Review: ‘Loki’ takes several new forms as season finale nears
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Editor’s note: “Loki” spoilers through Season 1, Episode 5.
We all knew Marvel’s Phase 4 was going to get weird. But can you imagine if they’d gone with their original plan and made “Loki” the first original Marvel series on Disney+?
Even with the reshuffled series, we still got plenty of weirdness out of the gate. “WandaVision” flip-flopped between kooky sitcom homage and creepy magic-related machinations, ultimately revealing itself to be a wonderful meditation on the power of grief.
Then we got the relatively grounded “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” which explored themes of legacy and race and introduced Sam Wilson learning to take up the mantle of Captain America.
But there was no preparing any of us for the insanity that “Loki” tossed out right from the start, and “Journey Into Mystery” was its best episode yet, shedding light on the four brand-new Loki Variants we saw during last week’s mid-credits scene and setting up the reveal (maybe?) of the series’ true Big Bad in next week’s season finale.
But first, we need to talk about Gator Loki.
It’s already great enough that Marvel saw fit to spend oodles of time and money creating a CG alligator with Loki horns to waddle around this episode. But to see it treated as a full-on character, with cutaway “reaction” shots in most of its scenes, is just fantastic. Richard E. Grant’s Classic Loki can understand its guttural growls (which should have been captioned, by the way), and Jack Veal’s Kid Loki carries it around like a pet cat.
Let’s also take a moment to note that Kid Loki is yet another box checked off for the future “Young Avengers” roster, alongside Scarlet Witch’s children from “WandaVision” and Isaiah Bradley’s grandson from “Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
Anyway, all of these Lokis — including DeObia Oparei’s Boastful Loki, who claims to have beaten both Cap and Iron Man before taking the Infinity Stones and being pruned as a result — are trapped in the Void, a dead universe situated very close to the end of all time.
There’s also a gigantic, sentient monster cloud named Alioth in the Void, waiting to gobble up anything that gets pruned and sent his way. These Lokis have managed to survive because, well, that’s what Lokis do. In fact, according to Classic Loki, that’s their only goal in the Void — “Don’t die.” — even though our Loki has bigger plans.
Back at the Time Variance Authority, Sylvie tries to get more information out of Ravonna Renslayer. But Ravonna once again proves herself to be an awful person and simply stalls for time until her security detail shows up, forcing Sylvie to prune herself and head to the Void. As she tries to escape Alioth, she ends up getting a ride from another recent pruning victim, our good friend Mobius M. Mobius.
And here I’d like to pause and say thank you, Show, for bringing back Owen Wilson. We were all extremely angry last week when Mobius got pruned, even after we found out it wasn’t permanent. Here’s my favorite of those reactions, courtesy of the Preview’d channel on YouTube:
The amount of character development in this episode is wonderful to see. This series began with our Loki being broken down and made to understand that he was born to lose. His “glorious purpose” in this universe was merely to be a stepping-stone for others, like the Avengers.
As the series has progressed, however, it’s become more and more clear that change is indeed possible, even for a Loki — if only the TVA would stop interfering. As Kid Loki says, “Every time we try and change ourselves for the better, the TVA comes along and sends us here.”
And despite coming from a different timeline, Classic Loki’s story is essentially the same as our Loki’s — he lived his life exactly as it was intended up until his death at the hands of Thanos, which he faked. Classic Loki said he recognized that he brought pain and suffering everywhere he went, and chose instead to isolate himself on a faraway planet. He was only caught by the TVA because he got lonely and tried to reach out to Thor.
By the end of the episode, Classic Loki realizes that he can, in fact, have a glorious purpose — helping Sylvie and our Loki determine who’s behind the TVA and stop them if possible. He uses literally all of his power to create a distraction so that Sylvie and Loki can work together to enchant Alioth, and the gleeful look on his face as he’s about to be wiped out screams, “I’ve found my glorious purpose.”
We have to wait until the finale to see who is in the strange-looking castle that Sylvie and Loki are headed toward, but that is definitely not going to stop me from speculating wildly about it.
All the signs point to Kang the Conqueror, the time-traveling villain who has already been announced as the villain in the next “Ant Man and the Wasp” film. Ravonna Renslayer is Kang’s girlfriend in the comic books, and Alioth is a rival to Kang when it comes to dominating eras of time. And of course, that middle figure in the giant wooden Time Keepers carving — you know, the one that always shows up in the credits glaring with those dead wooden eyes — looks an awful lot like Kang.
That’s a whole lot of Kang clues. Maybe too many.
Renslayer is clearly committed to keeping up the TVA’s facade. Even after Sylvie prunes herself, Renslayer lies to her security detail, telling them she’s dead. Ravonna knows that’s not true. But a few minutes later, she asks Miss Minutes for files on the creation of the TVA, because “whoever created it is in danger.” That kind of makes it sound as though she isn’t fully in the know about what’s going on behind the scenes.
I re-watched the official trailer while writing this, and there are only a couple of quick shots left that we haven’t seen. One is of Loki in his current outfit, complete with the sword given to him by Kid Loki, approaching what may be the door to the strange-looking castle. There is also a brief shot of what looks to be some sort of King Loki in a very Asgardian-looking throne room. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if another Loki Variant is behind this whole thing. It is the series’ title, after all.
It’s all very confusing, and I love it.
The series finale of “Loki” will air July 14 on Disney+.
• • •
Pruned branches and stray observations
• Great misdirect in the trailers with the “President Loki” Variant. Nearly everyone thought that was going to be our Loki. It’s very on-point that nearly every one of these Lokis was plotting to turn on the others. Boastful Loki sold out his pals to President Loki … President Loki didn’t keep his word about giving an army to Boastful Loki … and President Loki’s army immediately turned on him. This is what happens in a universe full of Lokis who haven’t gone on the emotional journey that our Loki has. That also lends some credence to the theory that a Loki is also behind all of this.
• One YouTube reviews kept referring to Gator Loki as “Florida Loki,” which is hilarious.
• If in fact a Loki Variant is behind all of this, and the TVA as we know it doesn’t survive this series, perhaps we’ll see Kang “rescue” Renslayer and begin their relationship. That would be a great way to introduce the character without making his appearance a culminating event in this show. Again, the show is called “Loki,” not “Six-Episode Build-Up to the Kang Reveal.”
• I can’t give enough credit to Richard E. Grant for wearing that ridiculous comics-accurate Classic Loki costume and somehow making it look great. That shot of him near the end, arms raised throwing green magic, is epic. Also, considering this show has been green-lit for a second season, having all of these Variants around opens up massive possibilities. We could conceivably spend time with any one of the new Variants before they were pruned, or follow one of them (cough-cough-hack-hack Kid Loki?) after the events of the first season, as another thread leading toward the eventual formation of the Young Avengers.
• You probably rewound it to double-check, but that is indeed Frog Thor, a.k.a. Throg, trapped in the mason jar underground in the Void.