On Wednesday, June 9, Disney+ aired its latest Marvel TV series, “Loki.” The beginning of the show is a bit complicated – technically it takes place during both 2012 and “Endgame” simultaneously. The intro that is shown is from the Avengers going back to 2012 in “Endgame” to attempt to get the Tesseract, which is one of the Infinity Stones needed to create a new gauntlet and undo the damage Thanos did with the Snap.
Spoilers for Loki episodes 1 -4 below!
Loki (Tom Hiddleston) manages to grab the Tesseract instead and transport himself somewhere else to avoid punishment for his crimes during this fiasco. It is revealed that he transported himself to the desert, where he is suddenly apprehended by armed guards and taken through a portal. Loki is taken to the TVA, or Time Variance Authority, to stand trial for deviating from the ‘sacred timeline’ and be reset. The TVA is run by the Timekeepers, who created the sacred timeline and ensure that everything in the universe happens exactly as it is supposed to, with no variations. Any time that someone deviates from the timeline, they become a variant, as Loki did.
Not thrilled with the idea of being reset or killed, Loki begs for his life. This is interrupted by Mobius (Owen Wilson) who believes that Loki will be able to help catch a variant that the TVA has been unable to apprehend. Cautiously, Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) agrees. Loki is then put to work by Mobius to try and solve the case of the variant.
Mobius reveals that the variant they are trying to catch is a Loki variant, however, while there have been several Loki variants throughout history, they’ve never been able to apprehend this one. This variant has cost them several guards and field teams and the variant has also stolen time reset charges. Mobius believes that to catch a Loki, you need a Loki. He attempts to learn what ‘makes a Loki a Loki’ by trying to get in Loki’s head and find out what makes him tick. Loki is still reluctant to help until he escapes Mobius and learns of his fate through the film of his life. Realizing that he will never achieve greatness or become the king he wants to be, Loki agrees to help provided he is given an audience with the Timekeepers.
They travel to the location of another attack, and things begin to get confusing. Loki states that he knows what’s going to happen and that the Loki variant is going to ambush them. It doesn’t happen and they return to the TVA. Mobius and Renslayer give Loki another chance, making him sort through all of the files of Loki variants. Loki gets his hands on the Ragnarok file and realizes there was no variant energy at the time of the event. This leads him to deduce that the variant could be hiding out in apocalypses. To test the theory, Loki and Mobius go to Pompeii right as the volcano is set to blow. Loki causes chaos while Mobius monitors the variant meter. It turns out Loki was right. Nothing he does during that time sets off an alert, as long as what he does doesn’t mess with the events of the day. Provided that the volcano erupts, everyone that is supposed to die dies and nothing changes the course of history, it doesn’t cause an alert for the TVA.
Mobius convinces Renslayer to let them go to another apocalypse in an attempt to catch the Loki variant. They end up going to Alabama during a hurricane in 2050 to a store they believe the variant is hiding in. The variant is indeed there – and ambushes them. Using their abilities, the variant hides in the bodies of various people, one of them being the TVA agent Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku). After hopping from body to body, the variant finally reveals itself – it’s female Loki! Lady Loki (Sophia Di Martino), who we later learn is called Sylvie, wants to destroy the TVA, rather than overthrow it. She sets off the charges which are programmed to drop into various points on the timeline and reset them, causing new timelines to branch off.
Sylvie goes through a time portal and before Mobius can stop him, Loki follows her. They end up at the TVA and are confronted by Renslayer but before she can attack them, Loki sends them through a portal using the TemPad again. Unfortunately, it drops them on Lementis-1, a planet that is set to be destroyed by a moon crashing into it in a matter of hours. The TemPad is out of charge, so Loki and Sylvie set off to find a source of power. They hijack their way onto the train that is destined for the Ark, a vessel designed to get people off of Lementis-1 before it gets destroyed. However, while they’re on the train, Sylvie dozes off only to wake to Loki drunk and singing in Asgardian. They’re discovered and the guards on the train attempt to throw them off. It’s successful, with Loki being thrown out a window and Sylvie jumping after him. He reveals that during his fall, he broke the TemPad. Sylvie screams in frustration, letting out a burst of power.
