Streamin' Meemies: Loki Season 1 Ep 6, "For All Time. Always"

 

So we've come to the end of Loki. Not the series finale, but the season finale, as revealed by a card mid-credits:

Which is a good thing, as we were left with pretty much the mother of all cliffhangers. If the powers-that-be had deliberately (or even accidentally) written the show to end that way, knowing it wouldn't be coming back, I would have been tempted to...maybe not throw my Fire TV against the wall, but I would have thrown something. This ending blew the Marvel Cinematic Universe wide open in a couple of different ways, and will have to be dealt with in Phase 4. Most prominently by Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, coming out next year. 

This is simultaneously Loki's strength and its biggest weakness. The events of WandaVision will play into Phase 4 and the Dr. Strange movie as well (and Captain Marvel 2, with Monica Rambeau). At the same time, WandaVision was more or less its own little self-contained thing, dealing with Wanda Maximoff's trauma and grief. This is precisely what made it so good (and this quality was amply recognized, with 23 Emmy nominations including Best Limited Series and actor noms for Elizabeth Olson, Kathryn Hahn and Paul Bettany). The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, in my opinion the weakest of the Marvel Disney Plus series to date, has not yet received a second season order. But it really doesn't need one, as its main purpose was to set up Anthony Mackie as the new Captain America. 

Loki, on the other hand, not only had to explore its main character and give him a compressed version of the arc we saw in the movies (since we started with 2012 Avengers Loki), it had to introduce the character [REDACTED] and throw its bomb into the heart of the MCU. The first goal was the most interesting, as some layers were added in this show that we didn't see in the movies (Alligator Loki among them, heh heh). The second took up almost all of the final episode, and while the actor playing [REDACTED] did a fantastic job, the bomb-throwing itself involved a lot of talking and backstory. Which is not unusual for this show, as it's made clear from the start that we're going to get a great deal of sitting at tables, conversations, character reflection and exposition. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you have a cast talented enough to pull it off...and Loki had that in spades. Nevertheless, as a series Loki had do a lot more heavy lifting than the shows that preceded it. 

Which in the end made it a bit of a mixed bag....better than The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but not scaling the rarefied heights of WandaVision. Still, I'm glad it's getting a second season, if for no other reason than I don't have to throw something at the wall. 

Now...SPOILERS AHOY. 

Most of this episode took place in the Citadel at the End of Time, where Loki and Sylvie finally tracked down the being behind the TVA curtain. He was only identified as "He Who Remains," but according to various sources, he is a variant of Immortus/Kang the Conqueror. Apparently Kang is going to be the next Marvel Big Bad. He invites Loki and Sylvie to sit down at his desk and talk (after demonstrating to Sylvie that he knows exactly when and how she will try to stab him and can blip out of range, at least until everything passes what he calls the "threshold." This is a bit fuzzy and not explained well, but it seems to be a point where the multiverse, perhaps knowing Kang is going to die, stops feeding him information and starts coming apart), and explains how he got to where he is. In the 31st century, the original Kang discovered the multiverse and his variants. The different versions of himself all cooperated for a while, but the nastier ones started the multiversal war that nearly wiped out all of existence. So the TVA Kang weaponized the devouring purple cloud seen in episode 5, Alioth, killed all of his other selves, and set up the TVA to continuously prune the timelines and prevent other versions of himself from coming into existence. "He Who Remains" has been the master manipulator behind the curtain for millennia, and now he wants nothing more than to retire and/or die...and he has selected Loki and Sylvie, allowing them to win through all the obstacles in their path to reach him, to take his place. If they let him live and take over, the TVA and the state of the multiverse will continue as before...but if Sylvie kills him, the multiverse will fracture, and all the bad versions of Kang will arise once again. 

(Kang is played by Jonathan Majors, late of the HBO series Lovecraft Country [and just nominated for an Emmy for his performance], and he does a fantastic job. As is the norm with this show, it has a lot of sitting and talking--in this case, nearly the entirety of the He Who Remains scenes. Majors has to create a full-blown, layered character in about fifteen minutes of screentime: a master conqueror/manipulator simultaneously riddled with hubris and depression, an egomaniacal god who wants to rule everything and a tired old man who only wants to fade away. I've said all along that the strength of Loki's cast covers a multitude of talky, expositional sins, and Majors is no exception.)

Naturally, this does not sit well with Sylvie. She has devoted decades, possibly centuries, of her life to running and hiding in various apocalypses long enough to survive, stay ahead of the Time Variance Authority, and orchestrate her revenge (as she tells Loki before they enter the citadel, "I was pruned before you even existed"), and she is determined to kill He Who Remains. She says he is nothing but a liar and refuses to believe what he is telling them. Loki, on the other hand, sniffs out a few grains of truth amongst all the bullshit, and tries to talk her down. He doesn't even tell her not to kill Kang--he just asks her to consider the options, saying what happens if Kang is dead and something even worse comes along? Sylvie, maybe recognizing that Loki is making a little too much sense here, accuses him of wanting the "throne"--presumably the leadership of the TVA--for himself. They fight, in a neatly choreographed battle, and Loki finally throws away his sword and faces Sylvie with nothing but his words. He says "Stop" several times and continues: "I've been where you are. I've felt what you feel. Don't ask me how I know. All I know is I don't want to hurt you. I don't want a throne. I just want you to be okay." 

