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In the Legion season 2 finale, the show flipped our mental schemas about superheroes and superhero shows. It introduced us to a reality of the main character, David, we have never seen before. Like Sydney in the previous episode, we were forced to question the reality of David's actions and decide if we can continue to view him as we did. David Haller is a rapist. If this were real life, it would read more like this: David Haller has been accused of sexual assault by his girlfriend. This distinction may seem small but our word matter, on the show there is no doubt. We were complicit, we saw it happen. Though we logically could have done nothing about it, to put us in the situation of identifying with people closest to those accused of assault is jarring. For me, once Sydney clarified that David raped her I found myself reeling and clawing for possible alternatives. This was my knee-jerk reaction. This, I think is the reaction of many. Coming from this place we can see what must change. My own initial lack of willingness to believe Sydney mirrors that of larger society. When a celebrity, someone we collectively hold up as better than ourselves, is accused of assault we don't want to accept that possibility. Instead we get wrapped up in the nuances of the allegation: whether or not they had been in a relationship, what she was doing there with him, why she didn't come forward sooner. These don't matter. They go beyond evidence, and into a search for justification. We want to believe he didn't do it, we want to believe she got confused, in short we want to believe she's wrong. This need for our fictional and social heroes, who are overwhemingly male, to be in the right adds to a culture that doesn't believe women. Brandon Rucker
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