Episode Grade: (9.1/10)
Loki uses his newfound timeslipping abilities to try to fix the Loom only to learn that it can not be fixed. This forces him to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Plot (44/50)
The Loom has been central to this season’s plot, so delivering a conclusion to it was necessary. Luckily, this was done early on. This allowed the finale to focus more on Loki and his relationship with other key characters. His timeslipping abilities continued to grow, even if their premise remains vague. An appearance by He Who Remains immediately upped the stakes and made way for a strong finish. Loki making the ultimate sacrifice to essentially become the new Loom was a fitting end to this chapter of his story.
The Loom
The episode picks up with Loki having timeslipped back to the moment Timely was preparing to go out to fix the Loom. Like last time, Timely is spaghettified as soon as goes out. Loki asks O.B. what went wrong. O.B. says that they took too long. What follows is a sequence of attempts by Loki. In each instance, he moves the process along faster, but Timely still gets spaghettified almost immediately after going past the blast doors.
After several crushing rounds of failure, Loki decides to change his strategy. He asks O.B. for an estimate of how long it would take him to learn all the mechanics, physics, and engineering required to be able to understand the Loom’s intricacies. O.B. tells him it would take centuries to learn, so Loki does just that. Centuries later, Loki returns to the moment in time when they had just brought Timely to the TVA.
Knowing how little time they have to spare, Loki moves the process along as fast possible. Now that he’s acquired the necessary knowledge, he’s able to create the Throughout Multiplier himself. He coaches Timely to a successful installation and a safe return. At first, the Multiplier seems to be working. The increased capacity stabilizes the Loom and allows it to absorb the excess branches. Unfortunately, the win is short-lived as the Loom begins to overload once again. Timely suggests that the multiplication of the branches creates an infinite scaling problem that can not be remedied. Loki is forced to change his strategy once again.
He Who Remains
Loki goes back even further. This time, he slips back to the moment before Sylvie kills He Who Remains. He tries to convince her not to kill HWR, but she won’t listen. After several rounds, Loki finally snaps. He asks HWR why he never fights back. This prompts HWR to pause Sylvie. HWR is surprised that Loki hasn’t grasped the extent of his timeslipping powers yet. Loki is shocked to learn that HWR essentially invented timeslipping. HWR is disappointed with Loki’s progress. HWR tells Loki to come back after he’s acquired a better understanding of his powers.
Loki counters by demonstrating that he has, in fact, mastered the ability to pause time. He suggests that this isn’t the first time they’ve had this conversation. HWR’s disappointment turns into excitement, and the two can finally have a real discussion. This is where it starts to get interesting. Loki’s struggles with Timely and the Loom don’t surprise Timely. HWR informs Loki that the Loom is a failsafe designed to eliminate everything except for the Sacred Timeline in the event that the TVA fails to do its job. As a result, Loki was always destined to lose.
Loki is stunned. He collects himself and suggests that he could break the Loom. HWR reminds him that the Loom is the only thing standing between them and another Multiversal war. The only way to maintain the peace is to kill Sylvie and keep the TVA intact. Loki acknowledges that what HWR is saying is true, but he can’t bring himself to give up the fight just yet.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
Loki resorts to timeslipping yet again. He goes back to the first conversation he had with Mobius seeking his advice. Mobius tells him that he must choose his burden, but that he should “keep the big picture in mind.” Mobius’ advice is layered, but it suggests that Loki should kill Sylvie to protect everyone else on the Sacred Timeline. Loki then slips to the very end of their initial timeline right when all that was left was him and Sylvie. He explains his conundrum, but she refuses to bless her own murder. Instead, she challenges Loki to find another way.
Loki returns to the moment before the Loom explodes. He skips past their plan to refit the Loom and heads out himself. The radiation does not spaghettify him. Instead, it uncovers his new form as the god of time. He dramatically destroys the Loom and frees the branches. He then proceeds to collect all the branches and inject life into them. The sequence ends with Loki taking his place on HWR’s “throne” in the now-destroyed Citadel at the center of the branches that now form a tree of life. In essence, he became the Loom.
Loki’s sacrifice ensures that his friends have a chance at living, and they do just that. B-15 takes up a leadership role at the TVA as it hunts down HWR’s Variants. Sylvie drifts around the timelines enjoying life. Mobius goes down to the timeline to watch his life on Earth. Victor Timely never developed because he never got the TVA handbook delivered to him as a child. Ravonna was seen in the Void seemingly about to be devoured by Alioth. All the while, Loki watched over them from his lonely throne.
Final Thoughts
When the series first started, its primary purpose was to redeem Loki. By having him make the ultimate sacrifice, it’s done just that. The road has not always been smooth (especially at the beginning of this season), but they got there in the end. The mechanics of the timeslipping remain vague, but I’m glad they found a way to contain Loki. His newly-acquired abilities make him one of the most, if not the most, powerful entities in the MCU. He simply had to be constrained for the benefit of the larger project.
Back to the episode itself, I was pleased with how it was structured. Fixing the Loom has been the season’s central issue, but it turned out to be a red herring of sorts. That made way for the return of He Who Remains, which added a menacing suspense and intensity. After Loki’s chat with HWR and the subsequent conversation with Mobius, it seemed as if Loki was on his way to killing Sylvie. The crisis talks with Sylvie pushed Loki to think outside the box yet again, and that’s when everything fell into place. Loki’s sacrifice was a great way to punctuate his redemption arc.
