Ok this timeline isn’t working for me…

My reviews tend to be partially recaps, partially commentary, partially filling in blanks with comic book trivia. This is going to be one of my shortest reviews, because there will be very little recap at all. In Legion’s “Chapter 14,” we get treated to an example of one of the versions of multiverse theory, including a version of someone spouting off about multiverse theory. I’m not going to take everyone down all the weird versions of things they did.

Plot wise, we see several versions of David. In many of them, his powers cause him problems ranging from mental illness, homelessness, and being over-medicated. In most of those, he eventually loses control of his powers, kills someone, and is killed in return. In one he’s a wealthy man who uses his telepathy to conquer the business world. One of his many deaths comes at the hands of the only other character we recognize, aside from David’s sister, who is in many of the realities. One of them, I think, is the “main” one, leading up to him being institutionalized in the Clockworks Institute where he started the series. And, just in case people don’t get what’s going on, one version is a not real healthy looking David in a diner rambling on about what multiverse theory actually is.

They jump back and forth between the various realities. The Davids that flame out and die all seem to go around the same age. His rich version ages well and lasts longest, and we see at the most different points in his life.

I’m not really sure what the point of this episode was. It didn’t carry any of the plots further forward. I’m not sure that it told us anything we didn’t know. I suppose it could be that David is very lucky in the “main” reality? That there’s a lot of ways his life could have gone wrong? That he’s very, very dangerous if he loses control?

The show prides itself on being surreal, and even with that track record, this was odd. I get wanting to do something different time to time, but with a show that runs in such short seasons, this seemed a weird choice, like a fill-in episode in a comic book limited series. They jumped around so much, and so little of it had to do with, well, anything, I found it hard to care about any of them.

What I liked: I was impressed at seeing David cut loose a few times. He’s definitely been holding back, unless his alternate selves have different power levels, which I suppose is possible. His death at the hands of someone we knew made sense and told us a good bit about that world. His sister being so much a part of so many of his lives made sense.

What I didn’t: As I said above, this just kind of ended up being a big, giant “Who cares?” If there was a point there, they did a great job of hiding it, or I was particularly dense.

I’ll give this a right down the middle 2.5 out of 5. It just sort of… was. I could do without another one of these kinds of episodes. Between this one and the rewind/replay episode, I wonder if they’re running out of plot.