Sylvie stops, for a moment, and you can tell Loki's words are getting to her. Because she suddenly kisses him. Some other reviews of the episode have simply gotten this wrong. When I watched the episode the second time, I could see it--Loki does not kiss her (though I'm sure he wanted to); she kisses him. And I'm sure she did it because a) she wanted to stop him from saying anything more that might cause her to back off; and b) she wanted to distract him long enough to grab He Who Remain's TemPad and remove Loki from the playing field. Which is exactly what she does. She pulls away, tells Loki, "But I'm not you," opens up a time door and pushes him through it, sending him away from the Citadel and into (as we will see) another timeline. Then she turns and runs Kang through with her sword. He tells her, "I'll see you soon," as he dies, and behind him, we see the Sacred Timeline fracturing into a million pieces. 

This is the bomb that has exploded in the heart of the MCU, and Loki knows it. He also knows he has been betrayed, and we can see the weight of both things settling on him (through another bit of Tom Hiddleston's marvelous acting). Finally, he runs through TVA headquarters--since that's where he ended up--to find Mobius and explain what happened. But Mobius doesn't recognize him. He doesn't even recognize him as a Loki--he thinks he's an analyst from another department. Loki, suddenly realizing he has landed in an alternate timeline where maybe he has never existed, turns to look at the TVA's multi-story inner courtyard, where a massive statue of He Who Remains has suddenly taken up residence. 

Roll credits. 

This is what I mean about the supposed star of the show getting a bit of a short shrift. I think this season could have done with at least another episode to better flesh out the characters and explain what is going on here. (And apparently that nearly came to pass--according to one of the writers, Episode 2 almost contained more of Sylvie's backstory. Talk about a missed opportunity.) I think Loki is the second best of the Marvel series so far, but I also think there are a lot of things they could have done better. I hope the second season will address them. 

Streamin' Meemies: Loki Season 1 Ep 5, "Journey Into Mystery"

 

We've reached Loki's penultimate episode, and this one is a heady, funny romp over a blasted dreamscape. We're following what seems to be the series' established formula: action at the beginning and end, and in the middle, at least one scene where Loki sits and talks to someone--either Sylvie or Mobius--and has an emotional epiphany. In this particular case, as he and Sylvie work up their nerve to face down the purple smoke monster, Sylvie asks if Loki will betray her. Loki admits he's betrayed everyone: his father, his brother, his home. "I know what I did and I know why I did it. That's not who I am anymore. And I won't let you down." 

That remains to be seen, of course, especially if the person behind the curtain proves to be yet another Loki Variant. People are undecided if that's what's going to happen, or if, as is rumored, we're going to see another Marvel bad guy, Kang the Conqueror. In one way, it would make more sense for the ultimate baddie to be Really Evil Loki, as this entire show (and especially this episode) has been exploring just how many variations on the character can be shown. And one must also remember the central question of the series has not yet been answered: "What makes a Loki a Loki?" The show has danced around a definition, but nothing has been pinned down. Obviously that's waiting for the finale. 

With this episode, however, getting there has been a helluva lot of fun. In fact, I laughed my way through the entire first half, with the chaotic, hilarious set pieces of the Loki variants. Richard E. Grant stole the show as Classic Loki, with the 60's yellow-and-green costume that he owned like a boss. Kid Loki provided a somewhat chilling reminder of how ruthless a Loki can be, with his confession of what caused his Nexus Event: "I killed Thor." Boastful Loki bragged how he defeated both Thanos and the Avengers and gathered all six Infinity Stones, which was bullshit. But the Loki sweeping the internet, maybe on a par with Baby Yoda, was this little guy: 

He didn't have any lines (and apparently on set he was a bright blue alligator plushy that got CGI'd in later) but he inspired some of the funniest moments in the episode, especially the underground confrontation with all the Lokis when he jumped up and chomped "President" Loki's (also portrayed by Tom Hiddleston, as a particularly smarmy ass) hand clean off. (And not only chomped the hand, chewed and ate it. But according to Kid Loki, cannibalism must be a thing in the Void at the End of Time. Which would make sense, since running from Alioth the Smoking Purple Variant-Eating Machine doesn't leave any time for a garden or a greenhouse.)

That scene, in which all the variant Lokis fell to squabbling, fighting and backstabbing, also provides some evidence that our Loki has indeed changed. He is thoroughly embarrassed by all his other selves' conniving goings-on, standing there watching with folded arms and a cringeworthy expression on his face. He also dances and twists his way through the fighting hordes to reach the escape gate Classic Loki has created. And finally, at the very end when he and Sylvie try to enchant Alioth, he voluntarily takes off running to distract the monster so Sylvie can get close enough to use her enchantment, yelling and waving the flaming sword Kid Loki gave him. 

In the finale, undoubtedly everyone will be converging on the Castle at the End of Time: Ravonna Renslayer, who has Miss Minutes searching for a hypothetical spaceship that can ride the temporal waves to the end; Mobius, who has vowed to burn the TVA to the ground; and Sylvie and Loki, who in the mid-episode talking scene danced around the subject of, and kinda-sorta-maybe admitted, that they might have feelings for each other and could possibly want to solve the problem of what they will do after all this together? And, of course, whoever is inhabiting the Castle at the End of Time. 

The way things have been set up, I am in hopes they will be able to stick the landing with this one. I don't know if it's the best of the Marvel series to date--that title still goes to WandaVision, I believe--but it has been the most fun. And for the first time ever, I have been seriously considering buying a Funko Pop. 

(Available for pre-order now. Heh.)

Streamin' Meemies: Loki Season 1 Ep 4, "The Nexus Event"

 

Ah ha! Finally, a bit of plot movement. Although, as seems to have become a habit with this show, it's intercut with scenes of people sitting and talking. On the one hand, when you have such good acting as Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson and the other cast members provide, you don't mind this at all. I can certainly see why Hiddleston agreed to do this show, as he's had the chance to dig more into the character of Loki in four episodes than nearly the entirety of the Marvel movies. On the other paw, we only have six episodes to deal with all the fallout, and I'm afraid the remaining two are going to be overstuffed. Apparently the powers-that-be had the same thought, as the purportedly central mystery of the show is blown right by (and blown up) on its way to yet another question.

But along the way, we do have some good scenes for our three main characters, Loki, Sylvie and Mobius. A bit of Sylvie's backstory is shown, as she's snatched away as a Variant by none other than the now Judge Ravonna Renslayer. She looks to be about eleven or twelve at the time, and the question of what she was doing to make her a Variant has not been answered, or at least not yet. Her timeline is reset and she is processed through the TVA as Loki was. But when she is taken to be judged, she bites Ravonna's hand, stomps on her foot, grabs her TemPad and runs, manipulating it to open a time door and jumping through. (Which was exciting to watch, but falls apart the minute you think about it. Those little doohickeys are way too easy to steal and operate, especially by someone like Sylvie who has likely never seen them before. And really, the Time Variance Authority is supposed to be this super-secret, super-powerful organization that basically controls all of time and space from the shadows, and they haven't heard of BIOMETRIC SECURITY?? This is becoming a thing in our world, and you'd think in an organization like the TVA, the TemPads would be keyed to their operators' DNA or even their brain waves.)

In the present with Loki, as they are sitting on Lamentis waiting to die, Sylvie recounts this and tells Loki how she learned to evade the TVA by hiding out in apocalypses: "That's where I grew up, in the ends of a thousand worlds, and now that's where I'll die." Loki, in a surprising burst of thinking about someone other than himself for once, tries to console her and takes her hand. A few minutes later, as a final chunk of moon hits the planet and a wall of killer debris is coming towards them, two time doors open up behind and they jump through, back into the custody of the TVA. 

(This is important, by the way, and ties in with something that happens later, but both things are kind of glossed over. One presumes they will be tackled in the remaining episodes.)

The two are collared and separated, confined to different rooms. After some time, Hunter B-15 comes in. When Sylvie enchanted her before, she saw something. Something from a different life. She takes Sylvie back to the Roxxcart timeline, and the two of them stand in the rain as the Hunter demands that Sylvie show her her pre-TVA life. Sylvie does so, and the knowledge of who she was is reflected in every inch of the Hunter's face. We don't see any of it, but we don't need to; it's summed up by the emotions drifting across the Hunter's face and a single line of dialogue: "I looked happy." (This is a great scene, with terrific acting by both Sophie di Martino and Wunmi Mosaku.)

Mobius makes a welcome return after his absence in the previous episode, opening with him waiting to talk to Ravonna Renslayer after her audience with the Time Keepers. He wants to talk to Hunter C-20 and is stunned to find out that, according to Ravonna, she's dead. He doesn't understand: "I don't get it. She seemed okay. She seemed fine." Ravonna says the Hunter deteriorated rapidly after she came back, in an escalating barrage of excuses that wear increasingly thin as the episode goes on. 

But Mobius also has to hunt down Loki and Sylvie, and he goes down to the main TVA control room. (Apparently the reset bombs Sylvie set off in episode 2 were only a temporary thing and designed to distract the Minutemen so Sylvie could get to the Time Keepers, as the Sacred Timeline appears to have reset itself.) Abruptly, about the same time as Loki takes Sylvie's hand while they're waiting to die, there is a sudden, very red and rapidly accelerating time branch showing up on the main Sacred Timeline monitor. This is, of course, our two Variants, and they're brought back and collared. (These collars prevent them from running off and even fighting back, as neither Loki or Sylvie can physically resist what's being done to them until the collars are released at the end.) Mobius takes Loki in for interrogation, calling him an "asshole and a bad friend" along the way. Loki does manage to yell that "the TVA is lying to you" before he's shoved into a room that turns out to hold a time loop. 

The time loop scene is interesting and important, because it not only brings back the long-absent character of Sif from the Thor films, it serves to strip Loki of all his defensive layers and make some uncomfortable admissions to himself and the audience. Sif storms into the room, yelling at Loki because he's cut off a huge hunk of her hair and calling him a "pathetic worm." She then punches him in the jaw, knees him in the crotch, and knocks him to the floor while uttering the line that lays him bare: "You deserve to be alone and always will be." And she does it over and over and over, storming out the door to the left and re-entering through the door to the right, repeating her accusations and her physical assault no matter how Loki tries to talk to her or deflect her (which is also why I decided the collar was restraining him from fighting back or even doing much in the way of protecting the family jewels). All this results in the most honest moment of self-reflection we have heard from the God of Mischief yet: "I crave attention, because I'm a narcissist. I suppose it's because I'm scared of being alone." (The tenth, or the 100th, iteration of Sif listens to this confession and is silent for a moment, and we wonder if Loki's painful honesty is getting through to whatever the heck is animating her; then she snarls, "Pathetic" and exits through the same door to start the cycle again.)

After who knows how many rounds of this, Mobius comes in: "You ready to talk?" He takes Loki back to the original room where they sat in the first episode, and we see another cycle: Loki again tries to tell Mobius the TVA is lying to him, and of course Mobius doesn't believe him. So Loki launches into a bullshit story of working with Sylvie for years and not caring what happens to her. Mobius calls him on that too, saying they've already pruned her. Loki tries to control his very emotional reaction to that, but Mobius sees through that as well: "You like her! What an incredible seismic narcissist--you fell for yourself!" Finally, flustered and trying to deny that Sylvie is his girlfriend, Loki comes out with it.

"You're all Variants! Everyone who works for the TVA. The Time Keepers didn't create you. They kidnapped you from the timeline and erased your memories. Memories she [Sylvie] can access through enchantment. So before this, you had a past. Maybe you had a family, a life." Mobius still doesn't believe him and throws him back into the time loop. 

But we see in the following scenes that Loki's words did, in fact, sink in. Mobius goes to see Ravonna Renslayer to sign the paperwork and close the case, and asks again about Hunter C20. He is given more thin excuses, which he seems to accept--but when her back is turned, he snatches her TemPad from the table and replaces it with his own. After leaving her office, he goes to a quiet stack in the TVA library and turns it on (there's that lack of BIOMETRIC SECURITY again) and pulls up the last recording of the apparently truly deceased Hunter. It shows that she did indeed remember a past before the TVA and realized she was a Variant. It also shows Ravonna Renslayer coming into the frame, as evidently the final person the poor Hunter saw. 

At this, Mobius goes to get Loki, asking him if he can swear to what Sylvie saw. "So I just have to trust the word of two Lokis?" 

"How about the word of a friend?" Loki says quietly. 

The two of them leave the room to rescue Sylvie, but the jig is up...as Ravonna Renslayer is standing outside the door, with a couple of Minutemen bearing pruning sticks. "You have something of mine," she says. Mobius hands it over and tries to play dumb, but it's obvious that he knows what is about to happen. He answers the question Ravonna had posed to him earlier--"if you could go anywhere, anytime, where would you go?"--by saying (paraphrased), "I would go to wherever my life was before I joined the TVA, where maybe there was a jet ski." At that point, Ravonna knows she's busted, and orders Mobius pruned. He disappears in a golden glitter of CGI, leaving Loki gasping in grief (another marvelous acting moment from Hiddleston). 

After this, Loki and Sylvie are taken to see the Time Keepers. This scene was more than a little disappointing, because it's about the worst special effects I have seen in any Marvel property. I mean, it's evident that the three huge sorta-human monsters we see sitting on floating thrones have been set up to tip off the audience that "ERRR, NO, THESE ARE NOT REALLY ORGANIC BEINGS," but for frak's sake, couldn't they have been a little less blatant about it? Not to mention the fact that I could barely understand what they were saying, and if I hadn't had subtitles turned on, I wouldn't have been able to follow their dialogue at all. At any rate, Loki starts trying to bluster his way through his imminent execution. Suddenly the door opens to reveal Hunter B-15, who clicks a device that releases Loki and Sylvie's collars. She tosses a sword in Sylvie's direction and the fight is on. Loki eventually dispatches the two Minutemen, and Sylvie (seemingly) knocks out Ravonna. She then hurls her sword at the head Time Keeper, and lops its head right off. The head rolls down to Sylvie and Loki's feet, with a suspicious lack of blood and gore, and Sylvie picks it up to show off the truth--the Time Keepers are androids. (The other two also power down and shut off when this happens, so it's evident the central 'droid was the controller for all three.)

This resets the entire storyline, summed up by Loki's line of dialogue: "Then who created the TVA?" They are momentarily knocked off balance and confused about what to do next, and Loki (of course) decides that he just has to tell Sylvie something right now. He stammers and wavers and says this is not easy for him, he's never done this before, and the audience is meant to think that he's about to express his feelings for her (although I'm not sure this will prove to be the case). But whatever it is, he doesn't get it out--a sudden flash of pruning stick from a recovered Ravonna glitters the star of our show into nothingness. From her expression, Ravonna expects to die, but Sylvie just knocks the stick out of her hand and says, "You're going to tell me everything."

Roll credits.

But wait! There's more! A mid credits scene: a tight closeup of Loki's face, with him groaning and saying, "Is this Hel? Am I dead?" 

"Not yet," says a voice. "But you will be unless you come with us."

And the camera pulls back to reveal three (or actually four, I guess) new Loki's, with the background of a burned-out New York City skyline. There's a Loki with the classic yellow-and-green 60's Marvel costume (Classic Loki, per the credits); a Loki holding a handmade Mjolnir (Boastful Loki); a kid (Young Loki); and even a baby crocodile with a little Loki horned hat!

(And that kind of looks like the remains of the Avengers tower on the extreme right.)

Now the credits actually roll. 

Well. Since this is episode 4, it needed to do a little shaking up, and this episode certainly delivered. However, as I said, I wonder if this means the final two episodes will be overstuffed (as Loki will obviously have to go find Mobius, as well as tangle with whatever is actually behind the TVA). In any case, I'm certainly set for the ride. 

Streamin' Meemies: Loki Season 1 Ep 3, "Lamentis"

 

This third episode of Loki is (so far) the shortest, but it's also the one most structured like a big-budget Marvel movie. If, as has been rumored, budgets for the Marvel streaming shows are as high as $25 million per episode, Loki's six episodes will put it in prime blockbuster-movie territory. This is the first ep, I think, that really has the look and feel of a typical Marvel offering, complete with a CGI-bloated third act. However, a surprising bit of clever direction in the final scenes makes it visually quite interesting, lacking the usual overstuffed superhero look. 

This is pretty much a two-person episode: Owen Wilson's Mobius is unfortunately nowhere to be seen. Tom Hiddleston and Sophia di Martino, as our title character and Loki variant Sylvie respectively, are the focus. Whether you like this episode will depend heavily on what you think of the chemistry between these two. Acting-wise, di Martino holds her own with Hiddleston, but the two characters are a little too similar to generate the prickly clash and contrast between Loki and Mobius. This is mainly why I don't rate this episode quite as high as episode 2, "The Variant." But Hiddleston, as always, commands your attention throughout, and there are a couple of a plot reveals here (one in particular) that I'm sure will prove vitally important further down the line. 

The theme of this episode, and probably the series as a whole, is "What exactly  makes a Loki a Loki?" I think this applies more to the original than Sylvie, as she seems to be fairly sure of who she is. One of those things definitely is a sworn enemy of the Time Variance Authority, as this episode opens with her pulling memories from the young Hunter's mind, trying to discover where the Time Keepers are and how many guards they have. (Why she hates the Time Keepers and the TVA so is not spelled out as yet, though I suspect it has something to do with the second plot reveal.) When she takes the TemPad (which is an unfortunate name, to say the least; it's way too close to an awkward mashup of tampons and iPads) and jumps into TVA headquarters, it soon becomes clear she's fighting her way to the room where the Time Keepers apparently hide out. (And is quite the badass in those scenes.) Our Loki follows, tracking her down just outside the Time Keepers' door. They're both surprised by Ravonna Renslayer, and when Sylvie threatens to cut Loki's throat, Renslayer merely flicks her little energy whip and says, "Go for it." Loki grabs the TemPad from Sylvie's long coat and transports them both to an apocalypse where they can hide. This proves to be the titular planet Lamentis, which is about to be smashed into by a moon that will destroy all the inhabitants. 

Loki and Sylvie plummet through a time door into an abandoned building on this planet and fight some more, each trying to seize the TemPad. Sylvie finally grabs it, only to watch a snarky Miss Minutes dance across the screen and inform the operator the device is "out of juice." (Really? A DEVICE CONSTRUCTED BY AN ORGANIZATION THAT EXISTS OUT OF TIME, A DEVICE THAT CAN HOP ACROSS THE TIME STREAM LIKE A STONE SKIPPING ACROSS WATER, IS NOW INOPERABLE DUE TO A LOW BATTERY? FOR FUCK'S SAKE.) This ham-fisted plot contrivance sets up the rest of the episode: Loki and Sylvie are now forced to work together to recharge the TemPad and use it to escape the planet before the twelve-hour time limit runs out and they die along with the rest of the population. 

So they walk around the planet, looking for a place to plug the TemPad into while witnessing the alarming sight of the rich inhabitants of Lamentis buying all the tickets to the ship that will lift off the planet (and the train that will get them to the spaceport) and leaving the poor inhabitants behind. This starts to sting Loki's conscience: during the final scene, he remarks that "they're just leaving these people to die." Sylvie, on the other hand, doesn't seem too affected by this, or at least she doesn't comment on it. She's too consumed by her desire to return to the Time Variance Authority and complete her "mission," whatever that is. 

The three most important scenes in the episode are a long talky scene in the middle, after Loki and Sylvie trick and enchant their way on board the train (which looks suspiciously like a Snowpiercer knockoff) that will take them to where the Ark is getting ready to lift off. With nothing else to do, they talk about themselves--or rather Loki, as is his wont, talks mostly about himself and Sylvie listens. (He even comments on it later, and Sylvie acknowledges, with a smug little grin, the "tactical advantage" this gives her.) He talks about his mother and how she taught him to do magic, and asks Sylvie if she has a "beau" waiting for her at the end of her mission. Sophie says she does and returns the question: 

From director Kate Herron's Twitter feed. If you can't read the captions, Sylvie asks: "How about you? You're a prince. Must've been would-be princesses or perhaps, another prince."

"A bit of both," Loki replies. "I suspect the same as you." 

This revelation, unsurprising to anyone who reads the comics or is a student of Norse mythology, immediately blew up the internet. And while Marvel can rightly be congratulated for finally having a canonical bisexual character, and a fan favorite at that, the cynic in me notes this is a brief dialogue exchange that can easily be chopped out of the episode by homophobic censors in China or anywhere else. 

