None of this really seems to have been a problem beyond a mere distraction dealt with off-screen, resulting in a strange deflation of the show’s own mechanics and the way it presented this enormous cliffhanger. The conclusion to episode 2, “The Variant,” saw the TVA being thrown into chaos as multiple branched timelines began to emerge. The brief scenes at the TVA before the pair’s return work when divorced from the larger whole - for instance, Ravonna’s barely-concealed lie about the fate of Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane), shot in profile as to obscure her face - but the result is a fairly severe disconnect from when we last visited this locale. The duo is soon captured and returned to the TVA, reverting the show to its status quo from episodes 1 and 2, and it’s here that one might be required to take stock. Whether or not the show takes full advantage of this is yet to be seen. Granted, the mischievous demigods haven’t exactly developed much chemistry in their brief time together - Di Martino is appropriately melancholy given Sylvie’s backstory, though this doesn’t exactly result in flying sparks - but Loki is a genre show about apocalypses, and it would be unfair not to afford it the luxury of familiar short-hand like sudden romantic feelings in a moment of tragedy. Loki and a gender-swapped version of himself. The implications are intriguing, both in terms of plot mechanics, and the fascinating, discomforting notion of romance between two variants of the same person, i.e. So many great storytelling pieces are in place, but the episode doesn’t luxuriate in these potentially powerful moments - in this case, two Lokis falling so far from grandeur that they become cosmically insignificant - and instead plucks them out of this scenario with haste.Īgent Mobius (Owen Wilson) is able to track down Loki and Sylvie thanks to a sudden branch on the timeline, seemingly caused by them sharing an intimate moment and holding hands. Holt’s score plays like a lament at the end of time, as shots of meteors and other debris hurtling from a nearby planet are captured with an expert eye for scale. While tethering this memory to Ravonna is hardly unforgivable, it remains a bit of an oddity since the episode swiftly returns to Sylvie and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) where it left them last week, on the doomed moon Lamentis-1, only to have Sylvie re-explain her childhood once again. Ravonna seems to recall this incident as she visits the Time Keepers, who are at first presented in a shroud of blue fog, and silhouetted by what appears to be a glowing red rune (which will likely lead to WandaVision-based speculation). Strangely, this flashback is rooted not in the perspective of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), a Loki variant on the run, but of Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), revealed to be one of the Minutemen responsible for the kidnapping. However, the rest of the episode results in a bit of a mixed metaphor. The design of the Minutemen’s helmets has seemed S.S.-inspired from the start, so seeing their fascist mindset play out this way feels like a promise fulfilled. The fourth episode begins with a bang, putting the TVA’s unrelenting evil on display without walking on eggshells Holt’s strings draw us into the nostalgia of Asgard as we meet a young Sylvie playing innocently in her chambers, only to be kidnapped by a group of Minutemen moments later. They’re rousing and strange, and it’s a shame the series often fails to live up to them. The preceding 40-something minutes do little but wheel-spin, as if the series’ length were contractually obligated, and the runtime needed to be padded out for a second week in a row.Īt the risk of repetition, Natalie Holt’s musical compositions continue to be a highlight, even during the “Previously On” segments before each episode. The episode does, finally, mercifully, introduce an off-the-rails extension of its premise, but only as a brief post-credit tag. The problem, however, is that the series as a whole has been jogging in place for several weeks and has even gone back on some of the urgency and excitement teased in prior entries. As a standalone entry, “The Nexus Event” is composed of a few interesting moments and scenes, little character beats and negotiations that feel like they ought to add up to something more compelling. The best thing about Loki’s fourth episode is all that it promises for its fifth.
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