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S02.E01: Chapter 9


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One year after David Haller was abducted by a mysterious orb and Oliver was infected by the parasite The Shadow King aka Amahl Farouk, unlikely alliances are formed and the search for the Shadow King begins.

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Those clicking teeth were CREEPY!  They do a good job of stringing seemingly incomprehensible nonsense scenes together in a way that eventually make sense - or at least as much sense as this show will ever make!

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I'm going to have to watch that again, it was too much weirdness to absorb all at once. But my initial thoughts:

1. Theory -- David is still inside the orb, Syd is not really Syd, it's someone trying to get info from David so they can find Shadow King's body first. Because why would Ptolomy keep asking David, "what do you remember" when Ptolomy's mutant power is that he can see people's memories? Also, Syd was acting sort of strange. Also, that whole thing with the creature and the egg and later you see the same creature crawling by David's bed when he is sleeping.

2. I kind of hope that a lot of this wasn't real, but another mind trick on David. Seeing how Syd and Melanie reacted to David & Oliver's disappearance was too sad. It seemed like it completely broke Melanie. Although later, it seemed like Syd was blaming David for being kidnapped by an orb ("This was the second time you left me"), which is what made me feel like it wasn't really Syd. 

3. That was one awesome waffle bar!

4. I loved the eerie dance scene -- visuals and music.

5. The visual design on this show continues to be amazing.

6. Not sure what to make of the "Future Syd" scene, and why didn't she just spell out all the words?

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I don't follow the comics.  David's father is Prof X so that's one reason why he's super powerful.  Do we know who his mother is?  Is she also a mutant?

I didn't understand why the Daiquri tank was necessary.  Isn't David powerful enough to sense the Shadow King without it?  Didn't he have to wear a helmet last season to help damp down his powers?

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Good episode but my problem from season one persists..  I don't like or really trust David... Makes it hard to go thru all this trippiness... On another note... Cary dies have some moves.. And Aubrey plaza should tan more often and let the Latina out of the bag more often 

Oh.. And weird energy between syd and ptomeny.. Not sure what's up there 

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Out of all the weirdness, the part I'm having the most trouble with is Fukyama (?) with the basket over his head and the mustached women who speak for him. (Multiple IMDB credits for Vermillion; I guess that's them?) On a practical level, he's a leader of Division III, an organization that hated/hates mutants, so is this someone they captured and altered, given the story about a machine implanted in his head? No doubt there will be a gruesome reveal at some point. On an experiential level, I found it as disturbing as Faruk's bloated demon-y appearance last season.

 

11 hours ago, KaleyFirefly said:

1. Theory -- David is still inside the orb, Syd is not really Syd, it's someone trying to get info from David so they can find Shadow King's body first. Because why would Ptolomy keep asking David, "what do you remember" when Ptolomy's mutant power is that he can see people's memories? Also, Syd was acting sort of strange. Also, that whole thing with the creature and the egg and later you see the same creature crawling by David's bed when he is sleeping.

--Ptonomy may ask because he doesn't trust David and is testing him. I think the repetition is in David's mind, though, and I do wonder why he's not sharing the bits he does recall. Of course, it could all still be a fake-out. (And I don't understand the part at the beginning with Syd and the cat.)

--I think when the slimy creature crawled by the bed, it was in the white room that David creates in his mind, which could indicate that he's still having delusions. He seems to have a lingering link to Faruk, so maybe there is still some of him left in David's mind.

--Melanie's heartbreak broke mine. Glad to see Cary and Kerry on somewhat better terms.

--Definitely going to have to re-watch. All I know at this point is that Noah Hawley has a wild imagination, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

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59 minutes ago, justmehere said:

(And I don't understand the part at the beginning with Syd and the cat.

Had they switched bodies, as Rachel does with people she touches?

1 hour ago, justmehere said:

-I think when the slimy creature crawled by the bed, it was in the white room that David creates in his mind, which could indicate that he's still having delusions. He seems to have a lingering link to Faruk, so maybe there is still some of him left in David's mind.

