The Polaroid Man

[Maxx Blackwell]

My stepson and I have just watched The Beginning and the End and I just noticed something else what may perhaps amount to another clue that the Polaroid Man may be another incarnation of Legion. The clue is what I'd like to call the Oroborous episode format.

The episode begins with a scene that repeats just before the end and is followed by the conclusion. The story comes full circle and repeats the opening scene - the oroborous bites its tail.

We have seen two episodes that follow this pattern. The first one is ... 118 Powers, Principalities, Thrones And Dominions ... and the second is ... 201 The Beginning and The End - The Al Pepper story and the Polaroid Man story.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But maybe not.

Maxx

[4th Horseman]

My stepson and I have just watched The Beginning and the End and I just noticed something else what may perhaps amount to another clue that the Polaroid Man may be another incarnation of Legion. The clue is what I'd like to call the Oroborous episode format.

The episode begins with a scene that repeats just before the end and is followed by the conclusion. The story comes full circle and repeats the opening scene - the oroborous bites its tail.

We have seen two episodes that follow this pattern. The first one is ... 118 Powers, Principalities, Thrones And Dominions ... and the second is ... 201 The Beginning and The End - The Al Pepper story and the Polaroid Man story.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But maybe not.

Maxx

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My understanding of Legion is similar to those who have posted here. It is biblical, referring to 2000 "demonic spirits" that were cast, at their request, by Jesus into a herd of nearby swine that immediately ran off a nearby cliff and drowned en masse. It is also a reference to evil demons who take the form of Man. Am I right? Then, if this is held to be true, then would not those humans being occupied possess demonic powers? Such seemed to be the case in MillenniuM of Aleister Pepper, whose depiction of Legion i believe was the most accurate...

Just who was Bardale, referred to by The Judge as "a slave of echoes", and how was this mere mortal, who possessed no obvious powers other than the ability to chain drink beers able to eliminate a direct incarnation of Legion? With the veiled threats made to Frank under interrogation, and the obvious recognition The Judge had for Frank when they went to question him at his ranch, (smiling at him over Bletch's shoulder), "feel my strength" "this is the closet i have allowed you and your associates to get"...one of the many who were Legion, yet killed by a common criminal who possessed no supernatural powers? Or did he? Was Bardale an earlier representation of Sammuel in some form? An angel sent to mete out vengenance against Legion?

This was FAR different than PPTD in which Samuel was sent to deal with Pepper (Legion)...now you have an angelic or a "Higher Power" dealing directly on the authority of God? Was Bardale Samuel in disguise? They both suffered the same fates, arrested for murder..

back to PPTD...

"He would not have stopped with Atkins" - to me, more than an intimation that someone even greater in Frank's life was next? Remember, it was Atkins who brought Frank back into the group by way of helping him understand his "gift"... who was left, Peter? Catherine? Jordan?....But perhaps it had nothing to do with Frank at all. Perhaps it was meant as a warning to the Group. Also, remember that the belief in a biblical prophecy also includes Armegeddon, the beast of the sea and the beast of the land were thrown into the lake of fire, and then, to reign with Christ for 1000 years in peace...this is foretelling the punishment meted out to Satan and his minions by God after binding their hands during the 1000 years of peace..

there seems to be either a contradiction in the perception of Legion or an unclear definition of the powers within..My foundation is this:

There was an attempt in both instances to recruit Frank to come over to the "dark side", if you will.

So the concept of Legion is correct, even though only in The Judge was there a direct connection, in PPTD it was more of a suggested tie in..

Then was Pepper's transgressions considered so heinous, so evil that there was divine interevention in sending Sammeul? The Judge states during his conversation with Frank "I am Legion"...then if this is the case, how was he slain by no higher power than a mere mortal human. And perhaps his death was in reference to various verses in 2 Peter...

2 Peter 2:1

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."

2 Peter 2:19..

While they promise them liberty,(The Judge promising to keep Bardale out of prison) they themselves are the servants of corruption (Bardale saying the Judge felt the system was full of crap, then he gets in bed with the very same system) for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

and lastly 2 Peter 2:22..

But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Perhaps this is why we find The Judge (Legion) dead amongst the swine.."a dog returning to its own vomit", perhaps Legion once again being "cast unto swine"....

once again, i am in a hurry to finish this, so i apologize for any confusion or "bumps in the road"

Till the Last Change...Be Done...

The Fourth Horseman...

[ethsnafu]

...they are a synagogue of Satan...

Here's my thing.

My concept of Legion, like 4th's, is largely attributed to the Biblical account where 'Legion' is not one but many demons housed within a host. Modern theologians and historical occultists believe that passage that introduces us to Legion is an indication of his nature and not just his name.

