Loki S02E06 Review: God of Stories, God of Time

Loki, Season 2, Episode 6: Glorious Purpose

And finally we finish another season of MCU's Disney+ material. And... I still don't think this is anywhere as good as the first season of Loki, or some of the better Disney+ shows like Moon Knight or WandaVision. But it definitely picked up the steam hard in the third episode, and stuck the landing. 

The plotline of what went in the final two episodes aren't anything particularly special. After a huge devastating loss at the end of the fourth episode, Loki ends up learning about his innate power, realizes how important his friends are to him, and spends this episode basically using that power -- time-slipping and the ability to shift into himself in various points in time -- and save the day. To cut a long story short, in the last half of this episode Loki realizes all he's doing is for naught, and as that poster helpfully points out, Loki realizes that the solution isn't in how perfectly he's able to navigate the Deathloop time-loop, but on what he, Loki, God of something-or-other, is able to do. And he makes that choice for the right motivations, and takes his place as the new He Who Remains, as Loki, God of Time, Loki, God of Stories, and sits within the throne, burdened with the most glorious of purposes at last. 

There is a huge question as to where this variant of Loki will go, and if he would ever appear again -- the fate of being cursed-and-blessed simultaneously as the lynchpin of time seems to be pretty final for this Loki. Of course the TVA's stories are pretty open-ended, and at the very least I do still feel like there's a lot to be told about Ravonna, Sylvie and Victor Timely... and most definitely the more villainous versions of Kang (who barely gets screentime here).

The episode itself isn't something that any self-respecting sci-fi geek haven't seen before. Agents of SHIELD, Legends of Tomorrow, Star Trek, Dr. Who... lots of science fiction and superhero material have dealt with the idea and concept of a constantly repeating time loop, and a character trying his best to fix everything by doing things just right. It's absolutely fun to see, with, of course, all the dark comedy of seeing just how Victor Timely keeps dying and dying and dying... and at some point we get to see Loki get so exasperated as he keeps being reminded of all of the ways things could go wrong. The device could roll off the side of the bridge, or his constant repeated insistence that O.B.'s model is just fine for the purposes of the demonstration. Obviously, the comedic highlight is the fact that O.B. tells Loki that it'll take centuries to learn enough time-science to speed up the process of fixing the time-fixing plot device. And then smash cut to 'Centuries Later'. That's hilarious and kind of disturbing if you give it any length of thought. 

Of course, turns out that around halfway through the episode, Victor Timely finally manages to escape the umpteenth time of being spaghettified and manages to enlarge the rings in the Time Loom... until we get the revelation that the Time Loom was never designed to be a solution. Even with them implementing the solution, the Time Loom blows up anyway. 

Which leads Loki to finally time-slip back to a (disappointingly minor, once again) confrontation with He Who Remains, as we get to see them face-to-face at end-time as we repeat the climax of the first season finale. Loki keeps trying to stop Sylvie from stabbing He Who Remains... and eventually Loki and He Who Remains ends up talking face-to-face. He Who Remains gloats that he knows that this Loki is a time-slipper from further on in the timeline (again, quoting O.B. from last episode, as much as that makes sense in zones 'beyond time' like the TVA and end-time). He Who Remains shows that for all of his newfound power, Loki is still trapped. He can't let Sylvie kill Kang, otherwise the whole Time Loom destruction happens. But he loves Sylvie, and the only way to stop Sylvie is to kill Sylvie. Not to mention that finding a third option -- modifying the loom -- seems to be doomed with how He Who Remains had designed it. 

And then after several darkly comedic moments of fighting with Sylvie, Loki finds himself all the way back in the series premiere, sitting across Mobius in the TVA's interrogation room, and quickly surmises that S01E01's Mobius is just trying to psycho-analyze him. Again, Mobius is as always excellent here, even if this is a hardened, less-friendly Mobius who ends up divulging a surprisingly intimate recollection of a particularly sobering mission with Ravonna Renslayer and the burdens of purpose and the necessity of the TVA. 

We also get one last hurrah between Loki and Sylvie, this time in S01E06, the season finale, with Loki all but begging for Sylvie's acknowledgement and permission to kill her... and, thankfully, Sylvie refuses. After all, despite all of the seeming no-way-outs... even if Loki does this, he's not doing much better than running around in He Who Remains' pre-destined plans. Sylvie might not have had all the answers, but she does know that she refuses to bow under someone else's desires, be it Kang, the TVA or even Loki... and this bit finally seems to get through Loki. 

And Loki returns to the beginning of this episode (oh boy, time-slipping) and Loki decides to take matters into his own hand, literally. Loki decides to replace Victor Timely and walk out into the Loom of Time, and it's a glorious scene as he wordlessly struggles against the storms of time to grab the spaghetti strands, using them as strings as he morphs from the (IMO always hideous-looking) TVA uniform into a variation of his cloaked, horned classic look. The soundtrack and Tom Hiddleston's expressions really sell the scene here, as Loki walks to the End Time, finally sitting down on He Who Remains's throne as he holds onto all of the timelines, sending his own green energy coursing through them... but then we spin it around and see that Loki has moulded not a single strand, not a branching strand, but a giant tree not too dissimilar to Yggdrassil. We don't really get any huge O.B. exposition about this, but the visual imagery is kind of clear in that Loki has decided to make himself the God of Time, the guardian of the new multiverse, with him in the 'heart' of the tree. He has found his 'glorious purpose', his burden, his crown, his throne, and it's a lonelier, more tragic ending than he probably had expected. 

And... we cut back to what seems to be business as usual at the TVA. It's kind of interesting and even a bit tragic to see the TVA characters just discuss things seemingly as if nothing's really happened. Mobius and Sylvie, in particular, venture out into the timeline to see their previous lives. Renslayer still lives, in wherever that dimension where all pruned things go, but otherwise I can't really muster much excitement about her. Victor Timely also doesn't get disturbed this time around since there isn't any Renslayers to chuck TVA handbooks at his head, though I'm not even going to try and unravel the minutiae about the timeline changes. While Loki's there... not quite suffering per se but just alone and holding all of reality together. 

It's an interesting ending for the character, one that I feel sticks the landing fairly well. I wouldn't say Loki's second season is my favourite Disney+ project, but after the previous couple of MCU efforts having been rather disappointing, it's nice to see this one at least stick the landing... even if it's an unconventional one. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Before Loki walks into the Temporal Loom, his final words to his two closest friends Sylvie and Mobius are "For you. For all of us." which are the exact same words he said to Odin and Thor in his first fake-out death in Thor. 
• Loki weaves all of the strands of time into a shape resembling Yggdrassil, the world-tree of Nordic mythology.
  
• Perhaps coincidentally, the Time Stone in the MCU is the green one, corresponding with the colour of Loki's magic. 
• In addition to being referrential to Loki's famous line from The Avengers, 'Glorious Purpose' is also the title of the first episode of Loki's first season. 
• In the new TVA, Mobius mentions a variant of He Who Remains causing trouble on 'an adjacent of 616'. Since within the MCU itself, the Sacred Timeline is referred to as 616, this most likely refers to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. 
• Loki is all but stated to become the new god of time. In the comics, particularly the Loki: Agent of Asgard series, Loki would eventually take on the new mantle of the God of Stories.

