Self Love at the End of the World in Loki Episode #5

It’s a Loki extravaganza, as we discover that pruned Variants are not erased from existence, but are instead shunted off to a distant future at the end of the Sacred Timeline to be eaten by smoke monster Alioth. Scores of Variants have fallen to Alioth, but Lokis? Lokis survive – and in the nightmare of the Void, it turns out you can’t swing a horned helm without hitting one. But is our Loki stuck here for life? Or is the Void an opportunity well disguised?

Armaan Babu: Corey, I can’t tell you how good it is to get away from the boardrooms of X-Corp and into a far-flung future lousy with variant timeline detritus. I hope you enjoyed this episode, because otherwise my irrepressible glee with it may prove tiring. But before we dive in – how have you been enjoying this series so far, and has any of that changed with this episode?

Corey Smith:  Hey Armaan, I’m thrilled to be here for something a little more exciting than our usual fare! I’m also apparently contractually obligated to say that I am “burdened with Coreyous purpose?” Gross. But yeah, while I’m probably less enthusiastic about the episode (and the show) than you are, I’ve been largely enjoying it! I have my complaints, sure, but this is the first of the Marvel shows where I have actually liked every episode! This episode specifically is probably my favorite of the bunch, but it’s also the one that’s left me with the most questions. I can’t wait to get into it! What are your thoughts on this one?

Armaan: I have about as many thoughts as there are Lokis, apparently, but this one episode alone might be my favorite thing the MCU’s ever put out. If I had just one takeaway? It’s that joy in being able to change after a lifetime’s worth of being told only one version of you is valid. Let’s open up an amber gateway – it’s time to enter the Void. 

Choice Appearances

Armaan: We open right where last week’s mid-credits scene left off – in a place we learn is called the Void, a dumping ground for material from pruned timelines to be eaten up by the all-consuming Alioth. Thing is, surviving is what Lokis do best, meaning there’s a number of Loki Variants running around in the Void, doing all they can just to survive. How’d you like the new Lokis we’re introduced to this episode, Corey?

Corey: Quite a lot, honestly! The Gillen run of Journey Into Mystery was my first real exposure to Loki, so I have a huge soft spot for the younger version of the character, and I think the show did a great job of capturing what makes him work! The Boastful Loki was a lot of fun as well, though I think the absolute standout was the older Classic Loki. What about you?

Armaan: So Kid Loki was a delight, and had so many moments that feel like they were written specifically for the Journey Into Mystery fans – especially one I want to come back to later.

But for now I want to gush about Classic Loki, because you’re right, he’s absolutely the standout character of the episode, heck, debatably the series. It feels like every Loki has a story I’m desperate to know more about, but with Classic Loki, the show gives us a complete, self-contained arc that is epic, charming, and deeply heartbreaking. It’s also a story that’s its own complete statement on who Loki is.

One thing that took me by surprise is that, despite the classic costume, this isn’t a maniacal, evil Loki, cackling at evil triumphs and launching into Silver Age monologues at a moment’s notice. He’s not even from a timeline that’s all that unfamiliar – he’s the Loki whose journey we were all witness to in the MCU, right up to his faked death and into something new. Richard E. Grant plays an older Loki, kinder, gentler, sadder. Bitter, but still possessed of a hope that Lokis can be better than their worst natures. A lonely god who misses his family, and misses his home, and an old man who is comfortable enough in his eccentricities to, with all his illusory prowess, choose to wear a costume that looks that silly. 

This is not the first time the show’s brought up Loki’s homesickness – who can forget the Asgardian folk song he sang to Sylvie back in Episode 3? And it’s far from the first time Loki’s loneliness has been touched on. If Kid Loki is the tragedy of a Loki who never had the chance to grow up and be something more, Classic Loki is the tragedy of someone who regrets never having had the chance to be a better Loki – and the triumph of being able to do so in one glorious moment of purpose, right at the end. 

Grant’s performance adds volumes to already brilliant writing. You can see the way his perception of his destiny and identity changes irrevocably as he talks with Mobius about it never being too late to change, despite a lifetime of embracing the singularly simple goal of survival. The way he gives that life-defining principle up for something greater. The fact that in his final moments, laying himself bare before his fate and taking his destiny by his horns, he chose to recreate Asgard. To give himself one last look at a home he will never return to, and to let that homesickness be his strength. It’s an incredibly powerful story, its telling all the more impressive for not actually being the main focus of the episode. 

