Recap / Legion S3E7 "Chapter 26"

Father and son share the same grin.

The beginning of the end.

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Tropes:

• And I Must Scream:
  • Charles is horrified to discover through his telepathy that the consciousness of the king that Farouk had deposed is trapped inside the mind of Farouk's caged pet monkey! That means at least some of the monkey's shrieks are the former monarch's anguished cries to be freed from the animal's head.
    Ex-king: Please. Please, you have to help me. I was a king. A king, you hear. I was a kiiiiiing!
  • The next day, Charles is approached by Habiba, who is constantly tormented by the yelling of the people who are imprisoned within her own psyche.
    Habiba: Can you make them stop screaming? They're all inside of me. I can't sleep.
    Charles: Who?
    Habiba: Every tyrant has his supporters.
    (Charles reads her mind)
    Ex-king's subjects: Help us! Release us! He was our king!
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Farouk is presented in a more negative light when he allows the children to torment his caged pet monkey for fun. After hearing it screech in protest, the compassionate Charles expresses pity at the monkey's mistreatment ("Poor creature"). Farouk then dismisses his guest's concerns about the animal's welfare ("Let [the kids] enjoy their games").
• Bilingual Bonus: The Romanian word spoken by Gabrielle is vrăjitoare, which means "witch."
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Farouk appears to be a genial host to his guest Charles, but this is merely a façade. The Shadow King is a predator who's carefully studying his prey before he moves in for the kill, and he's attempting to lull Charles into a false sense of security.
• Blank Stare: When David is no longer in control of his own mind, he just stares blankly into the distance, much to Charles' dismay. Charles shakes his son and yells "Wake up!", but David remains unresponsive.
• Blatant Lies: When Farouk inquires about the stranger that Charles has brought to the palace, Charles introduces his time-travelling son David as an old army buddy from World War II. (This is impossible because David was born in the 1950s.)
  Charles: This is David. An old friend. He was stationed here in Morocco during the war and well, he decided to stick around.
  Farouk: So, David, where were you stationed?
  David: Mohammedia. Just outside Rabat. Came in with Operation Torch, like the rest of the meddling Americans.
• Broken Bird: Because Gabrielle is a Romani Holocaust survivor who had witnessed her entire family being slaughtered by Nazis and she was also a prisoner in a concentration camp, she is extremely pessimistic. Although she's not suicidal, her conversation with Syd strongly hints that she feels that she's merely existing (rather than truly living) because of a basic survival instinct, but otherwise she's not keen about life. Gabrielle loves her husband Charles and their infant son David, and Charles has provided them with a lovely mansion in a safe, idyllic suburb, yet her new comfortable environment cannot erase the horrors that she has endured, nor heal the psychological wounds that they've inflicted.
  Gabrielle: It bothers you because you think you matter. That people matter.
  Syd: What's the point of living if not?
  Gabrielle: Have you ever seen a mass grave? All people, with names, with families... now just a pile. What's the meaning of that?
  Syd: But you're here. You have a child.
  Gabrielle: All animals fight to live. Whether they want to or not.
• Broken Record: While Charles is visiting the mind of his son David, the latter's multiple personalities exclaim "Daddy!" non-stop. Charles is so disturbed by the growing number of Davids calling out for their father that he has to use his telepathy to escape from David's deranged psyche.
• Calling the Old Man Out: David (more accurately two of his multiple personalities) calls out his biological father Charles for abandoning him.
  Legion: We're here for justice. Because you couldn't protect us.
  Charles: Me?
  Legion: Daddy. The leaver. The great abandoner. Who put a monster in our head and then threw us away. Adoption. Betrayal.
• Disapproving Look: Charles is not at all pleased that David dismisses Switch as a "no one" who's merely a means to an end, so he frowns at his son and firmly insists that "Everyone is someone, David."
• Dream Intro: The episode begins with Charles experiencing a nightmare where he watches himself (dressed in a bull costume) being killed onstage by a matador, and then the Devil with the Yellow Eyes snarls at him, "You should never have come."
• Episode Tagline: "You should never have come."
• Evil Sounds Deep: In the middle of the shadow play, Farouk's tone unexpectedly becomes lower than his normal speaking voice when he says, "You should never have come" with a sinister facial expression. It's the only moment during the performance where Farouk talks in English, and he's staring directly at Charles (an Englishman); it's a subtle threat to his guest. While Charles is slightly perturbed by the line's delivery, he's unsure if it's just part of the dramatic narration or if his life is genuinely in danger.
• Food Porn: At Farouk's palace, the numerous bowls of Moroccan food that are served at dinner look very appetizing. He's a king, after all, so of course his meals would be sumptuous.
• Gasp!: Charles audibly gasps and covers his mouth when he's inundated by David's memories.
• Guyliner: Farouk wears eyeliner, presumably to reduce the glare of the Moroccan sun.