Loki S02E05 Review: Breaking the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Walls

Loki, Season 2, Episode 5: Science/Fiction

 

And, yeah... it's these last episodes of Loki's second season that really manages to tell a really great story. It's just such a shame that it took so long for the story to be told, and in retrospect I definitely could've done with the random TVA no-name characters like Dox and Brad, or even the many, many references to He Who Remains and a potential conflict between Kang (or the Kangs) and Loki's TVA. So much of this season really just revolves around what the hell Loki wants in the fact of apocalypse. It's just perhaps the unfortunate result of my expectations from the first season that I kind of expect every episode to have a huge bombastic cliffhanger or something. But taking the big huge time explosion that spaghettified Victor Timely in episode 4 as the big event equivalent to the Thanos Snap in Infinity War makes the back end of Loki's second season a lot more fun to watch. 

And this whole episode basically deals with Loki as he goes through what Sylvie and Mobius have been discussing rather heatedly in the previous episode -- the fact that all the members of the TVA were plucked from rather ordinary lives from other timelines. Loki starts time-slipping again, just like how he did in the season premiere, and he starts to see these other characters throughout time and space. Right after seeing the completely empty TVA time-station and time-shifting away just as everything goes to shit and get turned into spaghetti. 

Casey (who remains rather irrelevant to the entire series) used to be a prisoner that escaped Alcatrqaz in the 60's. Hunter B-15 is Dr. Verity Willis, a pediatrician. Mobius M. Mobius is Don, a jetski salesman with two kids. Obviously Sylvie is still in that McDonalds. But Ouroboros turns out to be a sci-fi author A.D. Doug... who starts to demolish the fourth wall as he starts to talk to Loki about how Loki's time-slipping powers are working 'narratively'. O.B. is always a bit of a kooky character and I feel that this is where he's best utilized. Loki calls bullshit on this, but O.B. notes that this feels like science fiction. Or just fiction in general. Or maybe fiction is just science that isn't explained yet. Something along those lines. Things got a bit loopy. But O.B. gives a nice little in-universe explanation to Loki's fourth-wall breaking that doesn't seem as forced or 'just because the comics did it' as She-Hulk did. O.B. points out that clearly something has to be driving Loki's jumps so that he goes through the original lives of his TVA comrades, and if it's not the hand of an omniscient scriptwriter, then it's... Loki himself. 

And this does really tie in to the original 'glorious purpose' of this particular variant of Loki. He's in denial that he needs to do any kind of introspection about himself, and he immediately rejects the 'fiction' part of this equation... but then comes around to it. 

The actual time-slipping and time-jumping parts really doesn't work quite as well, and is honestly just driven by Tom Hiddleston's strength as an actor. I don't frankly care enough about Casey or B-15 enough, neither do we spend anywhere enough time with them or their 'original' variants to care. After the otherwise fun science/fiction spiel, O.B. also uses the power of time-travel and offscreen timeline working to create a primitive TemPad, even if it cost him 18 months of his life and his marriage. 

Rather understandably, the episode gives us most of the screentime with Don, the man formerly or will later be known as Mobius M. Mobius. We do get some rather sad moments as Loki tries his best to convince Don that he is meant for something greater, even if he has to give up his family and his life as a smooth-talking salesman. It's not the most glamorous life, but you can feel Don as he struggles to weigh his consequences... while Loki, as loath as he might be to admit it, is begging for help from one of the few people he might consider his friend. 

The final meeting is also a rather interesting one, with Loki finally meeting Sylvie... who retained her memories, a TemPad and is very much perfectly willing to continue being a McDonalds worker instead of being involved in all of this TVA bullshittery. I'm not that impressed about just how married she is to this particular life, but I guess it's the life she chose? Sylvie also correctly points out that Loki's motivations is less about fighting for the TVA, for the preservation of the multiverse, for the greater good... but more to hold on to the only place in this big fucked-up universe where Loki felt like he belonged. While the whole 'the TVA needs to stop this multiversal apocalypse' thing is a great counter-argument to Sylvie's cynicism, I do like that she puts Loki's true motivations into words.

With Sylvie technically refusing to join the team, Loki and the rest of the cobbled-together TVA team tries to do something and throw some comic-book technobabble at each other. Which mostly is just O.B. and Loki doing their work while Mobius plays the 'confused regular guy', B-15 just kind of stands there and Casey tries to steal stuff. 

We get a hauntingly terrifying scene as Sylvie just hangs around in a music store that she clearly frequents -- a nice little nod to the fact that Sylvie is out there having a life in this particular small branch timeline... and we just get a hauntingly wonderful and terrifying representation of Sylvie's own "head buried in the sand" mentality as she's stuck listening to the music even as her shopkeeper friend freaks out about the fact that their entire universe is being shredded and turned into even more spaghetti. And as Sylvie zaps to the point where Loki and the 'original' variants are trying to fix problems, everyone starts to get spaghettified one by one. 

And... again, kudos to Hiddleston for selling this scene, as he realizes and internalizes the rules of science fiction... and takes control of his time-slipping powers. Loki takes control of his power and the narrative, leaping back to episode four -- which essentially resets the cliffhanger... only this time Loki is here with a time-power related power-up, a purpose and an urgency to save everyone. 

Again... I will always say that I am not the biggest fan of how Marvel's Loki show is less about the mythos of Loki and the Asgardians, or Loki and how he relates to the greater MCU, but revolves around this wacky time-travel show. And I'm still honestly unconvinced if the way Loki tackles time-travel and its characters and its vague parallel buildup of Kang with the rest of the MCU works for me. But as far as telling a story about Loki, Mobius and Sylvie, and how they are just people trapped in this insane apocalyptic disaster, all the while Loki is trying to figure out what he wants? It's an all right show, as far as that bit is concerned. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Hunter B-15 is revealed to be the MCU incarnation of Verity Willis, a major supporting character in Loki: Agents of Asgard, who was the daughter of a family that was tasked to guard an Asgardian artifact called the Andvaranaut. Verity inherited the artifact's power to see through any lies, and this ended up with a strange relationship with a reformed Loki. 
  
• In addition, Verity's dad Roger Willis, who was also featured as a minor character in the 80's Mighty Thor comics, is referenced in the episode. Verity is working in the Roger Willis Children's Clinic. 
• Incidentally, while it's not stated outright, the idea of Loki transforming from the God of Mischief (or Lies) into the God of Stories is the central theme of the Loki: Agents of Asgard comic run.
  
• Reliving the same moment over and over again is one of the warnings against time manipulation that Karl Mordo told Dr. Strange in Doctor Strange.
• Loki references Mobius's 'form and function' line about jetskis in season 1 when talking to Don. 
• In the first episode of Loki, Loki threatens to 'gut [Casey] like a fish', which is the first thing that Frank!Casey says in this episode. 
• In the bar that Loki and Sylvie are having their conversation in is an arcade game of the Zaniac, the movie that Brad stars in earlier this season.

Loki S02E04 Review: Kang the Spaghetti

Loki, Season 2, Episode 4: Heart of the TVA

Yeah, we get the ball rolling a bit more this time around. There has admittedly been a big gap between my watching of the season premiere of Loki to this episode thanks to real-life stuff, and as such this review will be a bit more succinct. But the back-end of Loki's second season definitely delivers more than it misses. 

And 'Heart of the TVA', interestingly, revolves around solving the crisis of the exploding Time Loom. And for the most part, 'Heart of the TVA' proceeds as a pretty typical solving-a-problem episode. Loki himself has just been latching on to the TVA and trying to do good. But does he really believe in that greater good? Is he just trying to latch onto some kind of 'glorious purpose', as the series loves to quote from the original Avengers movie, in a last desperate attempt to find meaning in his life? And that seems to be the main purpose of these next couple of episodes. Though in this one, Loki, Mobius and the rest of the cast are in full crisis-solving mode. 

Of course, some of the problems of this season really do rear its head. Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes are technically antagonists trying to... well, I'm not sure if they're still trying to work for He Who Remains, or if they've fully gone off the deep end to do their agenda. But they certainly run around and do a lot of glowering and machinations without me really getting what they're trying to do other than some vague desire to bring down the TVA.

