Professor X - will finish its story in the current third season, as David is forced to take on his former friends in Division 3 after he was revealed to be an abusive predator in the show's shocking season 2 finale.
While the story has always been important in Legion, the show is usually more lauded for its aesthetics than its plot. Writer/producer Noah Hawley has brought his surrealist style first showcased in X-Men spinoff, featuring everything from elaborate dance numbers on different planes of existence to voiceovers from Jon Hamm about the nature of reality. Along with its impressive visual flourishes, Legion often relies on its soundtrack to help set the off-kilter mood. Previous seasons have seen the aftermath of the Shadow King's unchecked power soundtracked to Radiohead's "The Daily Mail" and a young Syd Barrett dancing the night away to The National's "Turtleneck."
Related: Legion Season 3 Review
Perhaps most iconically, near the end of Legion season 1, the show had one of its most strikingly strange musical numbers; the Shadow King - at that time inhabiting Lenny’s body - performed a rousing dance routine to Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” with nods to everything from 80s music videos to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
What will the show use to score on the way the final battle between David and Division 3? Check out an episodic breakdown of Legion season 1's soundtrack here.
Episode 1: "Chapter 20"
- "Something For Your M.I.N.D." - Superorganism - The show's powerful new mutant Switch finds herself drawn into David's orbit through a series of mysterious messages that lead her to a completely white room with a few scattered, distorted pieces of a department store. Switch suddenly finds the space filled with people - ostensibly the workers and customers, but clearly there for another purpose. As Switch recites the magic word to get past what turns out to be something of an interdimensional waiting room - "salmon" - the shoppers and clerks begin serenading her with this trippy Superorganism track. The scene plays like a druggier version of Alice In Wonderland, as Switch makes her way into David's debauched cult house.
- "2,000 Light Years From Home" - The Rolling Stones - As Switch enters David's world, she witnesses the of his cult indulging in the nectar of a blue flower; they smoke it, put it in their tea, and perhaps most memorably, suckle on the teats of an enormous, piglike creature that mainlines the blue liquid by the gallon. The blue liquid runs through massive tubes around the cult house, and the Stones soundtrack the reveal that the mysterious fluid is David's way of controlling his minions. The Rolling Stones have featured multiple times over the show's run, perhaps most memorably in the very first episode, where "She's A Rainbow" served as something of a theme for the budding romance between David and Syd. Using the legendary rockers to soundtrack a much darker moment in David's journey is a nice reminder of just how far off the rails the godlike mutant has gone.
More than most television shows, Legion often expresses the mood of its characters - even the temperament of its world - through its musical cues. For all its innovations and visual flourishes, the show and its characters can occasionally come off as emotionally distant, and the soundtrack - along with Jeff Russo's propulsive score - often helps to fills in those blanks. As it becomes more and more obvious that Legion's final chapter is going to be bloody and tragic, we should probably expect the music to get darker and weirder along the way. Even if it does take that route, it seems a safe bet Legion still has a few musical surprises up its sleeve.