In Marvel Cinematic Universe, you can never find closure like an infinity stone but it can be as strong if put properly. For example, there have been some graceful exits from iconic roles such as Robert Downey Jr.’s Ironman and Chris Evans’ Captain America while others were not so much (RIP Scarlett Johansson). Loki’s death was pathetic in Avengers: Infinity War but he was revived on earth for another shot at life through the Disney+ series that set a new standard after finally telling its fans what they needed to know rather than what they wanted. There is undoubtedly no doubt in my mind that the second season finale of Lokibrought is one of MCU’s most poetic and dramatically satisfying character arcs—can a great coda for the God Of Storytelling make up for five episodes going nowhere? Does Season 2 = AOK TV or just meh streaming shows tacked onto a sick MCU ending?
Not really based on its overall presentation. This show has undergone too many changes between these seasons to pretend that it was ever like something such as an Opulent textile story. Over twelve episodes, the direction of Loki has gone through massive shifts including changing from Kate Herron’s vibrant goofballery to Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s more somber style in this version of Synchronic. Working on Rick and Morty before being appointed as head writer for Loki, Eric Martin led Time Variance Authority down streamlined fetch quests which occasionally had intriguing character moments but ultimately made no sense except zoodles from the space station. Ravonna Renslayer died.) These people have also been given responsibility for introducing Kang (Jonathan Majors) as an all-powerful cosmic entity who shall shape future developments within the franchise; indeed among them, one objective has been achieved.
The parade of Loki variants is replaced by a focus on the TVA ensemble in season two (though not capitalizing on Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie would have been a waste). This tactic seems to have worked well, especially with the inclusion of Ke Huy Quan as cheerful maintenance man Ouroboros who conveniently explains all the sci-fi jargon on this show. There is also more time devoted to guys like Owen Wilson’s Mobius, whose chemistry with Hiddleston might be the standout that makes this show great even if he’ll always mainly want a Jet Ski and key lime pie however Mobius as father in his other life has kept us from knowing where his happily ever after went and now it appears that there will never be a Loki Season 3. (If you are one those people saying “Wait till he pops up in Deadpool 3” then sorry mate but stories don’t work that way.)
None of these people are so interesting despite such increased screen time. In season two, when the world started to collapse on itself, Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and another worker named Casey (Eugene Cordero) also see what might have occurred if they were not chosen by He Who Remains (Majors). Although there is some hint at their alternative lives – e.g. B-15 would be an amazing doctor whereas Casey is a hopeless thief – these people are still just thinly portrayed. Even minor characters such as Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who were important before but now don’t matter in any way at all, only provoke some slight dissatisfaction and longing for Martin’s team. They use cliché phrases that are globally generalized to describe cliches or tropes which now sound meaningless in the larger MCU context of Loki that it’s hard to tell their fears or what they really want.
Also, this season has Hunter X-5 (Rafael Casal) enjoying the sweet variant life. After leaving TVA Brad Wolfe calls himself; apparently The Action Star of the ’70s; screaming fanbase and latest movie premiere characterized by opulence which Marvel represents here as a ruffled dress shirt on Loki; these signs show that X-5 has achieved success with his variant. However, after being captured by his former colleagues, Castal demonstrates how desire and purpose shape this season during a brutal conversation between Wilson, Mosaku & Hiddleston pinpointing “the one cruel logic” of TVA.” “I left down and got my existence,” he sneers about the TVA. “So what do you have against me?”
The subplot features a variant known as Brad Wolfe, who delves deep into how He Who Remains used them as his puppet pruners to quash TVA’s humanity. It paves the way for B-15’s change in attitude towards the timeline, even resulting in a mini-insurrection within TVA which is just as fast forgotten by episode 5 of this season in order to make room for Loki’s finale. In his narrative, I cannot help but imagine what impact it would have had on Mobius or anyone else standing next to Loki at the end instead of introducing yet another character that dies (albeit creatively) halfway through it. While righteously focusing its attention on TVA, Season 2 of Loki takes place against a retro background – with numerous instances for spectators to appreciate its extremely retro style – but there are no more substantial character moments than there were in the first season. When Ouroboros refuses his variant self in the penultimate episode of “Science/Fiction,” he just shrugs.
I love this finale because it finally delivered on the promise of what the show could have been but never quite was. But how does a god of mischief take his own life? How would anyone else behave? In the episode “Science/Fiction” Loki himself is foregrounded again as he reflects on what he now wants since his days of megalomania are over. The two talk about their place in the multiverse and why it’s okay to be selfish regarding love. “Give me back my friends!” said Loki. (By the way, while it’s nice to see Di Martino again, I wonder if Sylvie has any interests beyond getting paid by McDonald’s or where she’s headed to next; Sylvie doesn’t know either.) Loki says: “I don’t want to be alone.” But that doesn’t explain anything in relation to where he goes in the last half hour of season 1.
Loki has not always been a well-oiled mechanical cog within MCU’s larger megastructure but its grinding gears have been occasionally amusing nonetheless. Rather, Marvel could also use a lube job at this point in Multiverse Saga. It balances itself for a minute between Marvel chessboard positioning and biting character drama like any other fictional work known to us so far if it even succeeded at all in season two anyway. Just its last installment contains everything important which means that every other thing turned no more relevant than before. Hence, they had left viewers groping through total chaos brought on by a lack of unified vision even though the previous five episodes were nothing but a stunning ending that reminded why people fell for him ages—yet showed them what glorious purpose hung heavy over.
Verdict
Although Loki Season 2 ended with an emotional goodbye to Tom Hiddleston’s God of Stories, most episodes felt underwhelming from both angles: actors’ and overall plot drifts in the MCU recently. The recent creative shift rightly focuses on the ensemble, but character roles are handed out with a careless toss. What remains is a haze of periodically interesting character moments, dampened by the relentless predictability of the Marvel Phase 5 engine, which, let’s face it, could seriously use a major overhaul.
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