This review contains spoilers.
I need to be transparent: Loki’s my favorite MCU character. When the Disney+ show was announced, not even my jaded opinion on the Mouse’s machine could deter my excitement. Then, WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiered. I tuned in to each of them excited at how television could tell new kinds of stories within the MCU. They began promisingly, but by the end of each I was still disappointed. WandaVision’s unorthodox interrogation into Wanda and her grief was stopped dead in its tracks to explain things to me like I was a preschooler. The finale devolved into explosions and nonsense, all its maturity done away in exchange for fanservice and noise. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was even more disappointing, less a television show and more a hastily cut movie spread across a few weeks. Once again, interesting character work was shelved in favor of hollow and confused political messaging that was neither cathartic or meaningful. Both of these shows provided surface level enjoyment. I loved the characters and found small things to enjoy, but on the whole I grew weary at the prospect of yet another disappointing show.
Thankfully, Loki turns out to be the best of the three shows — competently paced and imaginatively designed, with a compelling focus on character, and a narrative confidence to take the story to weird, unexpected places.
Loki follows the titular character, played by Tom Hiddleston, right where we left him in Avengers: Endgame. After a mistake in the Avengers’ “time-heist,” Loki, defeated in 2012 New York, snatches the Tesseract and escapes. He isn’t able to bask in his victory for long, as he’s immediately arrested and taken to a place outside of time itself. The Time Variance Authority (TVA) declares him guilty of crimes against the “Sacred Timeline.” An agent named Mobius (Owen Wilson) explains that the TVA has been entrusted with the job of preserving the perfect flow of time by the Timekeepers, all-seeing beings that destroy (prune) any deviating timelines and prevent chaos.
The first episode, while exposition-heavy, delightfully explores earnestly nerdy concepts, throwing around words like “multiverse” and “nexus event” with complete sincerity. Only Loki, appropriately cynical, scoffs at all the new information being tossed his way. The TVA has a gorgeous “retro” office aesthetic, with glowing oranges and yellows highlighting looming golden elevators and wooden furniture. What proves Loki is cut from a different cloth than its streaming predecessors altogether are director Kate Herron’s choices as she reacquaints us with this “Variant” Loki. He watches his predestined life play out on a screen, witnessing deaths of his loved ones, the destruction of his home, and his own demise at Thanos’ hand. There’s no “glorious purpose” (as the title of the episode lampshades). His most striking discovery is that so much of his grief and anger is misplaced. His family always loved him, and he was always capable of being a hero. As Loki breaks down in emotion, it becomes clear that, above all, this show is interested in “what makes a Loki tick.”
Loki wants to find a way to reign superior. However (and this is a concept many viewers have struggled with), the show wants us to understand something crucial: this isn’t our Loki. This Loki has seen where his deceptions lead, and he’s unsatisfied. The idea that higher powers control his decisions provokes every single insecurity he’s had about his own self-worth. Asserting himself above the Timekeepers could prove once and for all that he is destined for greatness, and that he controls his own fate.
All of this changes when he comes face to face with himself.
Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) is also a Variant, but she has shunned the name Loki. She was arrested by the TVA as a child but ran away before she could be pruned. She has spent her entire life on the run, and memories of her family and life on Asgard are a blur. Her glorious purpose, though she won’t call it that aloud, is to destroy the TVA as revenge for ripping away her life.
Sylvie and Loki are not reflections of themselves. Sylvie’s even dyed her hair blonde in her rebellion. They are similar: sharp-tongued, proficient with magic, and guarded. Nonetheless, they’re more like refractions. Their differences range from insignificant to earth-shattering. Sylvie was told at a very young age of her true parentage, while the secret haunted Loki his entire life until it blindsided him as an adult. The most important person in Loki’s life was his mother Frigga, while Sylvie can barely place her in her mind’s eye. Just as quickly as they trade barbs, they also open up to each other and grow comfortable unlike with anyone else. An uneasy alliance forms between them as they learn more about what they might want out of life through each other.
