The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is back! We’ve already seen two excellent MCU series on Disney Plus in 2021 and the content is starting to really ramp up in the coming months, making up for a quiet year in 2020. While we wait for the first MCU movie to hit theaters in July (Black Widow) we have another intriguing series to catch on Disney Plus, with this week’s premiere of Loki. The new series will follow the weekly release strategy of WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but with episodes coming out on Wednesday at midnight PT (basically, it means that if you are in the U.S. when you wake up on Wednesday morning, there should be a new episode of Loki available to stream).
We watched episode 1 last night and here is our review - with at least some spoilers!
How Did We Get Here?
You can get a more thorough primer on the show in our recent article (Loki - Next up from the MCU), but here is the shorthand version. In Avengers: Endgame, the heroes traveled back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones from times/places where they knew they had previously existed. One of these was the Space Stone (aka The Tesseract), which they decided to retrieve from right after Loki was defeated after the battle for NY as seen in the first Avengers film. Things went sideways and Loki grabbed the Tesseract and escaped, creating a branch in the timeline.
The Lokie series picks up immediately after that moment, as this alternate timeline Loki has seemingly escaped. But, not so fast. Just as Loki is savoring his escape, a portal opens and several serious-looking authorities in combat/riot gear arrive to take Loki into custody for crimes against time.
It’s’ About Time
Viewers are now introduced to an entirely new organization in the MCU, the Time Variance Authority (TVA). The TVA was created by the Time-Keepers, a trio of clearly very powerful beings who helped the universe survive a ‘vast multiversal war’ in the past where reality was nearly destroyed. As a byproduct of the war, a single Sacred Timeline was created by the Time-Keepers and the TVA was apparently created to act as a form of law enforcement for the Time-Keepers. The TVA appears to be modeled on the most stereotypical U.S. government agency, with massive bureaucracy, an untold number of workers straight from your local DMV, whose task it is to keep the Sacred Timeline intact and occasionally arrest and dispose of Variants - people who purposely or mistakenly step outside of the Sacred Timeline and create a branch.
A tremendously confused Loki is quickly processed as a criminal Variant, brought before a judge, and sentenced to be reset or basically erased from existence. Loki points out that it was the Avengers who traveled back in time and messed with the timeline. He just took an opportunity created by their actions. They must be the real criminals! He has a point. We know Loki, at this point in his story arc, is an unrepentant villain. But, it really was the Avengers that gave him the opportunity to create the branch in the timeline, so…? Nothing doing. The judge explains that what the Avengers did wasn’t breaking the Sacred Timeline at all. In fact, it was all supposed to happen, according to the plans of the Time-Keepers. Am I the only one that is already wondering about the motives and methods of this new group of all-powerful beings?
Old and New Characters
We quickly are reacquainted with the Loki we knew and loathed after Avengers, but we also know that he eventually found a certain redemption, eventually helping Thor and Valkyrie save the remnants of Asgard, defeating Hela, and taking on Thanos. So, how to reconcile the two versions of the same character?
Enter Mobius, a TVA agent played by Owen Wilson. Mobius saves Loki from being eradicated and wants his help with a serious issue the TVA is facing, where multiple teams of agents have been ambushed and killed in various times throughout history, by an as-yet unnamed super villain. First, he wants to get to know Loki and for Loki to come to terms with his own actions. He does this by showing Loki scenes from his life in the Sacred Timeline after the events of Avengers. The unflappable Loki is initially taken aback to learn that he had a role in his adopted mother’s murder in Thor: The Dark World. Loki initially escapes custody, but in his galavanting around the TVA, he finds that he is powerless to escape. Even the Infinity Stones have no power in the TVA and are used as paperweights or jewelry by various TVA employees. It leads him back to his interrogation room, where he watches the rest of the highlights of his life, his eventual reconciliation with Thor, battle to save his fellow Asgardians and eventually his death at the hands of Thanos. It has quite an impact on the Trickster as he seems to come to a certain understanding of himself and his motives that he certainly never admitted aloud previously.
At this point, Mobius reenters the room and our two main characters have a final chat where Mobius asks for Loki’s help in tracking down a dangerous Variant. That other Variant’s name - Loki.
We then get another scene where this other Loki Variant kills another team of TVA agents in 1859 Oklahoma. We also know that the Loki Variant was also in 1549 France and multiple other times and locations, for purposes yet unknown. We also haven’t seen what Loki Variant looks like. There may be a surprising reason for that (see below in open questions).
Multiverse? Hmmm...
We hear the TVA mention a couple of interesting terms that we’re already familiar with - Multiverse and Nexus. So, the Multiverse concept is that there are a potentially infinite number of realities, based on people making different choices, etc. We have heard Doctor Strange talk about it and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse also gave us a look. But, now we’re being told by the TVA that there is only one Sacred Timeline and that the whole Multiverse issue caused a war that was eventually settled by the Time-Keepers. Never mind that the next Doctor Strange Movie is called The Multiverse of Madness. We also know that Wanda is apparently a Nexus being who warps reality. So, let’s keep an eye on this topic throughout the Loki series, as it is likely going to lead into more MCU content involving the next Doctor Strange movie, at the least.
Questions We Still Have
As you might expect after the first episode, viewers have many unanswered questions. Here are just a few.
- Why are all the TVA agents apparently human? You would think an agency that covers the entire universe would have more diversity in its hiring practices. But, maybe they will explain this at some point.
- Why haven’t we seen Loki Variant’s face? Some eagle-eyed viewers have noted that Loki’s TVA file lists his gender as ‘fluid’. Perhaps we’re going to be confronted with a very unexpected version of Loki as the Variant.
- Why were the Avengers’ time travel antics ‘supposed to happen’ but Loki’s escape wasn’t?
- What is the real purpose and plan of the Time-Keepers? Thinking of them as benevolent keepers of the Sacred Timeline just seems too easy.
- Wait... Loki was DB Cooper?
