Season 1 of Loki was not my favourite of the Disney+ shows from Marvel, it took a fun character and let them fumble about for a few episodes, before introducing a character that was meant to be a threat and didn’t actually do anything, resulting in a finale that was garbage to me. What it did provide though was a world where near endless possibilities were possible and with its final cliffhanger, there was a good chance the new season would hit the ground running.

The first episode of season 2 didn’t worry about rehashing things, well outside of the recap, but instead Loki found himself back in the thick of things pretty quickly. This is something I was hoping for as it meant that things were going to move at a quicker pace, without having to worry about setting things up. Looking upon the face of his friend Mobius, only for it to reflect back a blank response, could not have been a good feeling. Because let us not forget, but right now it has been mere minutes since Loki was kicked back through the time door by Sylvie. Making a break for it was the only thing he could do and it actually gave us a sense that the TVA was more than just that a single building with a weird view, thanks to Loki diving out the window.

While crashing back into place, Loki soon loses his place and finds himself back in the TVA, before losing that place. This constant back and forth makes up for a really fun dichotomy, as we get to see Loki experiencing two different, yet oddly similar locations. Eventually, once he rejoins with Mobius he knows, we start to learn that Loki was in the past of the TVA, before he met Mobius, thus the lack of recognition from him and the pair breaking away from a weird council meeting to update Mobius was a welcome break. Loki attempting to explain the threat that He Who Remains poses is interesting for two reasons, but I will get to that in a bit. Discovering that there is a repair department for the TVA and OB runs the shop, was where the fun kicked in.

I won’t recap everything of course, watching is more enjoyable, but even with new characters and lose threads from last season, all coming together, nothing felt out of place. Tom Hiddleston is brilliant as Loki, as expected, but even in the moments when he is attempting to explain things to Mobius, Loki has never seemed so scared and unhinged. Owen Wilson is also brilliant, added a layer of calm to the scene, but still being his usual witty self, the pairing works just as well here as it did in the first season. Hunter B-15, played again by Wunmi Mosaku adds a level of empathy to the TVA that was lacking in the first season, if only because her eyes have been opened. While I can appreciate what they were going for, things feel a little to forced, given just how quickly she pushes for it. There are new characters of course, with Rafael Casal, Kate Dickie and Liz Carr all stepping into the MCU for the first time. Their characters, well I will leave them a mystery, but they do play an important part in the events of the episode and leave things with a nice cliffhanger.

In terms of visual effects, there are a lot of them, with the background of the TVA being prominate in most shots, but there are some very subtle ones as well. The effect you will see the most is when Loki gets pulled around, there is a warning sign later in the episode that advises that proceeding past a set point will result in spaghettification, which is a great way to describe what is happening to Loki. The same visual aesthetic, retro 70s is still very much in play here, but there are some locations, OB’s office for one, that feels a little more retro 40s. If you have ever seen the Superman cartoons from the 1940’s, the design they use for the tech there, feels very much what we see in the more technical areas of the TVA, but the 70s still creeps in.

The first episode of Loki Season 2 puts things on an interesting path, there are questions that are deliberately left unanswered and I am sure that will put people into theory mode. Tom Hiddleston shines as a Loki is who equal parts scared and confused, but also still has a drive to find Sylvie, its far more engaging a character than the end of season 1. Given the introduction of new characters, the show doesn’t feel like its bloating, but growing and that gives me hopes for the rest of the season.