The time has finally come to see our favorite green hero/villain back on the screen in season two of Loki. After the insane ending of season one, along with the awe-inspiring visuals and instrumentals, I am super excited to dive into the new season of one of the best Marvel shows currently streaming on Disney Plus. There are MAJOR spoilers ahead, so this is your warning if you haven’t watched all of the episodes out yet. Enjoy our complete Loki season 2 review.
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Breaking Down Plot, Setting, Characters
Total TVA Upheaval
After discovering that the Time Keepers were in fact fake at the end of season one, as well as Sylvie killing He Who Remains at the end of time, the TVA is in shambles. Not only are there sides drawn in the sand as to what needs to be done about the branching timelines, but Loki is not even in the same time period anymore. When he was shoved through the time door, he began to time slip between past, present, and future.
Loki figures out how to stop slipping with help from Mobius, but the issues in the TVA only increase. The leader of the Hunters wants to prune all of the branched timelines, while soldier B-15 sees no point in killing millions that are living in those timelines. They arguments increase into a breaking point – literally – as the Time Loom gets closer and closer to catastrophic meltdown with all of the extra branched timelines.
A group of rogue Hunters branch off “in search of Sylvie” but instead get ready to prune all of the branched timelines, succeeding in eliminating nearly all of them. The only way to fix the Time Loom is to broaden the input area, but they need He Who Remain’s temporal aura in order to open the blast doors, which sends Loki and Mobius into the past (1893) to find Ravonna and Miss Minutes. They also find a variant of He Who Remains, collecting him after nearly losing him to both Miss Minutes and Sylvie.The end of the third episode ends with a chilling image as Ravonna and Miss Minutes are sent to the end of time, and discover the original He Who Remain’s corpse still sitting in his chair, rotting away.
This picks up in the fourth episode as Ravonna learns that He Who Remains wiped her memory, as she helped him create the TVA. All characters collide in this episode, hell-bent on saving their own version of the TVA before, finally, the TVA’s time loom overloads on branched timelines.
The fifth episode transitions to Loki time-slipping again, this time to branched timelines where his friends live, but they don’t remember him at all. As Loki tries to save the TVA, his friends, and himself, he comes to terms with what he wants and eventually how to solve the problem of his time-slipping and possibly the destruction of the TVA.
The sixth episode reveals Loki time-slipping again and again in different moments to try and find the best answer to save the dying timelines. We see him fight against Sylvie from the first season, try to fix the multiplier from the second season, and talk with He Who Remains from the first season. Loki then realizes that the Time Loom is just a fail-safe, and the only way to keep all the timelines alive and save his friends his to destroy the Loom and protect the timelines himself.
Sacred and Branched Timelines
The setting for this show is probably one of my favorite parts, because Loki and Mobius are constantly flipping from past, present, future, and the timelessness of the TVA, so there are a plethora of settings to explore. The TVA itself is my favorite, due to the crazy-futuristic look of the city, yet the uniforms and decorations inside the TVA itself look almost in the late 1900s. It gives a nice contrast, and shows that the TVA really does manipulate time in some ways.
Each time the characters step through a Time Door I cannot wait to see what’s on the other side, especially since the characters themselves do not know what to expect. For instance, when they find Sylvie in a branched timeline, I would have never expected her to be working in an 80s McDonalds serving customers.
I think the real strength for this season in terms of the setting is that there is the sacred timeline, but there are also numerous branched timelines for the characters to explore. It really opens up the opportunities to show what could happen in a timeline, and how the variants of Kang may come to be.
The final episode’s view of the branched timelines turning in Yggdrasil is probably the most beautiful part of the show, and reveals that Loki is one of the most powerful characters, but also shows the immenseness of the universe.
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Reaching for “Normal”
All of the characters, no matter what “side” they are on, are trying to find some sense of normal in their world. For Loki, Mobius, and Hunter B-15, they are trying to save the TVA while also preserving the new branching timelines. For the rogue Hunters, they want to go back to the old TVA where only the Sacred Timeline prevails. Ravonna and Miss Minutes are searching for He Who Remains to instill him back into leading the TVA, and finally Sylvie is just trying to lead a normal life, away from everything and everyone that destroyed her previous life.
I think the characters are learning more about themselves as the series goes on, so we are seeing more depth and emotion with each character. It’s not everyday you see Loki stand down from a fight, especially when he gets goaded by Hunter X-5 (Brad). These characters are trying to find their own normal in this changing world, and we get the chance to see that.
There are also some new characters that add a lot to the story line, mainly Ouroboros and Victor Timely (He Who Remain’s variant). Ouroboros wrote the TVA manual, making him a genius in all things time-related, but also a handy man that has worked tirelessly in the basement for hundreds of years. Ke Huy Quan, the star from Everything, Everywhere All At Once plays Ouroboros, which gives his character so much in terms of quirkiness and depth.
Victor Timely on the other hand is not what I originally expected when seeing a He Who Remains variant. He is skittish, stutters, and has little confidence in himself except for that fact that he is ahead of his time. I think the actor Jonathan Majors does a really good job portraying this new variant, and I am excited to see where he goes in the show.
The variants of our well-known and liked characters that appear in episode five are great too, showing the lives these TVA workers had before they were taken and forced to forget. Mobius being a water-ski salesman is something I thoroughly enjoyed seeing, and watching O.B. turn into a struggling author/scientist was the greatest play on “science” and “fiction” ever.
The real character in this show is Loki, and his arc from jealous villain to mighty hero is one I will never forget, and could very well be the best character arc in the entire MCU. Loki wanted a throne for forever, but when he finally did get the throne, all he wanted to do was be with his friends. Loki has always been a favorite character of mine, and the feelings have only been increased by watching this show.
Individual Episode Reviews
Check out our individual Loki season 2 reviews for each episode and see how your opinion stacks up against it:
Episode 1: “Ouroboros”
I would give this episode a 9 out of 10. I loved how they just jumped into the series where we left off at the end of season one, as Loki and the viewers try to figure out when Loki is. The time slipping is jarring for both us and Loki, and I was glad to see it fixed at the ending of episode one with help from Mobius. It would have been interesting to have him continue to time slip, as it could have led to interesting foreshadowing to the rest of the season.
Episode 2: “Breaking Brad”
There are a lot of interesting elements that appear in episode two, so I would give it an 8 out of 10. Loki and Mobius are able to find Hunter X-5 who has gone rogue and is living as a movie star. Loki’s use of magic to trap X-5 was something I have been waiting for in the new season, and it shows just how powerful Loki can be. This leads right into X-5 (Brad) goading on Loki about his treacherous past during an interrogation of Brad, but surprisingly Loki doesn’t break and Mobius does. After a much-needed key lime pie break, Loki is able to get Brad to disclose Sylvie’s location at the vintage McDonald’s.
My favorite part of this episode was Loki acknowledging his past, but realizing that evil and treachery does not have to be his future, though it may include some mild trickery.
Episode 3: “1893”
There is a lot that happens in episode three, but it is integral to the plot line and what could happen in the second half of the season. I would give “1893” an 8.6 out of 10, and this is mostly due to the setting of this episode. It’s the World’s Fair in Chicago in a branched timeline, and we see a clashing together of several different characters – Loki, Mobius, Ravonna, Miss Minutes, Sylvie, and Victor Timely. All are looking for Timely and need him for varying reasons.
My favorite part of this episode is at the end when Sylvie doesn’t kill Timely (even though she vowed to kill all He Who Remains variants). It showed restraint and trust for Loki, which could mean that their relationship is repairing. But then she sends Ravonna and Miss Minutes to the end of time, which I think is exactly what they deserve. Will they get trapped there? Who knows.
Episode 4: “Heart of the TVA”
Two words for this episode: Holy. Crap. “Heart of the TVA” was both a rollercoaster of emotions as all the characters crashed together while the TVA teeters of the edge of catastrophic meltdown. Loki and Mobius have managed to get Victor Timely back to the TVA while at the same time it is revealed that Ravonna paved the way for He Who Remains, but couldn’t remember due to him erasing her memories. In a fit of revenge Ravonna and Miss Minutes return to the TVA, searching out the rogue Hunters to try and persuade them to join her. When they do not, she destroys them and searches for Timely in the TVA.
Loki and Mobius bring Timely to O.B. as they try to find a solution to the over-whelmed time loom, but Timely gets stolen away just before they can fix the loom. This leads to a mind-bending hunt for Miss Minutes and Ravonna that leads to Loki pruning himself from the past, and the system being rebooted, eliminating Miss Minutes. Ravonna disappears in a worse way, as Hunter X-5 (Brad) prunes her while under control of Sylvie. They return Timely to the loom and he suits up to attach the new piece of hardware that will save the TVA. Except, he doesn’t make it a foot into the temporal radiation before disintegrating and the time loom finally overloads.
