Will Legion’s Season Finale Remind Us Of The X-Men Cinematic Universe?

 
We’re coming up on the season finale for FX’s Legion, a show that’s only gained followers as the season has rolled onward. At a short 8 episodes, no one’s complaining about quality–each episode has been so cinematic, in fact, increasingly so, that viewers feel they’ve been watching a series of films. Ratings have been high enough, fortunately, that despite being a show that might not be to every viewer’s taste, the show has been renewed for a second season on FX.

Episode 7 finally presented a showdown between David Haller, his friends, and his “Parasite”, something that had been building up for several episodes, if not the whole season. It was an episode that took us through David’s history, too, in a way that even he had to reconstruct, and we watched it play out through a series of animated chalk drawings in a classroom in David’s mind. We saw Xavier, at least in chalky form, giving David up for adoption, perhaps for his own protection. We saw that Xavier’s enmity with an evil being, the Shadow King, prompted David’s sad life of slavery and illness. This was not an episode that pulled punches, but it did give us our first encounters with a “well” David–David alone, free from his monster.
Now what? Well, there’s the whole external plot dealing with the X-Men and government agencies. There’s the fact that the Parasite is not gone, merely in check inside David at this point. There’s the powder keg waiting to explode, since we see the safehouse being overrun by government agents at the end of episode 7. But it seems like there’s going to be room for talking, and big ideas, and some truth about the dangers of mutant powers. Those are speeches we are familiar with from the many X-Men films, and the feel of these confrontations may remind you a little Days of Future Past. And that’s not a bad thing. What remains to be explored are the ways in which David is different from other X-Men we’ve encountered, and how that changes the conversation–and the outcome of any conflict.
Here’s our promo for the season finale of Legion, airing on FX on Wednesday, March 29th: