Loki Season 1 Review 2lr28 Laying Out the Marvel Multiverse

Tom Hiddleston’s romantic second innings is fun in itself — and monumental for the MCU. 6da4v

By Akhil Arora | Updated: 16 July 2021 10:28 IST

Loki Season 1 Review: Laying Out the Marvel Multiverse

Photo Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios 30633i

Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie in Loki

Highlights

Loki streaming on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar
All six episodes, including season 1 finale, are out now
Loki sets up Spider-Man, Doctor Strange sequels

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Loki — Marvel Studios' first ongoing TV series that ended its six-episode first-season run on Wednesday — had a number of big surprises in store for its audience. Spoilers ahead. For its title character, the God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston), the most meaningful of them all was meeting and falling in love with Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), a variant of himself from another reality. It might be a sick, twisted romantic interest, as Loki's new (and now former?) best friend and time detective Mobius (Owen Wilson) called it on Loki episode 4, but it's also fitting in a way. A narcissist as big as Loki could only fall for himself. A god who couldn't see past his own pompous self would realise there's more to the universe only in a mirror of themself.

That latter bit was enabled by the other major new character on Loki episode 6 — ultimately gets through to Loki, making him realise that he must aspire to something more if he doesn't wish to be stuck in his endless cycle of pain and destruction. By the end of the season, Loki is a changed man. He goes from hating on the TVA for determining everything, to being a willing ally for that cause.

This is both new, and an old story for Loki. Over the course of the Loki episode 1, he existed so others could achieve their best selves.

Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Loki
Photo Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Maybe that's what Loki takes to heart here, and why he comes to care for Sylvie — again, it does stem from self-preservation (save himself from TVA) and grandiose plans (overthrow the Time Keepers), but eventually after learning about the pain and trauma of her life, Loki begins to fight for Sylvie. “I just want you to be okay,” he says, welling up, in the Loki season 1 finale. But Loki's love also blinds him to Sylvie's belief, deluding him into thinking he could stop her from fulfilling her life-long mission. They might be alike, they might even be the same individual from different realities, but they are definitely not the same person. “But I'm not you,” Sylvie says as much in reply to Loki's pleads. Loki is not just Loki's journey, it's also Sylvie's. And it's her actions that set the stage for what's to come elsewhere.

That brings us to the larger purpose — of course there was one, this is a Marvel property after all — of Loki season 1: a multiverse. After over a decade of operating on the same timeline, the X-Men fans assumed Evan Peters was playing Quicksilver, but Marvel was just trolling us. Loki is the first to do it for real. Ahead of premiere, Loki head writer Michael Waldron said it would have “wide-reaching ramifications” across the MCU — and well, here we are.

Loki's effects will be first felt later this year in the Tom Holland-led threequel involved as well, taking over from Tony Stark/ Iron Man as a mentor to Holland's Peter Parker. Promotions for No Way Home tie-in toys more or less confirms this.

Kirsten Dunst, Andrew Garfield, Alfred Molina, Tobey Maguire, and Emma Stone
Photo Credit: Marvel/Sony, Jaimie Trueblood/Melissa Moseley/Columbia Pictures. Illustration: Akhil Arora/Gadgets 360

Following that, we have the big one. It's literally in the title — now-confirmed but undated Loki season 2.

This is all quite wild. But thankfully, Loki was not as obsessed with the future of the MCU (though it certainly owed a lot to the past, what with Loki literally watching older movies). In fact, it was quite removed from it for the most part. Thanks to its retro-futuristic Loki episode 5 brought an alligator Loki and a frog Thor (with Chris Hemsworth voicing him). The only thing I missed was Mobius on a jet-ski, and I'll never forgive Marvel for that.

Speaking of Mobius, Loki was able to push through its early exposition-heavy episodes because Wilson and Hiddleston are so watchable. The season 1 finale worked in a similar way, thanks to Majors' screen presence. The Loki episode 4 before reversing their deaths at the end of the episode.

Owen Wilson as Mobius, Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Loki
Photo Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

How many times does Marvel plan to wring emotion out of fans by killing Hiddleston? It's happened three times now. Death has always been sort of a joke in the MCU. Characters miraculously escape from it. They cheat it. They fake it. Or they return from it thanks to an omnipotent gauntlet. With Loki, given his arc had finished emotionally and narratively, Marvel simply plucked an earlier version of him. And with Loki, it's getting a second stab at his journey. The MCU's long-running and fan-favourite villain continues to hang around, and will do so for at least another couple of years (for Loki season 2). I'm not complaining. Hiddleston is a constant delight, and Loki afforded him over four hours on his own, several times more than his time in three Thor entries and The Avengers put together. I just wish they didn't leave us on such a frustrating cliffhanger.

All six episodes of Loki are streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

The recently-concluded first season of Loki is our focus this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Loki Season 1 5j25t

Release Date 9 June 2021
Genre Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Superhero, Thriller
Cast
Tom Hiddleston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Tara Strong, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, Sasha Lane, Jack Veal, DeObia Oparei, Richard E. Grant, Jonathan Majors
Director
Kate Herron
Producer
Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard, Tom Hiddleston, Kate Herron, Michael Waldron

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