Before WandaVision, there was this. With Mind Screw and Psychological Horror, Legion is a TV-MA horror series by Marvel.
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Season 1
Season 1
Chapter 1
- The entirety of David's existence in Clockworks, due to the reality that he's not really insane.
- The way the Shadow King lingers in the background as David attempts to hang himself. A scary and creative representation of how personal demons and mental issues can drive even a sane person to sad and drastic measures.
- There are some sudden and startling flashes of soon-to-be recognizable images throughout this episode, such as The World's Angriest Boy in the World and the unnerving image of David stuffing cassette film in his mouth.
- The bed levitating scene looks straight out of The Exorcist. Imagine being woken up to that without any clue why it's happening.
- The creepy red backlighting seen throughout the episode, and the show at large, that typifies danger or villainy.
- The kitchen scene, from Philly's point-of-view. Her unstable and angry boyfriend can now destroy entire rooms with a thought.
- The body switch. Syd!David is terrified out of their mind and the result is reality-altering.
- The creature that David sees throughout the pilot looks like a messed-up combination of a blob and a gremlin. It doesn't help that many of the times it is shown it is usually right up in the viewer's face or standing somewhere in the background just watching.
- Lenny fused to a wall.
Chapter 2
- The creature appears a few more times as they are trawling through David's memories. But the worst instance is when it appears while David is inside an MRT device, unable to move. It just leans over and peeks inside...
- Related, the subtle wrongness of David's memories, which the others point out. Many scenes have a strong sense that David is refusing to think about something that terrifies him.
- The book David's father read to him as a child, about a boy brutally slaughtering his family. Not helped by the fact that David's father's face is hidden in shadow.Ptonomy: Did your parents really read that book to you before bed? Because that's pretty messed up.
- When David is talking to his therapist in a flashback, there's a moment where David starts hearing voices from a closet that is slightly open. The way the tension is slowly built on just what the hell is behind the closet can make one squirm uncomfortably through the whole scene.
- Ptonomy calmly relating to David that he can remember the womb and his birth.
Chapter 3
- The return of the bloated-Babadook looking thing from David's memories. Not, as it turns out, actually a part of his memories but a part of his mind. Melanie and Ptonomy can't see it sneaking in at the edges of the kitchen memories, which is bad. But it's worse when Syd is brought in on the next session and she can see it. She's freaking out as dozens of hands are ripping into the room through glowing red cracks, and Melanie and Ptonomy still can't see anything.
- The implied use of leech torture on David's sister, followed by the man from the Division berating her for letting David loose in the world, even though she still doesn't understand what's happening.
- And the terrifying way The Eye says: "Shall we begin?" With an eager smile on his face.
- Also Fridge but Amy's husband Ben must be terrified that his wife has not come home in days.
- Right before the end of the episode, all but Melanie escape from David's mind. She finds his charming little bedtime story and slowly reads, page by page. When she gets to the end, the book slams so hard it breaks her hand, and the cause of this is The Devil With Yellow Eyes, materializing behind her.
- The World's Angriest Boy In The World is ultimately just a guy with a really big head. Yet despite a design that on the surface should just be rather goofy, the way he appears in David's mind may manage to make him even more threatening and disturbing that the Devil With Yellow Eyes.
- The shimmer effect on Ptonomy as he's blocked by a certain memory is really unnerving. It seems like he might one day wink out of existence if he's not careful.
- Very uncomfortable with the concept of sexual activity during the body-switching. Like, if Syd really did, ahem, explore David's body, does consent need to be given? Is she assaulting/raping him? Brrr.
- We get a scarier rendition of David's father reading "The World's Angriest Boy" to him, with some clear demonic undertones to his voice.
- Lenny outright insinuating that Amy is being raped while imprisoned by Division III. Aubrey Plaza's delivery makes it actually pretty funny, if that's possible. Then, we get a terrified Katie Aselton pleading for her life. The entire thing is darkly funny and very terrifying.
- Syd encounters her own personal nightmare when the Shadow King shows her the memory of David getting it on with Philly. Freezes her in her tracks, and hits on just about every one of her anxieties at the moment.
Chapter 4
- Just how many people from David's life are working for the government?
- The horrifying image of David shoving tape in his mouth shows up again.
