Loki, the variant God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston), needs to save the Time Variance Authority, the multiverse, his one true love (debatable), and hopefully himself in Loki Season 2. That’s a lot, even for an Asgardian-Jotun god who gets by with a little (okay, a lot of) help from his friends. And these are just the problems he knows about!
Loki Season 2 Episodes 1-4
Justin Benson (director), Dan Deleeuw (director), Kasra Farahani (director), Eric Martin (writer), Aaron Moorhead (director)
Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Rafael Casal, Tara Strong, Kate Dickie, Liz Carr, Neil Ellice, with Jonathan Majors, Ke Huy Quan and Owen Wilson (cast)
October 6, 2023
Look, I, like everyone else, love Loki. Hiddleston has owned this role in a way nobody could have anticipated. 10+ years on, and we still love the guy. However, I have always been deeply partial to Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While the world was loving on Loki, I just wanted to yell about the character growth (and beautiful golden locks) of the God of Thunder. Hell, Thor was my favourite Avenger until Scarlet Witch and Black Panther came along.
The first season of Loki felt a bit like a personal attack—a reminder why Loki was the favoured hot god for audiences worldwide. Except it was dealt with all the subtlety of a hammer throw (see what I did there?). We got Variant-Loki watching his original self find redemption, lose his mother, die, find redemption, lose his father, die, find… you get the gist. And then Variant-Loki did very little with that knowledge. He made goo-goo eyes at his female variant, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), tried not to make goo-goo eyes at Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), and was terrified of/ intrigued by He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors). Then there was a very, very, very (did I say very?), long monologue, a tussle, a kiss, and boom, end season.
Loki Season 2 picks up immediately after the closing moments of its opener—Sylvie has shoved Loki back to the TVA to deal with He Who Remains on her own. But at the TVA, none of the friends Loki has made—Mobius, B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), or Casey (Eugene Cordero)— remember him. And He Who Remains’ face is plastered everywhere. Is this an alternate universe? Did He Who Remains change the TVA while Loki and Sylvie were fighting? We tune into the second season to find out, if we care.
Despite my love of Loki, I disliked the first season. The plodding dialogue, not to mention the overlong monologues, the lack of chemistry between Loki and Sylvie, and the utter waste of Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer, had me bored, annoyed, and uninterested. How could Loki do this to one of the most charismatic characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Unsurprisingly, I was filled with apprehension about Loki Season 2. But I’m happy, and shocked, to report that it’s good! From the first episode onwards, I was hooked. By the end of Episode 4, I knew I’d miss Loki Season 2 when it finished. A lot of what I wanted from Loki season one, this season delivers.
Granted, the stage has been set and the characters have already been introduced. We know Mobius is the guy who loves his job and does it without question—all he wants from life is to experience jetskis, which is a theme that continues from the first season, thank Frigga! We now know that Hunter B-15 is a variant, as is everyone else in the TVA, and she feels very strongly that variants deserve to live their lives instead of getting pruned, aka erased from existence. Because Season 1 did all that heavy-lifting, the characters have room to grow. But that’s what all opening seasons are supposed to do—and yet few of them are as dull as Loki Season 1 was.
What works with Loki Season 2 is that it has a very definitive purpose and believable stakes—the entire multiverse is about to be destroyed, meaning countless variants will die for no fault of their own. Alongside the colossal stakes, Loki is tasked with protecting those he’s become close to. Not an easy ask since every method to save the multiverse can also spell agonising prolonged death for Loki et al. There’s a sense of peril and an immediacy to the characters’ actions. Which, of course, helps the pacing of the show and spares the audience from needless monologues.
The chemistry between Loki and Sylvie is still nowhere to be found. Hiddleston and Di Martino try their best, but they’re so perfect as antagonists who want different things they fail to work as two attractive people who want to be with each other. A problem, since they’re the central romance! At least Sylvie’s getting to exist as more than Loki’s eventual love interest—Season 1 signposted it from so early on that they completely undercut Sylvie’s character growth. The little she’s had to do in Loki Season 2 has been more meaningful and more about her needs and wants, than Loki’s. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.
