As the fan-favorite villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s nice that Loki finally gets his backstory fleshed out. Over the last ten years or so, Loki has been most trapped in the shadow of Thor, coming out for more meaningful roles only when the plot requires it. But now that Loki is headlining his own show, his personality is put on trial, forcing him to come to terms with his past. It’s been great to see the growth that Loki has endured over the last two episodes, and the latest installment continues on that journey.
Though this week’s recap is much shorter than usual, keep in mind that there are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t watched the episode yet, you may want to do that first.
The latest episode of Loki, titled “Lamentis,” takes Loki (Tom Hiddleston) away from the confines and from under the thumb of Mobius (Owen Wilson). After disappearing into the Timedoor, the Variant Loki (Sophia Di Martino) ends up in the TVA. She tries to enchant one of the guards and is surprised to discover that her magic doesn’t work. She resorts to fisticuffs, and the action in this short little scene far exceeds the opening scene from the previous episode with the Bonnie Tyler build-up (which only served to make that other scene seem even weirder, but I digress). Loki catches up to her before she can breach a certain room, which we’re left to assume is the domain of the Time Keepers. He still wants to work together, but Variant Loki is having none of it.
Before their fight can conclude, they’re confronted by Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Variant Loki threatens to kill Real Loki, a threat which Ravonna shrugs off, and just before Ravonna can go in for the kill, Real Loki uses a TemPad to open a Timedoor and the pair escape to a moon called Lamentis-1 in the year 2077. Variant Loki chastises Real Loki for his choice of escape routes as Lamentis-1 is the more dire apocalypse saved in the TemPad, where no one survives.
“Lamentis” as an episode is so far removed from the two previous episodes that it feels like it’s only filler, however, it does serve some purpose to the narrative. Firstly, we learn a bit about Variant Loki, who now calls herself Sylvie. Though she doesn’t elaborate on her plan to infiltrate the Time Keepers, her character is slightly fleshed out. There are a few quiet moments where she seems almost relatable, like when her gaze turns wistful when Loki mentions his mother and Sylvie asks what she was like.
Secondly, the episode delves deeper into Loki as well. Before this series on Disney+, fans have only seen Loki at his deceitfulness, besides the few times he helped Thor when it suited his purposes. But here, we learn that Loki is a sexual being, an aspect of his personality that’s never been explored before (granted, the MCU is a fairly rigid PG-13, but still). In addition to his genderfluidity, it seems that Loki is a pansexual being, as he seems to confirm his attraction to men and women.
The most important revelation from “Lamentis” is that the TVA agents aren’t creations of the Time Keepers as Mobius told Loki in the previous episodes, but are instead variants themselves. Loki points out that “they don’t know that,” showing that there’s something suspicious happening at the TVA if innocent people are being brainwashed to be soldiers in the time war. It also bolsters the theory I laid out after the first episode that the Time Keepers aren’t real. We’re halfway through the series and have yet to see them. Add to that the suspicious nature of how the TVA exists, and I feel like I’m on to something. (Of course, I’ll feel like an ass if in a couple of weeks the Time Keepers finally do make an appearance.)
The episode is wrapped up with a thrilling scene of Loki and Sylvie fighting their way through the streets of Lamentis-1 to get to the “ark,” the ship that is meant to take the civilians off the moon before the catastrophe. What makes this scene so special is it’s a one-shot, meaning the entire 4-plus minutes is laid out in one long, continuous take. There are a few seams where cuts could have been made, most especially among the CGI of the destruction, but the illusion of a one-shot is there, which made it a really fun watch.
Though I’ve been liking the show so far, I had been fairly disappointed with the pacing of the last two episodes of Loki. And though the latest episode keeps up with that trend, it at least offered some more insight into the titular character as well as provided a fairly spectacular twist which hopefully has major ramifications on the outcome of the story. There are only three episodes left with Loki, and I’m finally excited to see what’s to come.
