Before you watch the first episode of “Legion” Season 2 on Tuesday, let’s refresh our memories and try to determine what’s real and what’s being fed to us by a parasite that attached itself to our brains when we were an infant.
Wait. That’s David Haller’s story.
The finale of “Legion” Season 1 — FX’s trippy X-Men show from Noah Hawley — saw our protagonist David Haller (Dan Stevens) getting captured, and the Shadow King attaching himself to Oliver (Jemaine Clement), then driving off into the distance with Lenny (Aubrey Plaza).
Let’s back up. And if you haven’t watched “Legion” Season 1, don’t read further and go binge the eight episodes. If that sounds like too much work, read on and just start watching Season 2 (we recommend you watch, though).
Most of Season 1 is learning about the characters, and trying to determine whether or not David has schizophrenia or super powers, as he’s been admitted to Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital. It’s here where he meets Syd, who you’ll hear more about later.
As the season progresses, we learn that David is, in fact, a mutant. Not just any mutant, though: He’s the bastard son of none other than Charles Xavier, aka Professor X. That hasn’t been explicitly said in the series so far, but the explanation for how David’s dad knows Amahl Farouk is pretty dang similar to the Marvel comics’ history between Professor X and Farouk.
Oh, who is Amahl Farouk, you ask? He’s also known as the Shadow King, and he attached himself to David after losing his body in a telepathic battle with Professor X. He has tormented David his whole life, first taking the form of a dog name King in David’s mind, then as “The World’s Angriest Boy,” and finally as a seriously gross monster.
We’re also introduced to what will be David’s crew, starting with Sydney Barrett (Rachel Keller), who also serves as our telepath’s love interest. She’s also a mutant; her power causes her to switch bodies with any life form she touches with her skin (which David learns the hard way).
There’s also Ptonomy Wallace (Jeremie Harris), who can see into others’ memories; and Cary and Kerry Loudermilk (Bill Irwin), who share a body and each can sense what the other is experiencing.
There’s one more important character: Lenny (Aubrey Plaza), a friend of David’s who was with him at the psychiatric hospital and ends up getting killed when Syd and David accidentally switch bodies. She turns into the Shadow King’s tool.
We’re introduced to a couple organizations, too, including Division Three, a tactical arm of the United States government known for taking out mutant threats. Clark, also known as The Interrogator (Hamish Linklater), starts as a villainous character from Division Three out to get David, but ends up aligning himself with David and his friends later on in the season.
The other group provides safety for mutants in a location called Summerland, founded by Oliver and Melanie Bird (Jean Smart) and Cary Loudermilk (Bill Irwin).
In the finale, Cary comes up with a plan to separate David’s brain waves from Farouk’s, but it starts to go south (like, David starts bleeding out south). Syd steps in by kissing David — to extract Farouk into her body? — and sets off a chain of Farouk going from body to body until he lands in Oliver’s. The finale ends with Oliver and Lenny driving off into the sunset to cause who knows what chaos.
But as with all good Marvel properties, the story isn’t over until after the final credit rolls.
David gets trapped into some kind of orb that takes him away from Summerland and his pals. So the biggest question going into season two is: Where is David?
“Legion” Season 2 premieres Tuesday April 3 on FX at 10 p.m.