Loki Season 2 picked up right where the first season ended while also introducing a new, integral character and brings us an enjoyable episode that gets one of Marvel’s best characters back on everyone’s TV screen.
Still, there are a few things that might need work.
Since streaming shows don’t come out yearly like the TV and cable shows do the recap before the episode is an extremely helpful reminder of the smaller series details that might have slipped the mind.
However, this season premiere doesn’t quite feel as original compared to the first season or as it could have been. As seen in the trailer, Loki (Tom Hiddleston, Thor) experiences “time slipping” where he bugs out, morphs into a sand-like stretch and vanishes to the past or present and then reappear the same way. This seems a little too similar to how the different Spider-Man characters were glitching for being in a different universe in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. So, every time this happens to Loki, it feels like free advertising for the Spider-Verse series than something unique to the Loki series.
While the season premiere does pick up where Season 1 left off, the focus of the episode diverts from the TVA and He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) to dealing with the time slipping that’s happening to Loki. This might be to introduce the new character, Ouroboros AKA O.B. (Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once), which is refreshing as Quan is a phenomenal actor and O.B. also brings a lighter personality to the show.
Even with the new character viewers are getting out of this side story, this episode feels like a filler episode — which is insane to even think about because it’s the season opener. But it just builds up this tension and impending death … only to have everything resolved. Of course, it is predictable that this side plot would be resolved, seeing how there’s still a whole season left, and a third season will most likely be in talks when this season is over.
Within this side plot of fixing the time slipping, Loki needs to “prune” himself, which involves cutting himself out of the deviating timeline. This could evolve into a bigger plot change where Loki might have the possibility to come back into the regular timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time Loki comes back from the dead to see his brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth, Thor: Love & Thunder) again.
Nonetheless, with what feels like a filler episode, the introduction of O.B. is the best part of the episode — especially the light-hearted awkward scene between O.B. and Mobius (Owen Wilson, Haunted Mansion) where O.B. remembers Mobius, and Mobius tries to act like he remembers O.B. when he doesn’t.
The reason why this episode feels like it’s just there to fill a season episode count or not rush into the He Who Remains conflict just yet (besides the small touch upon Loki did to reveal he’s the one in charge of everything) might be because of the side plot that gets resolved by the end. It’s as if nothing really happened, and if someone misses the first episode before the second one is released, they could skip the premiere and just watch the recap.
One thing to look forward to with the rest of the season is more of an explanation of the ending and post-credit scene. Thankfully, viewers got more than the numerous name drops of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino, Yesterday) as they got to see her in the end. When Loki gets pruned in his time slipping future, Sylvie is there in a mess, but only for a moment before the time slipping is supposedly fixed. This will be interesting to see played out throughout the latest season, and hopefully we’ll get some answers about that scene.
This isn’t related to Marvel Cinematic Universe unless there is a post-credit scene, and it’s, of course, related to the overall plot, leaving a few answers but more questions, which we can only assume they will dive into more in the coming episodes.
The Loki Season 2 Premiere builds up what can be done with the season and how much potential there can be. It is still an enjoyable episode, but it feels like there are so many other possibilities that could have been explored.
