• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Over Rhine Snow Angels Album Cover

      YOUR official Christmas 2019 LISTENING Guide

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 17, 2019
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • WWE WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins

      Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 4, 2023
    • AEW Full Gear 2022: Young Bucks and Kenny Omega Elite Entrance

      AEW Full Gear 2022 – A needed reset at the end of a tough year

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 22, 2022
    • WWE Survivor Series 1997: Bret Hart

      The Montreal Screwjob – Twenty Five Years Later

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 8, 2022
    • AEW Grand Slam 2022: Jungle Boy and Rey Fenix

      AEW GRANDSLAM 2022 showcased the present and future of the promotion

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 25, 2022
    • AEW All Out 2022: CM Punk

      AEW All Out Fall Out: All the CM Punk drama that’s fit to print!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?
    • The Muppet's Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book
    • 2022's Christmas Movie Watchlist!
    • REVIEW: GDT's Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!
    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock - Break time...
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

    Legion S01E05: Chapter 5 – In which evil wears a human face

    By Kevin Boyle
    | March 9, 2017
    TV Blogs

    The experience of watching Chapter Five of Legion brought to mind a host of influences that the show is now wearing on its sleeve. To its credit these influences enhanced my viewing experience rather than coming across as derivative. The first clue was Dan Stevens’ performance which echoed both Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates and Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Stephen King has famously derided The Shining, saying that Nicholson’s performance left no room for ambiguity: it was clear that this was someone who had gone mad. There are shades of this in the way that Stevens plays David here, not that he’s gone mad, but that something has gone horribly wrong inside of him.

    In every scene he is just a little off, a little too confident in his newfound acceptance of his power. When he’s with Syd in there white room sanctuary, and talking to Melanie about seeing her husband in the astral plain, he is almost predatory in his movements and dead-eyed smirk. It is enough to have you asking, what is wrong with this picture? Syd and Melanie aren’t exactly blind to this change but find it easier to be thankful that they saved David from the astral plain and have him back on their side. Syd is understandably preoccupied with David’s creation of the white room, a place where they can be together like a normal couple, a place in which they can have the kind of physical intimacy that has been denied to them thus far in their relationship. David’s thinly held aggression can, again be explained on the surface by his need to rescue his sister from Division 3, and his confidence in his own abilities.

    Legion S01e5 Dan Stevens Katie Aselton

    Interestingly when thinking about the full episode it is hard to pinpoint exactly when the Fatman has taken full control. If he has control from the beginning then David and Syd’s intimacy is tainted, but the fact that David is arguing with Lenny as Syd sleeps suggests that David still has some level of consciousness at this juncture. Even more interesting is the actual identity of Lenny/Fatman/the world’s angriest boy in the world. When Cary is going looking over David’s brain scan again, he catches glimpses of the fatman on the monitor: glimpses that come when David is stressed. Not only that there is a picture of David as a child suggesting, which Cary then confirms, that the Fatman first manifested itself when David is a child.

    The Fatman is part of David but not in the way we first thought. He, or it, is a parasite who, because David is an incredibly powerful mutant, is able to borrow into David and feed of him. It’s also powerful enough to mess with David’s consciousness, deleting or editing memories so it can stay hidden. Speaking of influences, like Bryan Fuller’s majestic Hannibal series, Legion owes a huge debt to David Lynch and, in particular, Twin Peaks. The Fatman is Legions’ version of Bob an evil spirit that takes over a host in order to commit horrible acts. Acts like murdering everyone, well almost, in Division 3.

    The Division 3 sequence is another brilliant set piece from the show. Sound tracked by Radiohead’s “Daily Mail”, because mind-bending shows must use Radiohead songs because it’s the law, Syd Melanie, and Pytomny follow David to Division 3 only to find that he has massacred everyone. At first they only see the aftermath, bodies melded into any hard surface that will take them. Lenny was right after all, he didn’t need back-up. I was a little disappointed at first that we didn’t get to see David in action but that was fixed as the Melanie and Ptomny accessed the security feed in order to piece together what happened. What we see is truly horrible as David gleefully hops and skips and murders his way through the complex. It is here that we are given confirmation that David isn’t driving, that this s the work of the Fatman.

    Legion S01e5 Jean Smart Jeremie Harris Rachel Keller

    David did achieve his goal, he did save his sister and took her back to their childhood home. It’s here that Lenny materialises and forces David’s sister to admit that David was adopted, which fans of the comics will already have guessed, and it also explains the blank faced parents that are in David’s memories.

    It’s in David’s home that the Lynch influence goes into overdrive as the house transmogrifies into a nightmare controlled by Lenny, complete with nightmare stipulations of being unable to communicate, and having your body not respond to your own will. Syd finally finds David as Lenny is torturing him and blaming them foir putting new ideas into his head. Syd pleads with David to send them to the white room, a place of safety, but the Fatman is there as well stalking Syd through the room as David is powerless to intervene. As the Fatman corners Syd on the bed where she and David made love, the symbolism of that shouldn’t be lost on anyone, David bends reality, sending everyone in the house to a place resembling Clockworks in which they are all patients and Lenny is the doctor.

    10/10 – Chapter Five was a spell-binding hour of television and the strongest episode of Legion to date. If there is any justice then both the cast and crew will get awards recognition. Legion is able to tell a coherent story through incoherent means, a story in which all that has influenced it is a platform in which Noah Hawley has created something truly original.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    Legion

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • Legion S01E04: Chapter 4 – The most perplexingly entertaining superhero show?

      By Kevin Boyle
      | March 3, 2017
    • Legion S01E03: Chapter 3 – David’s mind holds many terrors in a slightly weaker 3rd episode

      By Kevin Boyle
      | February 23, 2017
    • Legion S01E02: Chapter 2- Another mind-bending episode

      By Kevin Boyle
      | February 17, 2017
    • Legion S01E01: Chapter 1 – Just like its hero Legion has many interesting layers

      By Kevin Boyle
      | February 11, 2017

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    TV Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Doctor Who 2022 October Special Review: The Power of the Doctor – Lackluster

      By Jason Collins
      | October 25, 2022
    • Can the Doctor regenerate into a previous incarnation?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 23, 2022
    • Is the Tardis more sentient plant or machine?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 10, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Season two wishlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 14, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 5/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz