The end is nigh. The only question is whether it’s of David’s quest, or the whole world.

Legion has been somewhat of a journey. A bravura first season which really challenged what a comic book genre show could be was followed by a second season which lost its way a little and got downright creepily awful toward the end. This third season felt, for much of its run time, like it didn’t really know what to do with itself as it waited for its endpoint. Having now seen that endpoint, I can confirm it’s as good as anything the show has ever done at its highest points, but whether you’ll feel it was worth the journey will be a personal matter.

In the past, David and his father are confronted by two Farouks – the one native to their current temporal location and the one from the future. Suddenly the advantage that they thought they had over their enemy has vanished, and each of them must choose an enemy to face. The choices made and how each plays out suddenly make me think that what I’d assumed was questionable writing on the part of the showrunners had actually been some very clever long game seed-planting. Then again, it will depend on your point of view. Certain character beats here represent fairly significant shifts, and how well you accept them I suspect will dictate how much you get out of the episode.

Also in the past, Syd, Cary and Kerry are trapped with infant David and his mother fighting off the attentions of the time monsters. Cary has a clever idea that may (pardon the pun) buy them some time, but it’s difficult to see how they will last for very long, relying on David the other side of the world to do his thing before they all die at their… claws?

And then there’s Switch, who quite suddenly gets quite an important role in proceedings having been pretty much dismissed to lie in a corner for the last couple of episodes and basically serving as a deus ex machina for the plot before that. Here, we get to see her character actually develop and become a pivotal part in how everything plays out, but it can’t help but feel a little late.

That’s the general feeling here though, from a narrative perspective. It feels like this (very well executed) ending was all set up, but the writers then struggled as to how to construct the journey to get there. Some episodes have just felt like they’re literally killing time (no pun intended this time) until we got to this point, and I can’t help but feel the story the writers wanted to tell could have easily fit into a shorter episode run.

But there’s been plenty to love about the show. Navid Negahban has never been anything less than a joy to watch in every scene as Farouk. Amber Midthunder and Bill Irwin as touchingly close yet utterly different partnership Cary/Kerry Loudermilk were always good value and Dan Stevens as David himself always gave compelling performances even when the material occasionally let him down. The series also gave us a genuinely fascinating Charles Xavier, different from any other screen incarnation and possessed of naivety and nobility in equal measure. The tragedy in his wife Gabrielle’s backstory was wonderfully well-realised by the performance of Stephanie Corneliussen.

I could go on – Legion is a show that was never lacking for talent behind or in front of the camera, and for all its occasional missteps, it delivers an ending that surprised and entertained me in equal measure. For all that it’s sometimes been a chore, it ended leaving me with the feeling I’d watch more, and what more can one ask than that?

Verdict: Though it’s been a rocky ride getting there, the show delivers an epic conclusion that probably isn’t what you expect. Worth watching indeed. 9/10

Greg D. Smith