David intentionally created that room in this episode so that he could sleep with Syd without actually touching her.

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3 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:
3 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Had they switched bodies, as Rachel does with people she touches?

Yes.  If you look closely, she's not wearing her gloves as she pets the cat.

Or, do you mean, as the cat pets her?

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4 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Had they switched bodies, as Rachel does with people she touches?

Good catch. Maybe "practicing" with the cat means she intends to switch deliberately with people...

 

4 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

David intentionally created that room in this episode so that he could sleep with Syd without actually touching her.

He created it last season for that reason as well, and Farouk (misspelled before, I think) eventually invaded the white room. In this particular scene, David and Syd were just sleeping in the white room as the slimy thing crawled under the bed, which to me indicated that there's still some connection. We saw the thing with Lenny, too (during the narration about delusion), so the Shadow King apparently is still invading David's mind. David thinks his sense of the SK is just the long time it was in residence, but maybe that's his delusion; he's not really free.

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Man was that good.  The opening scene made me wonder, is the trapped Lenny some part of David that's in Farouk or perhaps her own entity now?  The cinematography in the show is amazing as always and for whatever reason I just loved the food conveyor but they're boats.  Also the announcement about repetition that then repeats was great, 

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Probably the only Marvel-related show to feature a dance-off... that's, well that's all I got.  

Huh... wait a minute...

what... I kinda thought...

it seemed like... never mind, the show lost me...

I think I'm going to need a few more rewatches...

...I think I'm banking on it's all an illusion/manipulation to control David/find Farouk's body before Farouk...

and to finish... WTF! I loved it, I'll be here for it.  

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David and the Shadow King apparently conducting a telepathic fight via dance-off was the highlight of the episode to me.

I did find it off-putting that both Melanie and Syd are apparently blaming their significant others' disappearances on them rather than the people/forces that took them hostage. Which they should both be damn well aware of—unless Syd thinks that kidnapping transporter beam orb is just another freaky manifestation of David's own powers? By contrast, David's insistence on not hurting Oliver in destroying the Shadow King was a welcome injection of compassion and understanding.

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I ended up watching this twice.  The first time I was tired, and kept falling asleep.  Then the show, the commercials, and my dreams all mixed together.  Which seemed pretty appropriate for this show, honestly.  This is the kind of show where things look like random nonsense until around episode 5 when it all starts to make sense lol.

There's a new tendency on TV shows to film scenes in near total darkness.  I guess it's supposed to add ambience, but it's one of my pet peeves because it ends up I can't see anything.  If this show starts doing that, it's really going to be hard to figure out what's going on.

On 4/4/2018 at 12:21 AM, KaleyFirefly said:

1. Theory -- David is still inside the orb, Syd is not really Syd, it's someone trying to get info from David so they can find Shadow King's body first.

That crossed my mind also.  There's some similarity in shape between Loudermilk's "daiquiri" machine and the orb, maybe it's all the same thing.  My original thought was that the Shadow King had sent the orb to trick David into searching for his body, which would mean all his friends aren't real.  But if that were true, why would he bring up the idea that Shadow King being reunited with his body would be dangerous (he'd become unstoppable)?  So maybe it is someone else controlling the orb/Division 3/delusion.  If it's a delusion.

On 4/4/2018 at 3:14 AM, AnimeMania said:

Future Syd has only one arm.

Possible, but I'm not sure.  We never really saw.  She seemed to keep her other arm behind her back when she was drawing hints for David.  Plus she usually wears those black gloves, and the background was black, so it was hard to see.

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(edited)

Oh show. Your what I imagine it would be like to do acid than watch an X- Men movie marathon, complete with bad parts of the trip, good parts, and parts where you just want to dance and ramble about nothing for hours. In a good way.

Seriously, Carey has got some serious moves. 

Edited by tennisgurl
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And we're back to the future. The future being the 60's, at least aesthetic-wise.

David had a three-way dance battle. In. His. Mind!!! That's something I never saw in all my years reading the X-Men.

Cary didn't remember that his urges to dance might not be his own.

