Relationship Spotlight: Cary Loudermilk & Kerry Loudermilk (Legion)

Legion’s first season takes its time with Cary and Kerry.  It introduces both characters separately and then teases out their connection slowly over a few episodes before revealing what the deal is with them.  It’s a fascinating character dynamic that adds a lot to how both are portrayed (Cary-Kerry-related spoilers.)

Kerry takes part in the operation to rescue David from Division 3, and once they’re all back at Summerland, Cary quickly begins studying David in hopes of understanding the full nature of his powers and what might be holding them back.  Then, we start to get hints.  While in the MRI, David mistakenly thinks Cary is talking to him, and when he admits that he sometimes talks to himself too, Cary insists that he’s talking, not to himself, but to “Cary” (really, Kerry.)  At this point, David doesn’t know Kerry’s name or much of anything about her, and he questions, “So you’re talking to Cary, just not the Cary that happens to be yourself.”  Cary, naturally, finds nothing strange about that.

Because it’s soon clear that there’s more going on beyond an eccentric scientist.  Kerry can appear seemingly out of nowhere, being absent and then, when Cary calls for her, suddenly just being.  It’s not until episode 4 that their full nature is revealed, in a conversation between Syd and Kerry about the latter’s identity.  There, we learn that her (and Cary’s) parents had been expecting the birth of a Native daughter and were shocked when a little white boy came out.  Then in turn, Cary was shocked when he woke up night to find a little Native girl playing with his train set.  The realization came slowly:  Kerry was inside of him and could come out when she or he wanted.

That’s how their life has been lived, fundamentally together.  When Kerry is inside Cary, it seems she’s still fully aware and they can communicate with each other, but she only ages when she’s outside of him, meaning that he’s decades older than her.  When they’re separated, they can feel one another’s bodies (Cary feels the punches when Kerry fights,) and when Kerry is hurt, she can heal by going inside Cary, who then takes on her bruises.  It’s something they don’t fully understand themselves; Cary confesses that he doesn’t know what will happen to Kerry when he dies.

As people (and they are two different people,) they’re very different.  Cary is more of a lab guy, preferring to stay in, study, and tinker, while Kerry is an adrenaline junkie who relishes mixing it up with some baddies.  In many ways, Kerry is the tough one, Cary’s protector, but when they’re truly cut off from one another, she feels terrifyingly alone in a way she never has before.  Just as he needs her and misses her when she’s away, she needs him and needs to know he’s there even when they’re apart.

Syd doesn’t quite get them.  She worries about Kerry, thinking that existing inside Cary puts her at a disadvantage, person-wise, like she’s not being allowed to be a complete person in the way that the rest of them are.  But Kerry likes the way she lives – as she explains to Syd, she never has to deal with the “boring” stuff like sleeping, eating, and going to the bathroom, and she’ll gladly let Cary take the reins there as long as she can come out when the action starts – and really, whatever it is that Cary and Kerry have, you don’t have to watch them for more than a few minutes before realizing that it works for them.