Loki: Season 2 | Review, 5 things I liked and disliked about it

Cast & Crew:

Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
Tom Hiddleston plays Loki.
Sophia Di Martino plays Sylvie.
Owen Wilson plays Mobius.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Ravonna Renslayer.
Wunmi Mosaku plays Hunter B-15.
Ke Huy Quan plays Ourobours.
Jonathan Majors plays Victor Timely and He Who Remains.
Eugene Cordero plays Casey.
Tara Strong plays Miss Minutes.
Rafel Casal plays Brad Wolfe and Hunter X-5.

“I have no memory of having my memory wiped.”
– Mobius

Plot:

The episode starts right after the events of Season 1 where we last saw Loki explaining to Mobius and B-15 that Sylvie has killed He Who Remains and now a grave danger is coming towards them. From here the season begins where we see the Mobius, B-15, and the TVA force running after him as they don’t know who Loki is and now they see him as an intruder in the TVA and are running after to catch him.

Somehow Loki manages to escape Mobius and the rest of the force and crashes into the clerical building of the TVA where he meets Casey who doesn’t remember him either. As Casey informs the TVA that the intruder is next to him, we see Loki has started time-slipping to various points in time in the TVA.

“Sometimes our emotions get the better of us.”
– Loki

As Loki finally manages to meet Mobius, he takes him to the Repairs and Advancements department where we meet Ouroborus who finally manages to fix the problem of Loki’s time slipping as Loki explains O.B.’s past version of his problem so that he can create the machine by the time Loki reaches back in the present time.

From there Mobius, Loki, Ouroborus, Hunter B-15 and later Sylvie and Victor Timely get together to save not just the timeline but the entire Multiverse from falling apart and stop the various versions of He Who Remains from conquering the vast timelines.

“There’s a lot to unpack when you’re in a relationship with yourself. They say opposites attract. No.” – Mobius

Review:

What a season this has been to watch and experience. I was a bit sceptical in the beginning when Marvel Studios announced that the director of the first season, Kate Herron would not be returning to write and direct after an amazing first season she created. I thought this would turn out like all other projects of Marvel that have been released after Phase 3 and will disappoint us again. But the writer and directors, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead not just carried out the storyline line Kate Herron left for them, but went ahead of her and created an even more gripping story than her. This is what Marvel has been missing from its recent projects, the way the story grips the audience together and keeps them asking for more. Whether we saw Mobius and other crew members not recognising Loki, to extracting Loki from all the timelines so he doesn’t timeslips, to Loki and everyone else making an effort to find Sylvie, and from there to stopping everything from spaghettfying, everything was kneaded to perfection.

“Time is everything. It moves through each and everyone of us. It shapes our lives. Our future.” – Victor Timely

The complexities of Time Slipping, creating different version of He Who Remains as Victor Timely, different timelines collapsing, the danger of He Who Remains’ version coming to conquer the timelines and universes, memories being erased of all the TVA workers throughout different times, explosion of TVA resetting all the TVA workers and variants back to their branched timelines were beautifully explained whenever it was required. And then when we see Loki destroying the Temporal Loom and becoming the one who connects and manages all the timelines and branches, it was the most wonderful scene I have watched in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Avengers Endgame.

The writer treated the audience the way Marvel used to treat its audience till Phase 3. Whether it was the scene where Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes kill the TVA Prisoner capturing them in the time cube and Miss Minutes enjoying the massacre way more than it should have, the sound of blood dripping through the vents after the massacre, not hyping the death of Victor Timely, Miss Minutes getting creepy for Victor Timely, and so many more things were portrayed as with so maturity. And the kind of appraisal these two directors have got worldwide has landed them to direct the upcoming spinoff series of Daredevil, Daredevil: Born Again.

“If it can be dreamed, it can be achieved. Because all science is fiction until it’s fact”
– Victor Timely

5 things I liked about Loki Season 2:

There are so many things I can talk about that I liked in this season of Loki. Whether it is the acting performances, CGI, music, storyline, or pacing, everything in this season was perfect. So, let’s get to the 5 things I liked in Season 2 of Loki.

