AudienceofOne

I really disagree. The brutal unexpected death of a loved one is the classic beginning of the hero's arc and the standard start to the hero's journey. This is just the showrunners living the cliche.

They had that conversation well before that. And the words 'Farouk' never once came out of their mouth as a factor. It's as though the reality of Farouk's possession of David and his subsequent carnage has been removed from their reality in some way. Maybe it's just bad writing or maybe it was something they were going to touch on if the show continued. For whatever reason, I found this to be the single most frustrating thing about this season - especially since this ending proved that everything would have been fine if they hadn't turned on David in the first place but had instead helped him. Also - what was with future Syd? Where did that reality come from and what was her agenda?

A lot of mental illness is similar to an autoimmune disease and requires a confluence of genetics and environment to trigger. So even if David has the potential to be mentally ill, Farouk's presence was almost certainly the environmental factor that sent him over the edge. Without that, and with some stability at home, David is far less likely to develop the illness.

Firstly, I liked this finale conceptually and thematically. I'm just struggling with Farouk's transformation. I don't know when this happened. Now, it's been obvious to me for a while that he sees David as his son and has the same desire for family and love that David has. But I always interpreted that emotion as being one of possession and control. That he wanted David to be his, in the same way that David wanted his cult kids and Lenny to be his. And in the past we see a Farouk who essentially has the same cult-style children setup that future David had and I can't see that kind of symbology as being an accident. And yet we're somehow meant to believe that Farouk has learnt the finer art of self-sacrificing love along the way? When? He's shown absolutely no evidence of it before this; just a desire to own and control David and prove his dominance over him. The whole thing kind of smacked of Farouk teaching David a lesson in non-violent conflict resolution through empathy and... what?? A better ending would have been either David and his father defeating Farouk finally in the astral plane or, as others have said, a solution that involves David not being to hit a reset button on his life. Because it makes it seem like he was right - none of the deaths mattered because they got washed way. At first I was the same but then I realised this is better. We ended on the potential of a better future; freed from external influences. Baby David's life is Baby David's to either succeed at or fuck up - and this applies to the other characters too. Which of those we get doesn't really matter because it's entirely on him. There is always a tension between justice and reconciliation when resolving a conflict. In this case, they were emphasising the need for forgiveness and reconciliation in resolving a conflict and... they're right of course... but there's a reason why conflicts often never get resolved. People are hardwired to want at least an appearance of justice. In fact, nobody in this really atoned for their crimes. Both David and Syd remained convinced to the end they were solely victims and refused to acknowledge any point at which they were also perpetrators. But I guess that doesn't really matter when this timeline never existed.

Does anyone in Team Moron remember how and why David ended up the way he was? And that it was Farouk's fault for essentially torturing him mentally for 33 years? And that maybe - just MAYBE - that had something to do with what David was trying to change? And, oh yeah, Farouk is the f'ing BAD GUY here? Did Farouk do something to everyone at the end of last season that caused them to forget who he is and what he'd done? Maybe he did, maybe this is a time travel thing? Because I found Syd's whole conversation with Kerry about whether or not to kill young David completely inexplicable. As though Farouk was no factor at all in his inevitable insanity.

Can I decide not to go to the real world too?

I mean, David's completely out of control but then his former friends suddenly turned on him and began to repeatedly try to kill him so... If you think somebody's going to go crazy and destroy everything, convincing them they need to use violence to survive by repeatedly attacking them seems like a bad plan. I thought so last season as well - that at the least Farouk was a dark idea planted in David's mind rather than a separate entity and that most of what happened was a battle within David rather than external to him. Certainly, Farouk's actions and behaviours this season suggest he is as desiring of love and family as David now is so in that respect he is David. And with the "Legion" revelation (finally) it makes sense that a part of David could have gained its own autonomy. Assuming that we know which bits of what is happening actually happened. Could make comment about several religions and their beliefs about forgiveness and the afterlife. But, won't. Just throwing it out there for people to be as intrigued, indifferent and offended as they like.

I'm still on David's side too, although I'm not sure if I should be and I blame the show's excellent writing for making that happen. Last episode I went, "their timeline is all messed up because if she was in a concentration camp then... oh, wait, I have NO idea what the 'present' time period is supposed to be". Until I saw this post, I wasn't entirely sure if that was a mistake in my copy of the episode.

The parallels! The parallels!

"Ostensibly on Legion" was when I fell in love all over again. Oh yeah, David raped her. And his quest to undo what he did and "be loved" is extremely juvenile. But that's part of the problem. David is a child given power and never allowed to grow up. And what do children need more than anything? A place to feel safe and loved. David never had that so he's trying to force the world, the universe into being one. But that's just another way of saying that he's manipulating and coercing people to serve his needs. The problem is he had that (or thought he had that) - in Syd, in the team, in the mission - and they threw him away. They abandoned him like parents kicking their own child into the street. And so they are in many ways responsible for everything that's happened. So, Syd's both 100% right on a personal level. And yet completely wrong too. To be clear, this analysis does not imply that Syd owes David anything especially after what he did to her. She doesn't. But his friends do - mostly for pretending to be his friends in the first place.

My main takeaway from S2 was that Fahrouk was entirely a product of David's mind - an idea planted that bloomed - and I'm not ready yet to let go of that assessment. There were a lot of words written about this at last year's finale, which I re-read in preparation for this season. I think it was hashed out then and basically came down to - they were never David's friends, never trusted him, have always feared him and have always treated him like a nuke. You're happy for nukes to exist as long as you're the only one with nukes. Once you're not, you're 110% Team Disarmament. I'm not sure yet how I feel about the 'robot' theme but it fits with how the team saw him - they wanted him to be a robot, a tool. Instead he was a person. I guess this is where we politely "agree to disagree" and I don't sputter in confusion, either at the idea the show is horrible or that you can watch it without paying minute attention to every frame.

So while I think this would have worked better as a two-parter, I'm happy with how everything ended up. The zombies that want to be cured got cured, the ones that didn't want to be cured didn't. Everybody we care about lives. Most of the bad guys got punished. I can't help thinking the showrunner was waiting for the network to pull a last-minute reprieve out of its hat and so dragged out plot points so they could cobble together another season if possible. But apart from that, I loved this show and I'm sad it's over. Still, I'm glad it ended while I was still enjoying it and didn't drag out till it was a ridiculous satire of itself *cough* The 100 *cough*.

Gladys might be my new favourite character ever. Just catching up on this and man I'll miss this show. This episode was just fun in the way only iZombie can be.

Why is this show suddenly all the worst parts of Stargate?

Is it just me or did this whole episode make no sense? So, yeah, I'm late to this party because I've been travelling (yay for me!) but I'm constantly confused by what's happening. I don't know if the writing is rushed or just bad but the Murphy/Emori thing really confused me throughout. One good thing - I think we've finally got rid of Abby and I almost feel relieved for Paige Turco because that character must have been hell to play this season.