Likewise, a lot of the minor characters only introduced in this season -- like Dox and Gamble, of whom I had to keep looking up on Wikis to know which is which -- really don't matter. One of them, Gamble, just kind of gets shuffled off unceremoniously off-screen after a conversation with the (likewise forgettable) Hunter B-15. Meanwhile, Dox is stuck with a bunch of the rogue TVA agents, all of whom are at least very resolute in their cause and refuse to join with Renslayer when they show up. Only Brad is attached enough to his previous life to go with Renslayer. Admittedly, that was a great scene, and a very memorable one, as Dox says one last 'fuck you' to Brad while she and the rest of her loyalists are squished into a compressing cube by Renslayer. 

A lot of the dialogue between characters like O.B. and Victor Timely are... they're cute. I wouldn't say that they're unenjoyable, but it's clear that it's mostly just exposition at this point, and while this episode did move very slowly in this exposition bit, it's actually major setup for the next episode so I won't really complain all that much. 

There is a very nice conversation between Loki, Sylvie and Mobius -- the three main stars of this show -- as they stand in front of an elevator and Mobius gives a cute little MCU quip about eating lemon cakes and whatnot... which got Sylvie infuriated because all of these timelines being blown up represent billions and trillions of people. It's something that the show keeps bringing up but never really explored beyond the superficial, though... again, Tom Hiddleson and Sophia DiMartino does an amazing job at acting it out. There are a couple of great lines, like Loki bringing up Odin's lesson to Thor, as well as how 'breaking and razing things to the ground is easy, fixing things is hard', and leading to an amazing mike drop as Loki notes to Sylvie that "we are gods". The themes are a bit messy and a bit jumbled, and I do wonder if the season would've worked better with maybe an extra episode or perhaps less distracting secondary characters for Loki, Sylvie and Mobius to explore their own stances about the TVA's morality. 

Meanwhile, while all of this is going on, while Loki and Sylvie are having their heart-to-heart, and Renslayer is turning Minutemen into cubes, Victor and O.B. are geeking out over their cross-timeline paradoxical influence. As mentioned above, these are scenes that are really just fluff. The actors are funny enough for the scenes not to be boring, but the scenes themselves are really nothing to write home about. 

Victor Timely gets distracted by the TVA's hot-cocoa machine, which leads to the action climax as Loki and his buddies try to rescue Timely. Now I'm still not 100% sure what Renslayer's major plan is -- she gets pissed off when Miss Minutes reveal to her that He Who Remains had erased her memories, but I really can't make heads or tails of her plan other than generic revenge. We also resolve a random plot point from the first episode which I was absolutely confused about (since I took a break between episodes) but basically the 'bad future' that Loki saw in the season premiere is actually this episode, and he ended up pruning the version of himself from that episode to... uh... do something to stabilize the timeline or some shit. It's really something that's a bit inconsequential, and if they had to resolve it, I really wished that they had called more attention to it.  

After the tech team take down the barriers to stop Loki and Sylvie from using magic, they hack Miss Minutes and lock her out of the system. What an amazingly well-executed final line, though. "You'll never be him." is an excellently-delivered line. The Lokis mind-whammy Brad, and use him to... uh... prune and zap Renslayer. Which is a bit of a surprise and went on for way too quickly for it to really have some impact... but I think it's done fine enough. I guess I was just expecting Renslayer to be the 'final boss' of the season, when this is the limitation of her role. (This is, incidentally, I guess the extent of Brad's involvement as well). 

This leaves us with around 5 minutes of screentime as it seems like our heroes have narrowly averted a crisis. All that's there to do is to get Victor Timely out there with the doohickey to plug it into the thingamabob, right? The exposition is said, the music builds up... and Timely gets immediately turned into cosmic spaghetti before the Loom blows up and engulfs the TVA in glorious destruction. It's an ending and a cliffhanger that honestly kind of came out of nowhere and is honestly rather well-executed and hilarious.

Again... I still don't think Loki's second season stands anywhere near the excellence of its first outing. Neither is it anywhere as good as any of Disney+'s better offerings, like Moon Knight or WandaVision or Ms. Marvel or Hawkeye. But it's definitely starting to pick up the gas with episodes 3 and 4, and while the season's complete plot is honestly a bit jarringly different from what I expected, once I sat down and accepted that the story of the season is about Loki and not the Kang variants or the Kang war or Ravonna Renslayer or any of those things, it's definitely a fair bit more palatable. 

Random Notes:

• Loki recaps the events of Thor, specifically how Odin banished Thor to Earth to teach him a lesson. 
• While likely just a coincidence relating to the 'string theory' stuff, the way Victor was turned into spaghetti is similar to the effects of how the duplicate Ant-Men were destroyed in Quantumania.

Loki S02E03 Review: How Timely

Loki, Season 2, Episode 3: 1893

Again, just like episode 2, I felt like "1893" was a far more impactful episode than the season premiere and its rather bland opening with the giant CGI space loom and the still-underwhelming introduction of kooky side character Ouroboros. "1893" brings us the actual post-credits scene hyping up Victor Timely, the 'origin story' of Kang, as the three different parties -- Loki/Mobius, Ravonna Renslayer, as well as Sylvie -- all want to do take their own spin on Kang. Sylvie is still pissed off about the whole fate thing and wants to just kill off any variant of Kang. Renslayer and the gloriously creepy Miss Minutes want to mentor Victor Timely in some way or other. Meanwhile, Loki and Mobius have the additional information that a Kang is needed to stabilize the mechanisms behind the Time Loom, so they want to rescue Victor Timely. Not to mention the typical "is it ethical to time-travel to the past and kill a super-evil dictator before they can do all of the EVILS" question. 

And the episode itself, despite taking a fair amount of screentime, is... pretty solid. Unlike most of the timelines/locations we've visited in Loki, I do actually feel like we spent a decent amount of screentime in the titular 1893, allowing us to absorb the vibe of the Chicago World Fair, and how Victor Timely is this character that is decades, even centuries ahead of his time with the technology he's showing off in the fair. 

And Victor Timely himself is... at least he feels different? One thing that annoyed me a bit about Jonathan Majors's different Kangs is that "He Who Remains" and "Kang the Exile" both felt like the same character, just with slightly different motivations. And they are both Kang, but I still question if what they did in one episode and one movie respectively really left as much of an impact as ol' Thanos did. It's this unfortunate comparison with the MCU's previous big bad, really. But I do like that Victor Timely is an interestingly weird spin on the character and the actor, even if I do find him and his constant nervous-wreck tendencies to be a bit irritating. I do like that around halfway through the episode, it's clear that Timely has a bit of a mean streak to him with how he betrays Renslayer and leaves her on a boat. There's a fair amount of the ego and his desire of control and independence that'll eventually blossom into blown-out villainy when he does become Kang the Conqueror, which I appreciate. 

The episode does feel like it runs along for a bit too long. As always, Loki, Mobius and Sylvie are very fun to see, and Renslayer's return is pretty all right. I'm not the biggest fan of Miss Minutes, but she did give us a few yandere psychotic sequences in the second half of the episode that I really like. But I do really think that Timely being chased around by the Robber Baron and his goons end up just being padding (and not particularly interesting ones at that) and I really wished that the debt collectors are just written out after Loki magicked them the first time around. 

