Loki Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Confirms Itself at Very High Levels, Including A Simply Out of Scale Ending
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Ke Huy Quan, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tara Strong, Jonathan Majors
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Streaming Platform: Disney+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The conclusion of Loki Season 2 Episode 6 left doors open to every story of the franchise and – it is worth warning – this article contains some spoilers on what happens in the episode of the second season of the series created by Michael Waldron. Loki is not alone. It may seem that this is the case but the multitude of timelines that he holds in his hands as the new God of Stories suggests the opposite. The character of Tom Hiddleston who first appeared in the MCU in Thor in 2010 has undergone the most complete and intense story arc in the entire MCU. He was the villain to be destroyed, the envious brother, the repudiated son: everything in Loki exudes abandonment and loss. However, the few films of the franchise in which he appears have not delved into the essence of this villain, so the TV series has arrived, available on Disney+. This second season meant that Loki‘s intentions changed radically, making him much more than a “side character”. In what is now the third year of serial incursions by the MCU, Loki remains unquestionably the product that puts us in the most difficulty.
On the other hand, we once again find ourselves writing after watching an ending that to define as all-encompassing would be an understatement, an episode that left us speechless and that forcefully brings back into the Marvel multiverse all that complexity that, from Endgame onwards, seemed to have vanished – it doesn’t take long, in fact, to notice the excessive simplification that took place in Phase 4. And it is even more paradoxical that while The Marvels arrives in theaters (here you can find our review of The Marvels), yet another light film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe which at least is coherent in this regard by building a highly enjoyable whole around it, an episode lands on Disney+ that does not hold the viewer’s hand and oscillates between the concepts of free will and determinism. It then becomes hard not to get carried away by enthusiasm, to think only of this final chapter, and to give Loki an exorbitant mark close to perfection and perhaps forget about some painful slip-ups. The truth is that the series with Tom Hiddleston remains a valuable production within the commercial sphere, with an aesthetic and a musical theme that makes it truly unique and instantly recognizable, yet throughout the 6 episodes that make up the second season some miscalculations were made.
Loki Season 2 Episode 6 Review: The Story Plot
But as usual, let’s take a step back and start with the plot: after the events of last season (here we refer you to our review of Loki Season 1), or the disappearance of the One Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) and the liberation of the Multiverse, TVA they feel the first distressing consequences of this, as it has never been structured to support so many temporal flows and constantly risks collapsing as well as experiencing internal disagreements. Meanwhile, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) begins to experience time shifts, suddenly finding himself in the past or future, discovering even more terrifying truths about the true nature of the TVA and its founder. And in our opinion the very first step to take to approach Loki‘s second season is to put it in perspective, very simply because he does not face the threat of the Kangs and the dark wishes whispered on the point of death by the One Who Remains. Indeed, in some ways it is as if we were facing an intermediate threat, or rather all the disastrous repercussions that Sylvie’s (Sophia Di Martino) blade has caused – this is also a decidedly rare aspect in the current MCU.
For example, we are still waiting for all the ramifications and consequences of Eternals. So, the purpose of the season is not to face, anticipate, or neutralize the Kangs, but rather to save and change the TVA at all costs, which for Loki represents the last glimmer of hope against a renewed multiversal war. Therefore, if we change perspective and frame the season in this way, the events become much clearer: the frantic rush, the urgency that pervades every single episode, the almost obsessive – and exaggerated, but we’ll get to that – concentration on the most vital functions of TVA. Everything is contextualized when at first glance it might have seemed out of place, a small, insignificant deviation to lengthen the story as the Marvel series has done too many times.
And then those that had all the appearance of secondary storylines, fillers, and weak points end up becoming surprising and powerful cornerstones on which to build a narrative that never wastes time, knows no real pauses, and proceeds quickly, always making the objectives clear. and the resulting tension. In short, the stakes are clear, they are extremely high, and all the protagonists are directly involved. If we then add an almost thriller aspect where we have to put together the various pieces of the puzzle discovered by the God of Mischief in his temporal changes, that’s it and the charm is guaranteed. Of course, the unpredictability of Loki‘s intentions and the absolute freshness of the first season are missing, but in terms of involvement and complexity, we find ourselves on much higher levels.
Loki Season 2 Episode 6 Review and Analysis
However, it is precisely in the first half of the season that the most glaring problems arise, the result of elements perhaps calculated a little too quickly or which were not given the right weight. For example, it is not credible that in all the events of last season, we learned absolutely nothing about OB (Ke Huy Quan), the Time Frame, and the very delicate balance on which the entire TVA essentially rests. A lack that led, especially in the first two episodes, to an absurd and at times unbearable number of continuous sequences of mere exposition, which instead in Loki‘s first solo adventure were masked in the most natural way possible in the form of exchanges and jokes. between the protagonist and Mobius (Owen Wilson). Or the sudden and somewhat alienating attention to X-5 (Rafael Casal), a character never seen before except for a couple of quick scenes in the premiere – quick to the point of being easily forgettable or even missable. The feeling is that it wouldn’t have required much effort to introduce him more clearly, to immediately understand his role in the story and why he has such importance.
Flaws and shortcomings culminate in the third episode, which is too caricature-like and cartoonish both in its execution and in its characterizations as well as repetitive to the point of exhaustion. And it is, again, paradoxical that these uncertainties and miscalculations are completely missing from the fourth chapter onwards, vanishing as if they had been victims of an enchantment by Thor’s half-brother. The second half of the season is, in fact, an extraordinary test of strength, a continuous devastating emotional climax, and a desperate effort on the part of the protagonists to avoid an inevitable outcome. Literally every single aspect blossoms and explodes in these episodes: the relationship of genuine and profound friendship between Loki and Mobius, the bloody internal feuds at TVA, the irreparable drama of what it means to eliminate a timeline from existence – with moments that are also quite raw and impactful on a visual level – and in the background always the shadow of He who remains, architect and puppeteer beyond all possible imagination.
