WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of Legion, "Chapter 9," which aired Tuesday on FX.

Viewers knew with Legion's Season 1 cliffhanger, which unleashed the Shadow King into the world and whisked away David Haller in a tiny orb, that the status quo of X-Men's reality-bending X-Men spinoff would be upended upon its return. However, they might not have expected it to change this much, with the mutants of Summerland forming an alliance with their one-time foe, the enigmatic government organization Division 3, to pursue a common enemy: Amahl Farouk.

With that, the curtain is pulled back, if only a little, on the agency, previously embodied by the faceless soldiers who prowled the forests in search of Summerland, and by the menacing Eye (Mackenzie Gray) and Clark Debussy (Hamish Linklater), the Interrogator. Taken within its honeycombed headquarters, definitely an upgrade from the derelict school from Season 1, we discover that Division 3 is effectively Legion's S.H.I.E.L.D., only focused on mutants.

RELATED: Legion Finally Reveals What the Shadow King Is Looking For

However, in contrast to Marvel's premier law-enforcement and espionage agency, the origin of Division 3 and its counterparts are still a little ... murky. Bringing David (Dan Stevens) up to speed after a nearly one-year absence, Ptonomy Wallace (Jeremie Harris) explains that, "After the Lazarus Affair, the divisions were created to study and defend against what people saw as the new mutant threat." The casualness with which he refers to the Lazarus Affair implies it's an event everyone in Legion's world knows; that probably also means the audience will never, ever be told anything more about it.

Legion divisions

Luckily, though, Ptonomy is more forthcoming about the structure and purpose of the divisions: Division 1 is global command and communications; Division 2 is pure science, genetics and technology; and Division 3 is "the tip of the spear," investigations, research and tactical -- and home to at least some of the Summerland mutants. Ptonomy and Kerry Loudermilk (Amber Midthunder) are definitely working in the field, and Cary Loudermilk (Bill Irwin) is in the lab, although there are definite signs that the integration of the two groups hasn't been without tension (as when D3 soldiers threaten are briefly engaged in a standoff with Kerry).

RELATED: Legion Creator Explains Cliffhanger, Looks Ahead to Season 2

Following the death last season of Brubaker (veteran actor David Selby), the enigmatic Admiral Fukuyama apparently was named as head of the division. A silent man in vaguely feudal Japanese clothing who wears a wicker basket on his head, Fukuyama communicates using a trio of mustachioed women that looks like a 1970s prog rock band about to make a music video. They're the Vermillion.

Legion season 2

"Our mind cannot be read," Fukuyama explains to David, using the alternating voices of the women. "When we were a boy, we had the machine put into our head. For days we screamed; the pain was like a volcano puncturing the molten core, the device buried deep within our cerebral cortex like nails from a bomb in a public place. Hardware inside software. And now we're this, the Machine that Bleeds, the organizing principle."

So, yeah, Admiral Fukuyama and the Vermillion are no doubt the life of office parties. But that uncomfortable encounter is no doubt offset by Division 3's amazing employee cafeteria: While the Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital had a perfectly retro automat, Division 3 boasts a restaurant in which the food passes by an a soothing channel of water that bisects the counter. There's no way the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier has that.

Airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX, Legion stars Dan Stevens, Rachel Keller, Jean Smart, Bill Irwin, Amber Midthunder, Jeremie Harris, Aubrey Plaza, Jemaine Clement, Hamish Linklater and Navid Negahban.