Loki: Heart of the TVA

"Hope is hard."

Well, then. I was not expecting that ending at all.

To be fair, I didn't know what exactly I was expecting. Just not the temporal loom blowing up and taking everything with it. If anything, I had that pegged for episode five or six. Instead, this episode really served as the climax as everything that has come before.

Was anything introduced in the first episode not wrapped up? We came full circle to the chaos of the TVA breaking down, Loki getting pruned, the mysterious phone call. Loki pruning himself was the obvious answer, but I liked it. It made everything rather neat.

Sylvie and Loki finally had a chance to slow down and talk more. Most importantly, Sylvie was able to better articulate her point of view. It's hard to hope and take things on faith that they'll be better, especially when you need multiple things to go right. It's a lot easier to just burn it to the ground. To be chaos. Loki, on the other hand, is almost advocating for order here. Or at least a certain kind of order. It's very different than what Renslayer claims to represent.

"We are gods," was almost the leading quote for this review. Like Mobius said last episode, it's easy to forget that Loki, Thor, and the rest of the Asgardians are actual gods with all of the power and responsibility that comes along with it. Theoretically, they're actually the kind of being who should and does normally watch over things like timelines and free will. That is the kind of order that Loki is trying to implement here.

There was some very intriguing camerawork during their conversation as well. Loki and Sylvie were never on screen at the same time. The camera kept them very separate from each other. It was only after Loki brought up godhood that they were able to share the frame, but even then, the camera was far removed from them. They may be working together at the moment, but they're not on the same side yet.

Dox is no longer a threat, which is something that I really did not see coming. What Renslayer and Miss Minutes did to her and the others was actually kind of horrific. It paid off the shrinking cube nicely from before, but it was a lot darker than I expected this show to go.

X-5 was the only one who survived the slaughter. I still can't figure him out. Apparently, his life as a movie star wasn't approved of. He went AWOL. There's a continuing lack of consistency with him that's frustrating, especially when there are moments that are really good. The focus on his face as Dox and the others were killed was an excellent choice. It's a lot easier to just prune strangers than to crush people he's worked with.

At least, if you're human. Miss Minutes looked absolutely thrilled while it happened, but Renslayer looked more resigned. Not that we needed any more proof that Miss Minutes is shaping up to be our next Big Bad, of course.

Or should I say was our next Big Bad? She had a line about how her cognitive functions were shutting down, and at the end, she seemed to revert to a very rudimentary kind of intelligence. Was that just because she was shutting down, or is this permanent? It feels like it could go either way depending on what happens next week.

Regardless, she gave us a fun tidbit about Renslayer. In tying up another loose end from the start of the season, we got to see the conversation between her and He Who Remains that was on tape. It was something that had happened in the far past as opposed to the future. Apparently, Renslayer wasn't just a warrior or a soldier, but a commander. Someone that Miss Minutes gave a lot of credit to for winning the war. (Assuming that we believe Miss Minutes, of course, and she wasn't just manipulating Renslayer.)

I do believe that He Who Remains wiped her memory, though. I don't think that the entire tape was fake. Even Timely has said multiple times that he doesn't do partnerships. He only uses and exploits people in the long run.

I feel like all of this had to be He Who Remains/Victor's plan. We had a very clear reference to an ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail. Yes, it's O.B.'s name, but it also describes a time loop. Maybe Victor turning into spaghetti turns him into He Who Remains? Or at least, a bunch of Kang Variants. I just don't trust him. I don't trust that he's really this semi-bumbling, innocent investor/con man. No way. Not for him to just die like that.

But where do we go from here? We ended on just a silent, black screen. Loki did this last season on their fourth episode, but unlike "The Nexus Event," there was no mid-credits scene to let us know what was happening. I'm excited. They learned to give us an actual cliffhanger.

Random Thoughts

We had Marvel credits this time around. They were fun. Very Doctor Who.

Very Jurassic Park in the 'uh uh uh, access denied' from Miss Minutes.

Poor D-90. He was so happy to have hot cocoa.

Set design continues to be excellent. I love how the TVA looks with all of the orange details. It contrasts with Loki Green very well.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.

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