Written by Ronnie Gorham
Warning: this review contains spoilers.
The anticipation is finally over as episode six of Loki, adequately titled “For All Time. Always,” is upon us. Since the beginning of the show, Loki fans have speculated where this series might be headed and ultimately what would become of our beloved god of mischief. While the season finale doesn’t settle Loki’s fate, it undoubtedly does bring Loki (Tom Hiddleston, The Avengers) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino, Yesterday) face to face with the person responsible for creating the TVA. Which turns out to be none other than Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors, Lovecraft Country)…well, sort of.
Here, Kang is referred to as “He Who Remains,” one of his many alter egos. This makes perfect sense as Kang has taken numerous forms in the comics, including Immortus and Rama-Tut, to name a few. One can only hope that the introduction of Kang or He Who Remains will somehow spring the arrival of other famous Marvel characters like Doctor Doom and The Fantastic Four, as both have a lot of connections to the character. Not to mention Kang could introduce Iron Lad, another member of the Young Avengers. The MCU has already given us Cassie Lang and Kate Bishop in the forthcoming Disney+ show, Hawkeye.
In the meantime, episode six of Loki sees Loki and Sylvie make their way into the Citadel at the end of time, as we saw them staring at it at the end of episode five. Once inside, they’re met by Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong, Rick and Morty), who offers them an ultimatum, compliments of her boss, He Who Remains. Loki gets a proposition to go back to another timeline to rule and Sylvie the thing she’s wanted most: happiness. However, they both refuse. They are then introduced to He Who Remains, who, to Loki and Sylvie’s surprise, is just an ordinary man. Here, the episode takes the old-school traditional villain monologue route as He Who Remains gives some much-needed backstory on himself and the importance of the TVA.
He explains to Loki and Sylvie that without the Time Variance Authority, everything burns. Then, he goes further into detail, saying that a scientist variant version of himself lived on earth in the 31st century before creating the TVA. This version of himself discovered multiverses. He also found a way to contact different versions of himself who made the same discovery. But their peace soon became war, ultimately leading him to create the TVA to keep order in one timeline. After his speech, he gives Loki and Sylvie the choice to take over as the new leaders of the TVA and warns that killing him could lead to the uprising of his variant evil counterparts.
By this time, many fans will either be confused, excited, or somewhere in the middle. Needless to say, Jonathan Majors does an impeccable job at not only commanding our attention during this scene but sets up some of the scariest foreshadowings to hit the MCU since we saw Thanos drop the last infinity stone into the gauntlet back in Avengers: Infinity War. Especially when he uses dialogue like “If you think I’m evil, just wait till you meet my variants.” Unfortunately, thanks to Sylvie making a selfish choice to kill him, we’ll see what he meant somewhere in the future. But Sylvie’s harsh decision not only unleashes the multiverse but perhaps gives birth to one of Marvel comics’ biggest storylines, Secret Wars.
Loki season one has been one helluva journey into mystery. We now know for sure that the chaos of the multiverses will spill over into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spiderman: No Way Home, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But what we don’t know is how the craziness of the timelines will affect the livelihood of our beloved characters. Lucky for us, Loki will return for a second season. So if you haven’t watched Loki, or any of the Disney+ shows like WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, what the heck are you waiting for?
