Chapter 16

**"Chapter 16"** is the eighth episode of the second season of *Legion*, and the sixteenth episode overall.

## Plot

The episode opens with Syd and David pondering how they are going to find Farouk's body without the Monk, the only one privy to the location of Farouk's buried body. Syd suggests that David could ask future Syd. David, still not on the same page of Future Syd, because she does indeed want him to help Farouk (to prevent the end of the world). David is still resistant and angry at Farouk for killing his sister.

Meanwhile Ptonomy Wallace, who's body was 'killed,' finds his mind is being contacted by Admiral Fukyama. Fukyama gives him a vision and memory of how he came to be. Apparently while in a school, he was contacted by an agent who warned him of a new breed of humans who were telepathic and could steal secrets and cause havoc among politicians, which would lead to political upheaval and world terror. He tells Fukyama that there needs to be a "secret keeper". Someone who would keep an eye on those with powers. He agrees to 'help' and we're shown montages of heavy duty neuro brain surgery and experimentation done to the 17 year old Fukyama.

Meanwhile Ptonomy devises a scheme to mentally hijack one of the Vermillion to contact David. He tells David that while his body is dead, his mind is alive and preserved, and that he has run into the memory of the Monk. Ptonomy is able to convey to David, with some effort, that Farouk's body is in a place called "Le Désolé."

Farouk, using the transport of Oliver's body, is on the hunt for his own body as well. He visits his old caretaker/servant. She is in a retirement/seniors home, but seems to have some sort of clairvoyance, as she can see the true Farouk, and not the image of Oliver's body. Farouk asks her where she took his body. She agrees to show him, if he allows her to experience the "endless dream", which for her is being allowed to be a driver like she used to. She's referring to dying in the retirement home, and being able to experience a free mind. She references "The Professor" (later revealed to be Professor Charles Xavier, David's father) who Farouk tells her, is not here.

David, using the float tank machine, surmises where Le Desole is, and scrambles to put together a plan to get there, deciding he cannot tell it to the other lest Farouk read their minds. He visits Lenny, still in prison in Division 3. David notices that she's fiddling with her hair in the same way Amy used to do. Attempting to comfort her and confirming that she is indeed free of Farouk, he kisses her forehead and transmits images that represent her parts in his plan (including Le Desole , a car, and Lenny aiming a sniper rifle in the desert before teleporting into the hallway, confusing her. Immediately afterward, as he's leaving her cell, Carey and Clark who are both innocently walking down the hall, he immediately transmits similar images to them (which include a strange box and a giant tuning fork) before once again vanishing, leaving them humorously perplexed.

Meanwhile, late on Syd and Clark have dinner and Syd reveals to Clark that David left to do “kill the monster." Clark tries to help Syd with her changing feelings about her relationship with David. He reminds her that David is an extremely powerful mutant who could destroy the world if left unchecked (or even simply if Syd hurts his feelings). This seems to solidify Syd's feelings, and she declares she's going after him to help him.

David springs his plan to get to Farouk's body into action by remotely releasing Lenny from the cell at division 3. She grabs a motorcycle and rides away. Farouk (using Oliver's body) remarks that David is about a "day" behind them in reference to how close they are to Farouk's body. Farouk reveals that time and space are relative in Le Désolé, causing the desert to rearrange like a labyrinth and confusing David as he tries to reach the monastery.

Syd parachutes into Le Désolé and gives David an earful about him just running off. To be fair he left a note, but she's not having that nonsense. An interlude with The Narrator tells a version of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, comparing the shadows that make up the cave-dwellers' reality to the power of social media to narcissistically reduce other people into 'shadows.'

As night falls and lightning strikes, David and Syd continue wandering Le Désolés surrounded by darkness and lightning, until they stumble upon a campsite. Inside the tent, they discover two embracing skeletons, one wearing the necklace David gave to Syd. Syd tells David that she really hopes that he has a good plan to stop Farouk.

At Division 3, Clark awakens from a vision showing a flash of Le Désolé and hears the psychic command that David implanted to help him find “the clock of the long now”. As Clark sets off down the hall to help David, Melanie leaps out of a corridor and knocks him out. It is revealed that she is under the control of Oliver (Farouk). Meanwhile, Farouk mentally calls out to a minotaur lurching in a maze located in the compound his body is being kept.

## Cast and characters

### Main Cast

* Dan Stevens as David Haller
* Rachel Keller as Sydney Barrett
* Aubrey Plaza as Lenny Busker
* Bill Irwin as Cary Loudermilk
* Navid Negahban as Amahl Farouk
* Jemaine Clement as Oliver Bird
* Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy Wallace
* Amber Midthunder as Kerry Loudermilk
* Hamish Linklater as Clark Debussy
* Jean Smart as Melanie Bird

### Co-Starring

* Jelly Howie as Vermillion #1
* Brittney Parker Rose as Vermillion #2
* Lexa Gluck as Vermillion #3
* Marc Oka as Admiral Fukyama
* Nathan Hurd as Monk
* Jon Hamm as Narrator
* Sloan Robinson as Hush Woman
* Ian Teves as Young Fukyama
* Noah Baron as Young Walter
* Sean Heyman as Doctor
* Lavelle Roby as The Driver
* Hollie Stenson as Older Woman

## Trivia

* Oliver's "poem" is the opening lines of Alan Ginsberg's "America," which begins: America I've given you all and now I'm nothing. America two dollars and twenty seven cents January 17, 1956. I can't stand my own mind. America when will we end the human war?
* The cave parable is a variation of one of Plato's Republic and is known as the Allegory of the Cave.

## References

1. ↑ Legion - Episode 2.08 - Chapter 16 - Promo, Promotional Photos + Press Release
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