Loki - Season 2 Episode 4 - Review

We are halfway through the season of Loki and events have taken an interesting turn, with Renslayer and Miss Minutes teaming up, Victor Timely at the TVA and everything that holds the timeline together ready to explode, surely things can't get any more complicated.

****Spoiler Warning Ahead****

When the third episode ending on a bit of a tease that Kang had done something to Renslayer, coming into the 4th episode I honestly wondered what that could have been. Finding out that she was essentially his right hand was honestly the weakest thing it could have been. Don't be wrong I understand they want to make Renslayer a dangerous threat, but nothing we've seen from her in the first season or even now provides that level of dangerousness so to find out she's the right hand to the most villainous person in the MCU I don't buy it. What makes it even worse is that once the history of the pair was unveiled, rather than trying to stop them or seek revenge, she just decided she was going to take over the TVA, which again goes against her free will crusade.

The problem that this episode suffered with is that there were so many angles being played, can you trust Loki? Can you trust Timely? Can you trust Sylvie? By the time the episode ended it felt that nobody really got anywhere personally. The reason why I'm having an issue with that is that when Sylvie and Loki had their conversation in the pie room, it could have pushed things forward in a big impactful way except they didn't. Sylvie is still pissed off at the world, Loki still wants to save the TVA and it feels like all the conversations that took place in the episode didn't mean a thing. Even seeing General Dox refused to side with Renslayer along with her entire squad, didn't feel as impactful as it could have, I'm sure a bunch of people being squished together was quite impactful. It seems that each character wanted to push things a little further forward but didn't want to leave the place they were in and the end result was that when the spaghettification happened it was a shock but it didn't really matter.

I will admit the interactions between Timely an OB were honestly delightful, and it comes down to just how well Ke Huy Quan and Jonathan Majors are bringing those characters to life. The first interaction has them going back and forth on being impressed by each other, but even towards the end of the episode there's still a connection between them. We didn't see them on screen all that much together but it felt like they were the TVA equivalent of the science Bros, which became a MCU staple after the first Avengers movie. The connection that these two shared also had a negative connotation in that it undercut Mobius’ connection to the events happening around him. Don't get me wrong Owen Wilson was still fantastic in the role, but it seems like the character was just there for the background nature of it with nothing really happening.

It was great to see the payoff from the first episode on who pruned Loki, finding out that it was himself was a nice little twist and then of course that mystery phone call being answered was also nice. The ending of the episode leaves a lot of questions for how the MCU might proceed going forward, given that the loom blew up. It seems this episode was more about questioning what people wanted rather than providing answers and while that is definitely an interesting idea, it's hard to validate people's investment if there isn't any answers. I was not a fan with how the first season of Loki played out, they kept asking all these questions and then just threw the towel in on the ending and I'm worried now that things are moving in that same direction. A constant threat of destruction kept them moving at a decent pace and now they haven't been able to avert it, what comes next?

The fourth episode of Loki is an interesting one, there were some great character moments and some impactful conversations, but nothing really felt like it was moving forward. Timely being lost in the TVA and trying to prove he's on everyone's side even though the audience knows he's not, is a hard sell, even more so when in the episode previous Loki was terrified when he saw his face. Sylvie having a moment it's becoming a thing and while she's justified in her fear, the fact she's not willing to do anything about it makes the character unappealing. Given that the episode has ended in the way that it has, there is a lot of openness on how the final two episodes will move forward and if somehow they managed to do something really great, then this episode will have been worth it. But right now this was the weakest episode of the season and it doesn't give me hope that things will get better.

The Score

7.0

Review access provided by Disney

The Pros

The connection between OB and Timely was great

Episode 1 questions being answered was a nice feeling

The Cons

Renslayer’s revelation was pretty weak and her new goal after finding out was even more so

So many questions being asked and very few answers were provided