Is Basket Man a Komusō or does he just like baskets?

I want to find out more about Cephalopod HR-14C.

Melanie has her own high-class version of David's old plastic frog. And just what was that thing she, I hope, hallucinated?

The guy with the red shawl and the smudge on his forehead David was seeing in his visions/memories - I don't think that's Farouk but who he might be I have no idea.

On the down side - I'm not sure that the show hasn't edged over the line between weirdness with a purpose and weirdness simply for the sake of being weird (Vermilions, I'm looking at yous).

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Legion has returned and answers the question of who would win in a dance off between Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, and Jemaine Clement!  The answer is.... surprisingly, Bill Irwin!  Cary's got mad skills!

Trippy episode as expected and I question what will end up being real or not, but for now, the main gist is that it is a year later, everyone from Summerland is now working for Division 3, and they're trying to find the Shadow King's first body, because if he reclaims it, he'll become even more powerful.  But it turns out that during his time in the orb, David met what he thinks is Future Syd, and she is apparently saying (well, not really, but you get my point) that he needs to help the Shadow King instead.  Yeah, I have no idea what is going to end up happening, but I bet it will be a mindfuck and a half.

Yikes, Melanie is not taking what happened to Oliver well at all!

I'm sure fetishes have been born tonight with Rachel Keller licking herself like a cat.

Hey, they got Jon Hamm to narrate!

Cool that Hamish Linklater has been upped to regular status (along with Clement.)

What is the deal with Basket head guy and his robotic army?

Welcome back, Marvel's drug trip!  Noah Hawley really seems to have achieved "Do whatever your twisted mind wants to do, my man!" status with FX. 

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My hat's off to Hawley. Ryan Murphy has tried several times to win me over with style in the absence of a coherent narrative and failed, but with this show I'm enjoying myself immensely despite having almost no idea what the hell is going on.

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On 4/5/2018 at 1:12 PM, rmontro said:

Possible, but I'm not sure.  We never really saw.  She seemed to keep her other arm behind her back when she was drawing hints for David.  Plus she usually wears those black gloves, and the background was black, so it was hard to see.

She only had an upper arm.  Nothing below the elbow.  It's very clear when she turns around and walks away.

WTF¿??????

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Good episode but my problem from season one persists..  I don't like or really trust David...

It's less than not liking or trusting and more that we're really not allowed to know David. David is always a cipher, He never trusts anyone, including Syd, enough to explain he's having flashes of memory from the orb, or he's seeing things.

And it's a flaw of the show - no one explains anything or asks any questions that might move the plot along because then we can't rely on interpretive dance scenes or random shots of David in a pod or Jean Smart getting high while Aubrey Plaza kisses the physical manifestation of a delusion. 

Why can't Ptonomy and Cary take David for waffles and actually explain what happened between last year and this year in a rational not trippy, or disjointed way? Oh right, because the show is quirky and non-linear and look, Dan Stevens naked! Now cue the disco! Now creepy mustached women!

And back to David who is always acted upon. I love Dan Stevens even when he is channeling Hugh Laurie and he has lovely expressive eyes that this show totally puts to work...  But there's a point where David needs to have some hopes and goals, and actual opinions about how he fits in to this story. For all that David is a lead character with the story focused on him directly, he's completely isolated and often too childlike and innocent to where the question becomes how much of that is an act and how much of that is just poor writing and quirky scenes being substituted for plot?

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18 hours ago, ElleMo said:

She only had an upper arm.  Nothing below the elbow.  It's very clear when she turns around and walks away.

WTF¿??????

I just watched it again, and this is what I'm seeing:  When she turns to the side to leave, they don't show her elbow, or below it.   Then they cut to David's face.  Then they show her walking away.  At this point, you can't see any arm below the elbow, but it looks like she may be holding her arm in front of her.  

You guys seem to be in agreement, so maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see any conclusive evidence that her arm is gone.  Maybe my TV has cut off part of the picture?  Where exactly are you seeing that her arm is cut off?  I'm not saying she definitely has an arm, I'm just saying that I can't really tell for sure from that scene.