The second important scene is occurs after Loki and Sylvie are discovered to have snuck aboard the train without a ticket and get thrown off. In the process the TemPad (which Loki apparently stuffed into his back pocket) gets smashed. (And come to think of it, didn't that futuristic high-tech high-speed train roaring across the landscape NOT HAVE A COUPLE OF CHARGING PORTS SOMEWHERE? FOR FUCK'S SAKE.) After Sylvie screams out her frustration at this development, they decide to walk the rest of the way to the spaceport and attempt to sneak aboard the departing ship and/or hijack it--despite the knowledge that in the main timeline, the ship did not survive the planet's destruction. (This seems like a rather large plot hole. Maybe Loki thinks if they cause a massive enough disturbance in the timeline, even if they don't succeed in boarding the ship, the TVA will swoop in and rescue them. But we saw in the final moments of the previous episode that Sylvie's reset bombs blew the Sacred Timeline to bits, and the TVA will obviously be a bit too busy with that to pay attention to two doomed Variants, no matter how annoying Loki is. Furthermore, Sylvie knows this. But she doesn't say anything and goes along with Loki's suggestion.) Anyway, while they are trudging across the sand, Loki talks Sylvie into explaining how she "enchants" people. She does so and then muses on how messed-up and "clouded" the TVA agent's (the one we saw at the beginning of the episode) mind was:

"I had to pull a memory from hundreds of years prior, before she fought for them. Before she joined the TVA, she was a regular person on Earth." 

This immediately pulls Loki up short. "I was told everyone who worked for the TVA was created by the Time Keepers."

"That's ridiculous," Sylvie says. "They're all Variants, just like us." 

"They don't know that!" 

This will prove to be important, I think. I suspect Mobius' little world, as well as his faith in the TVA and its mission, is about to be blown to kingdom come. 

The third outstanding scene in the episode is the end sequence, where Loki and Sylvie reach the port and attempt to fight their way to the ship. These are the most CGI-soaked scenes of the entire episode, a nightmare of a port/casino bursting with painfully bright purples, pinks and blues, with chunks of rock hurtling through the roof, screaming people, and falling statues and other things. It's the way this is shot that makes it interesting: it's almost all one running, fighting, punching, camera-swooping, encircling take. Obviously it must have been stitched together, but it's pretty seamless overall: there are only two or three overt cuts. This technique concentrates the viewer's eye on Loki and Sylvie, and prevents the CGI from overwhelming what is happening, as occurs all too often with superhero third acts. But all their efforts prove to be for naught: a chunk of moon blasts through the ship as it sits on its launch pad, leaving Loki staring at it forlornly while Sylvie stalks away in disgust and despair.

Roll credits--with a final end song of an old-fashioned country ballad, "Dark Moon." 

Well. This is the halfway point, and though it's a bit of a setup for the rest of the season, there are several important drops here. I expect next episode we'll go back to Mobius and the TVA, and maybe get a glimpse of the mysterious Time Keepers. 

Streamin' Meemies: Loki Season 1 Ep 2, "The Variant"

 

After the sheer (but very entertaining and well-acted) talkiness of episode 1, we get some action in this one. It's also intercut with some more sequences of Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson sitting at a table and talking, but these two play off each other so well those scenes are among the best in the episode. And instead of dragging out actually catching the Variant until the finale,  that happens in this episode...but this only leaves us with more questions. 

SPOILERS!!

(Bonus points to anyone who can tell me which movies these are all referring to. Hell, I might even spring for a free month of Disney Plus.)

The central mystery of this show is why the Variant is doing what s/he is doing. It's already been established that the culprit is another Loki variant. This episode shows that alternate Lokis have been a pain in the Time Variance Authority's ass for quite a while. As Mobius gathers his team to check out the latest Minutemen slaughter, several images of various Lokis from the comics flash across the screen. Of course, our current Loki is probably the smarmiest, most smart-ass of the bunch, as Tom Hiddleston demonstrates throughout this episode, delivering his lines with a superior, mocking tone that sets everyone else's teeth on edge. I mean, you simultaneously want to (or at least I want to) drag him away to a lush boudoir and punch him in the nose, and that's an acting triumph.

So it's quite the surprise when Loki actually catches up with himself in this episode. He is given one last chance by Mobius, and when he is forced to sit down and do some honest-to-goodness work, Loki proves to be the dogged little detective. While looking over the report of the destruction of Asgard, Loki realizes something. The "bad" Loki is hiding out among the Sacred Timeline's apocalypses: because everyone there is already destined to die and nothing will change that, s/he can do whatever s/he wants. Loki immediately runs to Mobius to explain his theory, in a marvelous scene where he grabs the agent's salad bowl out of his hand and proceeds to demonstrate with salt and pepper shakers and a packet of something milky from the next table (maybe salad dressing?) just what he means. The contrast between Owen Wilson's low-key, head-shaking exasperation and Tom Hiddleston's over-the-top intensity demonstrates why these two are the stars of the show (and also why Marvel's casting person is a genius). 

The next scene, however, is even better; I think it's the best in the episode. To test his theory, Mobius and Loki time-hop back to the destruction of Pompeii. They shouldn't be there, and as they await Vesuvius' eruption, Mobius tries to make Loki be quiet as he monitors his TVA doodad for any time variance waves. Naturally Loki ignores this and jumps into the middle of the courtyard, freeing a bunch of goats from a cart and yelling at the top of his lungs: "We're from the future and you're all going to die!" In Latin no less. (Thus making use of Tom Hiddleston's Classical Studies degree. You can tell he's having a blast in this scene.) The townspeople stare at him and the goats run off bleating, and in the background as the volcano starts to erupt...nothing at all happens on Mobius' thingamajig. No variant time waves. The two of them are still standing there talking as the ash clouds billow towards them, and I'm thinking, "Okay people, y'all need to get a move on now," but the next scene cuts to them coming out of the elevator at the TVA, making a plan to find the Variant. 

