Don't let him fool you, a monster hides behind the carefree façade.
Last time on Loki, the titular
character awoke at the End of Time and met himselves. He explored the end with
Classic Loki, Boastful Loki, Kid Loki and Alligator Loki. They’re hounded by
the monstrous cloud snake Alioth and by other Variants of themselves that
Boastful Loki lead to them. The Loki quartet meet up with their fifth self, Sylvie,
and Mobius. Sylvie had gotten to touch a piece of Alioth and saw a vision of a
castle floating in the void. She wants to try to enchant it, which Loki
begrudgingly agrees to help with. Mobius, meanwhile, is going to use the TemPad
Sylvie brought back to return to the TVA and ‘burn it to the ground,” as Loki
once said. Their plan doesn’t work out great, until Classic Loki steps up and
shows them how powerful they can become. The oldest looking Loki is able to
create a to-scale illusion of Asgard to draw Alioth’s attention. He sacrifices
himself to give the other two Lokis the time they need to enchant the beast. Doing
so opens up a gate to the castle floating in the void. They step through.
Episode 6: For All Time, Always
I don't know if the line is literal or metaphoric,
but it is impressive.
We begin with the top lines off all
the Marvel Films played layered on top of each other, and shots of the solar
system, pulling farther and farther out into the cosmos, splicing in the top
soundbites of the last century, culminating in Loki and Sylvie standing on the
asteroid where that castle sits in the void. The two walk across the alien
landscape to the castle. They’re both clearly nervous about stepping through
the door and meet the man behind the curtain. They dawdle for a few minutes
before the door opens on its own. They walk inside and are greeted by… Miss
Minutes? Huh, didn’t see that coming, but she is clearly the scariest thing
that could be there. She welcomes them to the Citadel at the End of Time, and
tells them that He Who Remains is eager to meet them. Miss Minutes offers them
a deal, stating He Who Remains has made some adjustments to the timeline and is
offering to reinsert them into it in a way that won’t disrupt history. The TVA
can keep doing its work, they can live their lives, everyone wins. Miss Minutes
offers to let Loki win in New York, kill Thanos, and claim the Infinity
Gauntlet and the Throne of Asgard. And for Sylvie, a lifetime of happy memories
and a home, both of them together on the timeline. Both realize that this is a
major Faustian bargain and turn it down. Miss Minutes vanishes, saying “good
luck with that,” to their desire to try to forge their own destiny.
Back at the TVA, Renslayer is
downloading files off the TVA network, with Miss Minutes arriving a moment
later. She’s vague about what she was doing, which feels odd for the possible
AI. When Renslayer notes that the files on her TemPad aren’t the ones she was
looking for, Miss Minutes claims “He” thinks they’ll be more helpful.
He Who Remains, and oh what an accurate title
that is.
The Lokis penetrate deeper into the
Citadel. They enter another chamber and are greeted by He Who Remains… Well,
shit. Okay, we all know who he is, but I’m going to keep referring to him as He
Who Remains until the closing paragraph. Kay? Kay. He Who Remains seems like a
pretty chill guy, and is just in general excited to see them. He mentions that
he finds the name mildly creepy but Miss Minutes keeps using it, and he also
still likes it. He leads them up to his office.
They have a super awkward elevator
ride up where Sylvie tries to kill him repeatedly but he just loops around them
until finally looping up to his office before them. He pours the two tea and
offers them a seat.
Mobius meets up with Renslayer, who
is packing up her office. He is pretty casual about his return, though does
bring up a few times the whole pruning him thing. She tries to justify pruning
him, and then calls in Hunters, but he tells her that’s not going to work out
how she thinks it is, pulling out her pen as he does so. We jump to Fremont,
Ohio in 2018, where B-15 leads the Hunters following her to the office of
Renslayer. Or more accurately who Renslayer is a Variant of. Cats out of the
bag, Judge. Maybe don’t keep the pen of your past life next time, ma’am.
