Reviewed: Lamentation

Contributor: Unknown

Ephraim Fabricant's Definition of Evil

There may not have been a scene in the show that more clearly explains exactly what Frank is up against than this powerful and weighty scene between himself and Ephraim Fabricant. This scene is powerful because it scares you with words. The Devil's liege, the base sum of all evil. Does this exist? What if it were after you, as it is after Frank? Would you have the courage to look it in the face and defy it? Frightening questions. Evil is obviously a greater force than serial killers and mass murderers in the Millennium universe. As the Old Man says to Frank in Beware of the Dog, "Serial killers, mass murderers, it's all genetics. Inevitability. You have no idea about... true evil." True evil, Legion, occupies a higher level than a serial killer, acting on impulses, rage, environment. True evil has a purpose and a meter. It will do anything to reach its goals, act without conscience or restraint, and can hide, as it did in Lamentation, in the most unassuming guise possible, behind innocent faces and guileless voices. We look at true evil differently. Verbal Kint says it well in The Usual Suspects, "How do you shoot the Devil in the back? What if you miss?" Ephraim Fabricant captures all of that; the urgency, the fear, the danger that comes with Legion knowing you. Frank, our hero, is luckily too strong to feel these things. All he feels is determination. This scene is possibly the most powerful of all, simply because it deals with a subject that is not only intellectually terrifying, but also viscerally so. And, in addition, like the scene from the Pilot, this too sets a context. This is the mapping out of Frank's struggle. This is what he's up against. Legion appears on the show often, but rarely is he discussed as he is here.