Marvel's Loki, Season 1, Episodes 5-6
As we close the book on Loki's first season, it's interesting how... different it is compared to the two previous Disney+ shows. And not just in terms of premise, either -- both WandaVision and The Falcon and Winter Soldier are vastly different shows, but in essence, they boil down to wrapping up plot threads left hanging for the secondary characters in Avengers: Endgame. Even though they vary wildly in terms of in-universe scope, the two shows essentially are self-contained stories of their respective main characters facing and dealing with a self-contained threat, and finding a brand-new status quo. Not quite so with Loki, whose sheer scale is so much grander. Where those two shows are dealing with localized supervillains, Loki is essentially dealing with the higher functions of the universe of the MCU in general. Which is why now reviewing the two final episodes of Loki, I find it so interesting how different everything in this show is.
The shows are particularly different on an episode-to-episode basis. Sure, WandaVision made an art of giving each episode a unique feel with the different periods of television history it is homaging, but the idea is that each episode of Loki, I feel, intended to end in a huge twist. Now not every twist really worked out for me personally -- the 'Time Keepers are actually robots' twist, for example, felt like it would be something that I would be more shocked about if I had seen just a little bit more about the Time Keepers. Prior to that moment in episode four, I honestly was going 50/50 on whether the Time Keepers existed at all or if Ravonna was actually pulling the TVA strings. And the idea that each episode wanted to deliver on a huge twist is probably why these two episodes felt so... oddly-paced.
Episode 5: Journey into Mystery
But even then, watching this episode, seeing 'our' Loki encounter several other Lokis that got pruned at some point in the timeline, before everything goes into glorious hijinks, is just an absolute delight. The constant cutaways to Alligator Loki and our Loki just sighing and accepting it as fact; Arrogant Loki and President Loki and all the other unnamed Lokis constantly backstabbing each other; Kid Loki simultaneously being one that killed Thor but also drinks grape juice... there are a lot of fun moments in this episode, and all of it delivered with gusto. It's just taking the concept of an alternate-timeline Loki up to eleven for just one episode, and I feel like it's a good move limiting it into just one episode. We get just enough wackiness to tide us over for the series, while also keeping the major Lokis into just two characters.
Admittedly, when I first saw the three (well, four with the alligator) Lokis in the post-credits scene last episode, I thought that they were going to be far, far more important. That they were the actual Time Keepers, or that our variant Loki has been recruited into a league of Lokis against the Time Keepers or something. There's really no such thing. They're just a bunch of survivors eking out a living, having essentially given up. And, yes, Kid Loki has a bit of an attitude and Arrogant Loki is trying to backstab everyone, but the feeling we get from the guest-star Loki with the largest speaking part -- 'Classic' or 'Old' Loki, played by the wonderful veteran actor Richard E. Grant, is that all these other Lokis are so... tired of everything.
And Old Loki is such a fascinating character for what we get of him in this episode. From the ridiculously low-budget cosplay outfit (especially compared to literally everyone else) to his utterly mundane backstory of him just hiding away in the debris as a wink-wink to popular audience theory about whether Loki survived Thanos in Infinity War, Old Loki still has an aura of arrogance to him that all Lokis have even while he sounds so tired about everything. And throughout this episode, he quickly stole my heart, from his long, disillusioned rant at how all Lokis are doomed to failure as a 'god of outcast', to him realizing from a conversation with Mobius that it's never too late to get a purpose... to, of course, the singular most badass moment by any character in the MCU, where Old Loki weaponizes the sheer power of making illusions and recreates Asgard in all its wonderful glory while Ride of the Valkyries plays in the background to distract a giant eldritch smoke-time-dog-demon, and facing it while yelling 'glorious purpose', finding one last cause to fight for after a long, long life of simply surviving.
Old Loki had a wonderful death scene, if you couldn't guess from me being so excited in describing it. And I felt like I should get the guest stars out of the way first because as fun as they were, this was ultimately their role -- they were guest stars.
Ultimately, the focus of the show still falls into our main characters -- Loki, Sylvie and a little bit on Mobius and Ravonna -- as it really should. This episode basically has Loki and Sylvie sort-of-kind-of acknowledge their attraction, as weird as it is, for each other. Because, sure, the blanket moment and the awkward flirting between the two gender-bent versions of the same person is cute and all, but I feel like the strongest moment between them was when Sylvie basically took the chance and zapped herself with Ravonna's prune-rod just for a chance to find Loki again. That's a pretty cool moment.
