S02.E06: Chapter 14

[Bort]

Quote

Madness visits Division Three.

[AimingforYoko]

So this is how the most powerful psychic in the world mourns his sister.

[AnimeMania]

Was this a filler episode or did I miss something?

[FiveByFive]

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Was this a filler episode or did I miss something?

It was sort of filler; besides getting to see how much Amy means to him.

In between seeing all of the various possible lives that David lived in other "dimensions" (present and future) they did show us his backstory before episode one in this dimension. 

They also reminded us a couple of times that David has the power to do anything he wants: I'd speculate this also includes fixing Amy and maybe even giving Lenny her own body.

I think a good takeaway is by Farouk going for Amy directly and by using Lenny (who he considers some sort of a friend) -- he has really hurt him since we got Lenny's backstory last episode and now we've gotten Amy's.

[Frost]

Going after Amy seems like an odd choice for Farouk.  He's either so arrogant he doesn't consider David a threat, or he somehow seriously underestimated David's attachment to Amy.   All I know is I feel incredibly depressed that no matter what alternate dimension we were shown, David is a lost soul who doesn't really belong.   And then I get angry that Prof X cares so much about all the mutants that he created his school to protect and support and train them, and yet apparently abandoned his own son to a world of confusion and hurt and uncertainty.  It was a gripping hour of television for me but an unhappy one.

[justmehere]

6 hours ago, Frost said:

All I know is I feel incredibly depressed that no matter what alternate dimension we were shown, David is a lost soul who doesn't really belong.

It was a gripping hour of television for me but an unhappy one.

That was my reaction too. I felt so sad, watching all the different streams. There was one happy one at least: the suburban life with the wife and kids. I'm curious about that anomaly where he didn't seem to have any powers.

I'd add that Amy's life was unhappily tied to David's in almost every one as well, responsible for him many times or, eventually, dependent on him in his billionaire stream, rarely able to live her own life. Lenny/Amy comforting David when he couldn't escape the room at the end continues the trend, perhaps. I don't see Lenny (as we knew her from Clockworks) being nurturing like that. Which would seem to indicate Amy's consciousness either co-existing or blended with Lenny's. I'm inclined to think it's the latter.

 

6 hours ago, Frost said:

Prof X cares so much about all the mutants that he created his school to protect and support and train them, and yet apparently abandoned his own son to a world of confusion and hurt and uncertainty

Any comic followers know the story here? (Maybe in spoiler tags.) I remember the episode where Prof. X thought he was protecting David from Farouk by giving him to his adoptive family, but he does seem to have abandoned him.

[kieyra]

This episode was an interesting collection of bad hairpieces. Werewolf David was amusing, though.

Hmm, I guess this episode has made me realize that I'm mostly in this for Aubrey Plaza. I missed her. 

Edited May 9, 2018 by kieyra

[Cosmosgravitation]

5 hours ago, justmehere said:

Any comic followers know the story here? (Maybe in spoiler tags.) I remember the episode where Prof. X thought he was protecting David from Farouk by giving him to his adoptive family, but he does seem to have abandoned him.

It seems to be completely different in the show, so I won't bother putting it in spoilers, but in the comics Xavier didn't know about David until David was in his late teens.  David's mother never told him she was pregnant.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Cosmosgravitation
typo

[AKA...CJ86]

I thought it was overall a touching sendoff to Amy, while showcasing that no matter what, no matter what timeline/branch, whatever you'd like to call it, David's always going to get the short end of the stick.

I did the love hair for suburban, happy family man David, though when he was waking up.

[KaleyFirefly]

15 hours ago, Frost said:

Going after Amy seems like an odd choice for Farouk.  He's either so arrogant he doesn't consider David a threat, or he somehow seriously underestimated David's attachment to Amy.   All I know is I feel incredibly depressed that no matter what alternate dimension we were shown, David is a lost soul who doesn't really belong.   And then I get angry that Prof X cares so much about all the mutants that he created his school to protect and support and train them, and yet apparently abandoned his own son to a world of confusion and hurt and uncertainty.  It was a gripping hour of television for me but an unhappy one.

I thought in the comics, Prof. X didn't know for a long time that he had a son?

It was a kind of depressing episode. In only one of the timelines, David was happy (the one where he was married with kids). That timeline where Kerry cut him in half was harsh. I liked the subtle social commentary about the problems faced by homeless people and the mentally ill.

It was very interesting seeing that thermonuclear power of David's -- isn't that a power we have have never seen before?

Edited May 10, 2018 by KaleyFirefly

[nikita]

8 hours ago, CyberJawa1986 said:

I thought it was overall a touching sendoff to Amy, while showcasing that no matter what, no matter what timeline/branch, whatever you'd like to call it, David's always going to get the short end of the stick.

