Plot Summary: With all realities spaghettifying, Loki must figure out how to master his Time Slipping in an effort to go back and stop this apocalyptic event from ever occurring.

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: ‘Science/Fiction’

Debut Date: November 2^nd, 2023

Directed: Justin Benson & Aaaron Moorhead (5)

Written: Eric Martin (7)

Casey’s breakout from Alcatraz is based on a legitimate escape from the prison, with Casey assigned the name of the real life prisoner, Frank Thomas. His co-escapees were played by directors Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead.

Loki’s comment about being able to rewrite the story may be a nod to a run of comics where he declared himself the God of Stories.

Speaking of that comic arc, B-15’s real name is confirmed as Verity Willis, who in the books becomes Loki’s best friend/brief romantic interest. One of the only people that can get through to him and put him in his place, basically.

Composer Natalie Holt incorporated whispered aspects of the Lokesenna, a poetic Edda about Loki trying to warn his fellow Gods about the impending end of the world.

Recap

Following the explosion of the Temporal Loom, The TVA begins to spaghettify and Loki finds himself Time Slipping again, visiting the native timelines of his vanished friends.

Ouroboros aka Dr. A.D. Doug, a sci-writer, encourages Loki to master his Time Slipping and creates a prototype TemPad using a TVA handbook from Loki’s pocket.

Loki recruits his friends one by one and gathers them in Doug’s lab, believing their combined Temporal Aura could serve as coordinates to the TVA before everything went wrong.

Everybody spaghettifies one by one, with Sylvie going last, helping Loki master Time Slipping, first rewinding to before they all died, and then to before the Temporal Loom exploded.

Review

I’m really mad at them for using ‘Thunder In Your Heart’ by John Farnham, because I’ve been obsessed with that song for over a decade and now it’s going to seem like it’s because of his largely disappointing season of superhero television. Not that it matters where you discover things you love, but ya know, I must be different and special!

I have very few real complaints beyond that it super sucks they didn’t given B-15 a full recruitment scene in the same manner as Mobius and O.B. Casey didn’t necessarily need one as he’s a more minor character and they did the Alcatraz stuff at the start, but B-15 was a much larger part of Season One and is just fully relegated to the sidelines this time around. I don’t know if Wunmi Mosaku was too busy or if it’s a deliberate choice, but I hate it.

Other than that, this is largely what I want from this show, and perhaps anticlimactically I don’t have much to say about it other than I liked it. It was character-driven and actor-driven. It was a series of emotionally charged conversations, with the whacky superhero nonsense acting as the backdrop, not the feature attraction. I have a whole section for acting below, so when an episode is so thoroughly indebted to the performances, it does kind of rob what I can say in this one.

We also have cute touches like O.B. being inspired by both Victor Timely AND himself (via Loki), and his lab as A.D. Doug being the exact same set as his workshop in the TVA, albeit redressed, and paying off Mobius’ love of Jetskis. Sylive’s reality gradually spaghetiffying throughout the episode, and then everything dissolving around her while she listens to The Velvet Underground was excellent, and for as much as Marvel have struggled with VFX, especially in the last 2-3 years, this show has looked consistently great. It probably still shouldn’t cost as much as they all do, but it’s the one I can most understand being expensive.

The aspect that I’m not sure fully works is the philosophical debate about Fiction vs Science. The focus on the WHY instead of the WHAT and HOW. Many comic writers have successfully engaged with the meta concept of story and narrative, but I’m just not yet fully convinced by it in this episode of television. I WANT it to work, and it’s by no means a complete failure, it’s just maybe missing a certain something at this point. Perhaps Episode 6 will circle the square and I’ll feel differently. For now, it feels a little like a limp Rick & Morty plot. I DO really enjoy the Loki comics arc where he declares himself The God of Stories, so if this is what they’re poking around at, sign me up. Perhaps they’re also trying to harken back to Thor’s explanation of magic vs science back in the original Thor?

Finally, not for nothing, but this show is clearly not continuing past next week’s episode, and with what Loki is now able to do, I assume we’re going to take a tour through major beats of both seasons and Loki will ultimately put everybody back where they belong, save the universe, and find himself back in the mainline MCU a changed man. I actually hope Chris Hemsworth ‘lowered’ himself to a cameo, but that seems unlikely.

Best Performance

Finally, Tom Hiddlestone captures the honours in his own show (this season anyway, I definitely gave it to him at least once last season.)

Loki wrestling with his selfish desire to be with his friends again versus ripping them out of their real lives, and his argument with Sylvie about whether he is actually giving them freedom to choose or interfering in the natural way of things is all interesting, and Hiddlestone nails all of that, seemingly on the verge of tears at all times. It’s a testament to his ability that I was fully engaged with those conversations, because this season has worked hard to dampen my enthusiasm for the show overall. If episodes 2-4 were better, I’d be jumping up and down about this one in general, instead of mostly just raving about the acting.

Bringing the many long conversations between Loki and Mobius from Season One back was extremely well done, with Hiddlestone demonstrating the character’s authentic journey to change. This kind of thing can feel Tell, not Show, but I do think they’ve legitimately earned this, and Hiddleston has quietly built a case for MVP of the MCU. Okay maybe not, as he’s in too many minor roles compared to RDJ/Evans, but I legitimately would like to continue to see him in future projects despite how many appearances he’s racked up, and he seems to enjoy coming back while still doing things he wants to do. It’s rare for a Marvel actor’s career to not be in some way tarnished by it, but I think he’s managed it.

Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino and Ke Huy Quan were all really good as well. Not their best work in the show, but still good. Quan takes extremely well to trying to explain such abstract concepts and pass them off as every bit as valid as the metaphysical laws of the universe.

I also will keep saying that it’s criminal they didn’t let Wunmi Mosaku have a big meaty conversation like the rest of the core cast, and I frankly don’t care if you find it annoying.

Villain Watch

Ummm…. Time Itself? I’m actually a fan of when these shows are able to get by without evil characters. Given superhero movies tend to struggle with villains anyway, the obvious solution is to sometimes not even use them and instead just do a character drama.

That being said, if Loki can move through time at will now, every character in both seasons of the show are back on the table. I BEG them to do more with Brad/X-5, Dox and Renslayer. Plus whether I like it or not, Jonathan Majors is coming back so might as well make peace with it now. (Yes, I labelled Majors a villain rather than Kang/He Who Remains/Timely, what of it?)

And finally, as always, The Writers for not giving Wunmi Mosaku more to do.