Line #78 Recap/LegionS3E3Chapter22


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legion_xaviers.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Meet the Xaviers.]]
3
4	A family history.
5
6	----
7	!!Tropes:
8	* TheFifties: This episode is set in the 1950s, which is corroborated by the fashion, hairstyles, décor and level of technology. As is the social norm for young married couples who want to start a family in that decade, Charles and Gabrielle reside in {{Suburbia}}. She is seen holding the 1955 children's book ''Literature/HaroldAndThePurpleCrayon'', which suggests that their infant son David was born in the same year.
9	* AdaptationalLocationChange:
10	** In the comics, the psychiatric hospital where Charles first meets Gabrielle is in Israel, but in the show, it's located in England.
11	** The BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind between Charles and Farouk originally took place in Cairo, Egypt, whereas in the series, the psychic duel happened in Morocco.
12	* AdaptationalNationality: Charles Xavier is an American in the comics, but his TV counterpart is an Englishman who speaks with a refined English accent, and his FlashbackNightmare shows that he was a British army officer during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. When discussing tomatoes with Gabrielle and hearing her pronounce it as "to-may-to," his response is, "Well, we say 'to-mah-to'." (The "we" refers to the British.)
13	* BilingualBonus: When Charles is connected to Cerebro, what Farouk says in Farsi is: "Can anyone hear me? My holy message? My message in a bottle, floating across space? If you hear me, if you are like me, I am here."
14	* {{Bookends}}: The episode starts with Gabrielle whispering "My beautiful boy" to her infant son David. At the end, Farouk says the same thing after he possesses baby David's mind.
15	* BrokenTears: Gabrielle bursts into tears after she receives a long-awaited phone call from her husband (and LivingEmotionalCrutch) Charles, but the long-distance connection is poor, so they can't hear each other very well. Her weeping worsens after he hangs up because she didn't catch his message at the end that he's coming home soon, so she assumes that she'll remain alone in their "haunted house" (or at least lost within her own haunted mind) for a while longer. Her crying signifies that she's psychologically unstable and losing her grip on reality.
16	* CardiovascularLove: Charles sketches a heart-shaped tomato as a small gift for Gabrielle to illustrate his romantic feelings for her.
17	* CommonalityConnection: When Charles and Gabrielle socialize for the first time, they bond over their love for cherry pie and their struggles with their mental health issues.
18	-->'''Gabrielle''': I'm not well, you know.\
19	'''Charles''': Neither am I.
20	* CreepyDoll: When Charles opens Gabrielle's box, he finds a [[https://25yearslatersite.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/legion-angry-boy.png scary-looking doll]] which is the miniature version of the Shadow King's guise as the [[https://i.imgur.com/7xXzIZO.png World's Angriest Boy in the World]] from Season 1. Charles is a bit creeped out by the toy's appearance (the eerie, discordant soundtrack reflects his discomfort), and he quickly closes the lid.
21	* ADayInTheLimelight: This episode is devoted to Charles and Gabrielle, the biological parents of David.
22	* DIYDentistry: Switch is bothered by a loose tooth, so she simply yanks it out of her mouth with her fingers.
23	* DoubleMeaning: The first thing Gabrielle says to Charles is that it's a nice day, and he replies, "Beautiful." What he's also conveying is that he thinks she's beautiful.
24	* DumbStruck: Gabrielle is so traumatized from her experience during World War II that she becomes catatonic and has to be institutionalized at a psychiatric hospital.
25	* ExtremeCloseUp: The final shot of Charles using Cerebro is a close-up of his eyes, which are shut tightly at first before opening wide due to his sheer terror of experiencing Farouk's mind.
26	* FaintInShock: Gabrielle is so terrified by a "phantom" that abruptly materializes next to her son's crib that she faints.