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I dont mind that the show is super weird and doesn't really make sense a lot of times. I watch lots of stuff for the plot. I watch this show for its weird, trippy style, and to see what it come up with next. And, really, the plot isnt that weird, when you look at it outside of the dream sequences and crazy evil/hot Audry Plaza and the ambiguous time period and Davids lack of sanity or understanding of whats going on. Its a decently standard X Men plot of government suits chasing mutants, and now mutants teaming up with them to fight an evil mutant. Its all the other stuff that makes it unique. Its probably not everyone's cup of tea, and I do wish I understood some details more, but I like what we have so much, I dont mind. 

Have we ever figured out if Melanie is a mutant, or she a non mutant human who is married to and works with them? We know what everyone elses mutant thing is, so if she is a mutant, its weird that we dont know what her power is. Or maybe its a surprise they're waiting to reveal? 

I thought that when Carey was dancing, Kerry would come out as well. They're still my favorite characters, both together and separately. 

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6 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Have we ever figured out if Melanie is a mutant,

I recall early in season one that she was mind-reading with David, trying to get him to realize he is a telepath too.

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(edited)
On 4/4/2018 at 6:20 AM, Frost said:

I don't follow the comics.  David's father is Prof X so that's one reason why he's super powerful.  Do we know who his mother is?  Is she also a mutant?

I didn't understand why the Daiquri tank was necessary.  Isn't David powerful enough to sense the Shadow King without it?  Didn't he have to wear a helmet last season to help damp down his powers?

In the comics, David's mother isn't a mutant. They haven't said anything about his birth mother in this series yet that I can recall.

When talking to Admiral Fukiyama, David notes that he normally can track the Shadow King, but that he is hiding from David. That's when he requests a "boost" so that he can once again track him.

Psychic Dance Off was amazing. I love this show.

Edited by Cthulhudrew
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Melanie also spoke to David telepathically early on and showed some control and uses of psychic power in the Shadow King's asylum mindscape last year, didn't she? I gather she's also a telepath, though of far more limited scope than the two big guns.

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I thought the black creature from the egg symbolized a delusion that would grow amongst the people it “infects” — and we saw it under Syd and David. If there were hints at what the delusion would be, I thought for Syd it was the idea that David abandoned her and will do so again, and for David it might be not trusting anyone in the present and working against them because of the message from future Syd. 

 

ETA:  So Farouk/Lenny and Oliver are also prisoners?  Of the same person/group/entity that kidnapped David?  Maybe finding Farouk’s body will help them all escape?

Edited by McKinley
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Ah... trippy as always Legion, never change. Well, don't go TOO trippy. All I can think of to say that hasn't been said already is, does anyone honestly think that the Shadow King isn't going to get his original body back and become "unstoppable"? I don't think there's a chance in hell he won't.

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On 4/10/2018 at 10:19 PM, immortalfrieza said:

Ah... trippy as always Legion, never change. Well, don't go TOO trippy. All I can think of to say that hasn't been said already is, does anyone honestly think that the Shadow King isn't going to get his original body back and become "unstoppable"? I don't think there's a chance in hell he won't.

Agreed. The only upside is that, if they manage to reunite his disparate selves, then perhaps whenever they gather whatever power needed to stop him, this time they won't commit Xavier's error and allow Farouk's mind to separate from his body and keep the two together when they finally put the stake to him.

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Anyone else think David might be the Big Bad? All the scenes Jon Hamm narrates (the delusion, the maze, red/green color association) are basically telling us not to trust him. Also- future Syd's interactions with him make it seem like she can't even trust him. Either way, love this show. Can't wait for ep 3!

Edited by ellagrant
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On 4/6/2018 at 8:43 PM, kieyra said:

Dear The OA;

I'm no expert but I think that's how you're supposed to utilize interpretive dance.

^Liking this 100 times.

I flove this show.   Half the time I'm not sure what's happening, but it feels so good to watch it. 

Edited by millennium
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