And interestingly, we get a bit of team-up for Sylvie and Mobius in this one. A running theme in this episode is whether people (or Lokis, specifically) can change and can redeem themselves. Old Loki definitely displays this, but everyone comes out of this episode changed a bit. Oh, and the fact that both Loki and Sylvie are way too willing to be awkward and shy about their weird romance-thing and handwave everything with the glorious purpose of taking down the big baddie. The story is a bit rushed because of the sheer amount of guest stars, but the variant Lokis are honestly pretty much background noise other than Old Loki, while the focus of our three main characters is to defeat the giant time smoke demon Alioth. Or, rather, use Sylvie's Enchantress powers to bewitch it to get them to whoever is pulling the strings at the end of time.
And overall, this episode, I feel, despite feeling a bit rushed, also feels like it's jam-packed with content and feels like a perfect comic-book superhero episode. Ultimately it serves the same purpose as the Lamentis episode, but it does so with so much flair that I didn't even realize that the whole episode is just a distraction to get past Alioth until the episode has ended. What a fun ride this was.
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Episode 6: For All Time, Always
...which is to say that I have very, very weird and mixed feelings about episode six, "For All Time, Always". Sure, it's meant to be a cliffhanger. Sure, we're going to pick this up in a second season or maybe even in other MCU movies. It doesn't make this episode feel less... satisfying, I feel? It's not a bad episode or a bad way to end the season, not at all. And I absolutely agree that they could've handled this much worse -- Kang (or the "He Who Remains" incarnation of him) at least got ample screentime to give a lasting impression to the viewers.
It's just that I kind of feel like it's something that is meant to be this huge, overarching bombshell... and I kind of felt like it's basically the most obvious solution. Turns out the shadowy figure running the TVA is... a shadowy figure running the TVA that neither the audience nor the characters have ever heard of before, and the stated purpose of the TVA is... basically the same thing that the TVA is said to be doing in episode one, maybe with a few extra details spliced in.
It's a bold, risky move -- the same risky move that could be compared with Marvel Studios' decision to end Avengers: Infinity War, a huge blockbuster movie, in a literal cliffhanger with half the cast dying. Only I don't think Kang is handled quite the same way that Thanos was in that movie. Thanos, unlike Kang, had buildup -- sure, admittedly, it wasn't much build-up. Other than post-credit scenes, Thanos had a bunch of mentions in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and was tied to the backstories of Gamora, Nebula and Ronan, plus Loki's plan in Avengers. So when Thanos finally shows up in the final installment of the MCU's infinity stone arc, even though he really only got some focus in Infinity War, the same installment that ended with the huge cliffhanger, it felt earned. Not quite so for Kang, who, again, is just some weirdo we meet at the end of time, says he's important, but honestly doesn't do anything more impressive than the TVA already demonstrated they can do.
And I know the comics. I know Kang's a big deal, and I wholeheartedly support him to be MCU's Phase four big bad or whatever. They definitely got a great actor in Jonathan Majors, whose hamminess and entertainment factor for this version of Kang is pretty fun. It's just that, story-wise, it is kind of an odd way to end the season. It's not a bad ending, it just feels so... random. Especially to someone who wasn't expecting anyone remotely like Kang. (Comic book fans probably realized from Ravonna being in this show, if the many background statues of comic-book Kang in the TVA wasn't obvious enough).
This episode spends basically the final fifteen minutes of it with Loki and Sylvie, looking for answers and getting a huge exposition dump. And I feel like the fact that said exposition dump happens at the tail end of the season makes it feel so much more bizarre. Ultimately this ends up with a dilemma that I felt we've seen hints of before in 'Lamentis', where Kang offers Loki and Sylvie an ultimatum -- leave him be and let the TVA stay the way it is to prevent a multiversal war against other, more evil Kangs; or kill him and take over as the new guardians of time. Sylvie really wants to kill Kang. Loki... I'm not sure what Loki wants, but he wants at least more than ten minutes to mull over the fate of the timeline. This devolves into an admittedly very entertaining fight, but ultimately after the expected Big Damn Kiss, Sylvie tosses Loki into a time window and stabs Kang, causing the utter fragmentation and destruction of the Sacred Timeline.
And, again, Jonathan Majors is a great actor, and it's definitely entertaining seeing him ham it up and give some unabashed comic book exposition. And this is definitely going to be a plotline that other huge Marvel projects will be picking up in the future. It's just that... it's just that this TV series has been about Loki and Sylvie, and when they actually do have their big moment, it feels truncated. I don't know. The suddenness and the urgency as they move out of Kang's ordered timeline, and Sylvie's yolo-murder motivations, does work better with how fast everything happens. It doesn't help that the romance between Loki and Sylvie still feels like a budding one born mostly because the two haven't really had anyone they cared for before. And I suppose that's enough for the two gods of mischief... I know a lot of people felt like they didn't devote enough screentime to their relationship, and I feel like they gave just enough for me to care, but I can also see why some viewers found their romance-breakdown conflict not work quite as well.