Back at the Citadel, He Who Remains
is impressed with his guests and is still acting pretty chill. He loops out of
the way again when Sylvie tries to decapitate him. He pulls out a file and
shows it to them, it’s the scene they’re in. Much like the print outs of
everything Loki said in the first episode, it’s basically a screenplay of
everything that they’ll say and do here. Loki thinks it’s a parlor trick, but
He Who Remains claims to know how this is all going to go down and has
preloaded his TemPad with the Loops necessary to dodge their attacks. He claims
to know all the things they did on Lamentis, all the things the TVA doesn’t
know, and even their moment by the lake at the Void. He claims that every step
they took was arranged by him. He paved the road, they walked down it. He shows
them the rest of how this will go, or at least getting out the pages. Sylvie
wonders why they’re even doing this then, and He Who Remains gets all Meta and
says they can’t get to the destination without being changed by the journey. It
needs to happen, to get them in the right mindset.
Mobius tells Renslayer that it’s
time to tell everyone the truth. She insists its for a reason, a greater good,
but Mobius is definitely not buying that anymore. Seeing the Void makes being
Pro-Void very hard. Renslayer insists that its to prevent chaos, death on a
cosmic scale and that it is worth it. When Mobius brings up Freewill, she
claims the only one who is allowed that is the one in charge. Renslayer is hurt
by Mobius swapping teams for the Lokis. She opens a Time Door. Mobius thinks
that maybe they can make the TVA something better. He goes to try to prune her,
but she easily disarms him. She grabs her bag and walks off. Telling him she’s
going in search of free will.
Meanwhile, He Who Remains does
admit that he gets their moral objections to the TVA, that his methods are
deceptive, but the reason behind their mission is a good one. Without it,
without him, everything burns. When Loki asks what He Who Remains is so afraid
of, he says its him. Or more accurately his Variants. He claims he’s been given
many names by many people, that he’s been a ruler, a conqueror, He Who Remains,
and a jerk. But those are just names, he’s much more than the names he’s been
given.
This was a really cool effect.
He activates the TemPad on his
wrist and makes a liquid projection. He tells them a story from eons ago, when
a scientist, let’s call him… something generic… oh, I know, Nathaniel Richards,
lived on Earth in the 31st century. He figured out the Multiverse is
a thing, and so did other versions of himself. They used their technology to
meet, shake each other’s hands and pat themselves on the back for a job well
done. And for a time, there was peace. They shared technology and knowledge to
improve all realities. But eventually, other versions of him saw new worlds as
new places to conquer. War broke out, with each Nathaniel fighting to preserve
themselves and their universe. I’m getting serious Highlander vibes here, there
can be only One! He claims this was almost the end of everything. Sylvie guess
that the Timekeepers came and saved them all. After making a mocking A-men, He
Who Remains tells her the truth behind the dogma. He, the OG Nathaniel (at
least in his own mind), discovered a creature that had been created by the
tears in reality, something that could devour energy and matter and time.
Alioth. He Who Remains experimented on and eventually weaponized Alioth. He
used it to defeat his Variants, and then, after isolating his timeline, used it
to make sure no new branches formed. He ends his presentation by saying that,
if they think he’s evil, just wait till you meet his variants. He’s the devil,
but he’s the devil they know. And this is their dilemma, order or chaos, one
man dictating the flow of time, or a horde of Conquerors chopping up slices of
time and space. He claims that, after living a million lifetimes and going over
every scenario, this is the only way. And then he offers them a deal.
He offers them two options, they
can either kill him and release the infinite evils that are waiting, or they
can take over and run things as they see. When Loki calls bull and asks why
he’d give up control, He Who Remains reveals that he’s tired, and far older
than he looks. This is a game for the young and the hungry, and he can’t keep
up anymore. He finally settled on letting the Lokis taking over for him. He’ll
even let them be benevolent rulers, going back to the TVA and explaining to
them who they are and why they do what they do. Sylvie is clearly not on board,
pissing He Who Remains off. He calls her out, pointing out everyone here is a
villain, that they’ve all done terrible, horrible, horrific things. Looking
directly at Loki with every word. But now they can do them for a good reason.
It’s at this moment that He Who Remains looks around, telling them they’ve
crossed the threshold into the unknown. He doesn’t know what is going to happen
after this moment. He drops a pen and looks weirded out about it. We get a wide
shot from the Citadel, seeing branches already forming farther down the
timeline from them.
They're going to need so many more reset charges.
Loki is confused by this, why he’s
so carefree about not knowing. He shrugs and points out the obvious, either
they take over for him and everything is fine, or they kill him and there shall
be an infinite rain of Ka… Variants of him raining down. So, no skin off his
nose there either. He claims there’s no lie, no manipulation, that that is the
honest truth. He takes off his TemPad and admits he loves all this honesty.