After a discussion, the two decide to take the Ark and leave Lementis-1, which deviates from the timeline but ensures their survival. They make their way on foot to the Ark, only to see it destroyed by the moon. During their walk, Sylvie reveals that the employees of the TVA weren’t created by the Timekeepers specifically to work there, as Mobius thought, but were all variants who had been forced to work there like Loki.
Episode four launches us straight into where we left off, with the TVA reeling from Sylvie’s attack. It’s revealed that Sylvie was taken from her timeline as a child. Meanwhile, Loki and Sylvie are facing their impending doom on Lementis-1. The two talk, and seem to bond more while watching the rocks fall. They touch, which apparently sparks a Nexus-level event. This alerts the TVA to their location and allows them to be pulled off-world just before it explodes. Both Loki and Sylvie are swiftly taken into custody and separated. Loki is thrown into a time loop in which Sif, one of Thor’s friends and an Asgardian warrior, berates him and punches him for cutting her hair. This was a joke that Loki played on her in the past. Eventually, Mobius comes to get Loki to talk to him and find out what happened. During Loki’s time in the time loop, we learn that the hunter who was captured by Sylvie is now dead, but Mobius is suspicious.
Meanwhile, Hunter B-15 is still having issues from Sylvie being in her head. She takes Sylvie to the apocalypse in Alabama again to ask her what she did to her. Sylvie reveals that she cannot make up memories, but only use what is already in someone’s head. She shows B-15 more of her past and she realizes that Sylvie is telling the truth. Mobius and Loki are in a verbal sparring match, and Loki is once again withholding information. Mobius realizes that Loki and Sylvie caused the Nexus event because Loki is in love with Sylvie – and Sylvie may be in love with Loki. Mobius calls Loki an ‘incredible seismic narcissist’, pointing out that he essentially fell in love with himself.
After Loki goes back into the time loop, Mobius gets curious as to whether or not Loki is telling the truth, so he swipes Renslayer’s TemPad when she isn’t looking. He discovers that the hunter Sylvie enchanted was remembering her old life, and was pruned for it. Renslayer knew about it and lied to Mobius. He rescues Loki from the time loop and the two are confronted by Renslayer and a group of hunters. Mobius answers her question from earlier, telling her that if he could go anywhere, he would go back to his old life before he was taken by the TVA. Renslayer orders him pruned. Loki is taken aback, crying at the loss of his friend. He goes willingly with the hunters and Renslayer, now resigned to his fate of being pruned in front of the Timekeepers.
Both Sylvie and Loki are led into an elevator which takes them to the Timekeepers. Right as they are to be pruned, Hunter B-15 enters and tosses Sylvie her sword, revealing that she is now on their side. A fight breaks out, and it’s revealed the Timekeepers are nothing more than androids, which means they are not truly the ones in charge of the TVA. As Loki is about to reveal his love for Sylvie, he is pruned.
So far, the “Loki” series is extremely well done, and in terms of the Marvel TV series, comes in at second place out of the three shows so far. It could surpass “The Falcon” and “The Winter Soldier,” but that remains to be seen in the remaining two episodes. This episode had major reveals, finally confirming that MCU Loki is indeed bisexual. This reveal comes on the heels of the reveal by Disney a week prior that Loki is genderfluid. Loki being genderfluid is comic-accurate and was an important reveal for fans, especially during Pride month. This also makes Loki the first canon LGBTQ character in the MCU. Valkyrie is thought to be bisexual, and this is something that has been said to be discussed in the upcoming Thor film, ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. Finally given the sole spotlight, Hiddleston shines as Loki as we’ve never seen him before. Fans speculate that ‘Lady Loki’ may be The Enchantress, Amora, or some combination of the two. It’s not uncommon for Marvel to do this for their Cinematic Universe, as they’ve done it in the past. It’s also possible this is indeed Lady Loki, but inspiration from those other two characters was used.
The first four episodes of Loki are streaming now on Disney+, with new episodes airing every Wednesday.
Jeri Hensley
Executive Editor/Creative Director