27	* FallingInLoveMontage: A sequence of clips set to "True Love Will Find You in the End" by Music/DanielJohnston is used to summarize how the romance between Charles and Gabrielle gradually blossoms. They walk around the mental hospital while HoldingHands, he sends her his cute drawings that he knows will make her laugh, they play chess, eat cherry pie together (and they playfully fight over the last piece), he teaches her how to slow dance, and they stargaze at night, which then culminates into their FirstKiss.
28	* FirstKiss: While stargazing on the balcony of the psychiatric hospital, Charles and Gabrielle then [[HeldGaze gaze at each other]] for a moment before sharing their first kiss. It's the last clip of their FallingInLoveMontage, so the kiss signals that they've moved past the courtship stage and are now a couple.
29	* FlashbackNightmare: When Charles is asleep, his subconscious replays his harrowing memory from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII where he had a scuffle with a Nazi soldier that nearly cost him his life.
30	* FogOfDoom: A bodiless Shadow King appears as a thick fog of black smoke, and his consciousness travels halfway across world in order to invade and contaminate the mind of David, the infant son of his adversary Charles.
31	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Most of the clips that are shown when Charles detects Farouk with Cerebro are from "[[Recap/LegionS3E7Chapter26 Chapter 26]]", so somehow Charles is able to see glimpses of his future meeting with Farouk.
32	* FreakyIsCool: Charles asks Gabrielle if she thinks his telepathy is weird.
33	-->'''Gabrielle''': Are there others like you?\
34	'''Charles''': Maybe. I don't know. Do you think it's odd?\
35	'''Gabrielle''': A little. But I like odd.
36	* HeldGaze: Charles and Gabrielle were initially admiring the beauty of the night sky before being distracted by the beauty that's standing right in front of them. They stare deeply into each other's eyes before leaning in for their FirstKiss.
37	* HighClassGloves: After Gabrielle becomes Charles' fiancée, she wears [[https://static-media.fxnetworks.com/img/FX_Networks/182/719/LEGION_NO_303.jpg pretty green gloves]] as she's leaving the hospital and when she's slow-dancing in their new home to add flair to her splendid attire. As the future wife of an affluent Englishman, the gloves reflect her new social status.
38	* HoldingHands: Charles and Gabrielle stroll around the psychiatric hospital hand-in-hand during one of their dates (as patients, their dating options are limited).
39	* HowDadMetMom: This episode focuses on how David's biological parents met, fell in love, got married and brought him into the world. Thanks to Switch's TimeTravel ability, she and David are able to observe Charles and his girlfriend/wife Gabrielle over three decades ago in the past, before David was born and also when he was a baby.
40	* ICantHearYou: Because it's the 1950s, the long-distance phone call from Morocco has a weak connection, so Gabrielle and Charles have a lot of trouble understanding what the other is saying through all the loud static and distortion. She's unable to hear her husband's warning about Farouk (the latter is ''literally'' haunting her house as a FogOfDoom, so she's unaware that her infant son David is in danger), and she also misses Charles' reassurance that he's on on his way home. Because Gabrielle's psyche is falling apart at the seams, it's essential for her to know that Charles (who's her LivingEmotionalCrutch) will return soon, so without that info, her despair grows ever closer to the breaking point.
41	-->'''Gabrielle''': Hello?\
42	'''Charles''': Love? It's me. Are you there?\
43	'''Gabrielle''': I'm here.\
44	'''Charles''': I-I found him. His name is Amahl Farouk. He's a telepath. He's-he's nothing like me. I should never have come.\
45	'''Gabrielle''': Where are you?\
46	'''Charles''': He has no morals. He's a monster.\
47	'''Gabrielle''': Who?\
48	'''Charles''': Some sort of devil. He's a--\
49	'''Gabrielle''': I can't hear you.\
50	'''Charles''': Hello? Gabrielle?\
51	'''Gabrielle''': Can you hear me?\
52	'''Charles''': Can you...? I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm-I'm coming home now.\
53	'''Gabrielle''': Charles, come home. You hear me? Come home.\
54	''(Gabrielle erupts into BrokenTears after Charles hangs up the receiver)''
55	* IdleRich: Charles is sufficiently wealthy that he doesn't need a job, so he has the luxury to pursue his own personal interests. He spends his time building Cerebro in the hope that he can telepathically locate other mutants around the world. When he discovers one living in Morocco, he travels there at a moment's notice and stays there for an extended period of time because there are no constraints on his schedule, plus money isn't an issue.