• Implied Death Threat: Charles is menaced twice with the message "You should never have come" by two of the Shadow King's personas. The first is uttered ominously by the Devil with the Yellow Eyes during a nightmare that Charles has shortly before his plane lands in Morocco. (This is quite insidious because Charles could potentially brush it off as just an awful dream, unaware that the Shadow King can haunt his subconscious.) The second is stated by Farouk while he recites a play, and that line is oddly the only one in English while the rest of the story is in Farsi, so the threat is aimed at the sole Englishman in the room (namely Charles, who can't decide if he's actually in grave peril or if it's merely part of the theatrics).
• Internal Homage: While inside David's psyche, Charles is surrounded by his son's multiple personalities who are all bombarding him with a chorus of "Daddy," which mirrors how David is addressed as "Daddy" by his many cult followers who crowd around him.
• In the Blood: Gabrielle discloses to Syd that insanity runs in her family, and Syd concludes that Gabrielle's son David got his madness from his mother.
  Gabrielle: My grandmother had the sickness. She was, uh... vrăjitoare. ^note Romanian for "witch." Spells, moods, she spoke in tongues. I remember her eyes. Miserable and giddy, like a happy death. My mother was 16 when the sickness hit her. In the witching hour, she woke up laughing. Didn't stop for 14 days.
  Syd: You're talking about mental illness.
  Gabrielle: Such a clinical name for something so raw. Like an animal with its heart on the outside.
  Syd: It's so odd, I never thought of that. It's hereditary, what's wrong with [David]. Why he's like this.
• Ironic Echo: During the after-dinner entertainment, Farouk had said "You should never have come" as an Implied Death Threat to Charles, so David telepathically repeats the warning to Farouk at breakfast the next morning. In David's case, what he's specifically conveying is that Farouk should never have invaded his mind when he was a baby because adult David intends to kill Farouk for ruining his life.
• Just Here for the Free Snacks: Jokingly invoked by David while pretending to be a old friend of Charles, with David's false persona being more interested in a free breakfast than socializing.
  Charles: And when he heard I was visiting—
  David: What can I say? I love a free meal.
• Lack of Empathy: David ruthlessly exploits Switch's Time Travel ability (which is extremely taxing for her body) to the point where her teeth are falling out, her face is swollen, and now she's dying. He has zero regard for her well-being, and he continues to insist that she must wake up and help him even though she desperately needs to rest. Charles disapproves of David treating Switch like a tool instead of a person.
  Charles: Who is she?
  David: She's... no one. She's a means of getting here. Of reaching you.
  Charles: Everyone is someone, David.
• Levitating Lotus Position: Both David and Farouk adopt this pose while they're meditating, as their telekinesis allows them to float above the floor.
• Lured into a Trap: David explains to his father Charles that he has been caught in Farouk's web (the latter likes to compare himself to a spider).
  David: He wanted you to come. You thought you were looking for him, but he was looking for you. [...] Listen to me. Tomorrow he attacks, and you fight Farouk in the astral plane, your power against his, and you think you win. But all that happens is you kick him out of his body and into mine.
  Charles: S-So we leave. Now, we go home. Your mother, she's waiting—
  David: No, he won't let you. It's a trap. You're in a trap.
• Nightmare Sequence: While asleep on the plane ride to Morocco, Charles has a nightmare where he's watching a play where a matador kills a bull. When the matador removes the mask of the dead actor in the bull costume, it's revealed to be Charles who's lying in pools of his own blood onstage. The grotesque Devil with the Yellow Eyes suddenly appears next to him and growls, "You should never have come." Charles then abruptly wakes up out of fright.
• Precious Photo: Charles keeps a photograph of his wife and son in his suit jacket during his sojourn in Morocco. He glances at the picture and lightly rubs his thumb on it, which imparts to viewers that he misses his family while he's far away from home.
• Previously on…: "Evidently, on Legion..."
• Psychic Static: Farouk tries to read David's mind several times, but the latter can shield his thoughts, so the only thing that Farouk can telepathically hear is the song "Wot!" by Captain Sensible, which David plays inside his own head in order to rattle Farouk.
• Quizzical Tilt: A baffled Charles tips his head to the side because he can sense that there's something very wrong with the caged monkey, but Farouk greets him before he can investigate further.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: David is short-tempered and is determined to kill Farouk, whereas Charles is even-tempered and wants to try diplomacy first.
  David: We need to focus. Killing Farouk. A plan.
  Charles: David, why are you here?
  David: I showed you. He ruins me.
  Charles: Well, maybe we can talk to him. Explain.
• Repeat Cut: This occurs several times throughout the episode to demonstrate that the Time Demons are destroying the timeline, so characters sometimes repeat an action or a line of dialogue.
