By Mia Hanuska
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
It’s finally here: Loki, season 2. Ending with a cliffhanger, season 1 left fans questioning the multiverse until season 2 came out on October 6. The finale of season one ended with Loki and Sylvie, versions of each other (known as variants), fighting over if they should kill He Who Remains, the supreme ruler and overseer of time. In the end, Sylvie pushes Loki through a time-door back to the TVA and murders He Who Remains.
Episode 1: Ouroboros
This episode starts the new season off with a bang. We learn Loki “time-slips,” allowing him to involuntarily transfer from present to past and future. Initially, Loki lands in past TVA where He Who Remains still controls everything and everyone but is quickly transported into current TVA to current Mobius and Hunter B-15, both agents in the TVA. This answers fans’ questions of why Mobius didn’t recognize Loki at the end of the finale last season, it’s because they hadn’t met Loki yet. Skipping ahead, Loki and Mobius travel to the fix-it room of the TVA, where they meet Ourobors, known as O.B. The god of Mischief is time-slipped to before he meets O.B., and affects what happens to Mobius in the present. This time-slippage allows them to warn O.B. to create a Temporal Aura Extractor, a device which will stop time-slipping, and eventually use it on Loki. Additionally, we learn that Mobius and many other staff worked there even when He Who Remains conquered the Time Variance Authority, but their memories were erased. Sculptures around the TVA of He Who Remains’ legacy were covered up to preserve the lie they had been fed. Towards the end and during the end credits, we see Sylvie appear and attempt to order fast food in the real world, looking very different than when we saw her last.
As a die-hard Loki fan, I love this episode. The way they introduced the new season and storyline keeps me wanting more yet satisfies many questions I had. Loki looks as amazing as ever, and I’m a big fan of the change in camera angles and movements the production team’s using in this season so far. It feels like we’re following the characters around as they explore and learn more about the TVA and is very immersive for the audience. I love the switches from timelines and realizing the reasons behind certain design choices in the present (such as the cement behind the branch monitor in the present since Loki broke the window in the past) and the editing with Loki’s time-slipping is the perfect balance between unsettling but not scary. Ultimately, this is a great first episode for the season and makes me even more excited for the rest of the show.
As for the rest of the show, I’m looking forward to learning how Loki and Sylvie will save the TVA and meet again. I’m especially ready to see how the romance between the two Lokis will progress and if Mobius finally gets to ride a jet ski (if you know you know). There will be six episodes, with a new edition coming out every Thursday at 6 pm PST. Let’s go Loki!