Sydney and group decide to first visit David’s old psychiatrist, Dr. Pool. From the looks of the office, the doctor hasn’t been there in some time. While looking around, Sydney can see David walking around as if she is currently living in his memories. She can even see the tear she witnesses in the wall from Chapter 3. While exploring the office, Sydney finds a damaged tape recorder with bloody prints on it. Ptonomy picks it up and says that objects have memories too. Ptonomy touches the object and he can see David and Dr. Pool talking. They are talking about how the stars spoke to David. Suddenly, there is a flash of David, covered in blood, standing over Dr. Pool’s body. Ptonomy said the doctor came back while David was robbing his home so David broke the doctor’s skull with his fists. Ptonomy explains how he think David is extremely dangerous, with our without powers. Sydney, on the other hand, still has hope for David and believes he is a good person who is just lost. Ptonomy disagrees and proceeds to tell her how David is so powerful and he is hiding real memories behind fake ones. Sydney expresses how David could have possibly broken in to Dr. Pool’s office not to get money, but to get rid of the tape recorder because he said too much. She believes this because she remembers seeing a quick glitch in David’s memory of him eating the tapes. Ptonomy tells Sydney her thoughts are, “a lot of effort just to convince yourself your boyfriend's a nice guy.” This causes Sydney to think about if she truly loves David or just the idea of him and the side of him he decides to show her.
After three riddled episodes being taunted with uncertain memories, it is nice to finally start to get to the truth about David’s past. David’s sessions with Dr. Pool have always been uncertain due to the glitches in his memory and Dr. Pool’s disappearance. Although Sydney still has hope for David, it is very clear David can be extremely dangerous with or without his powers. It takes a lot of force to break a skull; something very important must have happened between David and Dr. Pool when David was caught breaking into his office. Even though, in the previous episode, David was seen stealing things from Dr. Pool’s office, it is also a possibility his main objective was to destroy the tape recordings. I think if David’s intent were to completely rob the house, then he would have brought Lenny along with him for help. However, thing’s aren’t looking good for David due to his memories being so protected.
A very interesting point was brought up during this scene. Sydney asks Ptonomy if it is possible they are still in David’s brain doing memory work. Ptonomy says they aren’t but Sydney continues to push and Ptonomy’s lack of answers makes him look uncertain. Although, I don’t think they are still inside David’s mind currently and this could provide some very interesting stories later down the road.
The next scene is of Amy being held in a cell and she is being fed very little. She begins to have a mental breakdown that gets the attention of the man in the cell next to her. Amy and the man begin to talk and it is revealed the man is David’s old doctor at Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital, Kissinger. Kissinger says he was captured and isn’t sure where David is. He then says he suspected David wasn’t sick and he asked Amy what she thought. Amy begins to explain when growing up, he would disappear from rooms and overhear conversations that were impossible to hear, other people's thoughts. She said David would often talk to himself and then say he was talking to King. Kissinger says he remembers David talking about King, a beagle from David’s childhood that followed him everywhere. Amy reveals their family never had a dog.
This scene shows Division 3 is desperate to get hold of David, no matter who they have to hurt. Both Amy and Kissinger aren’t being well fed or taken care of and are living in fear. It also shows Division 3 has a lot of power and they were able to kidnap Amy and Kissinger without repercussions; they were also able to erase David and Kissinger from any hospital records. This scene gave us a shocking revelation: David’s dog, King, was a figment of his imagination. This makes me question David’s memories since some parts of David’s memory you think are fake, but King seemed to be a definite part of his childhood. As if David wasn’t already an unreliable narrator, this revelation questions everything about his past. It also makes me wonder about David’s parents. David said his father had passed away, but his mother’s location is unknown. Also, the question if David’s parents knew about his powers or if they jumped to the assumption that he was just mentally ill remain.
Meanwhile, Sydney, Ptonomy and Kerry’s search continues. They manage to find David’s ex-girlfriend. On their way, Sydney is haunted by visions of the World’s Angriest Boy in the World. We are given a little insight on Dr. Cary’s powers. His father left when he was born because his wife gave birth to a white boy so he believed his wife cheated on him. Then, when Cary was 8-years-old, he discovered Kerry was living inside of his body. Kerry says Dr. Cary does all the boring stuff like eating and sleeping but she gets to fight and keep him safe. They share a body and Kerry says she is okay with it. Kerry ages whenever she is outside the body, but when she is in the body she doesn’t age.
Back in Summerland, Melanie walks into the room and sees a ghostly transparent figure of a man in a diving suit. This troubles Melanie so she goes into a basement room with Dr. Cary. Inside the room is a frozen man in a diving suit that is revealed to be Oliver, Melanie’s husband.
David wakes up in a dream-like place that looks like a distant planet. He sees the same man in a diving suit and begins to follow him inside of an ice building and the man takes off his diving suit and introduces himself as Oliver. Oliver asks David if he wants a drink and the entrance to the block of ice is frozen off. Oliver apologizes and says that the only thing he can’t control in this space is the temperature. Oliver then explains they are in the Astral Plane because they went too far into the make believe. Oliver says he has been alone for a long time and David’s monster can’t get him inside the ice. Oliver explains to David how he is at war with himself and his monsters are a part of him, but aren’t real unless David makes them real. David decides to take his chances with the monsters and leave the ice block into the vast subconscious in an attempt to escape the Astral Plane.
The scene with Oliver and David in the Astral Plane had some great visuals. Throughout the scene there are flashes of the Devil With the Yellow Eyes in the room, projected on David’s face and inside the walls. It makes you wonder if the Devil is real or just part of David’s imagination. Another interesting part about this scene is when we see David trying to use his powers on command. However, David fails and it shows just how much control he lacks.
The exploration of the Astral Plane, which has been a part of the Marvel Universe since Strange Tales No. 110, July 1963. The Astral Plane is collection of other dimensions beyond the material plane. The lower planes are harmless and can be visited by those with psychic powers like Jean Grey, Emma Frost and Professor X. However, the higher planes are more risky and inhabited by dangerous creatures. The Astral Plane has even been known to be used as a prison and has been habited by the Shadow King as punishment. Sorcerers, like Doctor Strange, can also visit the Astral Plane. In fact, he recently visited the Astral Plane in the movie DOCTOR STRANGE; the MCU version of the Astral Plane is a place where the soul exists outside of the body. In LEGION, the Astral Plane is explained as a simulated reality were David can invent anything that comes to mind with psychic projections.
Sydney and company finally meet up with David’s ex girlfriend, Philly. Ptonomy scan’s Philly’s memories and stumbles across a memory of David, Philly and Dr. Pool having a meal together. Amy is telling the doctor it is like there is no evidence David has a past. There are no pictures of him or any childhood objects. David says he can’t believe he doesn’t have a picture of his dog King and will ask his sister for pictures. After this memory, Ptonomy sees a memory of a distressed Philly going to visit Dr. Pool at a lighthouse. Sydney asks Philly about David and his life and Philly reveals David’s friend, Benny, was a terrible influence on him. Ptonomy and Sydney discover David’s memories are wrong and his best friend is a fat man named Benny, not a girl named Lenny. Before they leave, Sydney asks if Philly wants to tell David anything. Philly responds with, “they are watching.”
This scene made Division 3 feel a lot more powerful. It shows they are looking at David’s past just as carefully as Summerland is and it gave us some great visuals of Ptonomy’s powers in action. Normally Ptonomy would use his powers through a machine, but this time he scans the memories of Philly without one. Philly’s memorizes are scanned as if fast-forwarding a tape while Ptonomy’s eye rapidly moves around. The memories displayed in Ptonomy’s pupils which is why he wears sunglasses while he is scanning. I thought this was awesome and gave us more depth on Ptonomy and how his powers work. The scene made us question David’s past even more than we already did showing he truly believes he had a beagle growing up. If this memory, along with the memory of Lenny, are things David made up, then what other major points in his past are made up? It's getting hard to determine what is real and what is a fake memory making David an even more unreliable narrator.