There could be thousands of apocalypses to check, but Mobius remembers a clue from the first episode: a modern stick of gum given the little girl who came upon a group of slaughtered Minutemen. It's called Kablooie, and it was made for only a few years in the mid-21st century. So he sits Loki down and makes a contest out of who can go through the files and find the relevant apocalypse first. (As an aside: the TVA is still using paper records? This is one more of the odd running anachronisms about the place, with its weird mix of Marvel character statues--the Timekeepers are all over, found in many of the rooms--and the mid-60s set design. Which is also genius.) While doing this, they take a break and we see what is probably the second-best scene in the episode: a long conversation between Loki and Mobius over the nature of existence and the TVA. Loki questions the agent about the Timekeepers, and Mobius reveals his faith and trust in them is absolute. Unfortunately, I believe the agent is in for a pretty severe crisis of faith before the show is over. 

After a bit, Loki discovers where the Variant is hiding: in a disaster in 2050, where a climate-change-fueled hurricane wiped an Alabama coastal city off the map. Mobius persuades his boss, Ravonna Renslayer, to let him send a team, and they jump to a Roxxcart warehouse. (Roxxcart? An unholy amalgamation of Amazon and Walmart?) I fully expected them to prowl through the warehouse, trade sarcastic remarks, and find nothing, but sure enough, the Variant is there. The Variant is also a green-hued body-hopper that jumps between three separate bodies of people sheltering in the warehouse, while tossing Loki ass over teakettle. Loki reveals he is going to attempt to take over the TVA (of course he is) and he invites the Variant to be his "leftenant" (which is another English anachronism? Hiddleston clearly says "leftenant," but the closed captioning showed the more familiar "lieutenant"). The Variant rejects this, as s/he has his own agenda, which we are shown in the flashes of a confiscated TVA doodad with a twenty-minute countdown, as well as the various time reset machines the Variant has collected along the way. The final body of the Variant, and apparently the real one, is a blonde woman. (There's quite a bit of internet speculation as to whether this character is Lady Loki or a villain called the Enchantress.) Loki bellows, "Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?" and the woman replies, "It isn't about you." 

Meanwhile, the 20-minute countdown runs out, the reset machines disappear into the timeline...and proceed to blow it up, with all kinds of sudden branching timelines appearing on the TVA's home screen. The Variant disappears into an open time door, and even as Mobius runs up yelling, "Loki, wait!" Loki looks around, hesitates, and jumps through the time door after her.

Roll credits.

Other scenes: Another Minutemen massacre, set to (of all things) Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero." (Although I'm not sure who the Hero is supposed to be, as it sure as heck isn't Loki.) The Variant knocks out and drags off one of the Minutemen (or rather woman) during this, who is found later in the Roxxcart warehouse, saying "It's real. It's real. It's real," over and over. We are never told what "it" is, but that Minuteman does say she revealed the location of the Timekeepers (although I don't know how the hell this foot soldier could know something like that, as Mobius makes a point of saying he's never met them). 

The opening scene is a lovely bit with the cartoon Miss Minutes, quizzing Loki about the TVA videos he's supposed to have been watching, while Loki looks through Mobius' jet-ski magazine and answers in a thoroughly bored voice. Finally, fed up with the little cartoon clock's pestering, he swats at her with the magazine until she jumps back on the computer screen. 

This episode had a well-paced mix of action and character moments, and was just an all-around delight. One of the best things I've watched so far this year. 

Streamin' Meemies: Loki, Season 1, Ep 1, "Glorious Purpose"

This is Marvel's third series, featuring Tom Hiddleston as everyone's favorite villain. When we last saw Loki, he was quite dead at the hands of Thanos--except that, oops, during the time travel shenanigans of Avengers: Endgame, Loki grabbed the Tesseract and made off with it when he wasn't supposed to. This show takes off directly from that moment, as Loki lands in the Gobi Desert with the Tesseract, and promptly scales a rock in an attempt to intimidate the three tribespeople who are staring bemusedly at him. Loki immediately starts off as a pompous ass, proclaiming himself "burdened with glorious purpose," which as we will see, turns out to be truer than he knows. 

But his braying is interrupted by people coming through a magical door, armored people who take Loki into custody as a "variant" who disrupted the timeline. The woman leading them, identified by the closed captioning only as "Hunter-15," is not only thoroughly unimpressed, she knocks him down with a slo-mo stick. Loki is dragged through the door and the timeline is reset. 

Several delightful little set pieces follow, as Loki is processed through the bowels of the TVA bureaucracy. This turns out to be the Time Variance Authority, the massive secret organization that guards the Sacred Timeline, keeps it from unraveling, and punishes "variants" who temporarily create alternate timelines. (Which is a bit sinister, as the Goldman Sachs guy in the episode demonstrates: they're basically wiped out of existence.) First, he's forced to give up the Tesseract; then, he's shoved into a room where his "fine Asgardian leather" is stripped from him and replaced with a bland TVA jumpsuit, which also serves to show off the fact that though Tom Hiddleston lacks Chris Hemsworth's muscles, he is still a fine-looking man.

I mean, there are many reasons Loki is one of the most popular Marvel characters, and some of them even have to do with Hiddleston's Shakespearan-style acting!