The show spans six episodes, each one running less than an hour. It impressively balances sci-fi-heavy worldbuilding with interesting character development. Instead of long, loud set-pieces interrupted by quips and jokes, the show’s most memorable scenes come from characters sitting down and talking to each other. Loki and Mobius have a charming dynamic, as Mobius seeks to tease out a “better” version of Loki. Loki discovers an intellectual equal, and their philosophical sparring is riveting without becoming tedious. Mobius is part of a cast of characters within the TVA that ground the conflict. Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is Mobius’ superior, and while she grows frustrated and concerned over his connection to Loki, she feels this as more of a friend than an overseer. She grapples with the choice between protocol and preserving a friendship. She’s more than an antagonist; she, like everyone within the TVA, is more human than she appears. The same goes for Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), a TVA footsoldier. She is stubborn and fierce in her initial opposition to Loki and Sylvie. However, exemplifying one of the show’s central themes, she too changes through her relationship with them.
Sylvie and Loki are especially interesting as dual protagonists. There are small, unsettling beats that remind us that a Loki’s compassion is a precious thing, reserved for a select few. After fleeing the TVA and landing on Lamentis-1, a planet doomed to be destroyed, they sneak aboard a train to get to safety. As they board, they pass a long line of poor residents, loudly decrying the fact that only a rich, privileged few have a chance at survival. Loki and Sylvie don’t bat an eye. It’s impossible to imagine Carol Danvers or Sam Wilson being as unbothered by injustice. Loki and Sylvie are protagonists, but the show hardly sands off all their edges.
Rather than string the audience along with cheap Easter eggs and repetitive cliffhangers, we’re allowed to get to know Loki and Sylvie as they learn about each other. These are two characters with all sorts of trauma seeing themselves outside their own body with new eyes. They’re learning how strong they are, but also how they’ve been hurt and how unkind it seems the universe is to a Loki. This connection offers them an opportunity to grow beyond where they silently fear they’ve been stuck. It’s also the key to bringing down the Timekeepers.
When it seems they’re about to die on Lamentis-1, Loki admires Sylvie’s bravery and delivers genuine praise, which she accepts, taking his hand. This triggers a nexus event. Mobius teases Loki, calling him a supreme narcissist for “falling for himself.” It becomes increasingly obvious, within the writing and Hiddleston and Di Martino’s performances, that this connection, while genuine, is also awkward. They do grow to deeply care for each other. What is not entirely clear is if this relationship is romantic, platonic, or something else entirely.
Discussing Sylvie and Loki’s relationship is complicated. Some fans have become convinced that the show presents this as exclusively romantic, and thus vehemently reject it, even calling it incestuous. Not only is this moral panic an unfair interpretation, it speaks to a disheartening trend in fandom at large.
Loki is exploring deeply flawed characters. Sylvie and Loki can be selfish and manipulative. They aren’t above killing or hurting those who stand in the way of their plans. Despite this, new facets of their personality come to light as they grow closer to each other. Slowly, they begin to see the value in letting people in and forming genuine bonds without needing to plot against or betray them. The nexus event on Lamentis-1 is never explained, but it seems that it could be something as simple as a Loki experiencing genuine self-love, rather than the bitterness and self-loathing that seems to be characteristic of the Sacred Timeline’s preferred Loki. For all that it is strange that the lines of their connection are blurred, it’s fitting. The show asks a question at its onset: can you defy a path already decided for you? Loki and Sylvie have been misunderstood and belittled by the universe, and it is in loving an externalization of themselves that they begin to broach the idea that growth and change are possible. It’s a messy exploration of self, something that can’t necessarily be given one label of romantic or sexual in nature. But what is a Loki if not messy?
