Syd shows David a life’s worth of pain to teach him about love.
Chapter 12 ofLegionfinds David trapped in a maze, but notthemaze.
Chapter 12 remedies this by focusing on Syds worldview and Davids understanding of it.
Credit: Suzanne Tenner/FX
The cycle David needs to navigate to reawaken his true love is one of Syds own making.
Picking up where the last episode left off, Chapter 12 opens in the tundra of Syds mind.
From the time when shes a baby, Syd avoids her mothers touch.
The next thing David sees is Syd restrained in a hospital bed.
He doesnt know yet that Syd has created this setup to teach him something else.
Syds rebuke to this guess is harsh and poignant.
You dont know anything, she says.
You think ghosts like living in a haunted house?
With that, everything starts over from Syds frosty birth.
The boy corners a teenage Syd and demands a kiss.
David still isnt able to figure out the meaning of it all.
In his fourth cycle through Syds life, David finally learns that hes no longer in the monks maze.
When he gets to Syds school years, he chases off her tormentors to ask her whats wrong.
Schoolyard Syd responds that its cheating to ask her about the problem directly.
The whole point, she says, is for him to figure it out on his own.
But still, this isnt the idea she wants to get across.
In this sixth and final cycle, David sees a scenario Syd had mentioned back in season 1.
She takes her mothers body and goes to the bathroom to get in the shower with the man.
Even though he doesnt know hes doing anything wrong, theres a feeling of violence to the act.
The body swap doesnt last long enough and Syd and her mother switch places.
The man is now in the shower with a 15-year-old girl, and he cant explain why.
Syds mother, furious, calls the police, and the man is taken away in cuffs.
Seeing this, David finally realizes what Syd has been trying to tell him.
Everything Syd has been through her isolation, her mistakes, her misdeeds has made her stronger.
David loves Syd, but love alone will not be enough to face the coming danger.
Syd is preparing David for war by finding the divinity in their sordid pasts.
Love isnt gonna save us, Syd explains.
Its what we have to save.
Once shes explained all that to David, Syd is finally ready to return to reality.