I actually think Amy always got the shortest end of the stick. I think she's very noble for taking care of David, but gotdamn, even in the timeline when he was self-sufficient (billionaire), he tortured her rather than mirroring or reciprocating their relationship in the other timelines. Funny that the "happiest" one is the most mundane (married/kids/suburbs) yet in that one Amy is nowhere to be found. Same with one of the more depressing ones, the meth/diner/fry branches.

This ep made the previous one even more painful in that we see in so many iterations, Amy still sacrifices to care for her brother.

[thuganomics85]

Ah, branching timelines!  A classic staple of the genre.  Sucks that most every one of them ends badly for David.  Only the one with him living a suburban life with a wife and kids seemed to turn out alright, and I noticed that Amy wasn't anywhere in sight for that one.  Also, the evil billionaire was actually suppose to be him still under the Shadow King's thrall since we saw a brief shot of Farouk in the mirror, right?

Those shots of an older, bald David in a wheelchair certainly made me think of a certain "other" telepathic mutant in this universe, to say the least.

The majority of the supporting cast got to take it easy in this one, although interesting seeing the Kerry cameo where she actually kills homeless David.

[Bruinsfan]

21 hours ago, kieyra said:

This episode was an interesting collection of bad hairpieces. Werewolf David was amusing, though.

 

It gave me flashbacks to "Jeremiah Crichton," driving home to me that Dan Stevens is basically the Skinny Steve to Ben Browder's Captain America.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Bruinsfan

[Terrafamilia]

One David is admitted to Clockworks. Another David is assaulted by droogs. I see what you did there, Hawley.

A mouse who sings a Bryan Ferry song. As hallucinations go that one is pretty cool.

You would think a bajillionaire could afford a better haircut.

[Cthulhudrew]

I liked the homage to A Clockwork Orange. Very interesting episode, certainly kept me intrigued enough to wonder where it was all going, although I'm left feeling as if it didn't really advance the plot by the end of things. Perhaps it will come more into focus as we progress through the season.

I will say, if this was just a filler episode (which doesn't really seem to be Noah Hawley's style), it is one of the more unique approaches to a filler that I've ever seen. And the recap montage of seasons one and two at the end was pretty well done.

ETA: With the alternate timeline Davids we see here, I started to wonder if they were going to bring in the MPD of comic David Haller somehow, and use this as the explanation for it. Like maybe Farouk's assault on Amy last episode caused David's mind to fracture and contact all his parallel personas, truly making him a "Legion."

Edited May 11, 2018 by Cthulhudrew

[immortalfrieza]

On 5/9/2018 at 7:54 AM, Frost said:

 All I know is I feel incredibly depressed that no matter what alternate dimension we were shown, David is a lost soul who doesn't really belong.

Farouk seems to be the source of all of David's demons in each timeline, with the David that has a job moving boxes and billionaire Farouk the only ones where it's made explicit. David doesn't belong anywhere because Farouk is constantly screwing with his head and his life for shits and giggles. I'd say the one where he has a family and is normal and happy would probably be the only one where either Farouk never existed or never possessed David, because I can't imagine Farouk either settling down with a family of his own once having taken over David or not screwing that up for David if he was there. I've also noticed that with the possible but not certain exception of billionaire David aside, Farouk never succeeds in truly taking over David's body in any of these timelines shown so he ultimately never really wins.

On 5/11/2018 at 2:49 AM, Cthulhudrew said:

ETA: With the alternate timeline Davids we see here, I started to wonder if they were going to bring in the MPD of comic David Haller somehow, and use this as the explanation for it. Like maybe Farouk's assault on Amy last episode caused David's mind to fracture and contact all his parallel personas, truly making him a "Legion."

I don't think they're going to make use of the comics David's MPD, but I would not be surprised if at the end of everything we find out that everything and everybody we see, David, Farouk, Clockworks, Division Three, etc. is just happening in David's head and every character are each one of the personalities in David's mind.

[Rap541]

Honestly, I'm not "out" but this show really needs to pick up the pace and really needs to give me a reason to watch beyond Dan Stevens looking pretty (which we didn't even get this week, I might add)

I'm not asking for much, just a faintly coherent plot and a reason to give a shit about these characters. David's endless sadness coupled with Amy's destruction just seems to never resolve. If I wanted to be depressed I could just watch the season three  Christmas episode of Downton Abbey.

[superloislane]

This episode was fantastic but it was also infuriating because it kind of did nothing.

The episode had a lot of Amy and David's relationship which makes sense after what happened in the last one and I thought they were showing how important she was in every one of his lives but there were some streams that didn't involve Amy at all so now I don't know what they were getting at. Was it that David's choices always affected Amy's life in some way and in all of them, Amy's life was kind of terrible because of him or she was hurt in some way? 

I thought it was really funny that David's headstone didn't have any dates on it because the show doesn't want to say what year the show is taking place in.

But hey there was a mouse singing a song!

[AAEBoiler]

On 5/11/2018 at 3:49 AM, Cthulhudrew said:

I liked the homage to A Clockwork Orange.

The closed-captioning even referred to them as Droog 1 and Droog 2.