Loki Season 2 Episode 3, “1893,” adds to the triumph Episode 2 brought with the intensity of action, emotions, character development, use of powers, and new relationships formed.
Again, viewers are presented with some green magic and dust a few different times throughout the episode, from Loki (Tom Hiddleston, Thor) and, unexpectedly, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino, Yesterday). While it might be in small amounts here and there, it feels huge compared to the first season, with how little was used. And with how frequently he’s using his powers, hopefully, later in this season, it gets ramped up for him to use them more often.
After all, who would Loki be without his powers? Another Mobius (Owen Wilson, Haunted Mansion)? That would be something fans are here for. With Marvel being an expert with its CGI for Loki, it would make sense for there to be a use of his powers more often, especially since it’s proven that Mobius isn’t against him using them. But viewers will take what they can get when it comes to Loki using his powers, especially since it is used throughout the entire episode or in a large format once throughout an episode, and it seems like whenever Sylvie is around, they get used.
With the way she left in the second episode, it’s a surprise to see her back already in the Time Variance Authority issues and getting roped back to Loki. Nonetheless, the surprise is a good one, and what is lacking in Season 1 but is shown in this episode is character development with Sylvie. She realizes there is another way besides killing He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania). What is at first a nice parallel to the Season 1 finale with Loki trying to convince Sylvie not to kill He Who Remains ends there, as viewers can see her grow and understand that there’s more at stake than killing him. However, in this episode, viewers are introduced to a variant of He Who Remains rather than him being back from the dead.
What’s better than the parallel is actually bringing fans back to the end of time. A backward resemblance to the end of season 1 with Sylvie pushing Loki out from the end of time, she pushed Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Belle) into the end of time. Here, it’s shown in a state of decay for not only that world but also with He Who Remains’ body, which is decaying a lot quicker than expected. It will be exciting to see how Renslayer, along with Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong, Teen Titans Go!), deals with their new situation — going from having all the power to none of it. It’ll be captivating to be back at the end of time as it’ll tie Season 2 even more to Season 1. The characters won’t just be dealing with the consequences of what happened at the end of time, but new events will be taking place there.
Renslayer and Miss Minutes were quite the duo in this episode and went through what some duos go through in a whole season: backstabbing, quarreling, and moving past everything to be mended back together. Fans finally get to see more of Miss Minutes’ personality coming through, which is something that’ll probably be shown more.
With the hustle and bustle of everyone trying to get the variant of He Who Remains, it’s nice the episode is still able to connect back to O.B. (Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once) and his group trying to fix the issue of the possibility of facing death.
The third episode, “1893,” gives viewers a break from the TVA office location while still following the same storyline and providing fans with new excitement and threads to follow and unfold in future episodes, which will hopefully be just as good as this one.
