Plot summary: Loki is torn randomly through time while trying to prevent the destruction of the TVA and plan for an impending invasion of Kangs.

With Marvel dipping their toes into the world of television, Matt Waters brings recaps and reviews of each new episode (you guessed it) every Monday. Check out the full column.

Notes

Episode Title: ‘Ouroboros’

Debut Date: October 5^th, 2023

Directed: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (3)

Written: Eric Martin (3)

The McDonald’s Sylvie visits in the mid-credits scene is in Broxton, Oklahoma. This was where Thor et al had to move after Asgard was destroyed in the comics. Whereas New Asgard in the MCU is a fishing village in Scandinavia, so this might just be a cute wink and a nod.

Kang and Ravonna Renslayer have romantic ties in the comics (sometimes one-sided), which this episode seems to finally acknowledge with the recording of them talking in the past.

Judge Dox may be a nod to Mr. Paradox, a TVA judge in the comics from who Ouroboros was cloned. But Mr. paradox is obviously a man so… could be clutching at straws.

Recap

Loki suffers from ‘Time Slipping’, being ripped between time periods at random intervals… which should not be possible within the walls of the TVA.

Mobius takes Loki him to Ouroboros aka O.B., who formulates an elaborate plan to fix Loki and protect the TVA from the malfunctioning ‘Temporal Loom’.

First Mobius must activate an ‘Aura Extractor’, and then Loki must prune himself, and both must do their part within five minutes or the Loom will kill them all.

Loki struggles with his part of the plan, but after meeting Sylvie in an apocalyptic future, an unseen person prunes him from behind and everything works out okay.

There’s no time to celebrate, as the TVA dispatch a contingent to capture Sylvie. In a mid-credits scene, Sylvie walks into a McDonald’s in 1982…

Review

I spent most of the episode unable to fully compute how radically different the show looks compared to the first season. Everything is lit much darker, and the camera moves a LOT. At first I thought it was just a quirk of Benson & Moorhead to show off (remember, I HATED Moon Knight), but to be fair, the kinetic filmmaking did convey the sense of urgency in the plot, as it seemed like everybody could die at any moment and they weren’t quite sure what to do, just that they had to do it quickly.

Season One used carefully composed shots to let the physical location of the TVA stand out and do a lot of heavy lifting. The colours always popped thanks to generous lighting, and the set designers absolutely crushed the anachronistic vibes I love so much. That might read like they’ve foregone a physical set for The Volume or pure green-screen, but that’s clearly not the case as the constant camera movement highlighted. That’s a lot of words to acknowledge it looks really different but I actually like both dynamics. This visual style may give way now the Big Crisis has been averted, but after one episode, swapping Kate Herron for the Moon Knight guys isn’t the dramatic step down I feared. Although the dimmer lighting means I can’t read the background posters as easily 😦

Likewise, Michael Waldron got promoted out of the show and into writing Avengers 6… which will probably be worse than Loki, but you can’t deny that’s a huge gig to be given. Eric Martin takes over as lead writer after penning my two favourite episodes of the first season, and much like with the visuals, things are definitely a little different but I can’t quite tell if they’re better or worse. Some of the dialogue feels hammier, and some of it feels funnier. I guess going after laughs more aggressively will have that effect. Martin certainly has a good feel for Ke Huy Quan, who they seemed to pin a large amount of the episode on. More on that below.

It definitely feels like they’re going to get EXTREMELY wanky with the time travel, which could make or break the season. So far, so good, with things like Loki creating a crack in the present that’s obviously not there in the past, and then noticing Mobius’ dust prints on the side of a monitor to realise he’s moved to the future. Even better, the writing on OB having conversations with Mobius and Loki in two time periods and learning information in the past that he didn’t initially have in the present worked well despite the perils of such a trope.

The TVA building itself being shrouded in lies was fun, with Loki pruning a wall to reveal an era where He Who Remains openly ran the organisation before switching to the Time Keepers mythology. The ending of season one led us to believe Sylvie’s decision created an alternate timeline, but we now know that Loki simply found himself in this bygone era, and that Mobius didn’t recognise him because He Who Remains wiped his employees’ memories.

The little chase scene at the start made me want to watch The Fifth Element, which came out 26 years earlier. It doesn’t go on long enough to be truly irksome, though. I do think the convoluted solution to the impending time crisis got a bit out of hand at times, too. But overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the episode given the changes in the creative team and the early warnings that Season Two is a big step down.

Most Marvelous Player

Ke Huy Quan is obviously enjoying his moment, and I’m not going to pretend this is the same as his Oscar-winning work, but he sure as charming as heck. He’s super game for the quirky vibes of the TVA, with their pneumatic tubes, guidebooks, convoluted systems and the absolute chaos of time travel shenanigans. He also made the generic socially awkward tech support character work. I think Eric Martin really understood his voice, and I’d be curious to know if the part was written specifically for him or not. If nothing else, Quan takes to the rapid-fire jargon-heavy dialogue better than Owen Wilson

Speaking of which, of the returning regulars, I worry most for Wilson. If we are indeed going to get way more timey-wimey… I just foresee him getting a little lost in the chaotic scripts. I hope I’m proven wrong. He’s perfectly fine here, and the bickering with Loki about losing his skin was fun.

Tom Hiddlestone was perfectly fine, but he could play Loki in his sleep, so he’s going to have to do a lot to get particular mention here.

Villain Watch

An extremely awkward season to have this section on, because quite frankly I want Kang’s involvement kept to a minimum for obvious reasons. He was just depicted via statues and a brief recording conspiring with Renslayer. Whatever.

The TVA themselves played a somewhat adversarial role in Season One, and while many have become Loki’s friends, in an organisation this big and mysterious, there’s obviously still a nefarious element. It will seemingly be headed up by Hunter X-5, whose over-the-top displeasure for Mobius and broody posing was a bit much. Showing him in a creepy embrace with Judge Dox (that might imply a quasi-mother/son relationship) certainly helped me dislike him.

Is Sylvie a villain? She and Loki ended up at odds over The Big Decision, but I can’t say walking into a McDonalds in Oklahoma and expressing a desire to try everything tracks as particularly evil. She also seemed pleased to see him in that brief future scene. Soooo. Probably not a villain?

Plugs

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