Episode Grade: (8.2/10)
Loki and Sylvie are recaptured by the TVA after Mobius finds them on Lamentis-1. Their meeting with the Time-Keepers doesn’t go as planned.
Plot (41/50)
Mobius locates Loki and Sylvie in time to save them from the destruction of Lamentis-1. Upon returning them to the TVA, Mobius gets suspicious after Ravonna denies him access to Sylvie or C-20. He wants to believe that she’s telling the truth, but his instincts cause him to investigate further. Both he and B-15 have seen enough to know that the TVA has been lying to them. Ravonna tries to contain the situation by bringing Loki and Sylvie before the Time-Keepers.
Pressure to Deliver
With Loki and Sylvie still missing, the Time-Keepers grow impatient with Ravonna. Feeling the pressure to contain the situation, she hides the truth about C-20 from Mobius. Mobius trusts Ravonna, but he’s starting to feel suspicious. For both of their sakes, he needs to find Loki and Sylvie ASAP, and he does just that. Back on Lamentis-1, the two had given up hope of an escape. As they sat waiting for their demise, they share a genuine moment. Unbeknownst to them, they set off a branch of unprecedented magnitude that gave away their location. Mobius swiftly arrives with a squad of minutemen to save/capture them.
Mobius is upset with Loki’s apparent betrayal, but he’s more interested in talking to Sylvie. Once again, Ravonna denies him access. She tries to alleviate his suspicions by claiming that the Time-Keepers want him to be present for Sylvie’s pruning, but he doesn’t buy it. He swaps his TemPad with hers so he can check her logs. There, he sees confirmation of C-20’s death, but he also sees Ravonna’s interrogation of her during which C-20 claims that they’re all Variants. This takes him back to Loki.
The Truth
Loki once again confirms that everyone at the TVA are Variants and that they’ve been lied to by the Time-Keepers. Mobius can no longer deny the truth, so he joins in on Loki’s plan to expose the Time-Keepers. He claims that if the connection between Loki and Sylvie is real, it could bring the TVA down. Unfortunately, Ravonna’s caught on to him at this point. She tried to warn him off, but now she has no option but to prune him.
Meanwhile, B-15 questions Sylvie about the memories she saw when she was under compulsion. Sylvie tells her the truth, and like Mobius, B-15 can no longer deny the truth. When Ravonna and her goons bring Loki and Sylvie before the Time-Keepers, B-15 arrives to set them free. They dispatch of the minutemen, and after a brief struggle, Sylvie sets her sight on the Time-Keepers. She cuts off one of their heads to reveal that they’re androids, much to the shock of all involved. But before anyone can process what they just witnessed, Ravonna prunes Loki.
Final Thoughts
The biggest challenge for the writers heading into this episode was to get Loki and Sylvie off of Lamentis-1 without compromising any of the established rules. Fortunately, they managed to do so in a way that made sense and advanced the character development of the show’s main characters. The structure of the episode was effective as well. Watching the truth creep in bit by bit to the point that it starts disrupting order is a tried-and-tested formula that worked here. With that said, it does pose a new challenge because the TVA can not cease to exist, yet neither will Loki.
For now, the focus will be on what happens with Loki. It was previously assumed that pruning was the equivalent of killing, but now that Loki’s been pruned, we know that isn’t correct. He will likely meet up with Mobius in whatever purgatory they were sent to while Sylvie continues her search for the identity of the TVA’s creator. Or maybe she can finally get some answers from Ravonna about what mysterious nexus event she caused as a child. In any case, we’ll probably get an answer to what happens when someone gets pruned in the next episode. This would allow the finale to focus on the identity of the TVA’s creator.
Character Development (13/15)
Loki and Sylvie are developing the sort of relationship neither of them thought was ever possible. Their combination is creating all sorts of chaos for the TVA. Luckily, Mobius is able to capitalize on that chaos to save them, but it’s all downhill from there. Ravonna’s commitment to suppressing the truth about the TVA suggests that she has more influence than she puts off.
Loki and Mobius
Whatever Loki feels for Sylvie is real, we know that much. He can’t hide or deny it any longer, not to himself nor to others. There’s something to be said about the narcissism of falling in love with what is essentially another version of yourself, but I won’t get into that quite yet. What I will get into is the time loop he’s put in. I was surprised at how quickly he gave in. His self-consciousness is indicative of a changed man. We know that he’s a narcissist who craves attention because he’s scared to be alone, and he does too. What we’re seeing now is that he’s willing to admit it and is sincere in his remorse.
Mobius deserves a ton of credit for getting Loki to this point. He believed in him when no one else did and took a chance that put him at serious risk. His trust in Loki ultimately gets him pruned, but Loki’s subsequent devastation speaks volumes to the sort of friendship these two have formed. Of course, it wasn’t just his loyalty to Loki that got him in trouble, his dedication to the truth was just as responsible. Mobius wanted to take Ravonna’s word as a close friend and colleague, but his detective instincts would not let him. He needed to find out the truth for himself, and he did.
Sylvie and Ravonna
We got some background on Sylvie that helps us understand her much better now. She was taken by a squad of minutemen led by Ravonna, no less, when she was just a child. She quickly managed to escape, and she’s been on the run since. Not only did she spend her childhood running and hiding, but she inherently grew up “at the ends of a thousand worlds.” Talk about tragic. Unlike Loki, she never really got a chance to build relationships with her family members or make any friends. That explains why she’s so distrusting, but it also explains why she’s so capable. She couldn’t have made it this far if she wasn’t tough.
Her feelings for Loki are new to her. It’s clear that he loves her, and her feelings towards him are not as clear. It seems to be love, but again, this is all new to her, so I’m not calling it just yet. What I can say for certain is that she’s not as mean as she makes herself out to be. She misses her mother, is understanding of Loki’s struggles, and is sympathetic to B-15. There is a complexity about her, she is a Loki after all.
That’s not to say that she can’t be mean when she needs to be. The animosity between her and Ravonna is deeply rooted. From Sylvie’s perspective, Ravonna ruined her childhood, and she doesn’t even have the decency to tell her what her nexus event was. From Ravonna’s perspective, Sylvie has been the one blot on her otherwise stellar record at the TVA. Sylvie managed to best her as a mere child, and she’s evaded her up until this point. Beyond that, I’m almost certain that Ravonna knows more (potentially much more) than she lefts off.
Theme/Messages (3/5)
- The search for the truth can easily take you down a rabbit hole.
Acting (13/15)
If it wasn’t already clear in the previous episode, the chemistry between Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie) is undeniable. Owen Wilson (Mobius) continues to impress with the ease at which he transitions from nonchalance to focused intensity.
Cinematography (12/15)
- Cool shot of Asgard (1:55)
- Great shot of Sylvie and Loki sitting next to eachother while the moon continues to be destroyed (8:31) and again at (9:29) against the purple lighting