Sylvie goes to kill him, Loki stopping her. He wants to talk about their
options. Loki believes him and is legitimately freaked out by the vision of the
future that He Who Remains has painted. Sylvie, blinded by her anger, doesn’t
believe He Who Remains and plans to kill him. Loki tries to convince Sylvie to
work with him and run the TVA. She thinks he wants to rule. He swears that it’s
not about a throne, but Sylvie doesn’t believe him. We come down to the
philosophical problem here, she can’t trust, and he can’t be trusted. Loki
tells her to wait, just wait and see, but they end up fighting. Magic and
blades clash. Loki keeps trying to convince her this a decision that’s too
important to rush into. She goes to kill He Who Remains, but Loki materializes
in front of her, staying her blade. He tells her that he’s been where she has,
feels what she feels, and that all he wants is for her to be okay. Sylvie drops
her sword and kisses him… odd… but then says she’s not him, and shoves him
through the Time Door she opened using He Who Remains TemPad.
She shoves his desk aside, and
approaches him slowly. He doesn’t beg, or cry, or rage. He just takes the knife
to his chest and tells her “See you soon,” laughing before he dies. Sylvie sits
down in front of the corpse and watches out the window as the Sacred Timeline
falls apart, branching into infinity. Let the Lord of Chaos Rule, I guess.
Bonus points to you if you get that reference.
Kang is coming.
Back at the TVA, B-15 and Mobius
see the infinitely branching timeline. He says there is no turning back, and
she agrees. They say For All Time, Always, as the new branches cross the
redline. Loki sits by himself looking heartbroken for a while. He gets up and
rushes to find Mobius. The TVA is on high alert now, people rushing around to
handle things. Loki rushes to the Archive and finds Mobius and B-15. They’re
discussing the 63 new timelines that have branched in their unit and
speculating if “He” wants them to just let them all branch. Loki goes up to
them, to tell them what has happened, but Mobius doesn’t recognize him. B-15
calls in backup to handle the seemingly crazed analyst. As ominous music plays,
Loki looks out on the statue in the center off the Archive. It’s no longer the
three Timekeepers, He Who Remains puppet leaders… No. It’s someone far more
terrible. He Who Remains. Nathaniel Richards. Rama-Tut. The Scarlet Centurion.
Immortus. All of these have been his names, but the one he is known best as is…
Kang. Kang the Conqueror. And then the credits roll. But they do promise Loki
will return with a second season, which is neat.
I’ll start off by giving major
props to Mr. Majors. When I first heard that Jonathan Majors was cast as Kang,
I was a tad skeptical. But then I watched a few episodes of Lovecraft Country,
and learned that he has significant acting chops. And, showing this version of
Nathanial Richards as this kind of chill dude with sinister undertones will, I
think, really highlight how scary he’ll be when we’re introduced to THE Kang. I
think he’s going to be terrifying. I liked how he presented his backstory, with
that liquid/liquid metal projection. The reveal that He Who Remains used Alioth
to force reality into his image was brilliant. Making both Alioth the
metaphorical Dragon of the story, as well as the McGuffin that allows the plot
to happen was just great storytelling. Oh, and I should point out that I
totally saw the Kang reveal coming. He is Marvel’s most famous Time Traveler, there
were a number of visual ques like including a sword in the TVA Logo and pyramid/sphinx
in the background, and Ravanna Renslayer. She’s his wife in Marvel comics. The
sword is significant because is ship is called the Damocles. This was a really
well-done episode even though the majority of the plot is just Jonathan Majors
being menacing and expositing. I can’t pretend I was shocked by Sylvie’s
betrayal, she made it pretty clear early on that vengeance was all that drives
her. No, what hurt was Loki going up to Mobius and his literally only friend
didn’t recognize him. I hope they get the team back together quickly in season
2, I’d be disappointed if it’s just Loki trying to get Mobius back while a Kang
spreads his influence across all timelines. I think that Loki has set up an
amazing big bad, and I can’t wait to see more of Kang, and how Loki will delay
his ultimate attack on the Avengers until it’s time for them to assemble again.
So, yeah, it was a solid finale. Have a good night!
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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