The Short Take:
While not as finely tuned as last week’s episode, the penultimate installment of LOKI delivers delightful team-ups and epic sorcery.
[SPOILER WARNING: Don’t ask Miss Minutes for these files unless you’ve seen the newest episode.]
The Long Take:
Just when I thought this show couldn’t possibly hit any other genre buttons, episode 5 barrels in with strong Mad Max vibes. As a creative undertaking, Loki derives a lot of pleasure from mapping the Marvel universe onto other pop culture traditions: science fiction, time travel, space exploration, paranormal investigation, and now post-apocalyptic dystopia. And head writer Michael Waldron has been very open about the influence that his favorites, like Mad Men and Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, have had on his vision for Loki. In this episode, as in many others, the borrowed tropes feel freshly appropriated and lived in and rather than unoriginal. The ratty underground bunker, with Marvel Easter eggs all the way down, President Loki showing up with a horde of Loki henchmen, and the jaded Lokis rolling their eyes at the green Loki (no pun intended, but I’ll take it) — they all feel at once old and new.
Here, the Marvel-specific twist is in the Lord of the Flies style interaction between all the Loki variants who have been pruned and sent to “The Void” at the end of time. Of COURSE all the Lokis are pathetically vying for the “throne” of a dilapidated, nearly barren kingdom. And watching them predictably try to deceive and backstab one another was so, so fun. My only complaint is that I wanted more time with more Lokis.
But, before I go any further, I’d like to officially place a request for a GATOR LOKI spin-off. Taking the Chewbacca or Groot approach — where Gator Loki has opinions but communicates them non-verbally to other Lokis who then casually engage in conversation — was 100% the right move. He feels like a peer variant more than a pet. I reveled in every reaction shot and every comment that drew attention to just how wonderfully ridiculous an alligator version of Loki is.
The episode as a whole piece did not hum as much as last week’s, though. The scene where our Loki pitches his heroic plan to other Lokis struck me as the first time Tom Hiddleston seemed to strain to get through his lines. It was a lot to say and, honestly, a totally earnest and idealist Loki seems like a tough sell. And some of the more heartfelt Loki and Sylvie scenes felt a little stiff compared to those past. That may in part be the acting, but I think it’s more the directing. I get that we need to establish that these characters don’t know how to emotionally connect with someone else, but some of the awkward pauses to indicate a lack of self-assuredness in reaching out seemed a little too long.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, meanwhile, is crushing it as Ravonna. I know I’m fairly gullible and too easily suspend my disbelief when I’m watching film and tv, but I was legitimately confused when she offered to team up with Sylvie. I started blaming the show for suddenly making her “good” after all the shadiness they so elegantly established in her prior scenes with Mobius. But no, it turns out Mbatha-Raw is just such a great actress that she actually fooled me and Sylvie both. Deception worthy of a Loki! Wunmi Musaku also continues to do so much with so little time on screen. The intensity with which Hunter B-15 told off Ravonna added a much-needed gravitas to an otherwise rollicking and spectacle-laden episode.
Beyond Alioth (who reminds me of the giant smoke monster from Lost), the sorcery that all the Lokis employ throughout this episode provides the biggest spectacle. Kid Loki makes our Loki a magical dagger (despite Classic Loki scoffing at the inferiority of sharp objects when magic is more powerful). Sylvie and Loki both enchant Alioth to access his memories. But the MVP is clearly Classic Loki (played by Richard E. Grant, who you may not know by name but have probably seen in something…British). His projection of Asgard to lure the matter-gorging monster away from Loki and Sylvie
draws attention to how Loki’s abilities have been downplayed in the larger MCU. The whole scene was exactly the epic, fantastical adventure fare I hope my comic book stories will have. Grant brilliantly contorts his body to illustrate how massive an illusion this is and his intonation conveys that Classic Loki wants to go out like a hero boss, repurposing the phrase “glorious purpose” to strip away its mockable irony.
Thanks to Classic Loki’s help, Loki and Sylvie are one step closer to the creator of the TVA. But we viewers are almost as in the dark as they were last week. Ravonna’s main villain stock has gone down a little because her conversation with Hunter B-15 implies that she wants answers about the “man behind the curtain.” So her lie about joining forces with Sylvie wasn’t a total lie in that they do have mutual interests. I think there’s still going to be some kind of reveal with Miss Minutes, but I’m warming up the the idea that the mansion floating in the sky contains another Loki trying to keep all the other Lokis down so his timeline can reign supreme. I just keep reminding myself that in WandaVision it was Agatha ALL ALONG, and in Falcon and Winter Soldier the Power Broker wasn’t a new character but Sharon Carter, who had been hiding in plain sight. A plot pattern seems to be forming, and if the same holds true for Loki, the message will be clear: Marvel/Disney wants these shows to be self-contained stories that only flavor and feed into the tentpole films. Are they really the pruned variants of the MCU, relegated to a streaming service?