Chapter 20 (Legion)

"Chapter 20" is the first episode of the third season of the American cable television series Legion, based on the Marvel Comics character David Haller, and connected to the X-Men film series. It is the 20th overall episode of the series and was written by series creator Noah Hawley and co-executive producer Nathaniel Halpern and directed by Andrew Stanton. It originally aired on FX on June 24, 2019.

"Chapter 20"
Legion episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 1
Directed by	Andrew Stanton
Written by	Noah Hawley Nathaniel Halpern
Featured music	Jeff Russo
Cinematography by	Dana Gonzales
Editing by	Curtis Thurber
Production code	XLN03001
Original air date	June 24, 2019 (2019-06-24)
Running time	50 minutes
Guest appearance
Vanessa Dubasso as Salmon

The series follows David Haller, a "mutant" diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. Struggling to differentiate reality from fantasy, Haller tries to control his mutant powers and the sinister forces trying to control them while evading a government agency, Division 3. Summerland and Division 3 eventually team up in order to catch Amahl Farouk from finding his original body. While Farouk was captured, David is now labeled as a threat and hunted down, prompting him to escape. In the episode, a young girl with the power of time travel joins a cult led by David and Lenny.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.377 million household viewers and gained a 0.1 ratings share among adults aged 18–49. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the narrative, character development, performances and pacing.

Plot

A young girl named Jia-yi (Lauren Tsai) lives a sophisticated life, all while listening to Mandarin lessons on time travel in her headphones. Throughout the day, she finds symbols that refer to time travel and "beware the basket". While investigating the symbols, she catches a radio signal from Lenny (Aubrey Plaza), inviting "them" to join them. She also hears the voice of David (Dan Stevens) telling her to "follow the yellow bus".

As she walks in the street, she finds a red double-decker bus with yellow lights inside. She follows the bus, which leads her to a door in an alley. Inside the door, after passing a maze of clothing, eventually passes through a secret passageway and enters a hippie community. Her guide, Salmon (Vanessa Dubasso), shows her the place, which turns out to be a cult that uses psychedelic drugs. One of the members, Squirrel (Wally Rudolph), tells Jia-yi that her name will now be referred to as Switch. She is then led to a room where the leader will come to visit her. Unwilling to wait, she reveals her mutant powers by accelerating time. Lenny enters the room to invite her, although she wants to talk with David.

Switch visits David, who has accepted his powers and is now more relaxed in nature. David was interested in finding a time traveler, planning to save his friends. Suddenly, Division 3 agents raid the compound, killing some of its members. Kerry (Amber Midthunder) arrives and chops off David's right arm, prompting David to evaporate her and some of the agents. Syd (Rachel Keller) arrives and kills David by shooting him in the chest. In her shock, Switch escapes through a doorway, reversing time by one hour. Despite Switch's pleas, David stubbornly stays in the cult and fends off some of the agents, only to be distracted by the presence of Farouk (Navid Negahban) and getting killed by Syd again.

Switch once again reverses time, now by two hours. However, she finds herself in the astral plane with Farouk, who is aware of her powers. He tells her about David's dangerous nature and offers her a chance to join them in catching him. Switch refuses and escapes through another doorway. Farouk then heads back to the Division 3 headquarters, which are now set in an aircraft. He informs Clark (Hamish Linklater) about David working with a time traveler, concluding that they must kill her too. During this, Cary (Bill Irwin) creates an android version of Ptonomy (Jeremie Harris), consisting of the mainframe.

As Division 3 prepares for the raid, Farouk informs Syd. Farouk tries to persuade her to not participate in the raid, but she refuses. Division 3 arrives at the compound, ready for another operation. However, a blast from the compound ruins the mission. As the team stares, they find that the compound has been teleported.

Production

Development

In May 2019, it was reported that the first episode of the season would be titled "Chapter 20", and was to be directed by Andrew Stanton and written by series creator Noah Hawley and co-executive producer Nathaniel Halpern. This was Hawley's fifteenth writing credit, Halpern's eleventh writing credit, and Stanton's first directing credit.

Casting

In January 2019, it was announced that Lauren Tsai would join the series in the role of Switch, described as "a young mutant whose secret ability serves as the key to executing David Haller's plan."

Reception

Viewers

In its original American broadcast, "Chapter 20" was seen by an estimated 0.377 million household viewers and gained a 0.1 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This means that 0.1 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode. This was a 19% increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 0.315 million viewers with a 0.2 in the 18-49 demographics.

Critical reviews

"Chapter 20" received mostly positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.5/10 for the episode, based on 7 reviews.

Alicia Lutes of IGN gave the episode a "good" 7.3 out of 10 and wrote in her verdict, "Legion's third season premiere is as quirky and whimsical as you want it to be. Lauren Tsai, the latest addition to the cast, is fantastic in her first-ever acting role, and Rachel Keller and Aubrey Plaza still feel like the beating heart of the show. The acting continues to delight in its weird and wonderful nature (Navid Negahban needs to be a movie star). But as the series continues its inevitable roll towards villainy (with a chance of redemption) for David, the path towards a resolution feels hollow, often thanks to Hawley's overreliance on music to do the emotional heavy-lifting for him. What we're left with is something that feels more derivative — and less special — than the Legion we previously knew and loved. But hey, maybe they'll go back and do it all over again in the final two minutes, and we'll change our mind about everything we just watched."

Alex McLevy of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B+" grade and wrote, "The smartest move that this first episode makes is to transfer the audience into the perspective of a brand-new character, essentially using Switch's mutant power to rescue the story, the series, and the characters from the dour fate it created."

Nick Harley of Den of Geek gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Though Legion's whacky ways could be grating last year, the Season 3 premiere successfully splits the difference between psychedelic eye-candy and intriguing story developments. The episode is table-setting of the highest order, and it looks like the main course will be just as unconventional as we've come to expect." Kevin Lever of Tell Tale TV wrote, "Coupled with Switch and a strong visual command, the show is confident heading towards its end, Noah Hawley & Nathaniel Halpern's clever writing setting a stage of completely open possibilities."

Accolades

TVLine named Dan Stevens as an honorable mention for the "Performer of the Week" for the week of June 29, 2019, for his performance in the episode. The site wrote, "Legion's final season finds telekinetic mutant David Haller as the leader of a far-out hippie commune, and Dan Stevens was hilariously blissed out in this week's premiere as he welcomed time traveler Switch into his flock. Clad in flowing scarves and beaming with quiet serenity, this New Age-y David was a far cry from the frantic, tortured David we're used to seeing, and Stevens' laid-back delivery added a nice comedic punch, like when he calmly told Switch he tried trusting people, but 'it's better to read people's minds.' Stevens also showed off his action chops, storming through a couple of high-intensity fight scenes that set up the major battle ahead — but honestly, we'd be happy just sipping tea and listening to the Zen wisdom of the Magic Man."

External links

• "Chapter 20" at IMDb