• Seeing Through Another's Eyes: David tells Charles to use his telepathy in order to determine his identity. While probing a memory in the stranger's mind, Charles then sees himself and his wife Gabrielle standing over David's crib from David's perspective, who was a baby at the time. Charles immediately realizes that the man before him is his son.
• Spontaneous Generation: According to Farouk's chauffeur, the Shadow King emerged from the mud of Morocco instead of being born by human parents.
  Chauffeur: He is a remarkable being. It's said he had no parents, that the country itself birthed him from the mud.
• Stalker without a Crush: When Charles arrives in Morocco, he's rather apprehensive about how much Farouk knows about him even though they're total strangers. Farouk's chauffeur greets Charles (who "wasn't expecting a welcome") at the Moroccan landing strip with a hand-painted portrait of the latter in his military uniform, so that means Farouk is aware that Charles is a former World War II British army officer. The chauffeur then adds "And my king is most excited to meet you," to which a puzzled Charles asks "He knew I was coming?", and the driver replies "It's all he's been talking about." Farouk obviously found out that Charles was heading to Morocco despite the fact that he wasn't notified of it, and he then checked which flight Charles was on. The Shadow King's obsession with his guest becomes even more evident when they meet face-to-face because the former identifies the latter as an artist ("The ease of your lines betrays an intense discipline," so Farouk is familiar with Charles' artistic style), scientist, soldier and father. The last comment makes Charles especially uneasy and he inquires "You know my family?", and Farouk answers "Little David? Beautiful Gabrielle? How could I not? Your every particle practically sings about them." Before Charles can say anything further, Farouk distracts him with an invitation to dinner. As David would later point out, Farouk has lured Charles into a trap.
• Suddenly Speaking: Habiba is silent throughout the episode until near the end where she asks Charles a question. He's shocked that she can speak because he was informed by Farouk that all the children at the palace are mute.
  Habiba: Can you make them stop screaming?
  Charles: (astonished) Wait, w-wait, y-you can talk?
• That Liar Lies: After dethroning the king, Farouk claims to have ushered in an "age of prosperity, praised by all." David then appears briefly next to Charles and tells him not to believe anything Farouk says.
  David: Lies. Behold, the king of lies.
• Unreliable Narrator: Charles is in a state of bewilderment once he arrives at Farouk's Moroccan palace, being uncertain if he can believe his eyes. For instance, the chauffeur (who was behind Charles and standing next to the car) seems to magically appear from behind a curtain at the front entrance, yet Charles never saw the chauffeur run past him to enter the palace while Charles was walking from the car to the doorway. These odd moments continue throughout the episode and enhance his sense of disorientation (e.g. Charles is eating dinner across the table from Farouk in the dining room, and then suddenly Charles is seated next to Habiba at the palace's theater while still chewing his food). As Harry Lloyd elaborates in this interview:
  Lloyd: Charles, suddenly, is now in the realm of someone else with seemingly even greater powers than he. He's constantly waking up in a different place, and he feels like he's in a dream. You realize, watching Dan Stevens' performance, from the first two seasons, there are so many times when he seems to be reacting to something that's not there, and it's very staccato and confused, and it's almost like he's in a dream. I found this Charles, who was quite composed in [Season 3] Episode 3, suddenly becoming more like his son, in terms of how he's reacting to baffling situations.
• The Voiceless: With the exception of Habiba, the children at Farouk's palace are mute. It's never explained why they're silent, but the fact that Habiba can talk to Charles may indicate that the other kids are under Farouk's Mind Control rather than because they physically can't speak.
• Waistcoat of Style: When Charles travels to Morocco, he sports a grey waistcoat that matches with his suit. Being a high-class British gentleman in the 1950s, he wants to look his best even though his sojourn is an informal one, and the Moroccan heat would make wearing an extra layer of clothing uncomfortable. Once Charles is at Farouk's palace, he pats the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, so he's overdressed for the weather.
• What Is Going On?:
  • Because Charles isn't aware that Time Eaters are gradually consuming history (which creates pockets of lost time), he doesn't understand how he, David and Switch end up in the guest bedroom when he has no memory of them leaving the dining room.
    Charles: How did we get here? But we were just in the dining room.
  • Soon after, Charles is inside David's mind, and he hears pounding from behind the various closed doors. He has no idea that his son suffers from dissociative identity disorder, so Charles is naturally confused by the noise.
    Charles: What, what is happening? What are you not telling me?
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Charles admits to David that wanting to see the best in people made him vulnerable to Farouk's deception.
  Charles: You're right, it's my fault. I've been naïve. [...] See, I came here for friendship. Because I've been to war, David. I've seen what people do. But this Farouk, he... He's a monster.

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