Legion Season 2: What Is The Lazarus Affair?

The status quo of Legion's eclectic crew of mutants has shifted dramatically with the start of season two. We've learned that David's abduction during the season one finale has actually lasted an entire year and in that time the group from Summerland has actually teamed up with Division Three, the former villains of the show--or at least one of the former villains.

So now we're left to figure things out as David does, orienting ourselves for a totally new status quo. Thankfully, Ptonomy is here to fill us in--at least, sort of. He helpfully rattled off the history of Division Three for David over a pleasant pancake breakfast, but his breakdown prompted a few more questions than answers.

He mentioned something called the "Lazarus Affair," which opens the door for some pretty major potential connections to other X-Men properties. But what is the Lazarus Affair? He didn't really bother to explain, so we'll do it instead.

Here's the deal: Lazarus, in X-Men canon, is actually the brother of a more familiar mutant named Domino, who is about to get her very own live action debut care of Deadpool 2, played by Zazie Beetz. Lazarus, like his sister, was the product of some top secret government genetic testing, which gave him incredibly powerful metal manipulation and projection powers. It's dangerous, scary stuff made even more dangerous and scary by the fact that Lazarus was a child who had no idea how strong he was. Even his own mother wanted to kill him rather than unleash him on the world.

Unfortunately, that's really all there is to it for little Lazarus on the comics end of things--he only lasted about an issue back in the early 00s and since then, hasn't been featured in anything major. But in the case of a show like Legion, which prefers to be oblique with its source material references, that lack of canon development might actually be an asset.

Obviously, we can't be totally sure if the "Lazarus Affair" is actually referring to a person, and if it is we can't be sure that it's this Lazarus they're going for. But the fact that the Division numbers during Ptonomy's explanation are written out to look like domino dots (as pointed out in an article at Bustle) seems a little bit too on-the-nose to be a total coincidence. On top of that, Lazarus would certainly fit with the motif being woven throughout the show of slightly off-beat psychics having too much power. And the idea of a mutant child being put down because of his uncontrollable ability is absolutely a dramatic enough inciting incident to prompt the creation of the Divisions, as Ptonomy explained.

The fact that the strange infectious event causing people to go catatonic and chatter their teeth only affects people above a certain age puts children in a whole new context this season, especially since "no one knows why." Add to that the fact we got to see what appeared to be a Division Three kindergarten classroom in the middle of a game of duck-duck-goose with the crutches-wielding monster lurking in the background during David's trip through the psychic amplifier and, well--kids seem to be an ominous and notable element this season.

Then there's Domino herself, who seems like an even bigger possible get for the show. It's unlikely that Legion will be so bold as to directly connect itself with the big screen X-Men universe by having Zazie Beetz actually show up (the fact that David's father is Charles Xavier kind of makes dabbling in the movies a complicated thing). But it's definitely possible that we might end up seeing a remixed version of Domino somewhere in Division Three. Domino's mutation--the ability to essentially grant herself extremely good luck while making the people around her suffer extremely bad luck--is an undeniably great fit for Legion's collection of the more esoteric side of mutant powers.

Even if the Lazarus Affair name drop is nothing more than a clever Easter Egg for Domino fans, the fact that the Divisions themselves seem to be a major plot element of Season 2 is enough to make every potential avenue worth exploring. After all, we have no idea if David is being told the whole story, if Ptonomy's explanation was actually the truth, or what the newly introduced Admiral Fukuyama even is.

We're not saying you should be expecting a Deadpool crossover any time soon, but certainly try and keep an ear to the ground as this season moves forward. And pay close attention to anything and everything you hear about the Divisions and their origin stories--maybe something inexplicably lucky is on the horizon.