Next, Loki is dumped into a room where an extremely annoying cartoon clock, Miss Minutes, takes him through the founding and purpose of the TVA. After that, he's herded into the courtroom, where the judge accuses him of disrupting the timeline and demands to know how he pleads. Loki does his preening, posturing, bellowing best to talk himself out of his trouble, but in keeping with the fact that all the TVA employees are very unimpressed with the "god" suddenly dumped in their midst, he is found guilty in minutes. He's about to be dragged off for what one assumes is termination when the courtroom proceedings are interrupted by one Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) who takes Loki under his wing and into yet another room. (After a CGI shot of the interior of the TVA complex that was, to put no fine point on it, bad. It looked like something out of the days when computer-generated graphics were just starting, 25 years ago, cheap and cheesy. I'm surprised the powers-that-be let it remain. Maybe it had something to do with the special effects having to be done remotely due to the pandemic.) 

A lot of this episode, out of necessity, is setup and exposition. We spend a good portion of the episode's screentime sitting in this room with Mobius and Loki, watching Owen Wilson and Tom Hiddleston play off each other. Admittedly, I would watch Hiddleston emoting over the ingredients of my favorite cereal, and Wilson is a perfect foil for him. But there's a surprising bit of character work done with Loki in these scenes. Remember, this is not the "current" Loki we're seeing, the at least partially redeemed character killed by Thanos. This is the 2012 Avengers-era egotistical, villainous Loki, trying to claim the throne of "Midgard," or Earth.  Mobius states he wants to find out what makes Loki tick, and peppers him with a series of insistent questions: "Do you enjoy hurting people, making them feel small and afraid?" "What is it that  you think you're really running from?" "I want you to be honest about why you do what you do." Finally, Mobius states bluntly: "You were born to cause pain and suffering and death, all so that others can achieve the best versions of themselves." 

In an effort to get Loki to open up, Mobius also plays what he calls "your greatest hits": excerpts from the original timeline Loki was yanked from. This is, of course, clips from the other Avengers movies (aside from a delightful aside where it is revealed that Loki was D.B. Cooper, the hijacker who collected a quarter-million-dollar ransom, jumped out of an airplane, and was never seen again). Loki is immediately affected by the sight of his mother's death, demanding to know where she is. He even tries to jump Mobius, only to be slammed back by a little magical gizmo in the agent's pocket that resets time a few seconds and returns him to his starting point. They are interrupted by Hunter-15, and Mobius has to leave, sternly ordering Loki to stay put. Which of course Loki ignores, as during the moment Mobius was distracted by Hunter-15 Loki managed to palm the little gizmo (which is apparently a Magical Plot Coupon that also has teleportation abilities) and as soon as Mobius is gone he starts jumping all over the TVA complex. 

The first place he goes is where he was forced to hand over the Tesseract, badgering the clerical nubbish guy in charge of it into giving it back. In the process a drawer pops open, and we see the single thing about the Time Variance Authority that can humble an arrogant God of Mischief: the sight of said drawer full of Infinity Stones, the most powerful things in the outlying universe, and said nubbish cleric's offhand aside that the agents use them for "paperweights." You can see the horrified realization dawning in Loki's face: "Holy shit, these people can squash me and everything else like a bug." 

Loki takes the Tesseract, but having nowhere else to go (since he can use neither it nor his own innate powers to escape the TVA complex) he returns to the room where he was talking with Mobius. The machine playing "Loki's greatest hits" is still there, and he lets it play out. We see the rest of Loki's Avengers storyline: the death of his father and his eventual reconciliation with Thor, and then his own death at the hands of Thanos. The camera focuses tightly on Hiddleston's face during this sequence, and his reactions are an acting tour de force. The file ends, and when Agent Mobius returns, Loki is sitting on the floor, defeated and chastened. 

At that point, he breaks down, knowing he can't go back to the original timeline (on account of being dead and all). He also answers Mobius's questions: "I don't enjoy hurting people. I do it because I have to. Because it's part of the illusion. A cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear." 

"A desperate play for control," Mobius says. "You do know yourself." 

(I'm sure it will be pointed out that this is also the mindset of a bully, which Loki is as well. Again, in the hands of a lesser actor than Tom Hiddleston, Loki would be a nasty, unlikable prick. Which in one way he is--but all the same, you can't take your eyes off him.)

Mobius says he can't offer Loki salvation, but he can offer him a job--hunting down the dangerous variant who is killing Hunters and Minutemen. (This is how we're introduced to the agent, at crime scenes in history where Hunters/Minutemen have been sent to reset the timeline and end up getting offed.) Loki asks, "Why me?" and Mobius replies, "Because the variant is...you." 

After this revelation, we're immediately whisked to another crime scene, a field in 19th century Oklahoma where a device from the third millennium is extracting oil. (Although, come to think of it, that makes no sense....surely technology from a thousand years in the future would run on something other than fossil fuels.) A team is sent to seize the device and reset the timeline--and in the distance, a hooded, cloaked figure sets the oil on fire, burning all the agents to death. 

Roll credits. 

Well. In terms of holding the audience's interest, or at least my interest, this setup surpasses the previous Marvel series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and is almost on a par with WandaVision. Most of this is due to Tom Hiddleston, but the directing, sets and dialogue are also top-notch. Since Loki will apparently be hunting himself down, we will need to know where this third variant come from, which makes this show a bit of a noir mystery. In any event, I am definitely hooked.