On to the penultimate episode of Loki! When we left off, all of time and space was being destroyed as the Temporal Loom exploded. So, y’know, that’s a big plot point to deal with. Now let’s see how it works out.
1. Time Keeps on Slipping (Slipping)
When Loki’s time slipping came into play earlier this season, it served as a way to show us the TVA’s forgotten past, introduce O.B., and have some fun with time-changing shenanigans. But like any good plot point, it came back in time to be useful for the plot and characters.
In this case, Loki escapes the destruction of all of time by slipping through time. It gives us a quick little loop where he gets pulled about 30 seconds into his own future, which also gives him a moment to pick up the TVA Handbook (which will continue to come in handy in this episode, so that’s a prop being put to good use).
We also learn a bit more about how the time slipping is now pulling him through both time and space (which makes me think of Hiro Nakamura from Heroes, but that’s neither here nor there), but more importantly, it becomes obvious early on that he’s being pulled to very specific times and places.
2. Who They Were Before
One point that Loki has been bringing up pretty consistently is that all the TVA agents had lives in a timeline branch before they were taken away and turned into agents or hunters. Now we get to learn who they were.
Were the characters returned to their original timelines with their memories of the TVA erased, or are these variants of who they were supposed to be? The show seems to be leaning to the former, especially since Sylvie remembers everything, but also, Sylvie was sent back to the life she made for herself working at McDonalds, rather than to her original timeline as a Loki variant.
Perhaps the most surprising character backstory was also the first we saw, when we learn that Casey is Frank Morris, a real-life individual and one of the few people to successfully escape from Alcatraz. It’s not only hilariously different from the Casey we know, but a fun bit of historical trivia.
But the one that had the most buildup throughout the season was Mobius, who we learn used to be… a single father named Don who sells jetskis for a living. It’s a boring, mundane identity, but it also shows he was a man with a family he had to care for. So we now know what he lost when he was pulled from his time to become Mobius, and even though Mobius said he was happy with his life in the TVA, we now have to wonder which life he would chose if he had the choice.
There’s also plenty of chatter about how his two sons, one of whom is a troublemaker, could have some parallels to Loki and Thor. It’s not a major point of comparison, but not a bad one regardless.
Hunter B-15 is a doctor, and she gets the least focus in this episode. It is still nice that she’s included among Loki’s friends, at least; she’s done enough to deserve that.
Then we have Ouroboros, who we learn was a professor at CalTech and a self-published sci-fi writer trying to get his break. As a writer, he’s the most open to all the strange concepts Loki introduces him to, so he can help move the plot forward (even if he thinks of Loki as one of his characters come to life). Now, his explanation involves a lot of seemingly contradictory or even nonsensical talk about traveling to a place that doesn’t exist and through time in a timeless world, but that’s not the important thing. What does matter is that it gets Loki on his quest to bring the band back together and on the road to being able to control the time slips, as well as Ke Huy Quan continuing to deliver some of the best lines in this season.
3. The Choice to Be
When Loki finds Sylvie, she remembers everything, including the Temporal Loom exploding and destroying the TVA. But she doesn’t see this as a problem – after all, she got what she wanted and has her life back.
Continued belowBut what about the others? This is the dilemma – everyone has their old lives back, but they didn’t get the choice. If Mobius was happy at the TVA as Mobius, shouldn’t he be able to choose which life he wants to live?
At least, that’s the initial debate, which seems to be another twist on the matter of free will. And it’s not a bad concept to consider. After all, is Mobius any less real a person than Don? Obviously, the TVA taking people from their timelines and rewriting their memories is reprehensible, but the agents should still be able to choose who they exist as.
Though in the end, that’s not really what Loki is fighting for. He just wants his friends back, which is still quite a bit of character development from someone previously known for stabbing pretty much any back within knife-reach.
In fact, it’s such a change that Loki seems to be struggling with his own sense of identity. The version of him in the “sacred timeline” already died fighting Thanos, and Asgard is now a place on Earth, so what’s left for him? Well, as Sylvie says “We’re all writing our own stories now,” which seems to indicate that Loki is ready to make his transformation from the god of lies and trickery to the god of stories, as he did in the comics.
4. The End of All Things
And while Loki’s identity crisis and debates with Sylvie are all well and good, the Temporal Loom did still explode, and all of time and space are still collapsing. It’s easy enough to forget about it for much of the episode, aside from random objects quickly disappearing right on the edge of the screen, at least until the world starts turning to spaghetti. (Also, the shot of the record Sylvie was listening to in the middle of the screen while everything spins and dissolves around it was nicely done, so props for that.)
Once it starts hitting the characters, we get a bit of an Infinity War snap scene, only the characters we’ve been following are turned into temporal noodles instead of dust. Mobius even has his own “I don’t want to go” moment as he tries to go see his boys before he’s also destroyed. This just leaves Loki, who remains long enough to reach out and try to grasp random strands of what were once his friends.
Well, it’s mostly just Tom Hiddleston reaching back and forth around him as the strands get CGI’d in, so it’s not really clear what exactly he’s trying to grasp. But it’s still a shocking moment for the thirty seconds or so it takes before Loki finds a way to escape and undo it, which brings us to…
5. Loki’s New Power (of Friendship)
That’s right, Loki has now mastered the power of time slipping, allowing him to travel through time and space at will. It would be a terrifying ability for him to have in any other incarnation, but at this point, Loki’s only concern is saving his friends and the TVA. In fact, what makes the time slipping power work is… the power of friendship.
Yep, Loki has to focus on the people he wants to protect to use his new ability, which may or may not limit his control to traveling to anywhere and when those specific individuals are.
Now with this power in hand, it looks like he’ll be able to save the TVA and stop the Temporal Loom from exploding. Going by Marvel’s rules of time travel, where you can change time without creating a paradox, this should be doable, although obviously not without a fair amount of drama and tension.
So that’s where things are left off before the final episode. Loki can now travel through time at will, and he has to use that power to stop the Temporal Loom from exploding and taking every timeline with it. But there are still some loose threads left to close, especially with Ravonna Renslayer (who I’m certain will find a way back from being pruned), so let’s see if they can wrap it up all nice and tidy next episode.
