Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s time to talk about the second episode of the ‘Loki’ series from the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’, starring Tom Hiddleston. I must admit, I did find the episode slow-going, especially in the first and second act. By the time we got to the third act though, things became a lot more interesting indeed.
In the episode, Loki joins the Time Variance Authority (TVA) on a mission to the site of an attack by ‘the Variant’ (Loki’s evil self) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1985. He derails the mission by stalling and trying to bargain his way to meet the Time-Keepers who created the TVA and their ‘sacred timeline’.
There is a sense of distrust between Loki and members of the TVA working on this mission to find the evil Loki variant. This includes people like Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15 and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer. Owen Wilson as Mobius convinces Renslayer to give Loki one more chance. 😐
I don’t know if it’s me, but Gugu Mbatha-Raw sounds American when she plays Ravonna Renslayer compared to sounding British when she plays Tish Jones in ‘Doctor Who’. Maybe she’s picked up the American accent along the way when working in plenty of American productions over the years.
Loki is told to search through a lot of TVA files in order to find the answer on where the evil Loki variant is. After doing his research, Loki theorizes that the Variant is hiding near apocalyptic events such as Ragnarok on Asgard throughout time where their actions don’t seem to affect the timeline.
This possibility is confirmed by Loki to Mobius when they visit Pompeii in 79 AD before Mount Vesuvius erupts. I did wonder if Loki and Mobius would encounter the Seventh Doctor and Mel from ‘The Fires of Vulcan’ or the Tenth Doctor and Donna from ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ during their visit. 😀
Like I said, the first and second acts of the episode are quite slow-going, especially in scenes between Loki and Mobius. I’m guessing it’s to establish the relationship between these two characters, but a lot of the time it’s just them talking and sometimes I got lost in their conversations.
I did find it funny when Loki demonstrated his theory to Mobius by playing around his salad which he was having for lunch, I believe. It reminded me of Jonesy playing with the salt and pepper from the ‘Dad’s Army’ episode ‘The Two and a Half Feathers’. Loki made Mobius’ salad worse in the end.
Eventually; Loki, Mobius and the TVA team deduce that the evil Loki variant is hiding during a hurricane in Alabama, 2050. Loki, Mobius and TVA agents go to search for the Variant, but they are ambushed when bodies of several locals and of TVA agent Hunter B-15 start to become possessed. 😮
I didn’t think that possessing bodies was one of Loki’s features. At least, I don’t recall Loki possessing people in that way before. I think it’s different compared to how he did it in ‘Thor’ and ‘Avengers Assemble’. Loki communicates with his evil variant counterpart when talking to possessed bodies. 😐
In the end, the evil Loki variant reveals to be a female version of him – played by Sophia Di Martino. I was surprised to see that when watching the episode. I didn’t think Loki’s kind had the ability to change gender like Time Lords can. I wonder if this truly is Loki or if this is someone intimidating him.
Loki offers the Variant to join him in overthrowing the Time-Keepers. She refuses as she sends stolen, activated reset charges to various points along the ‘sacred timeline’, creating numerous branched timelines and throwing the TVA into disarray. Evil Loki teleports away and our hero Loki follows her.
The second ‘Loki’ episode contains slow-going first and second acts but it’s made up for in a dramatic third act. I wonder where the series will go next and how our hero Loki will confront the evil variant Loki that happens to be a woman. This series is getting fascinating as I continue watching it on Disney+.
Stay tuned for my review on the third episode of ‘Loki’ next week.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now.
Tim. 🙂
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