- At one point, Syd asks aloud if what she and Ptonomy are experiencing is the "real" world, or if David is inadvertently affecting their perception of reality. Her boyfriend is so powerful he can alter reality without even realizing it.
- The reveal that David never actually had a dog. The childhood pet, King, was really the Shadow King, who has been with David since he was a very small child.
- What in the world happened to Oliver Bird to where he's barely clinging to life inside a diving suit? He got too lost in the Astral Plane. Imagine discovering a place where you can have god-like powers, but can get so lost that you forget what's real, including your loved ones.
- This episode cements The Eye as a terrific and formidable villain. He can appear as anyone for any amount of time (and, as we see an example of later, likely murders the original before assuming their form). He wades through a hail of bullets like the damn Terminator, and one-shots a capable mutant such as Ptonomy. If not for Syd's quick thinking and bravery, the entire team likely would have been swiftly defeated.
Chapter 5
- Syd recounting how she lost her virginity. She swapped bods with her mom, and then seduced her hot young boy-toy. If you recall, when Syd swaps bodies with someone else, the body returns to where the mind is, not the other way around. Syd recounts that, back in the day, the swaps didn't last as long. So, mid-coitus, boy-toy suddenly discovers he's inside of a teenager. Right as he climaxes. Cue the Brain Bleach.
- The giant brain tumor parasite loose with all David's powers.
- We see the aftermath of its rampage through Division 3, then we get a video of it. David is shown popping people like bubbles, much faster and with less apparent effort than Jean Grey ever did.
- Shortly after the team leaves the wrecked base, Syd has a brief, psychic trip to the white room. David is there but instead of greeting her or talking to her, he sits on the bed and plays "Rainbow Connection". As he sings, his voice wavers and cracks, and it becomes clear he is terrified to an extent that he can't even vocalize it. On top of this, the song's normally cheery lyrics about harmless daydreams take on some truly dark overtones.
- Also in the Astral Plane, the Devil with the Yellow Eyes chases Syd around the pristine bedroom setting, before eventually cornering her on the bed. Fortunately nothing happens, but it straight up looks like Syd is going to be raped.
- The entire scene at the Haller house.
- The Devil with the Yellow Eyes removes all the sound from the house. Our heroes can hear absolutely nothing.
- Upstairs, Amy is held captive by Lenny, who reveals her true identity as the Shadow King by proudly showing off all the aliases he used over the years.
- The Shadow King manipulates Syd's voice to where she can only produce a horrifying mechanical squawk, and practically sexually assaults David in order to torment her.
- The jaw-dropping cliffhanger, which shows all of our heroes, plus the Eye, as patients in Clockworks, ruled over by Dr. Lenny the Shadow King.
Chapter 6
- Syd finding a tumor-esque lump in the wall. It bleeds.
- The Eye stalking Kerry, presumably with the intention to rape or murder her.
- Nurse!Amy telling David that she and his family secretly hate him while gagging in disgust is every anxious person's worst nightmare.
- The Devil with Yellow Eyes in general as it's at the height of its power in David's mind.
- His Motive Rant towards the end of the episode where it compares itself to a parasitic fungus that controls its host's mind before killing it completely.
- We certainly got a visual image of that fungus completely shredding an ant's head. Thanks for that.
- After concluding that it only needs David's body and not his mind, the Devil drops the illusion and traps David in a glass coffin in the middle of a vast emptiness.
- Also consider that David thinks the illusion is real. So, to him, his therapist went insane and started abusing him before ranting incoherently and imprisoning him in a coffin. Yikes.
- His Motive Rant towards the end of the episode where it compares itself to a parasitic fungus that controls its host's mind before killing it completely.
Chapter 7
- The Eye's relentless pursuit of Kerry, framed in that hellish red light.
- The illusion within the illusion of Clockworks, as it appears that all the patients have broken out and are running amok while screaming nonsense at our heroes.
- David being trapped in a PT-like scenario where he constantly re-enters the same rooms and hallway repeatedly. He seems more annoyed by it than anything, but the prospect is terrifying.
- David's contorted facial expressions as he wills his way out of his mental prison. Evokes the terror of Legion from the comics.