Corey: You’re absolutely right! My biggest issue with the series, especially this episode, has been that I feel it hasn’t done enough with the rules it created — if every Loki we see is fundamentally the same person on the same timeline, except for one choice, then how does that lead to the characters it shows? With last week’s mid-credits scene, I thought this would break away from that, considering it’s a little harder to explain away an alligator, and I didn’t see a situation where any version of the Loki we’ve been watching for the past decade would be caught dead wearing that. When the episode confirmed that, no, it’s the same person, I’ll admit, I was more than a little disappointed.

Grant, however, absolutely sold it. He gave us a Loki who was full of the typical bravado, certainly, but not quite as much as he was full of shame, for what he viewed as an unforgivable act of cowardice and betrayal. It didn’t help, of course, that the second he tried to be something, someone better, he was pruned by the TVA, in a cosmic confirmation that a better Loki goes against the very nature of the universe. His shift in viewpoint over the episode is obvious and telegraphed, certainly, because the only thing Lokis are more prone to than survival is flamboyance, but Grant does a fantastic job of showing the character’s internality, even when he’s not the focus of the scene. With all due respect to our lead, if they had taken the obvious route of making Hiddleston look older, I doubt he would have sold it. I’m still disappointed that it wasn’t the comics Loki, because it means that even in this setting, the MCU is afraid to commit to truly embracing the ridiculousness of the comics, but for what it was? I couldn’t ask for more from Grant.

Armaan: The MCU may be afraid of embracing that ridiculousness, but they certainly had a lot of fun playing around it this episode. As a wasteland of things pruned from other timelines, the Void is filled with fun little Easter Eggs from the comics that we were probably never going to see in live action proper – the Thanos Copter and Frog Thor being my favorites.

Those little nods aren’t the only way this episode’s explored silliness, though. Loki has been trying to prevent a more bumbling kind of Loki – less master planner, more desperate schemer, and putting a bunch of Lokis together in a room is a surefire recipe for chaos. The madness of Lokis – including an appearance of another more politically minded Loki based off of one who ran for President – all betraying each other for dominance over a kingdom that’s barely worth it was hilarious. It was also a pretty fun way to lead into Classic Loki’s point about how broken all versions of Loki are – because, like you mention, the TVA just won’t let them change.

Corey: “Silliness” is definitely a good word for it. As easy as it may be for Loki to fall in love with himself, it was fun to see that the general Loki-to-Loki experience is one of exasperation. They’re the god of mischief, but ours is the one that’s had it broken down just how predictable that makes him. The ambiguous amount of time he spent with Mobius did him a lot of good, and mirrors the arc the character has had in the last decade or so of comics. He’s tired of being predictable, he’s tired of being a known quantity, and for that to change, he has to change the type of story that’s being told. I think, odd as it may seem, that mindset plays a big part in the fact that he’s still running around in a torn up button up. Even when he repairs his clothes, he doesn’t take the opportunity to shift them into something more Asgardian, or befitting the style Lokis have shown throughout the franchise. For a character so concerned with appearances, I can’t help but feel that had to be a deliberate choice!

Armaan: That’s a really interesting point, actually – I was so hung up on Classic Loki’s choice of clothing that I completely missed our Loki’s choices. 

Thinking about it, it does feel like he’s aware that his adventures through the series are changing him – he says as much to Sylvie, later – and his time with the TVA is a big part of that. A part he’s not willing to let go of quite yet by fashioning himself in more familiar raiments.

Speaking of the TVA, though, the agency is undergoing its own identity crisis in the wake of last week’s revelations, and it’s interesting to see how differently its employees have been reaction to that.

Three Variant Authorities

Armaan: Another actor who really got to shine in this episode is Revonna Rennslayer’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Though Rennslayer’s holding a lot of cards close to her chest, it seems that she genuinely didn’t know that the Timekeepers were fakes. What we’re seeing, though, is not someone who wants revenge, like Sylvie, or to set things right like Mobius or Hunter B-15. What we seem to be seeing, more than anything else, is a woman who’s afraid to lose her job – and there’s nothing more dangerous than a bureaucrat desperate to restore their idea of order when it’s rapidly slipping from their grasp.

