the idea of bucket head being evil. I mean, he’s got the mustache people around him who are weird enough, but they keep you in the dark just the right amount so that all of their fears seem perfectly plausible.
Even though bucket head is really innocent, the mustache people sense an incoming threat and have to stop it. That’s what leads to a gun/ ax fight in a hallway between Kerry, Ptonomy and an army of minions, which is all pretty badass.
Clark and Syd made it to bucket head, forcing him to reveal his helmet so they can see his true face. We see that he’s really just an elderly old man, but the aliens make Clark and Syd see a giant monster who’s about to attack them.
Clark is about to put a bullet in bucket head when David luckily shows up in the nick of time. He freezes time, finds the alien creatures and removes them from everyone’s head.
Except, he doesn’t quite get to Ptonomy’s in time. His grows and grows and grows, eventually emerging in bloody horror out of Ptonomy’s body in an enormous size. Ptonomy collapses to the ground while the monster makes a run for it.
David’s able to catch up with the monster and, in reality, stop it pretty easily. He brings it into his mind-palace and shrinks it down to fit in a jar. Captured and frustrated the monster abruptly explodes.
Ptonomy, however, is down and out for the count. The mustache people try to help him but note that they can only save his mind. They then take him away to some forest and plug his brain into roots of a tree.
We end by seeing his brain be sucked up in binary to some little miniature world where he’s now confined in a way that feels really Black Mirror. There’s another elderly lady sitting up there in a rocking chair who then tells Ptonomy to be quiet.
And that’s all we get.
Tune in to FX tonight to watch the new episode of Legion and read our other Legion recaps by clicking here!