Legion Chapter 2 Recap and Preview for Next Week

David, Sydney, and the rest of the rescue party are “on the road to nowhere” (according to the instrumental version of the Talking Heads song playing softly in the background). They are being followed by The Eye (the silent man who was in on David’s “interrogation”), his government commandos, and their attack dogs.

The road actually leads them to Summerland, a compound that is full of other mutants. Melanie gives David a quick briefing on what is going on: she believes he is a very powerful telepath, potentially telekinetic, and that his “mental illness,” the voices in his head, are just part of his powers. The divisions were created by the government to track and control people like David and Sydney. It’s unclear how much of this David takes in, because he is in extreme pain, shaking uncontrollably in bed. The “voices” are overwhelming him, and they are more powerful at Summerland. Melanie tries to focus him by telling him to find the one voice calling to him, and to turn down all the others. He succeeds, and the pain disappears. Melanie tells him to get some sleep; tomorrow they start on memory work.

The next day, Melanie and David are taking a walk through the woods. She explains that every memory he has of mental illness was actually his power. She offers to show him, and takes him to a glass room in the middle of the woods. Syd and Ptonomy are there waiting. Melanie, Ptonomy, and David sit at a round table with metal grips all around. They are going to look back, see what triggers his powers. The three of them hold the grips and concentrate.

They are all in a field, watching young David and his sister play with their dog. Ptonomy is a “memory artist;” that is his gift. According to Melanie, right now, this is just about accepting that this is real; then she will show him how this is his gift, not an illness, and make him whole. They visit a couple other happy moments in David’s childhood, and David tells them about his dad, an astronomer who died last year, while he was in the hospital. Now we see dad reading young David a bedtime story, a strange, Burtonesque story about a kid who chops off his mother’s head. David is weirded out by this and his “memory” starts shaking.

In the room, David freaks out, lets go of the grips, and tries to escape the room. Syd tries to calm him down, but Ptonomy uses his powers to put him to sleep. While asleep, David remembers speaking with Dr. Poole. The scene is glitchy, echoey, with mini time jumps. The session over, David meets Lenny outside.

David wakes in a peaceful diorama, Ptonomy sitting over him, offering some milk. Memory work takes a lot out of you, and the milk helps. He tells David that Melanie thinks David is the key to “winning the war.” David is distracted by a glitchy, unclear shadow. He shakes it off and focuses on Ptonomy, who is explaining that he remembers his own birth. Ptonomy asks him about the book his father was reading. David claims he doesn’t remember, doesn’t want to talk about it.

That evening, Syd finds David outside on a swing set. She still doesn’t really understand what happened when they switched places. There was a flash, and everything in the day room was so loud. There was something else… she saw the potato demon man. That is when it happened, when she killed Lenny, which she apologizes for. Melanie heard it when Sydney used David’s powers. Division 3 heard it, too. They came because they thought they heard him but it was really Sydney. David desperately wants to hug Syd, or even hold her gloved hand, but she shies away. Even just being close to another human being gives her an uncomfortable physical sensation. David understands. They are having a “romance of the mind.”

The next day, David is in an MRI machine. A crazy scientist, Cary (not to be confused with his female assistant / daughter Kerry) is fiddling with knobs and instructs David to think about someone he loves. Rather than thinking about Sydney, he thinks of his sister, Amy. We are taken back to the day, after David’s meeting with Dr. Poole, where Amy confides that she thinks her boyfriend is going to propose. Amy tries to convince him that he has a chance at a real life with Philly – the one who left him already.

Suddenly David’s memory takes him back to immediately after the doctor’s visit. He is with Lenny, and she has an oven, which they take to a local pusher and trade it in for blue liquid, a new drug called Vapor. They head back to Lenny’s apartment, where she puts the drug in a giant frog diffuser. They lay down and enjoy the ride, but when David looks to Lenny, he sees the potato devil in her place. This is now a memory that now-David, Melanie, and Ptonomy are all viewing. Melanie wants to know what it is David saw, insisting that the things he sees are real. David deflects, and Ptonomy takes them back to the appointment with Dr. Poole. They see the glitches, the micro time jumps, and Melanie assures David it is okay to be confused. Ptonomy rewinds the scene, and he sees a flash of David in the kitchen, using his powers. “Make your mind blank,” Ptonomy coaches him. “I will get us there.” Next they flash into David’s childhood room. Ptonomy tries to move them around, but David is too strong. David promises he trusts them, but then the door slams shut and the creepy bedtime book falls to the floor. Young David looks terrified.

Then we get a scene with David and Sydney talking quietly. She wants to know about his memory, but he again deflects. He hears her think “I’ll protect you,” then apologizes. He can’t control his power yet.

David is back in the MRI. Cary is trying to map his mind, figure out where the memories are stored. Next David remembers more of his session with Dr. Poole. He talks about seeing “another world out of the corner of my eye,” and looking at the stars with his dad, thinking they were talking to him. A door behind Dr. Poole creaks open a bit, and David gets panicky. Poole goes to the door and shuts it, assuring his patient there is nothing to worry about.

David comes back to the here and now (in the MRI) when he thinks he hears a woman say his name. And again. He thinks it is Amy. Amy is down at Clockworks hospital, trying to find David. The receptionist insists they have no record of him ever being at that hospital, which infuriates Amy. She has been there hundreds of times and thinks this is all a prank. The receptionist suggests that they admit her for observation. David tries to appear at the end of the hall, calling to him, a mere shadow. But Amy sees him, hears him, walks to him.

Cary is stunned. David’s brain lit up like he has never seen. David tells him he heard his sister, and Cary runs out. David is starting to get anxious, and tries to sit up. He hits his head. He tries to stay calm, but when he sees the potato man down near his feet he freaks out. Suddenly he is out of the MRI, laying on the floor, which is completely empty.

The MRI has ended up outside on the lawn, all in one piece. Everyone at Summerland races to check out the irregularity. Melanie just smiles a little bit. Meanwhile, David has his bag packed and is in the elevator. Sydney jumps in, mad that he is leaving, even if it is only for one day. She thinks she is the reason he is leaving, but David explains that he saw Amy, and he thinks Division 3 has her now. Sydney begs him to stay a bit longer, just long enough so he can learn what he needs to, and she will help him, “rescue her like we rescued you.” Finally Syd comes out with it bluntly: “She’s bait. They won’t kill her.” David returns to Summerland.

Meanwhile, Amy sits in a dark, dank room, trying to maintain her composure. The Eye comes in and removes from a case a fish tank, filled with tiny eels. “Shall we begin?”

You can watch a preview for Legion Chapter 3 below.