Sylvie's part of the story is still probably the easiest to understand, though since her goal is just "I need to kill this omniversal lunatic" and the only moral quandry is how Timely hasn't done anything yet isn't the hardest or most oblique thing to 'get'. I do like, again, that Sylvie pops into the episode relatively late, enough for the audience to get that Victor Timely, while not deserving of death at this point in time, isn't entirely harmless. But that's not really what drives the knife home into Sylvie's heart. The episode doesn't explicitly say it outright, but after some arguments with Loki, the argument from Victor Timely that he hasn't done anything, and says some words in the effect about how he's an individual and not 'just a variant' gives Sylvie pause. That's a great moment for both characters involved. 

Ravonna Renslayer, meanwhile... she's working with Miss Minutes (who backstabs her for like 15 minutes but they're back together at the end of the episode) seemingly to create a stable time loop so Victor Timely does become Kang? Or something? It's still not entirely sure what she's doing. She tosses in the TVA handbook (a nice nod to the otherwise bland season premiere) to a young Victor to get him to create basically a small, primitive version of the Time Loom. She and Miss Minutes then go and 'rescue' Victor away from the other parties there, presenting themselves as the only ones that are acting on behalf of Victor Timely's future self. 

Miss Minutes shows that she's more than just a one-note weird creepy character trope and convinces Timely to backstab Renslayer... but then creeps out Timely when she starts talking about how under-appreciated she is as an android, as an A.I.... and then interposes her face on a mannequin and talks about how it would be oh-so-gosh-darn swell for Victor to give Miss Minutes a body of her own. Timely shuts Minutes off in a surprisingly devious manner, and by the end of the episode she and Renslayer seem to shrug it off as 'well, it happened'. 

Renslayer herself gets into an argument with Loki, Mobius and Sylvie on different parts of the episode, and she seems to be convinced that she's embodying order. This isn't really the best argument since she's basically doing the orders of a dead future man and hanging out with a creepy peppy sentient clock A.I., and flirting with little ol' Victor Timely. I'm still not entirely convinced about Renslayer as a well-meaning antagonist at this point, though I do like the performance of the actor. She's at least an actual character, unlike General Whatshername that got beaten last episode. I do wonder just how much is 'create a temporal paradox' fits with Renslayer's definition of order. At the end of the episode Sylvie teleports Renslayer to Kang's Citadel at the end of time, where He Who Remains's corpse is still hanging out. 

This brings Loki and Mobius as the last characters for me to talk about, and... I like their dynamic. They clearly are having fun, but they're mostly just reactive to the conflict going on, which is more carried by Timely, Renslayer and Miss Minutes. Loki and Mobius gives a nice alternative for Timely to do, and I guess the little plot wrinkle that they need a living Kang to stop the Time Loom is neat enough... but it does kind of make Sylvie feel like a bit of a dumbass for refusing to listen that they need to keep Victor Timely alive long enough for them to untangle the mess that the TVA has made. 

The show's still a bit messier than I would've liked, and this is honestly where I think a better season premiere would've benefited the show a lot more, but this is a nice watch. 

Random Notes:

• Part of this episode was shown as the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. 
• Loki's line, "I've never met this man before in my life", is taken entirely from his line in Thor: Ragnarok when he was denying knowing about Thor to the Grandmaster. 
• Thor and Mobius come across three status of Odin, Thor and Balder. Odin and Thor are obviously major characters in the MCU, but Loki snarks that "no one's ever heard of [Balder]", a gag about how Balder the Brave is adapted out of the MCU despite his major role in both the original Nordic mythology as well as the source comics. 
  
• In the comics, Victor Timely was also a character that made incredible inventions ahead of his time... though his comic-book counterpart was far more successful, being able to found a small town.
• Said town is located in Wisconsin, where his MCU counterpart's laboratory is located in.
• Robber Baron is a minor gang villain that fought against the original (pre-Fantastic-Four) Human Torch. 
• The corpse of He Who Remains still in the chair is a reference to a comic book panel of Kang finding Immortus's corpse in his citadel in Avengers #269.
• Ravonna is the love interest of Kang in the comics, which explains the two's brief moment of flirting.

Loki S02E02 Review: Happy Meal

Loki, Season 2, Episode 2: Breaking Brad

The opening of this episode was a bit jarring, with our heroes already in motion in 1977, with Loki and Mobius chasing down Hunter X-5, who in turn is supposed to be hunting down Sylvie before going AWOL. It's a bit off coming from last episode's final scene, so much that I thought I'm watching episode 3 instead. It's a small complaint, though, because 'Breaking Brad' is otherwise a far more fun Loki episode than the season premiere. 

Hunter X-5 has returned to 1977 London to 'live his life', which is finally a nice pick-up on one of the huge revelations of the first season's final episodes -- that all the TVA agents are actually plucked from the timeline and had their memories and past lives erased. There's a nice fun moment as X-5, or rather Brad Wolfe, runs around and tries his best to escape Loki and his allies. We get perhaps my favourite sequence in this show so far, as Loki uses his illusion powers to great effect. He generates the illusion of a bunch of over-the-top London goons, appear as multiple versions of himself, and two of his shadows hold Brad Wolfe's shadow in place as the creepy horn helms grow on the shadows. Some really great banter between Loki and Mobius as always. 

And I do really feel that these scenes are the highlight of the episodes. Loki, Mobius and Hunter B-15 try to interrogate Brad Wolfe, but he's just indignant that all the TVA staff are just so happy to accept their false lives... and then calls Loki out for being a villain. There's an amazing moment as Loki is just struck dumb for a moment when Wolfe reminds Loki that, yeah, he's still got the past of a supervillain and a loser one at that -- a nice little nod to the earlier episodes of the first season. So that this episode isn't just a rehash, however, it's Mobius that clearly ends up getting rattled by Brad Wolfe's statement about Mobius having a life somewhere, somewhen. Seeing Brad live it up as the actor that plays 'Zaniac' is probably something that shook Mobius up a little bit, too. 

Loki and Mobius call a time-out, and they bond over key lime cake. Again... all the scenes with Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson are the highlights of the episode, and we get a great sequence as Mobius confesses that it's not having a bad life that scares him... but what if it's a good one?

We also get a very excellent interrogation scene as Loki pretends to lock Mobius out of the interrogation room, and begins to use the TVA material and hams it up to wring Sylvie's location out of Brad Wolfe. Obviously Loki isn't going to turn evil, at least not in this episode, but it's a fun sequence as Loki plays up the whole "fine, then let me be a villain" angle. 

And... I really do find myself not caring all that much about the rest of the plot. There are a bunch more bits and bobs of worldbuilding here and there. Ouroboros is fiddling around the Time-Pad that Brad is holding, the Temporal Loom from the season premiere is still destabilizing, Casey has memorized the TVA handbook and is an Ouroboros fanboy, and Hunter B-15 is still extremely underutilized that I had to double-check that she's even in these scenes. From here, we learn that the missing Ravonna Renslayer is actually working alongside Miss Minutes, and the big door to the big time loom is locked out unless they can get Kang there. We're saving that for the rest of the season, presumably.

...but I really do find it hard to care about this plotline, and I find the sequence of Loki, Mobius and Brad showing up at the McDonalds that Sylvie has sequestered herself in to be far, far more engaging. On paper it really isn't anything much -- Sylvie has decided that she's free from predestination and whatnot, doesn't give a shit about the TVA and just wants to live her life. I'm not sure why this ends up becoming her working for minimal wage in McDonalds, but, well, the scene is well-acted. Loki tries to make an argument that the TVA is important because it's the only line of defense against the Kangs, but everything is interrupted as Brad Wolfe panics and tells them that Dox and her loyalists are planning to prune the branching timelines. 