- The Eye's death is horrifically brutal, as the Shadow King literally crumples him up like a piece of paper.
- What happens to his body is likewise horrific, but in a way the opposite: while the illusory form is crushed yet bloodless, the body has blood pouring out, yet there are no visible wounds.
- The Lenny incarnation of the Shadow King crawls towards Syd and Kerry in an incredibly creepy way when she menaces them in the fake asylum world.
Chapter 8
- The Shadow King tempting Syd to save David by becoming its new host.
- Though it's not in David any more, the Shadow King is still on the loose and we don't know what it's going to do and it's taken Oliver for a host.
- To add insult to injury to this Downer Ending, David is trapped inside some orb; inside there is nothing but a white void and David is screaming as he is being taken away.
Season 2
Season 2
Chapter 9
- The monologue about the maze, as narrated by Jon Hamm in the first few minutes of the episode. A few elements stand out as being particularly spine-chilling:
- The end itself: "There is no desert. No rock, or sand. There is only the idea of it. But it is an idea that will come to dominate your every waking and sleeping moment. You are inside the maze now. You cannot escape. Welcome to madness."
- All throughout this dialogue, in the background this strange, rapid clicking noise begins to grow louder and louder. The sound by itself is tense and unnerving, but then it becomes ten times creepier once you learn what the source of it is. Hundreds of human teeth chattering relentlessly.
- The fact that someone can now infect a virus into the minds of others wherever they go. It is absolutely horrific the state they're left in: standing frozen, unblinking, presumably unable to speak or do anything else because they're too busy clattering their teeth together.
- The entire episode has a Twin Peaks-esque vibe that projects both cool and sheer terror.
- Look closely as Ptonomy and Clark roll up on David in the club. Those look like clothes on the ground around him. And what's that ashy-looking subs- oh.
- Again, if you look closely, it appears that David was shocked to the point of screaming in pain while trapped in the sphere. Not to mention his claustrophobia.
- Sydney swapping bodies with a cat. Even if she knew the cat was down with it, that's... very disconcerting.
- The little documentary-esque clip describing how an idea can grow into a full blown psychosis, especially that gooey baby chick monstrosity that ends up eating the normal baby chick.
- Shout-out to the section involving Albert A, who removes his leg with a handsaw because he becomes convinced it isn't his.
- Plus, the later appearance of said Satan-bird in the Astral Plane, just creeping around a sleeping David and Syd.
- Everything about Admiral Fukuyama and his creepy, robotic assistants, the Vermillion. A silent old man with a basket on his head, attended by emotionless Girls with Moustaches who speak in sing-songy auto-tuned voices: on paper, it sounds ridiculous, but in context, it's inexplicably terrifying.
- Admiral Fukyama's poetically worded attempt at giving his origin story, a bit too emotionless and nonsensical to be a tear jerker but the language he uses is really visceral and violent (all delivered in a tranquil Voice of the Legion monotone) and you get the vague implication that his brain was painfully experimented on.
- That final sequence in the club is bloodcurdling. The way the rotating camera shows David's confusion and discomfort. The terrifying drone-like cover of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", an already scary song, reportedly by Noah Hawley himself. The creepy strings woven into the background of the track. Lenny dropping a "hey sexy", reminding us of the terror inflicted on David's life last season before dropping a kiss on him. The hellish red light strobing and illuminating the raving throng in the background. The creepy robed figure wandering around the dance floor. A sinister-looking Oliver Bird, dressed in black. Plus, the final image of David staring creepily at Syd in the real world, Paranormal Activity style. Insanely creepy. It’s like they hired David Lynch himself to direct it.
Chapter 10
- We don't see much past a quick flashback, but something about seeing that music box again spooked Syd very badly.
- Oliver and the Shadow King together can wreak havoc with the laws of physics. And they sing and dance while they do it.
- Farouk!Oliver rapidly growing in size is a nice callback to that horrifying Jefferson Airplane cover from last episode
- That shot of Lenny's yellow eyes glowing in the corner of a dark room looks straight out of a horror movie. Fitting, since Ana Lily Amirpour directed this episode.
- What Farouk!Oliver does to Kerry and Cary. He flips them inside out. Literally. Kerry is now mostly outside, with Cary trapped inside her. They are both disturbed and violated, and spend the episode struggling to process what happened to them. A living nightmare.
