AudienceofOne

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.

There you go, I completely missed that. I thought he said he asked to be put in Xavier.

Yes, I was like, "is that a Xmas tree? Why?" Considering how blisteringly stupid the Children of Gabriel are, the fact they haven't seen the old man in 10 years and don't care is par for the course as far as I can tell. Gabriel left Sanctum because he wanted to stop the killing of Nightbloods but then he didn't want to die himself so he took Xavier's body. I don't know if Xavier consented or not. He lied to the Children of Gabriel and pretended to be Xavier because if they knew he took Xavier they'd turn against him. It's against what they stand for. So he lied and said that Gabriel was off communing with the anomaly or something (I don't remember, something like that). The ones who showed up on the motorbikes were the Children of Gabriel looking for Bellamy and Clarke (thinking she was still Josephine). They only wanted to kill Gabriel when they found out he was in Xavier's body because he killed Xavier and lied to them. He wanted to help them until he realised that a revolution would lead to the death of his entire family and himself. Then he had to choose between the path that was morally right and the one that would keep his family alive. He chose the latter. They turned her into a Nightblood with the bone marrow they took from Madi so she could be 'punished' by being a host to Russell's dead wife. It was a surprise to the other Earthers because she wasn't a night blood before.

Good Lord, these resistance movement Gabriel groupies are dumb.

You're not the only one. I thought it was funny.

I think there's an interesting discussion here as to whether Veronica's personality - honed as it is under almost constant warfare during her teen years - is capable of handling a calm and stable existence. She's like a child soldier who's suddenly dumped in a world of peace and doesn't know how to cope. Like an undomesticated animal suddenly living in quiet domesticity. It occurs to me that Logan has dealt with this side of his personality with the military but that she doesn't have an outlet. So what looks like dysfunction on the outside - partying, guns - is Veronica trying to give herself the outlet she needs for the parts of her personality she no longer needs in her daily life.

I got nothing. This is an excellent point and nails down one of the weaknesses of Season 3 and articulates one of the many many reasons next season sounds awful.

So much of the season was about Veronica and Logan healing together, moving past their previous traumas and learning how to be adults without falling back on the terrible things that happened to them as an excuse for destructive behaviour. At a time they were each other's worst enemies and the relationship was dysfunctional but they were managing to carve out something that was healing and supportive instead. And the show was clearly saying they had a long way to go but they were on the right path. And then it just threw it out the window for a cheap shock. I hated everything from when she agreed to marry him. Everything. Because you're right, another season of them struggling to stay together while healing each other instead of damaging each other is more noir than a rootless Veronica in isolation from everything that kept her grounded.

Way to ruin my goodwill toward this season, show. I hate fridging. Just because it's a man being fridged doesn't change that. If they were worried LoVe was overtaking the show, they could have had them deal with their relationship issues or have Logan on a long-term deployment. It's a shame because I thought everything else was great. I thought this had a real classic VM vibe and the characterisation was good. I could have used a bit more Wallace and Weevil but hopefully next season.

God I spent this whole episode going, "Veronica, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it". I found it interesting that during the whole sex dream sequence, it wasn't Logan she dreamed found her out but Wallace. Getting engaged because she got through the temptation and nearly died seems a really bad idea. This season has done quite a good job of convincing me these two have some issues they need to resolve before having a successful relationship - right before they get engaged. Not the least of which is her not actually wanting to get married at all.

I got a little confused in this episode. I must have missed where the bomber blackmailed the Mayor into running naked? And I don't know why Veronica is 110% convinced that Big Dick is responsible for the bombings. It's possible I'm just distracted from binging it. I should probably stop and take a moment to process.

Did Logan not recognise Leo? I was waiting for it but then wondered if he just didn't remember him. But then reading this forum made me realise just how many interactions they had during the original case. He should have remembered him, right? For the record I like Leo but thought he was kind of skeevy lusting after Veronica the way he did when she was in high school

God, me too. That was weird, right? I know this is a person she clearly likes and feels a certain kinship with but Veronica of all people wouldn't just accept drugs in a club. That felt very out of character. Def e Honestly, it's been a long time since I watched the first season of this show but the endless references to this have been confusing for me. I though the murder was solved. I know that people are idiots and would still have alternative theories even if we didn't have to go through the stupid that was that season 2 trial. But I'm surprised that Veronica herself didn't argue about that the first time it came up.

"What's with the drop in, I could have been having sex?" "You're not married". This season is tight. Really tightly written and I love the complexity in the characterisations. I guess they've been planning this for a while.