“1893”
What They Say:
Loki and Mobius go on the hunt for everyone’s favorite cartoon clock as they try to save the TVA.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The feeling of momentum carries through again with another episode of Loki as we hit the halfway mark. That said, we hit the halfway mark and it’s still not in a place where it feels like we know what this season is about other than trying to ensure that reality doesn’t fall apart. What we do get, however, is another episode that feels complete and tells its tale while giving us a unique series of sets for this episode. We do get some time in the TVA and that helps to keep things connected, but that’s also kind of in a placeholder at the moment as part of the big picture. OB is still trying to keep things running and preparing for what’s to come. The pruning that Dox performed has given them some time but those branches are growing again and the Temporal Loom is going to be overheating soon and will result in shutting down and causing the end of everything. So, there’s definitely pressure there.
The focus this time around is on Renslayer as the TVA has finally tracked her down, roughly. We see her in 1868 arriving in Chicago and meeting with Miss Minutes who is executing a plan that He Who Remains put into place with her way back at the beginning of everything. It’s not a surprise for them to create a plan like this and knowing that Miss Minutes is part of it isn’t a surprise after the first couple of episodes here. But what’s interesting is that what He Who Remains has orchestrated is giving one of his variants what he needs to succeed as a TVA book is left on the window of a very young boy named Victor Timely. Or at least, that’s how we know him as an adult as Renslayer skips town after dropping off the book to reappear at the 1893 Word’s Fair in Chicago where Timley is showing off his creations in order to gain funding. Or, quite possibly, just to grift. There’s an uncertainty about this in how it’s presented because we see how people are after him for some of his confidence man games that he’s running – which means Loki figures him out quickly when they cross paths later.
Initially, it’s all about Loki and Mobius coming to 1893 to find Renslayer and figure out if she can help get what they need to deal with the Temporal Loom. But they’re quickly caught up in the larger plan and are trying to gain Timely for themselves as they need his aura to access the Temporal Loom. There’s no real attempt to explain this to Renslayer, who is now very separate from the TVA and likely not able to be swayed, but that just means it turns more competitive. The adversarial aspect comes from those that Timely has taken advantage of in this time to get money and Loki has to deal with trying to keep him alive and out of their hands. The greater challenge, however, is when Sylvie shows up and realizes who Timely is and shifts gears quickly to trying to kill him. The recognition moment is great from her and seeing Loki trying to balance knowing why she’s doing this with his need to keep him alive in order to stop everything from ending plays out well. Especially in this well-detailed sets and the great sequence in the elaborate Ferris wheel.
There are a lot of moving parts in all of this but it’s executed so smoothly and with an engaging sense of style and movement that it works very well. Mobius and Loki together continues to be a delight and seeing Mobius making a pit stop for some Cracker Jack is perfect while also getting some very humanizing moment when one of the places at the fair has statues to Thor, Odin, and Balder. That brings back memories of the Balder limited series I bought back in the day when I bought everything Marvel put out in the 1980s. The time between Renslayer and Miss Minutes delivers some good tension right out of the gate because you can’t be sure what Miss Minutes is really up to and just how much of it is what she’s been programmed for and if she’s got her own plans within plans. Doing all of this in the past is a delight as well, especially since she’s spent time “haunting” the local area in an old-timey version of herself and going big along the way to terrorize the whole fair. Miss Minutes was definitely fun in the first season but there’s some really smart use of the character this time around that helps it to grow and become more interesting.
In Summary:
The show still has its issues to be sure when it comes to how meaningful it is, or that there are a lot of vocal people that would rather just an episodic Loki and Mobius procedural show, but for me it’s just delivering on being engaging and playing with some good stakes while still being very much on a human level. I wish they didn’t have to go with an existence-ending kind of thing because we get that so often, but it at least makes sense as part of the larger multiverse narrative going on here and with He Who Remains. I was definitely curious as to how much, if any, of Jonathan Majors we’d see here and he brings a particular performance to Timely from this time and the kind of confidence man game he’s playing. I think it works to help provide some real variety and it’s certainly “comic book-y” in a way I don’t mind when it comes to showing more of the variants. And how the MCU can handle things down the line should they need to replace the actor. Here’s to the back half of the series stepping up even more as the first half has been an absolute delight.
Grade: B+