When the demoniac informs Christ that he is Legion what he does is instruct Christ that he is 'composed' of a hardy of infernal entities and the use of the term Legion seems to be an indication that he considers this number to be around 6000 (The term Legion denoting 6000 soldiers,) Since Christ is successful in exorcising 2000 of them Millennium may have conceptualised this theological conundrum as the basis for it's Legion mythology: Frank's crusade against the remaining incarnations of the Biblical monster. Interestingly it has been widely believed that Legion is compliant in his own demise but modern thinking interprates his desire to be transmigrated into the herd of swine as a desperate act of survival. Legion doesn't want to be sent away. The occupying power desperately wants to maintain its foothold somehow, somewhere. Jesus acquiesces to this request, but in such a way as to reverse the scapegoat mechanism that had locked the demoniac in such a cruel relationship with the townspeople. Normally it is the scapegoat who is killed by the people as a substitutionary sacrifice for their sin. Instead, the scapegoat is healed, and Legion, representing the spirituality of the people, is cast into the swine and headlong over a cliff. Evil requires a scapegoat in order to maintain its legitimacy; without it, it dies.

My belief is that the abominations that comprised the demon would have had some form of organised structure, the shadow of the angelic hierarchy, and whilst some would be concerned with the more earthly pursuits of recruitment and human interaction others would be workers of chaos in accordance with nefarious design - this may explain the humanistic abilities of some incarnations and the superhuman traits of others. One suggested Hierarchy of demons divides them into Greater and Lesser entities and then into subdivisions of actions, deeds and purposes. Some of the entities have fathomable, but thoroughly evil, patterns of behavior whilst others are perplexingly random and chaotic. A suggested list of demonic ranks appears below though how this came to be I cannot say:

THE GREATER DEMONS

Demon Locusts

Raksasha aka Shape Shifters

Jinn aka Elemental Demons

Baal-Rog

Night Owls

Gallu aka Demon Bulls

Magot

Lesser Demons

THE LESSER DEMONS

Mares aka Nightmares

Dar'ota aka Succubus & Incubus

Shedim

Alu aka Demon Hounds

Lasae

Couril

Aquatics

Labassu Lost Souls

Banshees aka Harbingers of Death

Ghoul & Nasu

My belief is that MM chose to portray something like this with Frank's tests growing more obscure, unfathomable and inhuman as the Seasons progressed. The days of objective blatancy in 'Judge' would descend into the almost impenetrable lessons of 'Bardo Thodol' with Frank tripping chaotically down the demon hierarchy: even Lucy is seen to become less and less rational and fathomable as we progress through her stories, the more we see her the less human and more bottom-of-the-abyss she becomes. I assume that this is the reason that various incarnations of the entities once housed in Legion were dealt with in different ways, fighting fire with fire so to speak but 4th's mention of the line "He would not have stopped with Atkins" now has me spinning with ideas as to who they may ultimately have coveted. This idea was originally intended to form part of Matroyshka with Lilly Unser reminding Peter Watts that "Frank Black isn't the only one, Peter" - I can only assume that this is in reference to Jordan but who knows.

My thinking is that Legion, over the course of the Millennia, has infiltrated the Millennium Group. Possessing/Incarnating within members and covertly infecting group ideology with something much darker and virulent. It is my belief also that this thematic shift occurred (as I have detailed more fully elsewhere) in 1945 when the Group began a series of experiments that were almost scientific analogies of exorcisms: an attempt to split the darkness from the soul of man. I am convinced that it is this Legion controlled faction that ultimately perverts the benign soul of Peter Watts and it is into this faction that he intiates Lara Means. I have noted elsewhere that the blood-themed initiation she undergoes is at odds with the strict ethical teachings of Christianity but interestingly it is the act of cutting and bleeding that was to draw Christ's attention to Legion in the first instance. The bible notes that...."And always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones...." The natural spirit of the man seeking to throw off the dominion of the demons would cry out in agony, and the demons themselves, in their own misery, would use him as a vehicle to express their own grief. Note how Lara and Peter are 'cut' as part of their initiation and how the 'volatility' experienced by Lara may be a demonic frenzy and there is evidence, yes there is, that Lara was beserk prior to her initiation may be 'the crying out and cutting' experienced by the demonically inclined. If she did become part of Legion's faction it would explain, beautifully, why she no longer perceives her angel but is subject to the image of the Gehenna Demon instead. IT could also explain this line which has puzzled me. In Roosters it has explained that Lara is sequestered away at Peter Watts' behest and The Trust reveals that only he has had contact with her in recent time. Whe Lara phones Frank prior to her intiation and is already clearly demented (which flies in the face of Peter Watt's assertion that it is the intiatory process that left her volatile - not so Peter!) she says the following "...The things they've told me. The responsibility, Frank, just to know is enough..." Who exactly are they? For we are many?

I am in the process, amongst a great many things, of constructing a Millennium Group Demonology: of course it is a fan work and nothing valid but it is my way of making sense of the Polaroid/Legion/Butler trinity and all their little imps. I shall make it available for your perusal as soon as it is done.

I promised no more but I still keep droning on. Forgive me...

eth.snafu

[Maxx Blackwell]

If Pigs are to Us a sign of Legion,

As Angels are to Lara a sign of Evil,

Is the pig in Jordan's notebook in the episode Owls

A foreshadowing of Legion's presence in the Group,

likely among the Owls?

[Guest Thomas]

BLETCHER: This Millennium Group. They really believe all that stuff?

Nostradamus and Revelations? The destruction of the world?

- From the transcripts to 100 PILOT - with thanks to Maria Vitale & Libby who've saved me a lot of work!

If Bletchrer knows about the religious underpinnings of the Millennium Group they are not being kept very secret. Certainly they had secrets. What are some of the things the MG was hiding?