'LOKI’ Season 2 Ep. 1 (Review)
The God of Mischief is back! The long awaited Loki Season 2 is finally streaming on Disney+ (at least the first episode is), and it's a brilliant start. The show picks up right where the first season ended. Just like when movies do that in sequels, I love how the show decided to pick up right there making it seamless as one coherent story.
At the end of the first season, we saw Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) at the end of time with He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors). Sylvie kills him and as he promised a multiversal war was set to begin shortly after his death. His claim was that he has done this over and over for the last thousands of years and has each time ended up back in the same spot. He also explained that he is afraid of the variants of himself and the harm they are able to cause by saying "If you think I'm bad...wait until you meet my variants." He continues to lecture before Sylvie punctures him through the chest. Loki then ends up back in the Time Variance Authority (TVA) only to find that Mobius (Owen Wilson) and others have no idea who he is while he explains to them that a very dangerous person is on the way.
Season two kickstarts right now from this moment while giving us that exact recap from season one, while also giving some more in depth knowledge that the audience should remember to be along for the ride season two is about to present. Loki has an issue going on. He is able to time slip. This is something that pulls Loki into different period of time whether it be past, present or even future.
Much of the premiere episode deals with Loki's issue and how it can be resolved. As expected, Hiddleston is fantastic once again in this role and I am excited to see how this character progresses as we move towards the season finale. Loki presents a lot of fear right away based on the knowledge that he received while being at the headquarters of He Who Remains. He also shows a great amount of worry as he tries to figure out why he might be time slipping. Owen Wilson is always a likable presence while on screen and that is no different here. Mobius stole people's heart in season one and I feel like the premiere episode set up a great amount more for this character to advance through season two.
New comer to the series is Academy-Award winner Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) as Ouroboros (O.B). His character is kind of quirky, but in a good way. He is one that can go either way as the series progresses; meaning he can be the annoying side character, or the side character with annoying traits that adds to the plot and helps our heroes. In the first episode though, he was a delight to see. He added some good comedic moments to what was occurring in both his present and past self.
The direction of the episode is also really well done. It's expected that when you see a project as large as a Marvel Studios one that it is directed well and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead continue that trend in this first episode. The directing duo works well creating sequences from a strong script by Eric Martin.
In the end, I am excited to see more from this season as episodes premiere weekly on Disney+. The major set up for the season is continuing to build as we reunite favorites from the first season, while also introducing some new characters that will be along for the adventure as it progresses. Count me a fan of the season so far.
