LOKI Season 2 Ep. 2 (Review)
Loki continues this week with episode two of the the shows second season. Loki is someone who has come a very long way since his first appearance in Thor (2011). He is mostly known for his villainous schemes, but in this episode we see more of a human side of Loki as his story further develops him into an anti-hero. He actually cares that peoples lives are at stake in the latest episode and this is something his character has never really cared about. His path always seemed to be more about vengeance and ruling the people, but he now has his own sense about what being the hero is truly like.
In the latest episode (Breaking Brad), which is such an awesome title for a variety of reasons, with the TVA on the verge of a temporal meltdown, Loki and Mobius will stop at nothing to find Sylvie. The only thing standing in their way of finding out this information is Brad Wolfe, a rouge TVA agent formerly known as Hunter X-5 who's been hiding from the newly reformed TVA on the scared timeline in 1977.
The episode uses a majority of its runtime to introduce us to X-5 as a character after his brief introduction in the premiere episode. Once Loki and Mobius are finally able to grab hold of him after a very entertaining chase sequence in 1977 while Brad is promoting his new movie Zaniac, we are finally back in the TVA where the duo is able to interrogate him. He does not give in at first but Loki uses a trick of his own to break him to help locate Sylvie in Broxton, Oklahoma.
Sylvie is working at McDonalds when the long awaited reunion of Loki and Sylvie happens - both of them are a bit awkward from their tense meeting with He Who Remains in the season finale of season one. Sylvie can see that Loki has basically become a full TVA employee as he dresses like them and is doing the work that each of the employees within do as they try to reset the sacred timeline. Loki now seems fully convinced that the work the TVA does is necessary while Sylvie is embracing her new beginning.
Then, when X-5 reveals General Dox's sinister plan to prune everyone in the branching timelines, Sylvie sees it necessary to team up with Loki and Mobius once again. Together, they are able to stop Dox and most of her minions, but they do not arrive before they successfully kill billions. The TVA mourns their defeat and Sylvie wants no part of them because of their same ways still being in existence.
The episode is shot incredibly well. The chase sequence I highlighted earlier had some good suspense as Loki chased down X-5 and gave us a really great shot of Loki in a form that we know him from in earlier MCU projects. The script in the episode is also strong - especially in the first interrogation scene with X-5. I loved how we can see Loki's pain as he reflects on his past while also realizing that now he is trying to do what is right to save people. That is one thing I have always loved about the Loki character is that he was just lost. He was an outcast in the shadow of his brother and here he has found his glorious purpose.