It’s becoming increasingly common that fandoms can’t handle complicated. Online discourse surrounding media is where nuance goes to die. Fandoms, typically those full of young and immature kids and teens, will predict a simplistic route for a story to follow, one entrenched in fanfiction tropes and shoddy storytelling, and then raise hell when their hopes are dashed. Kate Herron and members of the crew are being harassed on social media for the decision to have Sylvie kiss Loki goodbye before sending him away so she can follow through in killing He Who Remains, her “glorious purpose”. Before she does, Loki confesses that, despite his untrustworthy nature, all he wants is for Sylvie to be okay. Loki has quietly evolved throughout the season. He has learned from his mistakes, and no longer wants to let his love for another person go unspoken. It just so happens that that person is himself. It’s complicated and emotional in a way so few Marvel properties have shown they can be.
The finale of Loki, unlike most Marvel stories, is just as quiet and deliberate as the rest of the show is at its best. There are no explosions or beams of light. He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) sits at a desk and merely talks to the two Lokis, trying to convince them of his necessary yet evil creation: the TVA. It should feel underwhelming that five episodes of build-up lead to a conversation with a character we’ve just been introduced to, but Majors does fantastic work with the small role he’s given. In seconds he can transition from light-hearted jokes to a menacing bark, injecting He Who Remains with a terrifying grandiosity. He smiles while discussing the stuff of nightmares, and he isn’t even the most evil version of himself. He Who Remains explains that he’s planned Sylvie and Loki’s entire journey up to this point, and seeks to leave them control over the TVA. It doesn’t feel like the show has screeched to a halt to plant seeds for future stories. Instead, it’s a masterful stitching together of two storytelling beats, of the external and internal journeys the season has followed. He Who Remains is giving them the choice to let the multiverse spill forth or rein it in. How fitting it is that the dilemma is presented to two Variant Lokis, who stand to gain or lose the most from this decision. A multiverse could cause incalculable damage to others, but it might also give Sylvie and Loki everything they’ve ever wanted. It is subtle and complex, and it’s heartbreaking as the conversation ebbs and flows and it becomes difficult to tell just who the bad guy is anymore.
Loki is not perfect. One point of criticism is how it handles its Black characters. I will admit, I greatly prefer Black characters in this vein in direct contrast to something like TFATWS; They exist beyond the use of their blackness as a plot point. The frustration comes in how they are framed as members of the organization that functions as the overarching villain in the show. Unlike Mobius, who is allowed to defy orders, joke around, and express deeply personal desires, Ravonna and B-15 are much more serious. They spend much of the show being framed as mean, conniving, and untrustworthy. This has also opened the floodgates to copious amounts of racist toxicity from the fandom. Black women are severely under-represented in mainstream media, and the MCU is no exception. I wish this show had treated these women with the same grace and understanding it extended to Mobius, who also operates as an agent of the villainous organization. Some of that dimensionality is granted to each of the women by the end of the season. Ravonna in particular occupies a unique position, her crisis of faith making way for an exciting new journey for her. However, it seems that they were dealt a lesser hand as opposed to Mobius’s role within the story. Boastful Loki, the only Black Loki Variant we see, while not a major character, is tasked with being the standout traitor in his few minutes of screentime. This is played more for comedy than anything else, but it echoes a disappointing yet not unexpected trope within the genre. My only hope is that Ravonna and B-15 are developed that much more in the next season, as even in their small roles they proved to be standouts.
With all its shortcomings, Loki still comes together as a fascinating and complex story that I didn’t expect from Marvel. While mystical and bombastic in scope, it’s capable of being personal and deeply moving. Learning to love yourself can be a long, painful process, and it seems that Sylvie and Loki are on uneven ground in that respect. They end the season separated but profoundly changed by their time together. Where they can go from here seems wildly unpredictable and exciting. It’s a cohesive and well-written show, one that isn’t interested in tediously explaining every plot-point or emotion. Loki excels because it isn’t afraid to get close to its characters and explore difficult concepts as a result. It doesn’t give you a simple answer. I can only hope that more Marvel shows follow its lead going forward.