Corey: That’s the truth. Rennslayer has been an enigma to me this entire time, honestly, and this episode just made that even more apparent. Putting aside her comic counterpart’s background (I doubt we’ll see Kang in the final hour, after all), she’s easily the character who’s intrigued me the most. It’s been hard to tell what she does and does not know, but it’s impossible to deny that she can roll with the punches well enough to always seem a step ahead of the others. If she didn’t know the secret of the Time Keepers (and I agree that she didn’t), she rallied quickly, which only serves to make her more of a threat. I can’t help but wonder how much of that is due to genuine belief in the mission, regardless of minor details like her bosses not being real, and how much is due to stubborn refusal to give up power. If nothing else, the TVA is an unthinkably powerful organization, and she’d had to have worked damn hard to get to where she is. Having her world pulled out from under her, and seeing people she trusts turn against her, I can’t wait to see where she goes from here! Mbatha-Raw’s portrayal has been an absolute highlight of the series, and I’m glad that this episode gave her a well-deserved spotlight!

That said, I’m equally excited to see where the story will take Wunmi Mosaku’s Hunter B-15. (Maybe a name? A name would be nice.) Her rebellion in the name of truth has been one of the more compelling arcs so far, and I’m hoping it’ll be given ample focus next week. While B-15 is obviously a tertiary character, especially considering the overlap in motivation with Mobius, it’d be a shame if she doesn’t end up with some manner of resolution!

Armaan: Corey, why are we constantly covering characters of color whom Marvel refuses to name? I would definitely hope she gets a clear resolution – and ALSO hope we see her in the MCU again, maybe joining Jimmy Woo and Darcy in their own agent-y spinoff. 

Another TVA agent we get to see is, thankfully, Mobius, alive and well at the end of time. He gets some quality time with the Lokis this episode. His honest regrets over his actions as a TVA agent with Sylvie, talking about change with Classic Loki, and of course, that beautiful, heartwarming hug with our Loki near the episode’s end.

Like Hunter B-15, he’s deeply hurt by the TVA lying to him, and he seems ready to burn it down without any hesitancy whatsoever now that he sees past its lies. Mobius is an interesting contrast to Rennslayer – both of them thrive in bureaucratic environments, and both of them give their work their all. Their main difference is that while Rennslayer believes in the organization’s structure, Mobius believes in its soul. He’s a man who looks for the heart of things. One one hand, it’s the reason why he believed in the TVA’s cause so completely, but on the other, it’s that kind of vision that allows him to see the kind of man Loki could be. As much as Sylvie’s been an inspiration for Loki’s journey of change, Mobius has been just as big an influence. 

Corey: Mobius has definitely been a more interesting character than I expected going into this! I completely agree that he’s been a major agent of change for Loki, but I’m not sure how much of that catalyzing has been mutual. From the start, I’ve gotten the vibe that his primary motivator is trust – he’s trusted the TVA, he’s trusted our Loki even when he shouldn’t (which, in fairness, is never), and now he’s throwing his faith at all of the other Lokis he’s meeting, and seeing what sticks. For as savvy as he attempts to come off, he’s about as credulous as Thor has been shown to be, and while that hasn’t worked out for him yet, it isn’t going to stop him. He’s a man who wants to believe in the best, in people and in institutions, and his conversations with our Loki have shows that he’s happy if he just sees people be the best versions of themselves they can be. 

In a lot of ways, Mobius reminds me of a The Avengers-era Phil Coulson — not just in the sense of grounded bureaucratic mundanity he brings to a fantastical organization with far too much reach, but in his belief in people despite all evidence. He’s been a galvanizing force, even as he’s played second fiddle to Loki and Sylvie, and I can only hope my man gets a jet-ski before he gets stabbed through the heart.

Armaan: I have nothing to add to that, except that I love the Coulson comparison, but more than that, the observation that he’s about as credulous as Thor makes me suspect that that’s a big reason why Loki gets along with him so much. That makes me happy. 

A Sylvie-r Lining at the End of Time

Armaan: One thing I want to discuss is Sylvie – specifically, what makes her different from all other Lokis beyond a name and gender change (side note: the idea that she’s the only female Variant, and that the very idea of a female Variant causes visible revulsion for the other Lokis is a harsh walkback for everyone who got excited at the idea of Loki’s genderfluidity being confirmed).

Sylvie is the reason this show exists. The TVA has been pruning Lokis indefinitely, and doubtless would have continued to do so until the end of time, but Sylvie is the first Variant who’s actually making trouble for them. Whose planning and manipulations actually unearth long-held secrets about the TVA, a meeting with the Timekeepers, and access to what lies beyond. She’s accomplished with no Loki ever has before – so what makes her different?

