With David seemingly out of reach to anyone, Ptonomy included, his new friends set about looking for clues to his past in the real world. Meanwhile, strange(r) things are occurring in Summerland’s basement, and David has an odd encounter.

Opening with a piece to camera by a man philosophising on the nature of stories and humanity while reclining in a 70s suit and tie surrounded by plastic walls and reclining on a furry chair, this episode sets its stall out early – things are about to get really weird.

Considering that David is the central character and the focus of the episode, it’s interesting that we see nothing from his point of view until almost halfway through. It reinforces that sense of everyone not being quite sure exactly what to make of him yet. Syd’s bias in his favour is obvious, but others are less sure of the man currently in their midst. As they sift through his life, revisiting places and people they’ve seen in his memories, certain pieces fall into place as pointing to very good reasons for him not wanting to share his memories wholesale with his new friends. But do they trust these new revelations or are even these fabrications by David or someone else?

When we do reach David, it’s to witness an increasingly bizarre set of encounters between him and various characters, some old and some new. Answers are flung thick and fast at him, though they serve as much to confuse as to enlighten.

Midst all of this weird, psychological confusion going on, we get some lovely character beats. Cary in particular gets a chance to shine, with some nice development and backstory being filled in. The contrast between the bespectacled, older male Cary and the younger, action-oriented female one is explained and sharpened, and the genuine closeness between them is explained. Melanie Bird meanwhile – well we get to see a little more of her too, but the jury is still out on whether that’s good or bad.

A conversation between Amy and a fellow inmate in her misery also serves to give us a few tantalising reveals about just how much she knew/suspected about David’s true nature, and adds to the layers of uncertainty we feel towards him as a character. By the time we reach the breathless climax, you’ll be on the edge of your seat, and still faced with the same problem of exactly who and what to trust.

And if there’s one certainty in this show to date, it’s that there is no certainty.

As usual, the show is light on action, without being light with the action. The fighting, when it occurs, is brutal, uncompromising and stunningly captured without the violence-voyeurism of Daredevil and some of the visual effects are truly out of this world. It helps ground the show that the FX are treated in the low key fashion that they are – too many shows make the mistake of asking us to gawp at long, slow motion action sequences full of sparkles and flash. Despite some of the more psychedelic aspects to the visuals, the show never feels like it’s anything more than a good dramatic thriller in which the players just happen to have superhuman ability.

Verdict: I’m running out of superlatives (and nerves) with regards to Legion, but this is undoubtedly the best episode to date. Tense, chilling and keeping the viewer off balance yet still utterly invested. Genre TV at its utter finest. 10/10

Greg D. Smith