Hiddleston is in full form this season. He’s also no longer burdened with having to convince audiences that Variant-Loki is definitely not at all like OG-Loki. He can just be Loki, who is sometimes naughty but can’t help being nice. Plus, Loki Season 2 puts Loki in a variety of fun situations—he gets to travel to the past, he gets to be in costume, be the bad cop to Mobius’ good cop, and flex his magical abilities. Hiddleston is having a ball, and deservedly so. And we’re reaping the benefits of it.
Owen Wilson is more Owen Wilson-y as Mobius this time around, but I weirdly don’t mind that. Mobius is sweet and earnest and so fond of Loki. Freed from whatever the show was trying to do with him and Renslayer, Mobius gets to be his best self—Loki’s new best friend and TVA know-it-all. Also, lover of pies. I like it.
I’m delighted that we get more of Eugene Cordero’s Casey. He’s so effortlessly funny and has made the sci-fi genre his own—if you haven’t caught Cordero’s Rutherford on Star Trek: Lower Decks, you’re missing out. But I need more of Wunmi Masako’s Hunter B-15. Every time she’s on screen, she’s a scene stealer—Masako knows B-15’s mind so well that it’s frustrating when Loki Season 2 cuts away from her.
Of course, the best part of Loki Season 2 is undoubtedly the newly-minted Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan. His O.B. (Ouroboros) is a breath of fresh air. He brings so much humour to this world. He has easy chemistry with all the characters around him and spouts technobabble like a pro. Quan’s powerful performance has elevated the tone and personality of this season. He owns every scene he’s in, and is so comfortable in his character’s skin that it feels like he’s always been present in the background, even when we couldn’t see him.
Another new addition to Loki Season 2 is Rafael Casal as Hunter X-5. So far, I’m not the biggest fan. In Disney’s press notes for the show, X-5 is described as a mirror to Loki. In the second episode, there’s a visual confirmation of that mirroring, but I just don’t buy Casal as the suave, enigmatic character that X-5 is supposed to be. I’d say he’s badly miscast unless he breaks out some incredible acting in the final two episodes of this season. He doesn’t match Hiddleston’s level of effortless charm and duplicity. It’s been one of the biggest drawbacks of this season especially because X-5 plays a large part in this story.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw gets a little more room to be evil and manipulative in Loki Season 2, which I enjoyed watching. She’s an incredible actor and a chameleon, but I fear we’re not going to get to enjoy the breadth of her talents with so little time left this season. Boo!
I guess there’s no way to avoid mentioning Jonathan Majors, who returns this season not as He Who Remains, but as Victor Timely, a 19th-century scientist who could be the key to finding, and stopping He Who Remains from starting a multiversal war. Majors is a great actor, there’s no doubt there, but we can hardly ignore the allegations of intimate partner violence and the ongoing case against him. Majors’ Kang the Conqueror is the primary antagonist of Phase 5 of the MCU, and he’s already had a key role in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania, which tied into this season. Disney may be all in with this actor because cutting him out will impact the bottom line, but viewers are unlikely to forget what’s been happening off-screen. In addition, the voice of Miss Minutes, Tara Strong, has said some controversial things about the Israel-Palestine conflict that led to her dismissal from a different show, Boxtown, and Disney’s been mum on that.
In most aspects, however, Loki Season 2 has upped its game. Better characters, for the most part, a stronger story, and even the music sounds more epic.
But what’s blown me away is the set design in Loki Season 2. It is out of this world. I don’t know if it’s because of increased budgets or fewer COVID restrictions, but the sets are gorgeously detailed, particularly OB’s workshop. All those little trinkets and gizmos strewn around—there’s such an authentic and lived-in feel to it, like OB has been hanging out in this room, tinkering away for centuries. It feels like a lot more thought has gone into the making of this season.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Loki Season 2. So much so, that I cannot wait for the final episodes, and I’ll probably have to give the season another watch to enjoy the beauty of the sets, the fun dialogue, the great chemistry, the high stakes, and the joy that is Tom Hiddleston loving being Loki.