56	* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Charles is so desperate to befriend other mutants that when he finds one in Morocco with Cerebro (which he designed and assembled with his own hands in order to search for mutants globally), he travels halfway across the world just to meet a fellow telepath. He even ignores how afraid he was when he first sensed Farouk's mind, which should've been a warning to Charles that Farouk is extremely dangerous. Creator/HarryLloyd [[https://www.marvel.com/articles/tv-shows/legion-cements-charles-xavier-and-gabrielles-tragic-love-story-and-davids-doomed-fate clarifies]] on the loneliness that his character feels:
57	-->'''Lloyd''': He always imagined himself as a freak. This guy has this telepathic ability. And it's raw and I use it for good as much as possible, but I keep a lid on it and it's local. To then find someone else who has exactly the same thing to feel that you're part of a breed. There is some horror or something dark connected to it. But he goes out looking for a friend or a brother. He actually, only then, is honest about quite how alone he's been his whole life. Even now married and with a child. And as soon as he finds a connection on that level, which I think he resigned himself to never having, he has to explore it.
58	* InternalHomage: Charles and Gabrielle's romance [[https://legionfx.tumblr.com/post/186192217049/david-x-syd-charles-x-gabrielle-parallels parallels]] David and Sydney's from "[[Recap/LegionS1E1Chapter1 Chapter 1]]." They're both patients at a mental institution, one sketches the portrait of the other, the first meal they share includes pie, they stroll around the hospital together, they both kiss [[note]]done for real in Charles and Gabrielle's case, whereas David and Syd had to settle for a symbolic smooch to avoid activating her FreakyFridayFlip mutant power[[/note]], plus the girlfriend stealthily enters the bedroom of the boyfriend at night and they discuss leaving the asylum in his bed.
59	* InTheBlood: We learn in this episode that David inherited a lot of traits from his biological father Charles: they're both incredibly powerful telepaths, they share a mutual [[SweetTooth fondness for cherry pie]], they both enjoy stargazing, and they're both brown-haired {{Pretty Boy}}s who are of the exact same height (their actors, Creator/DanStevens and Creator/HarryLloyd, are 183 cm / 6'0"). Like David, Charles also fell in love with a troubled woman while they were institutionalized at a psychiatric facility. David lampshades this.
60	-->'''David''': Wow. This is how they met? My parents. In a mental hospital. I guess it just runs in the family.
61	* KillingInSelfDefense: While being strangled to death by a Nazi soldier, Charles can only save himself by telepathically ordering his assailant to commit suicide. Charles is able breathe again after the Nazi shoots himself in the head with the former's service revolver.
62	* LaughOfLove: Gabrielle giggles a few times when she and Charles spend time together during their FallingInLoveMontage.
63	* {{Leitmotif}}: David is associated with the song "Wot!" by Captain Sensible.
64	* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Gabrielle is emotionally fragile, and she's only stable when her husband Charles is present. When he goes on a trip to Morocco on his own, she's left at home with their newborn son. Her mental health starts to deteriorate, and she eventually relapses into a catatonic state.
65	* LongLastLook: In lieu of a farewell, Charles quietly glances back at his wife and son with affection and sadness, knowing that he'll miss them during his lengthy trip to Morocco, before he heads towards the taxi that will take him to the airport.
66	* LoveTheme:
67	** "True Love Will Find You in the End" by Music/DanielJohnston plays during Charles and Gabrielle's FallingInLoveMontage.
