LEGION Season 3 Series Finale Review: Chapter 27


Noah Hawley’s LEGION concludes in Chapter 27 and we unfortunately have to say goodbye to one of the craziest, most mind-bending and bizarre television shows ever made. 

The final chapter begins as the audience watches David grow throughout the years. It reminds me of how much my perspective of David, as well as other characters, have also changed. 

When I first started writing about LEGION, I had started with a character bio and so I expected the show to be about a villain. I then started to see David as a victim, and eventually a hero. Season 3 started with me thinking of David as a villain again, but I couldn’t quite get the hero stigma out of my head. 

David is an intriguing character and I think that his fluent personality is what makes him interesting and keeps the show fresh. 

David and his father prep for war in the past. It’s fun to watch David teach his inexperienced father how to use their powers, especially since Professor X is usually the one in that role. 

As they go to challenged Farouk, David discovers the older Farouk is in the same time. As David takes on the younger Shadow King, Professor X challenges the older Shadow King. 

The music in LEGION has always been fantastic it brings so much power to the show and I love it, especially in an epic conclusion like this. 

The whole series has always been about David and the Shadow King, so this showdown has me even more invested knowing that it is the last episode. 

The fight scenes are as strange as always, but I’m a little disappointed that the fight didn’t start with the correct versions fighting each other. These scenes could have had a lot more intensity but it didn’t seem as personal. 

However, it did have some great moments. 

“I am Legion.” 

David finally accepts his identify as he fights against the younger Shadow King. We always knew LEGION was there, but it’s nice to see him finally released. 

My favorite set piece comes back into play as LEGION battles against The Shadow King. Each door opens as another version of David comes out to fight and the illusion makes David feel much more powerful to the audience. 

The Shadow King tries to get inside David’s head by exploring his past and troubles. Telling him, for example, that he doesn’t deserve love. 


Meanwhile, Professor X is holding his own against the older Shadow King. The two of them come to an agreement and go to get David right before he kills the younger Shadow King. 

David obviously didn’t like his father’s agreement since it only relies on Farouk’s promise, but Charles comforted him. David hugs his new found father. 

Farouk is given the knowledge of his older self. In a truly trippy scene that keeps your eyes glued to the screen, we get a recap of the entire series through the eyes of David. 

Farouk begins to cry and apologizes to his older self for all he was about to bring forth. Until this scene I truly didn’t believe that the Shadow King could change, but I was wrong. This is just another example of how far characters on the show have come. 

Meanwhile, Kerry Cary, and Sydney begin their battle with the time demons. 

The style is similar to previous episodes, but so much more chaotic. It brings an intensity to the situation. I love how this episode doesn’t slow down; it truly feels like a finale. 

Cary comes up with a way to stop confuse the time demons but it would require him to combine with Kerry. In an intense and emotional moment between the two, you realize just how far they have come since their introduction. Kerry used to dread leaving Cary’s body and she had to slowly learn to live her own life. 

They both had drastically changed as characters throughout the seasons. I realize that I had slowly started identifying them as two characters when I used to think the opposite in season 1. 

As Time Demons start to attack Switch, she uses her powers to get to the time tunnels, but that is the last of her strength. She spits out the rest of her teeth and lies in her bed and accepts her death. However, she is awoken by her father and her teeth are now back. She is now an experienced time traveler in the eyes of her father and her “baby teeth” were replaced with healthier ones. 

Her father tells her that he has trained the time demons. She is now a fourth-dimensional being, just like her father. Now able to control the time demons, Switch calls them off and saved Sydney and everyone else. 

Switch tells Sydney that they succeeded in their mission and that their lives have a purpose. They saved the world. 

However, the past has been changed and everything will be new. They will technically die, only to be reborn in the past. 

David and Sydney have a chance to talk before they fade away. David apologizes and it is simple, but very sincere. I’m glad the show didn’t end with them falling in love. They had both grow to be very different people and sometimes that is okay. People grow and they can grow apart, especially if one is a crazy telepathic mutant. 

David will now grow up in a world where he will never have been infected with the Shadow King. He will live happily with his parents. Cary and Kerry now will grow up together, rather than Kerry not aging inside of Cary. Sydney will grow up never knowing David. 

All in all it was a pretty happy ending and was done incredibly well. 

It was great being able to write about a TV show I was truly passionate about. I wish more people knew about LEGION, I am constantly telling people they should watch it! I’m sad to see it go but I’m also so glad that it had a set beginning, middle, and end. 

The show’s ending left me satisfied but craving more. It doesn’t necessarily have to be LEGION, or even about mutants. 

The creativeness that went into making the show was special, and it felt so unique to anything I’ve seen on television. I want more shows to be as experimental and weird as this one and I hope the people involved continue to make great things.

Written by James Philbrick, LEGION Beat Writer


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