“For All Time. Always.”
What They Say:
The clock is ticking in the season finale which finds Loki and Sylvie on a date with destiny.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first season of Loki draws to a close with this episode and, as had been teased before, this is the show that’s getting a second season. Events here are, in the fanboyish sense, something that will sprawl for some time. With this and WandaVision, events are shaping up interestingly for the 2022 season of Marvel Studios projects as what’s happening in these two series will spill into Doctor Strange with Loki now announced there, and the next Ant-Man and the Wasp feature having key players from this project in it. It is all, quite frankly, exciting as it’s taking the method of how Thanos was introduced and juicing it from the start but playing screwy with it in a really fascinating way.
Let’s just say right out of the gate, I loved Jonathan Majors in Lovecraft Country and his casting as the potential Phase 4 & 5 Big Bad is exciting based on that project and what we see of him here in his first semi-appearance.
With Loki and Sylvie having dealt with Alioth, they’re able to make their way to the place beyond, which we learn is called the Citadel at the End of Time. It’s a wonderfully slow experience instead of the usual brash and forward push we get in the films for such things as the two make their way around the citadel that has a neat fractured look to it that also mimics the timelines that are pruned. Both are ready for whatever may come and I do admire that they have the swords ready and are being careful as they do this. There’s always that layer of distrust – they are Loki’s after all – but they’re in a very different place and they’re trying to not let that overwhelm. Especially when they’re finally introduced to the man behind the curtain, He Who Remains.
This whole sequence, which dominates most of the episode, isn’t a big action piece. It’s a heavy dialogue piece that I imagine will frustrate some, which is why we got action pieces previously as Loki isn’t exactly a fighter type but one to manipulate situations to his advantage and to his win. The problem is that He Who Remains has the foreknowledge of everything that’s to come and it allows him to smoothly evade everything. It’s similar to the sheets of dialogue Loki had to sign off on before but with a grander scale to it. He Who Remains is all too jovial here as he happily greets the pair and invites them into his lair further and further in order to provide his exposition. It’s all straightforward to be sure in most ways here, but it’s engaging thanks to the cast and the uncertainty who may react in an unexpected way.
The basic here is what most of us expected – and I’m happy to be wrong by saying that I didn’t think we’d get this here at the end – in that we’ve got the truth of the Multiversal War told in full. Discovered in the 31st century by He Who Remains and others like him across the parallel lines, they all began to interact and communicate, to share and explore, only to eventually encounter those that were more interested in rulership – or conquering. The little models further cement it for the fans (not that it wasn’t already) but we see the proper visual design for Kang the Conqueror and others. It’s a wonderful little moment that leads into the real challenge in how to deal with He Who Remains, for Sylvie to make a choice, and for Loki to realize that everything has now gone oh so incredibly wrong as the multiverse is launched anew and unstoppable. And that it’s filled with conquerors that will be coming.
That has him at the end coming back to the TVA to try and warn Mobius, because he does see the real larger problem here and how it would obviously obliterate any sense of plans or designs that he may have once this is all done, and the TVA really is the only thing that might do something. But Mobius is in a struggle himself, originally trying to convince Ravonna to the truth of things even though she’s still a true believer, and also see how Hunter B-90 is doing her best to convince others as to the truth of their all being variants. But that final sequence, showing Loki realizing that the world has changed radically with what happened at the Citadel at the End of Time, that was a thing of beauty and a great way to provide a season-ending cliffhanger – even if there are two if not three films of material that we have to weave this story through before it comes back to the second season.
In Summary:
In the end, the truth is there for most series that I think a lot of us forget about is that it really is all about the journey. I love endings, I love the big climactic moments and the challenges of it, and Loki does provide for that here. At the same time, it’s not the ending that I’ll be talking about with friends and family for time to come but the journey of our main Loki here, Sylvie, and the way they changed through interaction with each other (facets of themselves) and others like Mobius. And yes, Alligator Loki, the beautiful little bit of merchandising excellence. This series delivered a gorgeously designed TVA, fantastic music choices, some of the best direction from Kate Herron in moving us across this project, and just a really solid sense of self across it as a whole. The end is that moment similar to the first brief appearance of Thanos that we got a decade ago, but done in such a very different way that shows a far greater commitment to going big and crazy ahead. I was always excited to see what they’d do next but now it’s on hyperdrive.
Grade: A-