We cannot fail to close with the already mentioned and praised finale, which manages at the same time to deal with sensitive topics that have obsessed the history of humanity without trivializing them, to offer an amazing closure to Loki‘s evolution within the shared universe and to deliver us an ending that is desperate in its positivity, bringing to the screen one of the most beautiful sequences – aesthetically and conceptually – of the entire MCU. A mosaic that was difficult to put together, complete, and convey with such clarity, yet Loki succeeded very well, despite a few hiccups along the way. If we squeeze it, the Loki at the end of the first season is the same Loki at the end of the second season, after hundreds of years of him repeating the same day and learning everything he thought he needed to learn about the Loom of Time to prevent a hecatomb multiversal.
But, if no one agrees with my statement – and I will understand perfectly if no one agrees – I don’t see how I can’t conclude that the Loki at the end of Ouroboros is the same as the Loki at the end of Breaking Brad, who is, in turn, the same as Loki from the end of 1893 and so on. Equally or only marginally wiser, in imperceptible increments that aren’t exponentially amplified by his hundreds of years of learning everything about the series MacGuffin. In other words, the entire series is Groundhog Day, only for the viewer, and I say this negatively just to be clear since the character’s development reached its peak at the end of the inaugural season, and everything that came after that was redundant. , basically raining on wet, especially because the great final discovery about its glorious purpose is an impressive simplicity that only reiterates the bar philosophy that permeated the entire season.
That said, Glorious Purpose version 2.0 is undeniably the best episode of the season. If it had been the ninth and final episode of the previous season – and very few changes would have been needed for the same result to be achieved – it would have been better than it was. As the last episode of the hellish mess that was the second season, it also works, but it makes the previous five chapters useless. I know perfectly well that many will argue that if he didn’t have the power to travel through time, if he didn’t learn to control it, needing to meet OB and Victor Timely, he wouldn’t have reached the point he did, but my counterpoint it’s just that all the first five episodes of the season did was make its path longer without a greater purpose for it. But the reason the closing episode is the best of the season has nothing to do with where it can or cannot fit in, but rather with something I also discussed in the Science/Fiction review, namely the space that is opened up for Tom Hiddleston shine.
If he performed a miracle with the time he had in last week’s episode, now that the stage is fundamentally his alone and in different temporal moments of the same timeline, the actor nails the nuances of his dramatic work and conveys a myriad of feelings with body language only. Even though the final realization of his glorious purpose is mediocre, the way the actor conveys this realization with his gaze is what makes the episode stand out. It is a basic script – well structured, no doubt, but still basic – that is transformed and amplified by the performance of the actor who is a Loki “of all seasons”, wise and innocent, angry and delicate, ignorant and intelligent, all in one. a package that wouldn’t even require any lines of dialogue to work. The other reason for my conclusion about the episode is that the execution of the final sequence, which brings the narrative to a circular conclusion (which, again, could have come much earlier) and discusses what the original Loki wanted versus what the Loki wants it now, it’s exquisite.
See the character open the doors of the TVA walk towards the Tear and transform into the horned Loki of legend to destroy the contraption and, immediately, grab the timelines, sit on the throne, and become the confluence of the multiverse in the form of Yggdrasil, the tree that is the axis of the world in Norse mythology, it was a touch of genius that, in one fell swoop, solves – or makes it possible to solve – the problem of Jonathan Majors’ Kang caused by the actor himself in the real world and makes this Loki‘s sacrifice (it’s always good to remember that this is the second Loki to sacrifice himself heroically in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so his heroism is nothing new) a complete transformation of the concept of the multiverse.
And not to mention that it positions the character as one of the most important in the MCU. Does the episode redeem the season? Certainly not, but it ends on a positive and courageous note. I just really hope that the “Loki Multiversal Entity”, let’s call him that until an official name comes up, doesn’t return in an eventual third season which, if it exists, shouldn’t touch on him and rather, perhaps, deal with another variant or something that the worth. This Loki sitting on the throne of the multiverse should either be left alone, like several super-powerful entities that remain in the shadows of the Marvel universe in comics, or be used for a truly glorious purpose in a film that had similar importance to that of the Infinity War/Endgame double act, a film that could be Secret Wars, without a doubt. Anything less will tend to destroy Loki‘s impeccable final transformation sequence into something much more than a god.
Loki Season 2 Episode 6 Review: The Last Words
The second season of Loki confirms the series centered on the God of Mischief as the best serial foray of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and not by a little. Aesthetically sublime, with once and for all adequate and high-level special effects as well as a musical theme – splendidly expressed in a thousand different ways – stupendous. This alone would be enough to make the production unique, to the point of being truly without equal and not to be confused with the rest of a universe that has been going on for 15 years. But it is in the narrative that the second season of Loki wins: especially the second part of the season is a continuous and unstoppable climax where every single idea blossoms and explodes in a thunderous and dramatic way, until reaching an ending that leaves us speechless for complexity, tragedy and an incredible ability to deal with immortal philosophical themes. Of course, there are some problems, especially in the first half of the season, some aspects that are not perfectly calculated and which could and should have been worked on better – any reference to the third episode is not purely causal. But what this season of Loki manages to accomplish and bring to the screen is superior, from every point of view.
Loki Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Confirms Itself at Very High Levels, Including A Simply Out of Scale Ending - Filmyhype
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Date Created: 2023-11-10 13:14
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