It’s been six weeks of multiverse hopping and so far, Loki has been a ride. It’s had its bright moments, but also a few dull ones. But despite that, I’m curious to see how the season ends. Who is behind the TVA and what are their motivations? Does Ravonna know more than she’s letting on? Where is Mobius really from? Will Loki and Sylvie reconcile their feelings for each other? That’s a lot of questions for a single episode to answer, but I have faith in the MCU.
And for the last time, the upcoming is filled with spoilers for the final episode so make sure you watch it before proceeding. With that said, let’s jump on.
The finale, titled “For All Time. Always,” opens on Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) having just passed through the Void and finding themselves in front of the castle they saw through the portal. They’re hesitant to enter at first. As Sylvie prepares herself for what they face, the door mysteriously opens by itself. They enter and come face to face with…
Miss Minutes.
The animated clock (voiced by Tara Strong) welcomes them to “the citadel at the end of time” and tells them that “he’s impressed.” When Sylvie asks who, Miss Minutes responds with, “He Who Remains.” She remains cryptic about who “he” is, but she says that he’s willing to offer them a deal to insert them back into the timeline. She says he’ll give Sylvie the happy life she was denied, while Loki will get the power he always craved; the defeat of the Avengers, killing Thanos, and control of the Infinity Gauntlet. They refuse, with Loki saying, “We write our own destiny now.” Miss Minutes dismisses this idea before teleporting away.
She shows up a moment later in Ravonna’s (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) office as the judge is sifting through some files. She spots the water ring on her table, which we know was left there by Mobius, and has a wistful moment. Miss Minutes points to the files downloading to Ravonna’s TemPad. Ravonna says they aren’t what she asked for, but Miss Minutes says he thinks they’ll be more useful before disappearing again.
Back at the citadel, Loki and Sylvie come face to face with He Who Remains, played by Jonathan Majors, whose appearance here will tie directly to 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and confirms quite a few theories out there. Sylvie tries to kill He Who Remains, but He teleports away safely each time. He leads them to his office where he begins to deconstruct everything they want to know.
Back at the TVA, Mobius (Owen Wilson) shows up in Ravonna’s office. She wasn’t terribly surprised to see him, however. Mobius reveals to Ravonna that he knows her secret, and we instantly cut to Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) being tracked by other Minutemen in a high school. She leads them to an office where she’s cornered. She attempts to reason with them before Ravonna walks in wondering what’s going on. The Minuteman addresses her as Judge Renslayer, but Ravonna has no idea what he’s talking about, indicating that this is the Ravonna Prime to the variant that we’ve seen through the series. In fact, Ravonna doesn’t even seem to be her real name; a degree behind Hunter B-15 suggests her name is Rebecca Courminet.
When we get back to the TVA, Mobius threatens to prune Ravonna, but he’s easily overpowered. Instead of pruning Mobius a second time, Ravonna disappears through a time door, saying she’s searching for free will.
Most of the episode focuses on Loki, Sylvie, and He Who Remains. He Who Remains explains his origin. As a scientist in the 30th century, he discovered a way to travel between the multiverses. He met his counterparts in each of those worlds, and they exchanged knowledge to better each other’s worlds. But some of his others sought power, and their hunger for power led to the Multiversal War. He Who Remains managed to quell the war and create both the Sacred Timeline and the TVA to ensure it doesn’t happen again, but it required his constant attention to maintain. He tells Loki and Sylvie that he’s tired and wants to pass the burden on to them and gives them a choice: take over for him and maintain order or kill him and ensure chaos.
Sylvie wants to follow through with their mission and kill him, but Loki tries to stop her, urging her to see the reason in his words. They battle back and forth. Sylvie intent on killing He Who Remains, and Loki intent on stopping her. In a touching moment, Loki admits to Sylvie that he just wants her to be OK, and Sylvie kisses him right before using a TemPad to send Loki back to the TVA and kill He Who remains. This leads to the timeline growing thousands, maybe millions, of new branches, leading to the creation of the new multiverse.
The TVA is left in chaos at this sudden change, unsure of how to handle the new branches. Loki rushes through the TVA and finds Mobius and Hunter B-15, anxiously explaining to them what happened. When he finishes, Mobius asks him who he is, revealing that his knowledge of Loki and what they’ve been through is gone. Loki notices that one of the statues in the TVA has changed and now is the visage of He Who Remains just before the end credits roll.
The biggest problem with Loki overall is just how many questions it left lingering at the end of the season. Most shows entice an audience by creating mysteries surrounding the characters and provide closure at the end before asking new questions to be tackled in the next season. However, Loki threw that tactic away. Some questions were answered, such as who controls the TVA and where did Ravonna Renslayer come from, but others were completely neglected. How much did Ravonna know about the TVA? Where did Mobius come from? Or even Hunter B-15? We’ve grown to care for these characters throughout the season and I know I would’ve liked to see their histories a little more, and I just feel like not getting that is a bit of a cop-out.
The worst part is we didn’t even get a post-credits screen, just an add-on at the end of the credits saying Loki will return for Season 2. Which, given how many questions they created at the end of this season as well as all of the ones they didn’t even bother to answer, there damn well better be a second season.
I enjoyed Loki for what it was, but I had my qualms at the beginning. Though the series began to pick up some steam in the middle episodes, it ended exactly as it began: with exposition. Though the finale posed some very interesting questions and set the stage for the future of the MCU, that’s all it essentially did. Maybe the second season will change my mind, but I was terribly let down with the show we got.