And... yeah, this is where we tie in to the confusing 'destruction of the universe' plotline that B-15 and the rest of the TVA are trying to stop, and... I really confess that I don't really care? God bless Wunmi Mosaku for that distraught expression, but that's about it, really, for me. It's not like we've seen anything from these other branching timelines within the show, and not showing alternate timelines being destroyed means that it's a bit hard for me to buy into the emotion of "billions are dying!" Dox herself is only introduced for maybe a minute last episode, and is absent from this entire episode until our heroes see her implementing her plan. 

We get the requisite action scene as Loki, Sylvie and Mobius attack Dox and her troops, and we get some fun action scenes... but the bombs went through and pruned a good chunk of the timelines. Sylvie tells Loki off that the TVA is the problem, leaves to her McDonalds timeline, and Loki angsts about how it's so hard to want to stay. And... I'm actually not sure why Loki is staying, other than some vague sense of loyalty to Mobius and maybe it's "the right thing to do". I hope the next couple of episodes explores this a bit more, but not really understanding Loki and Sylvie's proper motivations other than the broad strokes is a bit damaging to the plotting. 

And... yeah. The episode is a bit better than the season premiere, but Loki's second season really does feel a lot messier compared to the first episode. The best parts of this episode really is giving the main characters (Loki, Mobius, Sylvie) and the guest star (Brad) time to shine... but I'll also acknowledge that it really ends up being hard for me to care for all of the more cosmic aspects of the plot, especially since the episode really only pays mostly lip-service to all of this, focusing more on Ouroboros and Casey being oh-so-quirky! Dox is barely a character, the mystery about Ravonna is less interesting than the show thinks it is to be stringing it along, and Hunter B-15 has so little material to work with. It's a bit better, but still rather messy. 

Random Notes:

• In the comics, Brad Wolfe is a character introduced in the 80's Thor comics, and an actor that was famous for the slasher film Zaniac. During the filming of the movie, an accidental explosion caused an extradimensional entity from the Dark Dimension to possess Wolfe, fusing him with the costume of The Zaniac and giving him super strength and the ability to generate energy knives from his hands. Driven mad, Brad Wolfe began to act out the movie's script in real life until he was stopped by Thor.
• The demonic entity called the Zaniac would then hop out of Brad Wolfe's body after his death, killing Jane Foster and causing Thor to seek out the aid of the T.V.A. to save Jane's life. 
• A Kingo movie poster can be seen outside of the theater. 
  
• Loki describes in detail about the events of The Avengers, specifically the moment when his mind-control powers did not work on Tony Stark's chest and he tossed Tony off the side of the building.

Loki S02E01 Review: Alternate Timeline Up The Wazoo

Loki, Season 2, Episode 1: Ouroboros

It's been some time since the ending of Loki's first season, and what initially seemed to be the introduction to how the MCU will be tackling split timelines and alternate universes. Since then, we've got What If, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania... none of which had anything paid lip service to anything that goes on in Loki. In fact, despite being billed as the 'multiverse saga', there really isn't much interconnectivity within all of these MCU projects, and any connection to building Kang the Conqueror up ended up with two variants that get killed off at the end of their respective debuts.

Which means that, while it's a bit of a disappointment to the audience at large, Loki remains perfectly standalone, with the only required viewing being the first season and a passing knowledge of pre-Endgame movies. Which leads to the season two premiere and... it's not boring, at least. Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson always make for good watching, and the scripting is a bit more exciting than the dreary Secret Invasion, which was our last MCU project. 

And... it's an okay viewing, but it feels like just more of the same. We pay off the cliffhanger of the previous season (the Kang-ruled TVA is just a previous incarnation, Loki travelled back in time, and memory wipes are involved which accounts for the TVA peeps not remembering him), and really not much else beyond that. I admit I've never been a fan of the idea of taking time travel stories too far, and having time-travel within a space-where-time-is-not-supposed-to-work-properly is just making my eyes roll. But the show itself doesn't even really take the time travel all that seriously with how flippant Loki and Mobius are treating it, so eh, whatever.

But more than that... it really did feel like more of the same from the first season. The specifics are different, and Loki and company are after a different bad guy now (Sylvie, who went rogue; and the potential arrival of a lot of Kangs) but ultimately they're still trying to work outside the bizarre bureaucracy of the TVA, while dealing with Loki's new unpredictable powers of shifting and sliding through time, again, within the TVA dimension where time isn't supposed to pass. 

And, again, Loki himself is a delight to watch. Unlike the unfortunately stunted scripting in Secret Invasion, I really do get the feeling that Loki and Mobius's actors are allowed to just ham it up. It doesn't really work all the time, and the titular character of Ouroboros -- the latest in the kooky characters that work in the TVA, a nebbish archivist who is both helpful and confusing to our allies -- didn't work at all for me. But the main characters are going strong, and we're just focusing only on Loki and Mobius. There are some worldbuilding being thrown around, like a bunch of new judges, the Kang conspiracy being shown to them, and some kind of gigantic Time Loom that's overloading. The episode's climax is a pretty standalone one of trying to get Loki anchored in a point in time, which really is a bit too overdramatic for the relative lack of payoff that I felt it gave us. But, again, it's all executed relatively competently and most of the 'episodic' parts of the episode is nicely standalone. I think it's partially just an excuse to have a big glowing CGI setpiece for the climax. 

There's just a bunch of scenes here dedicated to exposition, too, with Loki explaining both to a bamboozled Mobius and to audiences that didn't go and reread a refresher of the first season about the events of the last season's finale. But I do appreciate that it's told rather flippantly between comedic moments of Loki sliding back and forth through the timelines of the TVA.

There are some bits of foreshadowing about the other characters -- as mentioned, we're introduced to a bunch of new judges. The Hunters from the previous season return, though none of them really have much of a personality (B-15 is just more recognizable than anything due to her longer screentime). Ravonna's still MIA. And Sylvie gets a brief short scene at the end just trying to experience regular human life as she stumbles into a burger joint. 

As you can probably tell by the length of this review... I really didn't have much to say. I most certainly enjoyed this more than most of Secret Invasion, but that's a low bar to clear and a good chunk of it was due to comedy more than anything. I'm still unconvinced that with the novelty of the first season wearing off that just repeating the same beats (and not capitalizing on either time travel or alternate variants) are going to be super-engaging. Still optimistic, though!

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Apparently, the podcast that Casey's listening to is the same one that Steven Grant was listening to in order to stay awake in Moon Knight. 
• The mural Loki points to that depicts the incoming war features several Kangs wearing the comic-book costume, which is also the outfit worn by the Kang variant in Quantumania.
• A smaller version of the big Time Loom thing is also seen in the post-credits of Quantumania with "Victor Timely", though that post-credits scene seemed to just be a scene lifted entirely from later on in this show. 
• Sylvie lands in Broxton, Oklahoma, the location of New Asgard in the comics.

Loki S01E05-06 Review: The Lokis

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

Now "Journey into Mystery" is probably my favourite episode of Loki. If nothing else, it's a delight to watch just by the sheer amount of Easter Eggs packed into this one. Not just comic-book Easter Eggs like President Loki or Throg or the utterly unexpected Thanoscopter either, but also MCU-specific ones. Is that a giant Yellowjacket helmet in the background? Avengers Tower? A Helicarrier Ronan's ship, whose name is Dark Aster and that is something I had to google? None of these are particularly distracting, but as a more seasoned Marvel comics fan, I feel pretty giddy all throughout this episode. And it even made sense, in-universe, that a dumping ground for temporal anomalies would contain wacky nonsense like this. 

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. 

Loki S01E03-04 Review: Lady Loki

Marvel's Loki, Season 1, Episodes 3-4

Yeah, this probably should've gone up half a month ago. Sorry, I just really didn't have the time to watch and review things in a timely manner, it seems. Two episodes this time, and two more hopefully in this week. 