- The casual reveal that Division III uses child soldiers as a main line of defense against a threat.
- The entire meeting between David and Future!Syd is dripping with dread. The ambient purple lighting. The glitch effect, which makes it seem like David might wink out of existence if he's not careful. The room itself almost seems like a warped version of the Astral Plane bedroom.
- What two colors make up purple? Red and blue. Which two characters exemplify red and blue? Exactly. Future!Syd was very coy about what happened to David in that timeline, other than saying that it's "complicated" and that he's different somehow. Did David cause this apocalypse? How did Syd lose her arm? What in the world is happening?
- The extreme tick close-up is going to be real nice for you arachnophobics out there.
- There's something out there that makes Farouk seem bearable.
- The little episode about how teaching a child that red is called green and green is called red and then turning him loose in the world gets him gruesomely killed. Made even worse by the way that Farouk-Oliver watches and just calmly jots down his notes in a pad.
- David is, in fact, working with Farouk.
- Lenny was real at one point. Then Farouk killed her and stole her likeness to get close to David. She's still conscious though, being held and made to serve Farouk.
Chapter 11
- The tale of the cheerleaders with a conversion disorder. A real-life condition, with no biological cause but Your Mind Makes It Real.
- The bird monster burrowing its way into Ptonomy's earhole.
- Are the folks infected by the parasitic illness biologically frozen as well? Can they relieve themselves? Are they aware of what's happening to them?
- Lenny's plight is much worse than what it initially seemed. She compares it to being like a pet or a house plant but her brief description makes it much, much worse. She says she pulled out all of her hair the day before David visits, but it either all grew back (because Farouk wanted it to grow back) or she hallucinated it. She begs David to be put out of her misery.
- When David and Farouk are speaking, Lenny attempts suicide by hanging and shooting herself in the head, but neither of them stick.
- Melanie, Cary, and David being trapped in Melanie's text game-maze. At one point, they reach a dead end, and the previously white text begins to turn a deep red. Which portends an approaching Minotaur, a gruesome-looking creature dragging itself on crutches with a cow's skull for a head and no less scary for being on wheels.
Chapter 12
- Syd being constantly trapped in her mind museum, only able to look at the art and the couple endlessly making out in front of her like a taunt.
- Hey, remember back in Chapter 5 when Syd told David about the horrible way she lost her virginity? Now we get to watch it play out. And it's every bit as horrifying as you might imagine.
- An entire book could be written about the issue of consent in this scene. Let's just say nobody comes out unscathed.
- Hell, judging from her school-hood flashbacks, the experiences her classmates went through could be additional chapters if you think about them from their perspectives. Granted, the one group of bullies unlucky enough to experience Syd's wrath likely had the beat-down coming... but the leader probably didn't deserve to get badly punished for something someone else's consciousness made him do.
- It's not really touched upon about how Sydney deals with swapping bodies with multiple people, but this exact scenario at the dance rave had to have made her incredibly ill (as well as for the other people who brushed against her) for her to end up hospitalized.
Chapter 13
- Lenny recounts to Clark that she fully remembers what it was like to be stuck in the wall at Clockworks. Yeesh.
- Ptonomy's slow realization that Lenny's eyes are a different color than they used to be, thus proving his memory wrong. The terror on his face is palpable.
- If Ptonomy's Nightmare Sequence is accurate, Admiral Fukyama wears that basket for a reason.
- Ptonomy snapping back to reality having shoved Lenny against a wall with his hands around her throat. He seemed very reluctant to let her go.
- Farouk's Magneto-esque worldview that humans are weak creatures only to be subjugated and preyed on by mutants. Shudder to think at what might happen if he ever gets his body back.
- Lenny claims to David that Farouk put spiders in her brain.
- The scene of Lenny emerging from the ground, naked, bloody, and afraid.
- What Farouk forces Oliver to do to Amy Haller. She's clearly in excruciating pain throughout her transformation into Lenny's new body, as her bones are twisted into their new form.
- Even worse, Farouk did this simply For the Evulz knowing how much it would hurt David. Any sympathy that monster tried to get has forever been destroyed with this action.