Tom Hiddleston and Sophia di Martino certainly have the acting chops to make the brief lines they have about trust and love and betrayal work so well. But at the same time, everything also feels so rushed as a story, and I don't know. I don't know how to feel about this, I don't know if they wasted good pacing just for cheap shock, or if this is the intended audience reaction. All I know is that it's been nearly a week since I watched this episode and I'm still unsure how I feel about it. I guess that's a good thing maybe?
There are other things happening in the background, too. We get Ravonna and Mobius's confrontation, and... the acting is good, but I can't really say I'm particularly invested in their story. It's functional, but also at the same time feels like a bit of an afterthought. Also, Loki finds himself in an alternate timeline (?) where Mobius doesn't know him and the TVA statue shows Kang, before we smash to the ending theme.
Ultimately... it's a confusing ending, but I feel in a good way. If nothing else I'm entirely entertained by everything that happened in this season. I probably would've preferred a different ending. Maybe one where Kang was foreshadowed an episode earlier, or if Kang's presence was limited to a 'see you next movie/series' teaser. Maybe if 'He Who Remains' or even Kang himself turned out to be another Loki. Maybe if the final antagonist is Mobius or Ravonna. I don't know. Would any of those made the episode better? Loki is such a weird show that maybe those would've made the ending more safe and mundane. Whatever it is, at least Loki is entertaining as a show, and I really, really enjoyed Tom Hiddleston and Sophia Di Martino's acting.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Kang the Conqueror, though we do not actually get a name-drop, is one of the most prominent supervillains in Marvel comics that relates to time. A conqueror from the 31st century born as Nathaniel Richards of Earth, Kang in the comics have menaced the the Avengers and various other heroes throughout his long career in the comics. Kang himself has had multiple aliases from different time-variants as well, some of which have opposed each other. In Loki, his appearance has been heavily hinted to comic-book fans by his sometimes-spouse Ravonna being one of the main characters in the TVA; as well as the faces of the Time Keepers being based on him.
- Alitoh in the comics is an ancient being that 'broke out of time' before the likes of Kang, and is featured in the series Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective as a foe that Ravonna has to fight against when she assumed Kang's role.
- Episode 5:
- The various Lokis seen in this episode is based on the classic Golden/Silver Age look for Loki, 'Kid Loki' from Agents of Asgard, 'King Loki/Ikol', and 'President Loki', though the specifics of the characterizations are a bit more different.
- The episode's title is taken from Marvel comics' anthology series "Journey Into Mystery", where Thor, Loki and Marvel's Norse-mythology-inspired characters debuted in the 60's. In particular Classic Loki's outfit is based on Loki's first costume in the comics.
- In the background of the Void, we can see nods to various things in the MCU -- a Helicarrier, Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorium, Ronan's warship the Black Aster, the Stark Tower, and a giant version of Yellowjacket's helmet.
- A statue of the Living Tribunal's head is seen in the background when Sylvie is running away from Kang.
- In addition, the often-memed 'Thanoscopter' from the comics makes a brief appearance in the background when the Lokis had their first argument.
- As we pan down into the underground base, we see Mjolnir and Throg (or "Frog Thor"), the Frog of Thunder, from the comics trapped in a jar. The jar has T365, a reference to Thor #365 where Thor is transformed into a frog and marks the first appearance of Throg.
- The destroyed Stark Tower has a sign with "Qeng" on it, referencing Qeng Enterprises, a company featured in the All-New, All-Different Avengers. Qeng would turn out to be an alias for Kang.
- Mobius's car plate is "GRN-W1D", a reference to Mark Gruenwald, the Marvel artist and 'lorekeeper' that Mobius's character is based on.
- Episode 6:
- "He Who Remains" notes that one of his many titles is "a Conqueror", which, of course, is a nod to him being an adaptation of Kang.
- The title of "He Who Remains" is a separate character from Kang, an ancient being who is behind the comic-book version of the Time-Keepers and the Time Variance Authority, although in the comics Thor is the main character involved with all these characters.
- The idea of a version of Kang that preserves timelines instead of conquering them is based specifically on Kang's incarnation as Immortus.
- Ravonna Renslayer's original non-variant name is revealed to be 'Rebecca Tourminet', a name that comics-Ravonna has used as an alias.
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