My favorite part of the episode, though heart-wrenching, was when Loki pruned himself. The music, combined with the realization of what present-Loki must do just made my jaw drop in the best way possible. As of right now, I would say this episode is the best and most dynamic.
Episode 5: “Science/Fiction”
This episode is quite jarring for both the viewer and Loki as he starts time-slipping again, this time to branched realities that have his friends in them. The catch? They have no idea who he is or what he is talking about, because they are the Variants that ultimately got chosen to have their memories wiped and be part of the TVA. As he keeps slipping, O.B.’s variant tries to help by building a ten-pad and figures out they maybe all of them need to be together in time to have the same temporal signature that they had when the TVA disintegrated.
Loki gathers all except Sylvie, who tries to convince Loki that it’s better to keep the variants in their lives, and stop trying to fix the world when nothing is going wrong. That is, until Sylvie’s world literally crumbles before her eyes, and she finds Loki to tell him there really is something wrong. As Loki tries to get them to safety, the danger finds them and all but Loki unravel into nothing, until Loki purposes timeslips back in time. Once he figures out how to control it, the episode ends with Loki flashing himself back to before the catastrophic meltdown.
My favorite part of this episode was that “ah-hah” moment of Loki figuring out how to timeslip under his control, and seeing he is the who who must save the TVA from destruction. It is a real “hero moment” if you ask me.
Episode 6: “Glorious Purpose”
I don’t think there is a better word to describe this episode other than “glorious” just like the title, which also happens to be the same title from the first episode of the first season. Gotta love those subtle tie-ins. Loki has figured out his time-slipping and now goes through several moments in the series to try and find a way to keep the branched timelines alive. This goes on for centuries, as Loki slips back to just before He Who Remains is killed by Sylvie, to trying to fix the Temporal Loom.
But in his conversation with He Who Remains, Loki learns that the Loom is just a fail-safe, and will not ever be able to keep the timelines alive. Loki then has a moment of clarity, and realizes that he must do something to save the timelines, even though it means he will be alone forever — exactly what he didn’t want.
Loki slips back to the moment when the Time Loom is about to collapse and locks himself outside of the TVA and transforms into a new hero outfit while he breaks apart the Loom, grabs the timelines, and weaves them together to pull them through to the End of Time. Loki is able to save his friends from destruction, and hold the burden of the timelines so that all can survive.
The whole episode could be considered my favorite part, but the scene where Loki transforms into the true hero and God of Stories broke my heart in the best way possible. Loki finally made it full-circle from his devious villain persona, and I couldn’t be happier to see him accept a burden for the greater good of his friends.
How Does It Compare to Season 1
Now that the entire season is out, I will have to change my original opinion about season one compared to season two. As you may have read before, I leaned more towards season one for its introduction to the TVA, the incredible score, and the new world Loki must navigate.
I will now be changing my answer to season two.
Even though everything is introduced in season one, season two ramps up the pressure to figure out what is happening to both Loki and the TVA, and how this character can finally evolve into a true hero. I absolutely loved the darker, more intense instrumental score, and the branching timelines lead to an interesting dive into different worlds for the characters. The best moment in both seasons though is Loki finding his glorious purpose, and becoming the God of Stories.
Where to Stream Loki Season 2
You can stream both Loki season one and season two on Disney Plus, the home for all new Marvel tv series. You can watch Loki and many other movies and tv series under the Marvel name through a subscription to Disney Plus.
Final Thoughts / Loki Season 2 Review
One of my favorite Marvel characters is Loki, so it makes sense that I would love season two of Loki. I am enjoying this new world that Loki and Mobius are diving into while trying to save the TVA, and seeing Loki as a veritable hero is also quite inspiring. It’s not everyday that you see the God of Mischief decide to fight for the good side.
I will never get over the scene where Loki looks at the camera and says “I know what kind of God I need to be. For you. For all of us.” It’s one of those moments that shows the true heroism of a character, and is nearly as good as Tony Stark saying “And I am Iron Man.”
All Loki wanted was to have friends and never be alone, but he had to give that up in order to save his friends. I will be incredibly sad if I never see Loki again in the MCU, but I am eternally glad of what his character and the actor Tom Hiddleston was able to give the Marvel Universe. In one word, incredible.