Legion (TV series)

Legion (2017-2019) is an American cable television series created for FX by Noah Hawley, based on the Marvel Comics character David Haller / Legion. It is connected to the X-Men film series, the first television series to do so, and is produced by FX Productions in association with Marvel Television. Hawley serves as showrunner on the series. Dan Stevens stars as Haller, a mutant diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder, Katie Aselton, and Jean Smart also star.

Season 1

Chapter 1 [1.01]

Amy Haller: So, do they let you throw a little party here, or...?

David Haller: Yeah, they clear out the furniture. We get a DJ.

Amy Haller: Really?

David Haller: No. We do get better drugs, though.

Amy Haller: Really?

David Haller: No. It's just Thursday. My 260th Thursday as a passenger on the cruise ship Mental Health. On the plus side, I have mastered the art of eating with a spoon, so...

---

Dr. Kissinger: You have something to add?

Syd Barrett: No. Please keep talking so we can all pretend that our problems are just in our heads.

David Haller: What does that mean?

Syd Barrett: It means that you're in here because somebody said you're not normal. Like normal is this suit we're all supposed to... But you know who else wasn't normal? Picasso, Einstein.

Lenny Busker: Ooh, I like her. I like you. You got what the kids these days call moxie.

---

Lenny Busker: Why are the hot ones always so crazy?

---

David Haller: You know, when a plate breaks, you don't fix it. You just get another plate. So I tied a knot.

---

Clark Debussy: Okay, so I'm clear, you're saying after you entered the body of a woman and escaped from a mental hospital where all the patients had magically been sealed inside of their rooms, you think you saw me getting out of a car?

David Haller: Well, you don't have to be a dick about it, and, yes, it was you.

Chapter 4 [1.04]

"In times of peace the warlike man attacks himself"

- Quoting Friedrich Nietzsche

Chapter 7 [1.07]

Rational David: I'm you. Your rational mind -- you're having a breakdown, a stress response. Your power is kicking in to save you, it created me. You did.

David: And you're... British?

Rational David: Like I said, I'm your rational mind.

---

David: And Dad goes home... [imitating Professor X] "Sweetheart, it's over, I won. Give me some sugar!"

Rational David: Is... Is that a-- a British accent?

Season 2

Chapter 12 [2.04]

Syd: This is not a fairy tale.

David: It is for me. Syd do you know what love is? Is a hot bath, and what happens to things left to bath for too long? they soften, fall apart.

David: I read the collection of stories, that of your book, at the beginning I was confused, because it brings with you the stories of sex clubs and drug addicts? and then I read this, the toxins, the masochists, the whores and those who have wasted everything, they are the brightest crown of angels in heaven.

Syd: It's a war, love, this life, the things we face ... you said you saw the future ... and it's an apocalypse, who's going to survive? lovers or warriors? Tell us this story, that love will succeed in saving us, and instead makes us only stupid and fragile.

David: Thank you.

Syd: Look at me, love will not come to save us, it is what must be saved, pain makes us strong enough to do it, our scars, our anger, despair are armor. Love, God loves above all sinners because our fire shines and burns more than any other ... burns with me!!

Chapter 14 [2.06]

Amy: So, why cant you have what everyone else has? A nice home? A family?

David: Because, I'm sick.

Chapter 15 [2.07]

"What have we learned? Delusion is an idea, that an idea can be contagious; that humans are pattern-seeking animals by which I mean, we prefer ideas that fit a pattern ; in other words we don't believe what we see, we see what we believe and when we are stressed or our beliefs are challenged; when we feel threatened, the ideas we have can become irrational and one delusion leading to another and another as a human mind struggles to maintain its identity and when this occurs, what starts as an egg can become a monster."

- The Narrator

Chapter 16 [2.08]

"And now, we come to the most alarming delusion of all -- the idea that other people don't matter. Their feelings, their needs. Imagine a cave where those inside never see the outside world. Instead, they see shadows of that world projected on the cave wall. The world they see in the shadows is not the real world. But it's real to them. If you were to show them the world as it actually is, they would reject it as incomprehensible. Now what if, instead of being in a cave, you were out in the world except you couldn't see it? Because you weren't looking. Because you trusted that the world you saw through the prism was the real world. But there's a difference. You see, unlike the allegory of the cave where the people are real and the shadows are false, here other people are the shadows. Their faces, their lives. This is the delusion of the narcissist who believes that they alone are real. Their feelings are the only feelings that matter, because other people are just shadows. And shadows don't feel because they're not real. But what if everyone lived in caves? Then no one would be real. Not even you. Unless one day, you woke up and left the cave. How strange the world would look after a lifetime of staring at shadows."

- The Narrator

Season 3

Chapter 27 [3.08]

Past Farouk: You know why you have failed? Because under all your anger, there is a baby. Scared. Small. Given away by his mother and father. A baby who is unloved, and knows that he is unloved.

David: I'm a good person. I deserve love.

Past Farouk: No, you don't.

---

Farouk: I've lived in your son's mind for thirty-two years. I saw what he saw. I felt what he felt. I thought what he thought. And over time, what was once a prison became a person.

Xavier: It's hard to hate someone you understand.

Farouk: I love the boy, Charles. I consider him my...

Xavier: Son?

Farouk: Would that I could be as strong a father as you are. But alas, it's not in my nature.

---

Xavier: I see you, I do. You're trapped in a war you didn't start. This is my fault -- I did this. You never had a chance because of me.

David: Wha-- What are you saying?

Xavier: I'm saying that war is not the answer, it's the problem. David, we don't need this barbarism. I've made a deal with Farouk.

David: Wha...? Are you saying we just leave?

Xavier: I'm saying that we respect their right to exist and they respect ours. Yours! Isn't that what you want? To be free?

David: Farouk'll never go for that!

Xavier: He will.

David: And what are we supposed to do, take him at his word?

Xavier: We're telepaths; we never have to take anyone at their word.

David: I-- No, I've come this far, and I can't just... leave it up to--!

Xavier: David. David. I wasn't there for you. Well, you needed me and your mother, and I gave you away. I can't imagine doing it, but... I adore you, David. And that will never change. I could only have done it to protect you.

David: I was a baby...!

Xavier: I'll never know what that's like. The pain of it, to be abandoned. But I'm here now. And I want to make it right. So please, my darling boy, let me be your father.

---

[The last lines of the series]

David: Are you not surprised to see me?

Syd: She told me. Switch. I get to do it all over again. This life.

David: Yeah. And I bet you're gonna turn out extraordinary. Without me around.

Syd: Yeah. I am.

David: Sorry.

Syd: I like your mom.

David: Yeah. I'm looking forward to getting to know her.

Syd: So now what? We just sort of...

David: Fade away. Into the ether. I have to say, I didn't think you'd help me.

Syd: I didn't. [Looks at baby David] I helped him. David.

David: Yeah?

Syd: Be a good boy.

[Looking at baby David, the two fade away]

Cast

• Dan Stevens - David Haller
• Rachel Keller - Syd Barrett
• Aubrey Plaza - Lenny Busker
• Bill Irwin - Cary Loudermilk
• Jeremie Harris - Ptonomy Wallace
• Amber Midthunder - Kerry Loudermilk
• Katie Aselton - Amy Haller
• Jean Smart - Melanie Bird
• Navid Negahban - Amahl Farouk / Shadow King
• Jemaine Clement - Oliver Bird
• Hamish Linklater - Clark Debussy
• Harry Lloyd - Charles Xavier