68	** "She's a Rainbow" by Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} is heard when they leave the asylum intending to start a new life together as a married couple, and the music continues when we first see them living in a gorgeous house in a suburb with their newborn son David.
69	* ManlyTears: Charles sobs when he's unable to awaken Gabrielle from her catatonic state with his PsychicPowers.
70	* MilitarySalute: Although they're no longer active servicemen, the patients at the mental institution who are ex-soldiers perform the British military salute when Charles (a former British army officer) departs from the sanatorium.
71	* MindControl: Charles employs his PsychicPowers to "convince" everyone at the psychiatric hospital that he and Gabrielle are cured of their mental disorders, so naturally the couple's departure from the facility is hassle-free.
72	* MindOverManners: Charles explains to Gabrielle that he doesn't dig too deeply when he reads other people's minds because he wishes to respect their privacy. However, he does skim their surface thoughts without permission.
73	-->'''Charles''': I can hear thoughts. Memories. But it occurred to me that there should be rules. People deserve their privacy. So I don't pry when I'm in there.
74	* MonochromePast: When Charles experiences a PTSD episode where he relives his memory of nearly being killed by a Nazi soldier while he was in the British army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the whole scene is in black-and-white.
75	* MythologyGag:
76	** Instead of going for a more comic book-accurate Charles Xavier (who's unsympathetic, bald, paraplegic, and American as apple pie -- the latter would be the natural choice considering that his son David is an American on the show), the showrunners decided to repeat the convention established by the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' that the character is a NiceGuy who has British ancestry and talks with a British accent, plus his younger self is a brown-haired PrettyBoy who isn't wheelchair-bound.
77	** During their FallingInLoveMontage, Charles and Gabrielle are briefly shown playing chess, which is a nod to the chess games that Professor X and Magneto shared in the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''.
78	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Charles and Farouk's psychic battle would have occurred before Gabrielle receives a phone call from her husband (who by that point had already emerged as the victor), but because the show's visual effects budget is extremely limited, the audience doesn't get to see the epic telepathic duel onscreen.
79	* PastExperienceNightmare: Charles seems to be calm and collected on the surface (which befits his high-class English background), but as a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veteran, he's haunted in his sleep by a traumatic memory where he almost died at the hands of a Nazi soldier.
80	* PietaPlagiarism: Charles cradles his wife Gabrielle across his lap after she falls unconscious.
81	* POVCam: There are a few shots of baby David seeing his parents from his point-of-view while lying in his crib.
82	* PsychicAssistedSuicide: When Charles is being choked to death by a Nazi soldier, he implants the telepathic command "Kill yourself" into his attacker's mind as a form of self-defense. The Nazi then lets go of Charles' neck, picks up the latter's service pistol and [[BoomHeadshot blows his brains out]].
83	* PsychicRadar: Charles constructs Cerebro in his basement, which vastly enhances his telepathic range so that he can detect any mutant on the planet. After he turns on the device, the first mutant he psychically perceives is Farouk, who resides in Morocco.
84	* QuakingWithFear: While operating Cerebro, Charles trembles with fright after he makes contact with Farouk's mind.
85	* RapidFireNo: After Switch collapses from exhaustion and drifts into a deep slumber, David desperately utters "No" a total of 21 times (plus one "Wait") within five seconds as he tries (and fails) to wake her up.
86	* RuleOfSymbolism:
87	** The character Harold in the children's book ''Literature/HaroldAndThePurpleCrayon'' that Gabrielle reads to her infant son David is emblematic of the type of person that David becomes when he's older. At its core, the story is about a boy who loses touch with reality because he's preoccupied with the imaginary world that he creates with his purple crayon. Harold is totally lost within his own mind, just like the mentally ill David is.
88	** Harold symbolizes Charles as well, whose actor is Creator/HarryLloyd (Harry is the diminutive of Harold). Gabrielle's narration "Harold was over his head" is heard when Charles puts on the Cerebro helmet for the first time, and it foreshadows that Charles is in over his head when he finds Farouk.
