FX’s Legion often seems like a snake eating its own tale. Rather than introducing new characters, it wraps back into its own continuity, pulling back obscure characters from episodes earlier. Except for on this week’s “Chapter 14,” when we were introduced to David Haller’s (Dan Stevens) boss Laura Mercer, played by Molly Hagan.
***Spoilers for the episode past this point*** In “Chapter 14,” we were introduced to a multiverse of Davids. Each timeline/alternate reality was a little different. But one of the most intriguing was Business David/Old David. Depending on how you interpreted the episode, these were either two different Davids, or the same David at different points in the timeline.
Assuming the latter, we saw David as a hapless coffee boy, who ends up giving some psychic advice to his boss. Before she can close a major deal, he reveals to her that the company she was looking to merge with isn’t revealing everything about their product. Years later, David hasn’t just taken over that company, he’s used his psychic prowess to take over the whole world.
And in the process, he’s essentially made Laura Mercer into his slave. “I don’t know why you keep her around,” David’s sister asks at one point. The question, of course, is whether the show will keep her around. Introducing someone new into Legion‘s story at this point doesn’t seem like a random detail.
And hopefully they do, because Hagan is a versatile actress you’ve definitely seen before. Here’s how you know her.
Molly Hagan was in Code of Silence
As these sorts of things always do, this comes back to Chuck Norris. Hagan’s first big break was Diana Luna, the young girl Norris has to protect in 1985’s Code of Silence. More importantly, Norris teams up with a robot in the movie, so that’s pretty cool.
She was also in Some Kind of Wonderful and Election
She’s had a long career since then, but is probably best known for playing Shayne in Some Kind of Wonderful, and Matthew Broderick’s wife Diane McAllister in the 1999 satire Election.
She was on Herman’s Head and Unfabulous
A good chunk of Molly Hagan’s work has been guest starring on TV shows, but her longest runs were on Herman’s Head and Unfabulous. On the former, she was Angel, the only female character in the titular head. For Nickelodeon fans you might recognize her better as Addie’s mom on Unfabulous.
She’s a CW staple
If you’re a fan of The CW, you might recognize her as Liv’s mom from iZombie. Or more recently, she showed up as Patricia Cordero on five episodes of Jane the Virgin.
However you know her, stay tuned to Legion to see if she’s coming back…
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An unofficial after-show for FX's Legion, hosted by Comic Book Club!
