FX’s Legion
Chapter 26
Directed by Dana Gonzales
Written by Noah Hawley & Olivia Dufault

* For a recap & review of Chapter 25, click here.
* For a recap & review of the series finale, Chapter 27, click here.
Years ago, Charles Xavier (Harry Lloyd) was working on Cerebro. He looked across the world and saw a vision of a theatre. He watched a violent play as a bullfighter stabbed a bull, over and over. Except the bull was him, as if foreshadowing his own later state of paralysis. He saw the eyes of the Shadow King, Amahl Farouk (Navid Negahban) lurking in the darkness. He woke on a plane flying into Morocco, then found a chauffeur waiting with a portrait of him at the airport. He wasn’t expecting a welcome party, but a king awaited his visit.

In the Hall of Time, David Haller (Dan Stevens) and Switch (Lauren Tsai) aren’t well. The further they go, the more “time‘s becoming unstable.” David is determined to find his family. So much so, he ends up in a dangerous place. In the meantime, Farouk, an “Omega Mutant,” is trapped in “a never ending now” in that time between time space. We’re shown strange eggs about to hatch. In the background is the laughter of the Time Eaters. How long can Amahl manage there? He’s already fading.
Charles was taken to a Moroccan palace. Inside were many children. He met Farouk, who was thrilled to finally meet him. He was taken aback by how much Amahl seemed to know him, from his scientific work to his military background and even the name of his wife Gabrielle (Stephanie Corneliussen), as well as David, of course.
Back home, Gabrielle saw doors on the walkway. That’s exactly where we see Syd Barrett (Rachel Keller), along with Cary (Bill Irwin) and Kerry (Amber Midthunder) Loudermilk, stroll out of the time door. Oh, damn. Gabrielle’s shocked by the doors and relatively unbothered by the three people on her lawn. “You‘re not crazy,” Syd tells her. She goes inside the house and talks with Gabrielle about babies and “the men they become.” She quickly realises where she is, and that baby David’s there, too. This leaves Syd and Kerry debating whether to kill a child, like the Baby Hitler Time Travel scenario.

At dinner, Charles and Amahl visited the astral plane. It was a trip for Charles, who’d not quite reached the “land of the mind” yet. He learned fast how to manifest everything he wanted there, from a beautiful green forest landscape to seeing his wife and child at home. Farouk helped wake Charles to the depth of his powers. The two men got to know one another. All is not quite fine, because time’s shifting. Charles sees a flash of his grown son David warning him: “Behold the king of lies.”
That night, David takes his father to a space in his mind. The son shows dad the tortured life he’ll go on to live. David tries to tell Charles about the big fight with Farouk and how the Shadow King will latch onto him. What’ll happen if David helps Charles destroy Farouk for real this time around? Maybe it’ll go very wrong. What if Syd and Kerry change the life of baby David? How does all this alter the present?

“What a privilege it is
to see
and be seen.”

Charles passes David off as an old military pal, yet Farouk can see something beyond the young man’s eyes, across the astral plane. David does a good job pretending. Amahl heads off for a moment. There are teeth falling all over the floor and Switch stumbles in, bloody and weakened, though David continues to think of nothing but “killing Farouk.” It’s starting to make his father suspicious, particularly with the rattling knob and the pounding at the door. Behind those other doors are the many Davids— Legion. It all comes down to daddy issues.

Syd tries to tell Gabrielle how to raise David, in order to save the world. “Don‘t let the monsters in,” she says. The mother already knows about mental illness, having seen it in her own family, even if she doesn’t refer to it by that term. Can a few pieces of parenting advice from a time traveller actually change the course of baby David’s life? Well, for one thing, the Time Eaters are around, meaning all bets are off. They almost get to baby David before Syd stops them.

Charles goes back to David, explaining to him he’d been seeking friendship after seeing what war does to people, only to realise Farouk is a monster. The son suggests they fight him together. Then there’s Farouk, managing to get out of the time between time and into the past, showing up to greet his past self.
What will this bring about? It’s the end, one way or another.
The series finale, Chapter 27, is next time.
Father Gore rates Legion in his personal Top 10 shows of all-time. Hands down. It’ll be sad to say goodbye. Fortunately we’ve been gifted three amazing, surreal, and weird seasons to go back and enjoy. Marvel should take a page from this show’s book and make more unique visions of superheroes come to life.