89	* SoleSurvivor: When Charles inquires if Gabrielle has any family, the nurse replies, "No one."
90	* StargazingScene: The final clip of Charles and Gabrielle's FallingInLoveMontage is of them looking up at the night sky, which is a very romantic setting for the couple's FirstKiss.
91	* TalkingInBed: At the psychiatric hospital, Gabrielle sneaks into her boyfriend's bed at night, and while lying next to Charles under the covers, she recounts to him about a marvelous dream that she had where they were free from the asylum, living together as husband and wife. He tells her that if this is truly her wish, then he'll make her dream come true, to which she replies that she wants to begin the next chapter of their relationship right away.
92	-->'''Gabrielle''': I had the most wonderful dream.\
93	'''Charles''': Tell me.\
94	'''Gabrielle''': We lived far away from here. You and me, together. And the stars... they belonged to us.\
95	'''Charles''': Sounds nice.\
96	'''Gabrielle''': Just a dream.\
97	'''Charles''': Doesn't have to be.\
98	'''Gabrielle''': We're in the madhouse.\
99	'''Charles''': Until we're not. Say the word. There's something I can do.\
100	'''Gabrielle''': A trick? Well, in that case what are we waiting for?
101	* TearsOfFear: Charles is so overwhelmed with fear when he's telepathically linked to Farouk through Cerebro that a tear spills from his right eye.
102	* TryingNotToCry: Gabrielle is visibly struggling not to cry after she's unable to persuade her husband Charles to cancel his trip to Morocco. He's her LivingEmotionalCrutch, so she knows her sanity will crumble without him around, especially with the added stress of having to take care of their newborn son on her own.
103	* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: The scenes of Charles and Gabrielle at the psychiatric hospital are saturated in blue light to denote that it's an utterly drab and dreary environment for all the patients there.
104	* VoiceoverLetter: While Gabrielle writes a letter to her husband Charles, we hear her narrate its contents.
105	* WhatIfTheBabyIsLikeMe: Charles expresses his concern that his telepathic ability might be passed down to his infant son David, knowing full well how isolating and dangerous it can be. Gabrielle hopes that their child won't be like her because she has a history of severe mental illness.
106	-->'''Charles''': What if I pass it on to him? And he ends up like me?\
107	'''Gabrielle''': Would you rather he be like me?\
108	'''Charles''': Yes.\
109	'''Gabrielle''': ''(chuckles)'' I wouldn't.
110	* WideEyedIdealist: Charles is idealistic compared to the more cynical Gabrielle.
111	-->'''Charles''': We can change.\
112	'''Gabrielle''': People don't change.\
113	'''Charles''': I don't believe that.\
114	'''Gabrielle''': That's sweet.
115	* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: David's plan when he travels back in time is to protect his baby self from being possessed by the disembodied Farouk, but David's presence ends up facilitating the infection. David's attempt at communicating with his mother Gabrielle causes her to faint, and then his father Charles arrives home from Morocco to find his wife unconscious on the floor. Charles assumes that the ghostly apparition (who is the adult David, but Charles doesn't know that) in his infant son's bedroom is the culprit, so Charles hurls the intruder away with his PsychicPowers. While Charles is distracted trying to revive Gabrielle, he doesn't notice that behind him, Farouk's consciousness is entering baby David's mind. The adult David's interference in the past sealed his own fate.
116	* YouMonster: Charles considers Farouk to be an immoral monster and a "some sort of devil."
117	* YouSayTomato: When Gabrielle pronounces tomato as "to-may-to," Charles (an Englishman) remarks that the correct pronunciation among Brits is "to-mah-to."
118	-->'''Gabrielle''': Have you heard of a to-may-to?\
119	'''Charles''': Well, we say to-mah-to, but, uh, yes.

Context Recap / LegionS3E3Chapter22