- The buildup to this scene is nothing short of nightmarish as well. Amy and Ben are having a quiet conversation in their house, when Ben starts talking about an inexplicable feeling of dread that he has, like you know something horrible is going to happen, but you know it hasn't happened yet. Then they notice the wind blowing the curtains through the windows, and look outside to see that all of the Division 3 guards are gone. When Ben tells Amy to stay there and goes to investigate, you just know he's not coming back. He's only gone for a few seconds, but when Amy dares to glance around the corner, she only sees the open door clinking against his dropped beer bottle, which is lying in a pile of ash. And then the realization hits you. And then Amy sees Oliver standing in her kitchen. It's all downhill from there.
Chapter 14
- Homeless!David turning his attackers into a black stain on the pavement. In an instant.
- Laura's situation. She works for Billionaire!David only because he knows she hates it. She's essentially a slave to the most powerful psychic of all time, who in this particular timeline is a cruel sadist.
- Related, the way he casually hurts Amy, all because she asked him for another house. She is in a lot of pain, with a serious nosebleed and is pleading for him to stop at the end.
- In one alternate timeline, heavy medication doesn't stop visions of the Shadow King from breaking through and terrorising David one night, leading to an altercation in which David ends up telekinetically crushing a cop before his horrified sister's eyes, then is shot and killed himself.
- Although David actually isn't killed, he does spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair and dependent on Amy's care. The most powerful mutant ever isn't able to bathe or feed himself. A twisted version of Charles Xavier.
Chapter 15
- Amy's intensely creepy, demon-accented laughter.
- Lenny casually telling Syd that Farouk repeatedly raped her when she was his captive. She keeps snapping her fingers, over and over again, in order to listen to Amy's screams as she is changed.
- The Vermillion hiding under Ptonomy's covers, in a very familiar manner.
- Insanity literally made flesh, and we have no idea how it happened.
- The reveal of what all those little pieces of lessons in human psychology have been leading up to. A central point that has nothing whatsoever to do with mutant powers.
Chapter 16
- The poor man that Farouk forces to literally run him and Oliver across the desert. At one point, he yells "Faster, faster!" with a laugh and a smile.
- The skeletal Minotaur.
Chapter 17
- Melanie, who's become a drug addicted, man-hating nihilist over the course of the season.
- Lenny and the Drug Addicts party. At one point, she hallucinates Amy repeatedly, who is laughing non-stop as if to taunt her.
Chapter 18
- The opening scene, which seems to portray the future version of David everyone has been warning us about. He's in full Legion mode, with a haircut straight out of the comics, a black and red outfit, and a crystal ball that he uses to spy on Syd. At his feet is Lenny, rubbing her belly contentedly with blood oozing out of her mouth. Surrounding her is a massive pile of bones and human remains. Welcome to the future.
- The trap set for Syd, spearing an innocent bunny on a giant fish-hook and then using her kindness against her when she goes to free him.
- The minotaur being set free. He likes to crawl on ceilings and eat folks.
- The Shadow King finally has his body back, and David really falling off the deep end.
Chapter 19
- David using his powers to brainwash Syd and him having sex with her.
- Apparently, David really is insane or at least extremely unstable, as well as powerful beyond measure, and the last thing that was keeping him on the good guys' side now has no more hold on his heart.
Season 3
Season 3
Chapter 20
- Without Syd, David's given up on any pretense of using his powers ethically. He now openly invades people's minds and has no problem with casually killing people.
- Lenny, never the nicest person to begin with, now serves as the high priestess of David's cult, a position which she shamelessly exploits to indulge in power trips.
- Ptonomy has been turned into a walking computer.
- The thing that threatens Switch if she abuses her Ability. All we see is its Supernatural Gold Eyes, which always means evil on Legion. It is implied to be why she loses a tooth.
- Actually she's losing her baby tooth as she grows out of her human form to become time itself. And the Time Demons are easily tamed and controlled by beings like her.
Chapter 26
- Even with all we've learned about Farouk, seeing the atrocities of his past self is still horrifying. First Charles finds the King that Farouk has overthrown stuck in the body of a monkey, which is horrific in itself. But then he discovers that dozens and dozens of King's subjects are trapped in the mind of a little girl. And she can hear them screaming all the time.
