TL;DR – They absolutely stick the landing in such a way that I might have a touch of hope that the MCU finally knows where it is going.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ subscription that viewed this show.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no End Credit Scene.

Loki Review –

We have reached the end of Loki’s second season, and I have to say that I am in a much better position with this show now than I was this time last season. The writers have condensed the width of the show, but by doing that, they have given it the depth it needed. But the question remains: can they stick the landing? And we will look at that and then the season as a whole in our review today. (Spoiler: the answer is yes)

So to set the scene, things are bad: the temporal loom has exploded, the TVA has been abandoned, and only Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia di Martino) can remember their time there. But in Science/Fiction, Loki discovered how to control his time-slipping. It is not about how, it is about who, it is the driver who is to protect his friends that is the driving push behind is control. Loki is no longer the God of Mischief, a loner messing with people for japes. But what has he become? Well, that is a fascinating question. We will be looking at the episode and the series as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Well, what an episode. To think how far we have come from Season One to here, where it might even makes Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania work slightly better. We had stakes. We had pathos. We even had a culmination of a character arch that felt like it had weight to it. All of these things help make the episode work so well, given that it is likely a series finale. If you are going out, go out swinging; that is what we did here. Every actor and every department is giving their all, and you can feel it at every turn.

About two-thirds of this episode is focused solely on Loki, so if you are there for the supporting cast, you may feel a little frustrated that they spend a good chunk of the episode just standing around watching. However, I didn’t mind because the payoff was so good. We had started to get Loki’s actual redemption arch in Thor Ragnarok, only to be instantly cut short in Infinity War. From the first season, I didn’t have hope that they could nail that arch, even though it was clear that this was what they wanted to do. But they fundamentally made it work.

All of this season, the running drive of Loki’s character has been to do better for all the people in the multiverse, help his friends, and stop the coming apocalypse (and a couple of those were coming). So, to make the choices that you see him make here work, you need to believe in his journey, and thanks to the writing and the acting of Tom Hiddleston, you do. For a while, I suspected that destroying the Temporal Loom was the only answer that would work, but I didn’t expect them to go full into Loke God of Time, even though, in reflection, they hinted about it in 1893.

I liked that they leaned heavily into the time travel mechanics, even going so far as to make a quicky-Time Loop with one of the most amusing title cards I have seen. You felt the weight of him trying every possible combination to stop the coming destruction. Indeed, all the choices that Loki makes in the episode feel like rational choices that someone would make in his place with the emotional connections he has and the knowledge about what is coming. But the wisest choice was showing that Loki could not do it all on his own, and it took help from Sylvie to take that final step. If any of that had fallen flat, it would have made the ending feel forced at best.

While the first two-thirds of the episode were all about Loki, I am glad they still spent the last third exploring the outcomes after Loki took his throne at the heart of a new universal Yggdrasil. Watching them jump to find a new purpose and a new drive was so fulfilling because you care for them and their journeys. I am glad that Mobius (Owen Wilson) gets to immerse himself in time and discover who he wants to be and that Sylvie can guide him. I want to see more of the TVA run by B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and Casey (Eugene Cordero) because that is a place I know would do good work, especially with OB (Ke Huy Quan) on the case.   

But not everyone gets to have a satisfying ending. Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is barely in the episode, and her closing scene will probably feel a bit of a letdown, especially as they missed the opportunity to add some recurring characters in that zone. Then we have Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors) and He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors). Given the actor’s off-screen issues, dealing with these characters has been a struggle. How you untangle that art/artist dichotomy will be different for everyone. For me, it was trying to avoid using any images of them in the reviews. I think it was the right choice to end the episode so that we might never see the character again.      

Once again, the production of this episode was top-notch. I deeply respect the entire visual effects team for the sequence that started with Loki doing his final walk and ending on the throne. However, I will say that a storm came through while I was watching the episode, and a lightning strike hit nearby just as the Time Loom exploded, and I got a personal take on what it is like when they use cannons when performing the 1812 Overture. On the notion of music, Natalie Holt has been excellent all season, but she brought the big guns for this final episode, and I think that helped make this as good as it was.

Looking back to the season as a whole, I am so glad that we have jumped from strength to strength. We got some wild moments, like a fundamentally psychopathic Miss Minutes (Tara Strong), that I was not suspecting but was glad to see, given how well it worked. Narrowing the scope of the narrative while allowing for increased character growth was a dramatic shift that the show clearly needed. But it meant that we had space for new voices to shine. Adding Ke Huy Quan to the cast was the burst of enthusiasm we needed. You need someone who sees the joy in the world when some pretty strong pessimists surround you.

I think there was only one moment this season that I got concerned: when Renslayer and Miss Minutes suddenly became infatuated with Victor Timely and started scheming against each other. It was such an unnecessary part of the show, and I am glad that we only saw it for part of an episode before they hard pivoted away from it. Given the last episode of this season has the same title as the first episode of the first season. I feel that this is probably the end of the road for the Loki series. But that being said, I would very much be happy to see a TVA series or even the characters appear elsewhere in the MCU.

In the end, do we recommend Loki: Glorious Purpose & Full Season 2? Absolutely. This was such a fantastic watch and end of an arch of a character that has been there from nearly the start. Also, if for no other reason: after Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, WandaVision, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and [SPOILER] all trying to sell the idea of a multiverse in the MCU, this has been the only entry that has made me tentatively excited to see it happen.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and T.V., he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Loki yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Loki
Directed by – Kasra Farahani, Dan Deleeuw, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
Written by – Kasra Farahani, Jason O’Leary & Eric Martin
Created by – Michael Waldron
Based On – Characters created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby, Walt Simonson, Sal Buscema & Don Heck
Production/Distribution Companies – Marvel Studios & Disney+
Starring – Tom Hiddleston, Sophia di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Rafael Casal, Tara Strong, Liz Carr, Kate Dickie, Neil Ellice, Jonathan Majors, Ke Huy Quan & Owen Wilson with Richard Dixon, Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Jason Pennycooke, Alan Pearson, Nasri Thompson, Caleb Johnston-Miller, Blake Johnston-Miller,  Jack Cunningham-Nuttall, Sion Lloyd, Ross Hatt, Alex Forman, Nasri Thompson & Natasha Arancini
Episodes Covered – Ouroboros, Breaking Brad, 1893, Heart of the TVA, Science/Fiction & Glorious Purpose