Episode 3: Lamentis

This is going to be a bit of a shorter review mostly because I really don't have a whole ton to say about these two episodes compared to the first one. These are just very, very solid episodes that do what they need to do very competently. "Lamentis", on its core, basically has a single premise: sell the character of Lady Loki (or rather, 'Sylvie') to the audience. That's it. 

After the action prologue where Sylvie's timestream-bombing attack ended up essentially fizzling out, the entire episode basically has Loki and Sylvie wander around the doomed planet of Lamentis that they have found themselves in, trying their best to work through clenched teeth while also learning things about each other. And ultimately, that's it. We don't really even get a conclusion to their escape from the doomed planet, not until the first act of the next episode. And that storyline, if we're being honest, isn't even something particularly interesting. 

So the main appeal of this episode is the hard sell of making Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie character work as an audience. Not merely as another version of Loki, but also as her own unique character and as someone the audience can root for. I feel like this is very, very important for the show moving forwards, because sometimes these superhero shows underestimate just how important it is to spend a huge amount of time on a single character as a spotlight to make the audience care about them. It is vitally important if you want them to be increased from just a supporting character to a main character. 

And that's all this episode does. Sure, there's the expected bit of two versions of Lokis fighting each other, and then fighting alongside each other while trading barbs back and forth. With two lesser actors this would feel overwrought or eye-rolling, but Hiddleston and Di Martino have such great charisma and chemistry together that every single scene of them arguing about tactics to approach some random old lady and then mocking each other like siblings when the other Loki's methods fail; or the soft moment of vulnerability on the train where they discuss about how differently life fucked them over... it's pretty neat. There's a lot of great analyses that could be make about just how differently Loki and Sylvie turned out, and yet how they both share a fair amount of core values. We've got a nice nod to Loki's mother Frigga (arguably that storyline is the only good thing about Thor: The Dark World) and the two Lokis share a bit of a nice moment reminiscing about her -- especially since Sylvie never actually knew Frigga all that much. I did definitely appreciate that out of all the things that the show could've done to make two Lokis open to each other, it is this already-established vulnerability for MCU Loki.

There's an action scene, yes, a pretty excellent action scene on the train. And the shot of the Lokis running around the destroyed, doomed town (since when can Loki Force-lift an entire building?) is pretty cool. The comic book geek part of me really did like the little discussion of magical powers and Sylvie being described as an expert in enchanting. Otherwise, though, the focus is still definitely on the characterization and the dynamic between the characters -- there really wasn't any sort of suspense that the Lokis would die randomly because of a backwater planet apocalypse in the third episode of a six-episode season, and by all rights this episode should've felt like a filler episode. But it doesn't! There are lots of great moments here. The love-is-a-dagger speech, the little fireworks thing, Sylvie's little magical anger tantrum after the TemPad's destruction... Again, without repeating myself and re-emphasizing how great the writing and acting in this show is, I'm really not sure what to say here other than that I really did enjoy this episode. 

There is the TVA sub-plot going on in the background, of course, which is... it's competently done. I'm not going to dismiss the great plot-economy juggling that the show-writers are doing, because everything they're doing is memorable and distinct to the audience. Like the opening little enchantment thing that Sylvie does to Hunter C-20 to hammer it home to the audience that the TVA agents are actually memory-wiped Variants. And that the Time Keepers are not so benevolent after all (something that, honestly, is a bit too obvious even from the get-go). Mobius and Renslayer are also relatively competent for what little they got in this episode. But I can't lie, that storyline really feels like a distraction to all the fun acting between the two Lokis, and it's impressive that this show has basically flipped around which sub-plot ends up feeling more engaging.

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Episode 4: The Nexus Event

This episode opens up with a pretty interesting flashback of little Sylvie being put through the same harrowing thing that adult Loki was put through in episode one, except it's so, so much worse when it's not an angry, snarking god of mischief but a scared little girl who, from what the flashback implies, has her 'variance point' or whatever being that she really wants to play 'protect Asgard'. It's interesting that the previous episode and this one implies that the TVA allowed Sylvie to basically grow up to at least some point in her childhood (at least to the point that Odin apparently revealed to her that she's adopted) and that it's not just her gender that makes her an anomaly? Considering how violent Sylvie is shown to be in these episodes, it's interesting that she apparently started off as a 'good' Loki. 

But other than that, the first act of this episode felt like it really belonged as the final act of the previous episode. Now I watched episodes 3 and 4 in basically the same day, so it didn't bother me that much until I sat down to write the review... but the huge cliffhanger in episode three that 'oh no a planet is coming and the shuttle is destroyed' really wasn't that huge of a cliffhanger, and I felt like the stronger climax definitely would've been the Loki/Sylvie moment that caused the titular 'nexus event'. That said, maybe they really did want every single Loki/Sylvie moment in that episode in? And I do appreciate that, because the dynamic between the two Loki variants is easily and surprisingly the best part of the show. 

...and, yes, this episode basically confirms that they're taking it in a romantic way. I actually kind of read it like the two of them being like long-lost siblings in episode 3, but this one definitely hammers in the romantic subplot. There's a masturbation joke to be made there somewhere? Or, if we're being less crass, a self-love metaphor? It's kind of weird, but so is everything revolving around meeting an alternate-universe variant of oneself. 

Again, the opening act is pretty... pretty great, mostly because Loki and Sylvie play off each other very well. I can see a version of this show with less appropriate casting where just any one of those two appealed to me a bit less and the show ends up feeling like it's twiddling its thumbs like... like a bad season of a CW show or something. But here they strike a great balance, and at this point I really did feel like I'm rooting for the Lokis. 

It's interesting that the two Lokis basically falling in love with each other as Lamentis is destroyed by an apocalypse counts as a gigantic nexus event, and somehow the TVA decides to arrest them in the nick of time instead of letting them be killed by the planet-busting wave of dust. Or not pruning them at the spot. 

And then the rest of the episode... well, I'm not going to say it's not interesting, because it's still fun. It's tense as all heck, too! But it's just that... neither Mobius, Renslayer nor B-15 are as interesting as Loki and Sylvie. And the audience already knows that the TVA is a huge pile of lies, so the show does feel like it's just twiddling its thumbs while the TVA characters go through their requisitely believable character developments to the revelations that the two Lokis toss at them. It's serviceable, for sure, but not the most interesting thing out there. I mean, yes, Mobius and Loki are pretty fun together. We get a completely random but extremely welcome cameo from Lady Sif (who's been absent from the MCU since like, the first season of Agents of SHIELD!). But ultimately, it's just pretty much what we expected. There's a great moment of Loki pretending to not care that Sylvie got pruned, but it's clear to us and Mobius that he truly does.

At the very least, though, putting Mobius as our main POV character in the TVA is a smart move. We get a bunch of neat scenes as he slowly realizes that Loki maybe isn't swindling him, and that there's a fair amount of weird inconsistencies with how the TVA operates, and how Renslayer quickly handwaves C-20 as having died off-screen... there are a couple of pretty neurotic scenes where it's obvious that both Mobius and Renslayer are testing the waters, with both TVA agents testing to see how much the other is hiding from them. 

Ultimately we get a huge confrontation, which leads to Mobius being pruned mid-rant by Judge Renslayer, and then our two Lokis are brought before the three Time-Keepers. B-15 frees the Lokis from their bonds because she struck a deal with Sylvie beforehand... and hey, when the Lokis attack the three giant CGI aliens, turns out that the Time Keepers are androids. While they share a bit of a tender moment, Loki gets pruned by Renslayer... though the show at least ensures the audience through a post-credits scene that Loki's definitely not dead, waking up in some bizarre post-apocalyptic world met by three more variants of himself. 