1. The Cinematography in the entire season was excellent. Whether it was the bright and dark scenes in the TVA, Loki and Mobius visiting the past Branched Timeline in 1893 to find He Who Remains’ variants as Victor Timely, when we see Sylvie at the McDonalds, or various other dark scenes where everything spaghettifies, or the last scene where we see Loki sitting on the throne with all the timelines around him, every scene remained top notch for the entire season.
2. The sets that were built and created for this season were the best thing Marvel has done for any of their recent projects. We usually see that Marvel rarely builds the sets and most of the story is shot on green screens that are not super detailed and even I had started complaining that the effort in CGI of environment build had started lacking. But in this series, they got back to the basics and built the set of TVA, and we even got to see that in long shots that were shot by the directors when conversations between the characters were going on.
3. The acting performance of Tom Hiddleston in this entire season was absolutely spot-on. I think this was the first time Marvel utilised the potential that Tom Hiddleston carries, and what a job he has done to portray The God of Mischief, Son of Odin, The Prince of Asgard, Loki. This season was the best he has ever been since the beginning of the Marvel Studios. Whether it was the scene where he was time-slipping, or the scene where he was chasing Brad Wolfe, and especially in the last couple of episodes where he learns to control the time and the moment he decides to sacrifice himself for the Glorious Purpose.
4. The subtle jokes and comedy that were written and presented by all the characters never hampered the main storyline of the season and its seriousness. Recently, Marvel Studios has carried a trend of creating their stories to grab the younger audience and lost the maturity they used to have in their stories. Somewhere or other they forgot about the major audience they grabbed at the beginning of the universe they started creating in 2008 who were treated maturely by the likes of Jon Favreau, Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, James Gunn, and Ryan Coogler.
5. The uncertainty carried in every episode was the best thing that kept the viewers engaged and wanting more. At the end of each episode we used to find Loki or the TVA in a difficult position, we used to predict and make theories that this is how the show would progress from here but the writing was so good, that the writers came up with something different that no one could have imagined. Whether it was the leakers or theory creators, none of them could guess that Loki would land in a situation where he would take the mantle of He Who Remains and become the one who keeps the timelines secured. The only person I know who guessed the blurry outcome of the season was ComicVerse, where he said that this season carries the theme of Ouroborous and we will see Loki coming back to the place where Season 1 finished, and he will take on the responsibility of the one who protects all the timelines.

“Annihilating things is easy. Razing things to the ground is easy. Trying to fix what’s broken is hard. Hope is hard.”
– Loki to Sylvie

Things I disliked about Loki Season 2:

There are no complaints that I have from this season at all. But I have complaints from Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios that they have kept on building their universe by bringing more and more characters and stories and have not explained many things, which makes many things complex to understand.

1. Marvel Studios lacking in connecting their series to the movies and the events that occur in various projects to be noticed by the world has been looking really bizarre. We saw Kang getting killed in the first season finale of Loki itself has hardly impacted the series anywhere. Yes, we saw Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and then later Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania but we still have not seen any impact of the timelines getting destroyed or the multiverse being created. And now after this season’s finale, He Who Remains says that the multiversal war is supposed to happen no matter what happens, which creates even more confusion.
2. We are not clarified in any movie or series what are Timelines and what is Multiverse. Sometimes in Loki itself, they refer to the threads outside Citadel as Timeline and now in the last episode, He Who Remains calls it Multiverse. Currently, no one is really sure what is the difference between a Multiverse and a Timeline. Was what we saw in Doctor Strange MOM a Multiverse? And if it was a Multiverse, why are they referring to the catastrophic events as various Branched Timelines?
3. If the Temporal Loom was supposed to reset the sacred timeline, TVA, and erase all other timelines, doesn’t that mean that the time was running in a loop and stuck at somewhere in the Sacred Timeline? As when the Temporal Loom bursts open, every variant gets back to its Branched Timeline, but He Who Remains says that it is supposed to reset everything.

These were all the things that I disliked or got confused from the way Marvel has been running their storylines. At least till the Infinity Saga, Marvel took enough time to explain the significance of each stone, how it works, and why they were separated into different realms, and we knew the significance of what would happen if someone collected them all. And I think Marvel should currently focus on explaining timelines, multiverse, incursions, spaghettifying, and all such upcoming aspects.

“I know what I want. I know what kind of God I want to be for you. For all of us.”
– Loki to Sylvie and Mobius

My Theories for the Future of Marvel Studios:

I think Marvel is going to take some time to build other aspects of their universe and stories till they get back to Loki. I think they have completed most of Loki’s arc and will return back to him just before Avengers: Kang Dynasty and incursions happening all around the multiverse.

For the next year 2023, the only movie that will be released is Deadpool 3. Marvel has recently confirmed that the movies slated for release next year – Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts have been delayed to be released in 2025.

As the Writers Strike and Actors Strike have come to an end, we can expect some big announcements from Marvel Studios. We might even see the cast reveal of Fantastic Four soon.

“I wasted time and now the time wastes me.”
– Loki

“Most purpose is more burden than glory. And trust me, you never want to be the guy who avoids it because you can’t live with the burden.”
– Mobius

“Sometimes it’s okay to destroy something. If there’s hope that you can replace that thing with something better.”
– Sylvie