For me, I think what Kid Loki says this episode is key. Every time a Loki tries to fix themselves, the TVA immediately swoops in, prunes them, and exiles them to a world where the worst aspects of themselves are reinforced by other Lokis. No Loki is allowed to change.

Sylvie, as we saw last episode, seems to be the only Loki Variant who gave the TVA the slip – not just for weeks, or months, but enough time for her to grow from a child into an adult. She is the first Loki Variant who was actually given the chance to change, who got to develop outside of the TVA’s strict influence. As a result, she’s one of the most accomplished Variants we’ve ever seen. 

As our Loki himself points out – the Lokis are stronger than they ever suspected. They have so much potential. This episode highlights just how much they can accomplish when they’re allowed to develop that potential, instead of being boxed into what the TVA ordains them to be.

Corey: That growth from child to adult is even more impressive than it seems at first glance when you remember that the opening of the first Thor movie featured our Loki at a similar age to young Sylvie, a little over 1,000 years ago. Asgardians (and Frost Giants) age by centuries, not mere years — she’s been running for ages. At first I thought Rennslayer’s claim that she didn’t remember Sylvie’s “crime” was little more than a twist of the knife, but when we’re talking time on that scale, it’s suddenly a lot more believable, and makes Sylvie’s competence even more impressive. If what Lokis do best is survive, I think a very valid argument could be made that by that metric, she’s the best Loki!

Which, like you said, just makes her counterparts’ revulsion even more obnoxious and unnecessary. That these splinters of a character the show describes (subtly, just so they’re not too progressive) as genderfluid, are more willing to accept an alligator as a valid version of themselves than a woman is absolutely insulting — arguably more so than the much hyped “first gay MCU character” in Avengers: Endgame being a throwaway line from Joe Russo. Especially coming in the wake of all of the fuss made over “princes and princesses” last week, it seems like the MCU is insistent on taking two jumps back for every tiptoe forward it makes in regards to queer rep. We’re thirteen years into the biggest franchise in cinematic history, if anyone can afford to “take more risks” instead of feeding us scraps, it’s Marvel. I don’t know about you, but I think we deserve better.

Armaan: I couldn’t agree more, I think you said it perfectly.

One thing I am glad we got to see, though, is the development of Loki and Sylvie’s…if not romance, then intimacy. I talked myself into shipping those two last week, but more than anything else, a scene of two people who aren’t very good at forming connections managing to do so anyway will always get me in the heart like a stab from an imaginary dagger. How did you enjoy this scene?

Corey: I haven’t quite come around on them just yet, I’m afraid, though I think that’s more due to my own annoyance at the show leaping out of the way of letting that relationship be more queer than it is. I am, unfortunately, a former Homestuck, so self-shipping barely even registers for me anymore, and I think in any other scenario, I’d be all for it. I can say that their conversation this episode made me more receptive to the pairing, and I felt that it was a lot more believable on both ends… so, knowing how mercurial I am, I’ll probably be writing fic for it by next Wednesday! In all seriousness, while I could take or leave the romantic aspect, I do appreciate their bond growing stronger, and it made for some damn good character work — here’s hoping the final episode will be able to bring it home!

Armaan: Don’t you dare add “in all seriousness” like you’re joking about Corey-written Loki fanfic. I am now looking as forward to that as I am next week’s episode, so know that both have the weight of high expectations!

Readers, see you next week, and in the meantime – be kind to your selves. Especially those of you who are alligators.

Timely Variant Afterthoughts

• Alioth was the puzzle piece I needed to do a deep dive into Marvel’s complicated TVA history. Click though, if you dare, to learn the tale of the currently canon comics version of the man who started the TVA – He Who Remains.

• Sylvie’s throwaway joke about how uncomfortable her costume is becomes a lot more interesting when you find out more about how it was specifically designed to help her breastfeed her newborn child.

• Loki’s use of “heartbroken” to describe his despair at being too jaded to find Alligator Loki strange is just *chef’s kiss*.

• Deceitful though he may be, I would absolutely watch Boastful Loki fight the Avengers.

• Child Loki’s juicebox was utterly delightful.

Corey Smith

Corey Smith is probably tired right now. He's definitely trying not to think about everything he has to write! When he's not staring at a blank word document, odds are he's tweeting, playing Pokémon, or wondering how he ended up with such a smart-ass kid.

Armaan Babu