And... and I'm honestly feeling like I'm just in it for the ride, you know? None of these moments are particularly shocking to me, not the way that the show probably intended it to, at least. The TVA storyline and Mobius realizing he's been duped basically happens as everyone expected it to, and the Time Keepers... I probably would've cared about them if they had even a glimmer of a presence before this episode outside of being enigmatically referred to by TVA agents. Honestly, I was even surprised they existed at all! It's not knocking this episode at all, though, because it's still a fun ride, but if we're being honest it's surprising how much more I care about the Loki and Sylvie character moments than the huge 'main story'. Still, it's been an enjoyable ride so far for sure. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• As usual, any sort of potential spoiler-heavy Easter Eggs regarding Ravonna and the Time Keepers' comic book counterparts will not be listed until the end of the show. 
• Episode 3:
• Loki does the "another!" method of slamming his empty drink glass to the ground, as memorably done by Thor in Thor, and later on by Volstagg in The Dark World. 
• While her character concept is more akin to Lady Loki from the comics; Sylvie's name, as well as the constant references to her brand of magic being enchantment, is a reference to another Thor villain, the Enchantress -- specifically, the second Enchantress, whose real name is Sylvie Lushton. 
• Sylvie's outfit is essentially the same one that Loki wears in Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, and just like that movie, Sylvie utilizes her horned tiara as a weapon. 
• The specific look of the tiara with one horn snapped off homages Kid Loki's look at the end of the Loki: Agent of Asgard run. 
• Loki mentions how Frigga taught him a trick to turn someone into a frog; in Thor: Ragnarok, Loki and Thor recalls an incident where Loki does exactly that. It's also a reference to 'Throg' from the comics.
• Lamentis is a minor planet in Kree territory featured in the comic run Annihilation. 
• Episode 4:
• Mobius name-drops 'Kree', 'Titans' and 'vampires' as other things the TVA had encountered before. While the MCU has shown us the former two, vampires haven't shown up yet in the MCU. That Blade show coming up soon would probably change that, though!
• Lady Sif makes a return -- the idea of Loki cutting off Sif's hair is actually something that stems from actual Nordic mythology. In that story, Loki cuts off Lady Sif's golden locks in order to spite Thor, and as punishment Loki has to go to seek the help of the dwarves to restore Sif's hair. 
• Renslayer's code in the flashback is "A-23". In the comics, Renslayer first appeared in the original run of The Avengers issue 23. 
• While the black-skinned Loki and alligator (?!) Loki are original to the show, the two others are 'classic' or 'old' Loki and 'kid' Loki. Old Loki is how Loki looked in the Golden and Silver Age of comic books, right down to the costume. Kid Loki is most often associated with the version of Loki from Agent of Asgard onwards, where he's trying to find a brand-new path independent of being tied to the title of 'god of mischief'. 

Loki S01E01-02 Review: Out of Time

Marvel's Loki, Season 1, Episodes 1-2

So I really didn't care too much for this one, not in the way that WandaVision and the Falcon and the Winter Soldier had interesting hooks after the ending of Avengers: Endgame. I mean, I know that the plot hook is obvious -- the alternate-2012 Loki that stole the Tesseract is a pretty obvious way for Marvel studios to backdoor in the Loki character back into the MCU while also having the impact of killing him off in Infinity War. (Spoilers for those movies, and fair warning that none of this is going to make any remote sense to anyone who haven't watched those movies)

And I love the idea of bringing Tom Hiddleston's Loki back! I've expressed multiple times how Hiddleston's Loki is one of the best characters in the MCU, and even when he's slightly portrayed as being more heroic than the character traditionally is in the comics, I still truly enjoyed him in the four movies he had a huge role in. 

But when I heard of the concept of this show? That Loki is tossed into a Dr. Who-style time travel all-powerful bureaucracy? Like Legends of Tomorrow but actually serious? I don't know. I just felt like it was exhaustingly something I've seen before, and also something that I personally didn't quite fit the tone of Loki -- Nordic god of mischief, who uses magic, who is normally associated with the Nine Realms and the Thor characters? It still kind of galls me that the best Thor movie is the one that has the least connection to the realms of Asgard and Jotunheim and Muspelheim and such, but at least Ragnarok had huge overarching themes relating to those. This is just Loki tossed into, well, comedic bureaucracy of the time lords and their Doctor Who pastiche, hunting down another Loki.

Basically it's just me saying that the only reason I bothered watching this show weekly at all is because of Tom Hiddleston, because that man is a charismatic actor, because neither the show's concept nor its style really felt quite right to me. Or maybe I'm just getting old and am grumpy at every single attempt at reinvention. It could be one or the other. 

Anyway, just like my other Disney+ show reviews, I'll be briefly talking about a couple of episodes here, and a couple more in the next post. This was originally three episodes, but I decided to split it up. 

Season One, Episode One: Glorious Purpose

This episode is basically setting up the premise, introducing the Time Variance Authority and what they do as they capture the rogue Loki in the alternate-timeline 2012 as they go around 'pruning' the branches. And... and that's basically this entire episode in a nutshell. A massive introduction to a more esoteric part of the superhero comic-book genre, complete with visuals and a tongue-in-cheek catchy animated infomercial to explain branching timelines and how they prune it. Plus variants and stuff. Oh, and also nailing down this specific version of Loki. Again, it's a good thing that the writers remember that this version of Loki did not go through the character development that 'sacred timeline' Loki went throughout Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. This is a Loki fresh off of a setback in Avengers, still ready to jump back and fight and make another bid at domination over Midgard and the Nine Realms. 

Of course, that's not the case for poor Loki. In quick succession, not only is he shown just how powerful the TVA is, with the ability to nullify magic, superpowers and even Infinity Stones in their bizarre realm-out-of-time, but also the shock that Loki receives after his primary foil in this show, Mobius M. Mobius, basically shows Loki the entire story of his life in the MCU. It's a combination of a recap, exposition and psychoanalysis, and... and I really don't think any of this would be anywhere as entertaining if not for Tom Hiddleston's absolutely superb acting.

And really, that's what really carries this show. A lot of the secondary-cast of Loki, I think by design, is very dry and uninteresting once you get the concept of 'supremely powerful, god-like overseers of the timeline that work in a place that looks like a fancy 80's bureaucratic office' out of the way. Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) is the one with any sort of a personality, and his personality is basically being overly excited and friendly, while also not being at all a fool that Loki would easily outsmart -- an interesting character in his own right, but also very much treated more of a foil to Loki. Is Mobius going to be his mentor or friend? Or just another mark for Loki? Wilson's acting and his lines are pretty great, and he makes a good foil for Loki. But the rest of the cast... the two that really stand out in these episodes are Judge Ravonna and Hunter B-15. Putting aside comic-book names for now, those two are... they're there. They're serious and they just essentially fill the role of the serious members of this organization. 

All of this rambling would perhaps indicate that I didn't enjoy watching this episode, but that's not true at all! Sure, I'm not a big fan of the concept (I'd rather Loki be brought in front of a more magical organization, but I guess this is easier to budget as a TV show) and the side-cast isn't the most interesting, but seeing Loki act throughout the episode is an absolute gem. I'm not the biggest fan of the opening five to ten minutes of just hijinks, which felt like a slower-paced version of Thor's antics in Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok (robot scene aside, that was funny), but afterwards? Loki discovering his 'sacred timeline' fate is easily the acting highlight of this episode, and his interactions with Mobius is a lot of fun. I understand the writers for not doing too much, though -- between the concept of cosmic gods more powerful than what we've seen before in the MCU, alternate-timeline variants, branching timelines, time travel that's allowed, the TVA and stuff, this episode has a lot of exposition and introductions to get through. They made this episode as enjoyable as it could be, and I had a lot of fun just looking at Loki's antics and the bit of psychoanalysis that happens between Loki and Mobius. And, if nothing else, I'm happy that we're getting a Loki that, in theory, is nominally still a villain. 

