It has all come down to this as Loki season 1 closes in on its finale and brings us glorious purpose and answers. Or does it? Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) have gone through a lot to get to the Time Keepers and to ultimately defeat the TVA, but are they willing to change everything if they can’t even change themselves?
[SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!]
This episode opens where we left off with Sylvie and Loki in episode 5 and now they are on their way to confronting the Time Keepers. They apparently are held up in a giant mansion on an oddly shaped planet and Miss Minutes is the only thing between them and the Time Keepers. Miss Minutes seems to be up to something though and clearly, name drops a “he” behind the doors and not three godlike Time Keepers.
This episode leans heavily into the weird and horrible as the set design screams haunted house in the first location Loki and Sylvie enter. The TVA is also lit in a darker way as if something terrible will eventually happen to our new favorite characters. If you’re a MCU fanatic you’ll likely guess who is eventually found within this mansion. (He has been revealed as the villain in Ant-Man: Quantumania.)
Credit: Disney
There are two conflicts at work in this episode that helps break up conversations and get plenty of exposition over the line. The first is Loki and Sylvie confronting the man behind the curtain played by Jonathan Majors and the second is Ravonna (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) talking things out. Both strike different tones, in part because Majors has a very casual demeanor. He’s either out of his mind because he’s been alone way too long, or he has nothing to lose. Meanwhile, Mobius is trying to convince Ravonna to do the right thing while, deep down, salvage their friendship.
The meat of the episode, after Majors reveals everything about the TVA and how he got here, focuses on Loki confronting Sylvie in a final battle. The notion of who we really are and how we can’t fight that come together here. Can Sylvie ever truly love Loki and vice versa due to their nature of lying and trusting no one? Sylvie can’t simply forget the years of rage she’s lived through due to what the TVA and by extension Majors put her through. You’ll root for Sylvie and Loki to move on and be together, but we all know how it’ll really go.
With only three minutes left in the episode, you’ll come to realize this isn’t the end for Loki by any means. A season two must be in the works as characters like Ravonna rush off and Loki’s love is still hanging loosely out there for Sylvie. It makes this episode feel like a bridge to season two more than anything else. It firmly establishes who the bosses of the TVA are going forward but does so in a way that doesn’t feel final or even that satisfying. Instead, you’ll be dying for more knowing full well we’ll have quite a few months to wait for season 2.
It doesn’t have to be so obtuse, either. Other television shows like Lost tended to give viewers enough plot threads to fashion their own conclusions. You knew most of them would be wrong, but the fun of thinking about where a show might branch was always delightful. Here though, it’s tough to know where it might go, especially after we learn Mobius doesn’t even know who Loki is in the final moments.
The Loki finale leaves viewers in stasis as we await season 2. It offers plenty of answers as far as the TVA and the man behind the curtain and sets Sylvie and Loki against each other for a major confrontation that has to lead to this but leaves us on a cliffhanger that could go in any direction. Frankly, the dangling cliffhanger has permeated nearly every episode so it’s very on-brand, but if you find yourself unsatisfied with how this goes you aren’t alone.
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