After seeing Philly, Sydney, Ptonomy and Kerry go to visit Dr. Pool at his lighthouse. Dr. Pool said he treated David on and off for three years. And without his medicine, David didn’t want to be treated. Pool then confirms David was not friends with Lenny outside of Clockworks, but friends with Benny. Pool says that because of David he has no sight in one eye and lost his wife and family and he has no idea why David almost beat him to death. Suddenly, Dr. Pool turns into the Eye from Division 3 and men start shooting inside of the house. The three heroes run upstairs and Kerry jumps out the lighthouse window to go fight the men bellow while Sydney and Ptonomy stay behind. Guns don’t seem to affect the Eye and the Eye just lays a hand on Ptonomy’s forehead and Ptonomy falls to the ground. Realizing she is hopeless, Sydney pulls a desperate move... she makes physcial contact with him. As a result, the Eye and Sydney switch bodies and she is able to take control of the situation from within the Eye’s body and she collects Ptonomy and a defeated Kerry.
After teasing us for two episodes, we finally get to see Kerry in action. Kerry has been eager for a fight all throughout the episode and has been seen training in previous episodes. Something that I loved about her fighting scenes is that it showed how connected Kerry and Cary are. While Kerry was fighting Division 3, Cary was back in Summerland making similar motions with his body and feeling the adrenaline Kerry was feeling. On the negative side, Cary also felt every hit Kerry took during her fight. This new explanation of their powers was done masterfully with no dialogue through the use of great editing and similar directions with the two actors. This scene leads us to believe the Eye himself may be a mutant due to his ability to trick Ptonomy, Sydney and Kerry into believing he was actually Dr. Pool. I had a slight suspicion back in Chapter 2 when the Eye was able to see David when he was in Amy’s interrogation room telepathically, but I brushed it off as David’s power. Now I believe there is a lot more to the Eye than it appears. His power could be where he got his nickname.
Inside of the Astral Plane, David creates his childhood room with his mind and Lenny is inside of it. Lenny said Melanie drugged him and trapped him inside of this awful place. Lenny displays images on a TV of Sydney (with the consciousness of the Eye) laying on the ground unconscious. Lenny tells David they both need to get out of the Astral Plane so David becomes furious with the images on the TV and teleports himself in front of a truck where Sydney, inside of the Eye’s body, is driving away. The truck crashes trying to avoid David when he teleports in the middle of the road. Sydney and the Eye switch back to their original bodies and the Eye pulls out a gun to shoot at David. But Kerry is shot instead. Kerry collapses to the ground while the Eye escapes. Back in Summerland, Dr. Cary falls to the ground. Suddenly, a very real hand grabs David’s should and it seems to belong to Lenny, but the rest of her body is ghostly and transparent.
This ending gave the audience a lot to think about and look forward to in future episodes. One of the major points is Lenny. Ever since the Clockworks incident, David has had visions of Lenny but these visions have been perceived as fake. However, Lenny played a huge role in getting David out of the Astral Plane. It looked as if she had other motives and the fact she now appears different in the real world is very unsettling. Could these projects of Lenny be the Devil With The Yellow Eyes? Just before David escapes the Astral Plane, his face is turned into the Devil With The Yellow Eyes. To add to that, David used to be friends with Benny, who shared a striking resemblance to the devil. However, all memories of Benny are now replaced with Lenny. Could Lenny and Benny both be connected to the Devil With The Yellow Eyes, maybe a trick to get David to release his full powers or the Devil himself?
Something interesting about this episode I pieced together was the introduction of the episode was scenes of the episode cut together. After watching the past few episodes, I was used to random and fast cuts of different scenes that I didn’t understand yet. However, this episode spelled out what would happen before it did and it managed to do that without spoiling anything. This was a very interesting choice and a nice nod to the unique style of the show.
Overall, Chapter 4 was a very strong episode. I was worried the show was focusing too much on David rather than other characters, but this episode fixed my concerns. I loved how Chapter 4 focused on Sydney, Ptonomy and Kerry rather than just developing David the whole time. As a result, we got to explain Ptonomy, Kerry’s powers and Sydney’s struggle to believe in David. LEGION has so many great characters and I would hate for them to push these characters aside so hopefully the show will continue to develop them. This episode also has great action, something that has been lacking from other episodes. LEGION is interesting enough without constant action, but it is always great to see mutants in action. I eagerly await Chapter 5 so we can learn more about Oliver and Lenny (Benny?).
Written by James Philbrick, LEGION Beat Writer -- Click to read James' posts
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