The episode ultimately ends with a cliffhanger, that the references to the enigmatic Variant going around causing trouble for Mobius and his agents off-screen is another Loki variant. It's honestly what I expected going in. 

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Season One, Episode Two: The Variant

And this episode basically goes full-in with the concept. Loki and Mobius are still very fun to watch interact, particularly that salad metaphor scene. ("That's not Asgard, that's my lunch.") But ultimately I'm kind of just waiting for something huge to happen... and the show, somehow, manages to make that wait absolutely pleasant. Anything can become pleasant when you throw Tom Hiddleston's Loki in it. I was kind of worried that this show is just going to be a timeline-buddy-cop show, which would be entertaining enough... but I am so, so glad that they went in another direction, and the right direction with this specific Loki incarnation in particular. Sure, he's got a bit of a friendship going on with Mobius, but I honestly never saw it as anything more than fascination that Mobius is giving him a chance. 

A lot of great scenes in this one, too, and the exposition done for the timeline nonsense is a lot more fun in this one. The salad metaphor was great, and the explanation of a time-traveler hiding in a massive apocalyptic event (since they can do whatever they want and it won't fuck up the timeline afterwards) is a pretty fun one. Loki hamming shit up in a pre-destruction Pompeii was a lark, too. And, earlier in the episode as Mobius, Loki and B-15 go off to investigate the Variant Loki, we get a pretty amazingly-acted scene of Loki really going ham into giving a very believable speech about how the Variant Loki is waiting for them outside and everything is a trap... only for the TVA agents to realize that he's bullshitting them. That was a great scene. 

Again, just like how the first episode was mainly concerned at showing the audience all the concepts behind what they're planning to do like an extended prologue, this one felt more like the pilot episode, showing the friction-and-friendship thing going on between Loki and Mobius. Mobius needs Loki's unique perspective and he just plain likes the god of mischief, while Loki just wants to weasel his way to meet the Time Keepers and do some dastardly takeover of the timeline. 

The third act gives us a pretty tense scene as the TVA figures out that the Variant Loki has been hiding in Alabama, circa 2050, before a future-Walmart is about to be destroyed by a mega-hurricane. The TVA agents, particularly B-15, are understandably jumpy at our Loki. And to their credit? Our Loki doesn't really seem to be in a hurry to help B-15 when she gets taken over by the rogue Variant. Or, well, as I'm going to refer to her from this point onwards, Lady Loki. It's not a twist that I'm particularly surprised about, but most certainly a welcome twist and one that has pretty excellent casting. Lady Loki spends a good chunk of her screentime jumping from one possessed body to the next with her magic in a fun action scene, but the little we had of her true form at the end of this episode really does exude the same sort of charm that makes me believe that this is an alternate version of Loki and not just a new character.

Lady Loki ends up doing her plan of dropping timeline-reset bombs into multiple points in the sacred timeline, causing the TVA to panic and scramble, before jumping off into a time portal of her own. Our Loki is faced between Mobius running towards him and the enigma of what his alternate counterpart is planning, and chooses the latter. And honestly, with what we see of Loki in this episode, it's absolutely the most natural cause of action and I'm all for it. Again, as fun as the Loki/Mobius dynamic is (and this episode really sells that dynamic as a genuine one, even if it's partially motivated by Loki's desire to always prove his superiority) I also see Loki as someone who will jump at a chance to look for the real answers somewhere else at the earliest opportunity. 

A lot of this episode also does a great job at subtly building up the TVA as not being as benevolent as what Mobius and the other TVA agents believe. There is obviously Loki's great moment of turning the tables on Mobius and questioning him what the Time Keepers are (all that from a jet ski magazine!) actually all about and how this basically just means that there's no real free will or meaning to the TVA's jobs, but between Lady Loki's cryptic lines and various characters questioning why the TVA just lets apocalypses happen... I can definitely see this eventually going off into the Lokis facing off against the Time Keepers at the end. 

This episode in general feels a lot more solid than the first, with a lot of scenes that are just awesome. The 'Holding Out For A Hero' scene of Lady Loki absolutely massacring the TVA Minutemen in a Renaissance Fair was great. The utterly casual way that Loki rattles off the disasters that will fuck up Earth in the next couple of decades is also a fun one (the pigeons' extinction fucked up our ecosystem, apparently). The action scene of Loki fighting off against Lady Loki's thralls are fun, especially since this show makes it a point to remember that Loki has magical powers beyond just illusion -- drying himself from the rain, summoning a roomba shield telekinetically, charming and mind-controlling people... it's great fun. Plus, the aforementioned salad metaphor, the Pompeii scene and Loki's attempt at duping Mobius in the Renaissance Fair. 

Overall, I did find this episode a lot more satisfactory than the first one. It's a lot more concise and a lot more solidly delivered, and I am definitely a fan to know that the entire series isn't just Loki being roped into working with the time police. Which, admittedly, would be a fun show to watch, but Loki being Loki, I really don't think he's someone that would take to what's essentially a desk job particularly well. Again, a lot of great character moments and great dialogue in this one, and I feel that this is what the show itself aims to deliver by having Loki as the star of the show. 

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Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• (I'm not going to put in 'in the comics...' versions for these characters until the end of the show because they might be potential spoilers. I know one of them certainly is.)
• Continuity-wise, the series very heavily talks about events that happens throughout Loki's life, so Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok and prime Loki's death in Avengers: Infinity War. We get a full recap in episode one, and events and characters from all of them get mentioned in lines of dialogue or shown via in-universe recordings. 
• Episode One:
• Cameo-ing in Miss Minutes' animated video are the Jotunheim Frost Beast, Kree soldiers and a Titan spaceship.
• A Skrull shows up in Ravonna's court, and based on the fact that he's wearing an Adidas suit, he's one of the Skrulls that made earthfall in Captain Marvel. 
• A.I.M. from Iron Man 3 manufactured the odd device the Minutemen find in Oklahoma. 
• One of the structures in the TVA has 'T-282' written on it. Thor #282 features the first appearance of the time-traveling villain Immortus. 
• The end of the tape on Loki's file has E-616, which, of course, is a reference to Earth-616, the designation for the original Marvel comics universe. 
• Episode Two:
• The monitors on the TVA base show multiple planets that we've seen all throughout the MCU, particularly during the 'timeline bombing' sequence. We get to see Vormir, Sakaar, Ego, Hala and Xandar among the locations listed; and Nidaveliir cameos on the very scene after the Renaissance Fair timeline.
• The file about Ragnarok mentions the 'Revengers', the tongue-in-cheek name that Thor gave to his little group in Thor: Ragnarok. 
• The number 372 appears behind Loki when he's reading the files; The Mighty Thor #372 marks the first appearance of the Time Keepers. 
• The Asgardian saying that Loki says ('where there are wolf's ears, wolf's teeth are near') is an actual ancient Nordic saying, from The Saga of the Volsungs.
• One of the alternate Lokis that has been pruned by the TVA apparently became a Hulk. 
• The idea of a Loki that's female was done with Lady Loki after the Ragnarok storyline in the comics; and a different Loki that wears a headpiece with one of the horns snapped off was seen in Loki: Agent of Asgard, one of the comic-book inspirations for this run.
• 'Holding Out For A Hero' as a music theme appears in the comic run Vote Loki, one of the comic book this show takes inspiration for.