With that said, there are some loose ends. Could this all been part of HWR’s plan? He knew about the timeslipping and the issues they would have with the Loom. He also put in place the contingency plan that brought about Victor Timely. Let’s not forget that he wanted Loki to take over the TVA in the first place. Knowing that Kang, one of HWR’s Variants, is being built up as the central villain of this phase, it’s certainly possible that he was in control all along. What does that mean for Loki, then? Will we see him in other MCU projects, or is he stuck in place forever?
Character Development (14/15)
One of the biggest criticism of this season is that it stunted the development of other characters in favor of Loki. And while that is valid, the show was always about Loki. It would have been nice to see more of Sylvie, specifically, but I’m OK with how things played out because the characters stayed true to themselves. There were no signs of inconsistency. No character was compromised for the sake of advancing Loki. Instead, we saw Loki evolve by forming meaningful relationships with characters that care about him. And because he came to care for them as well, he felt compelled to sacrifice himself to protect them.
Perseverance
Loki has been known for his haphazard and impulsive nature. His inherent qualities make him chaotic and unpredictable. As a result, he’s always been difficult to handle. Equally true is the fact that his plans tend to fail. He’s a fantastic improviser but a poor planner. Those qualities were on display in this episode, but so too was his evolved thought process. The timeslipping makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly what his baseline plans were, but he clearly demonstrates some planning in his pursuit of fixing the Loom.
Loki formulates a working plan that goes as such: fix the Loom while minimizing how far back in time he must go. Fixing the Loom is a must, that part is clear. However, he knows that the further back he goes, the more the timeline changes, and the less his friends remember. Each time Timely fails to reach the Loom, Loki executes faster or further goes back in time at an incremental rate. When it becomes clear that there simply isn’t enough time for him to rely on O.B. and Timely’s tinkering, he spends centuries learning about the subject matter so that he could do the tinkering himself.
His incredible patience and perseverance is rewarded when Timely finally reaches the Loom. Unfortunately, it was a mere respite, not a conclusive win. That sequence would’ve crushed just about anyone to the point of defeat, but not Loki, not anymore. In the past, Loki has submitted to defeat. However, he’s developed a willpower that’s so powerful that he refuses to lose this time around, not even after such a devastating setback.
What is He Who Remains’ Endgame?
He Who Remains is a compelling villain. Assuming that what he’s said about the Multiversal War is true (and it certainly does seem so), then he is, in fact, a necessary evil. He’s also proven that he can convincingly manipulate and/or withhold key information. Therefore, we can’t take him as a reliable source at this point.
We come to the same conclusion if we dissect his intentions. In his first meeting with Loki and Sylvie, he claimed that he wanted them to take over the TVA because he was tired of watching over the Sacred Timeline himself. That might be true, except He Who Remains and his Variants have demonstrated a distinct reluctance to share their power with anyone. Are we supposed to believe that he was just going to retire peacefully? Furthermore, the TVA was doing its job remarkably well. Knowing what he knows about the Multiverse, why would he put the Sacred Timeline in the hands of a couple erratic Lokis? It doesn’t quite add up.
For his part, Loki has tried to maintain a balancing act when dealing with HWR. Loki can’t deny the evidence that suggests HWR is telling the truth about many things, but as a master manipulator himself, he also can’t ignore HWR’s attempts to manipulate him and Sylvie. Loki’s under no illusions as to what sort of man HWR is; nonetheless, he has the wisdom to consider whether the Multiverse would be better off with or without HWR.
Mobius’ Advice
After gathering as much information as he can from HWR, Loki calls on the advice of the people he trusts most to help him make a decision. This brings him to Mobius, his closest friend. Mobius believed that Loki could redeem himself even when Loki didn’t believe it himself. He’s also kept Loki grounded amidst all the craziness that has gone on around them. Going to him was the right call.
Mobius shares a story about his time as a minuteman alongside Ravonna. They were responding to a nexus event that should’ve been a routine job. Mobius had never had any issues pruning Variants, but on this particular instance, the Variant was a child playing around. Mobius couldn’t bring himself to prune the child, and as a result, things got out of control. Ravonna steps in to finish the job, but at that point, the damage was done. Amidst the chaos, they lost a couple minutemen. Mobius’ hesitation created a ripple effect that only made things worse.
The moral of the story is that any decision that involves taking a life to save another will be difficult. Sacrifices are necessary to preserve peace for the greater population. Serving the greater good must always come first. Often times, it comes at the expense of your own comfort, but that shouldn’t deter you from making the tough choice. Because of the strong friendship they’ve formed, Mobius’ message resonates with Loki. He knows what he must do, but he still doesn’t want to.
Sylvie’s Resolve and Loki’s Sacrifice
This brings him to Sylvie. At this point, he’s essentially come to her with his conundrum hoping that she might understand and bless him killing her before she can kill HWR. Sylvie understands the situation, but she refuses to bless the sacrifice, and why should she? She has fought for freedom from day one, so it’s only fitting that she fight for it until the very end. And that’s what she wants Loki to do as well. Her time in the apocalypses has taught her that it’s OK to break things, so why not let the Loom break? Even now, Loki’s playing under HWR’s rules. Sylvie challenges Loki to forge a new path, and he does just that.
If it wasn’t clear before, it should now be undeniably clear that Loki loves Sylvie very, very much. He put himself through a mind-numbing amount of timeloops because he could not bring himself to hurt her. Ultimately, it is his love for her and her unshaking, stubborn resolve that inspires him to reshape the Multiverse in a way that would be safe for her to pursue her life with the freedom she’s always been denied. Of course, he wanted to make sure the rest of his friends and all the timelines were safe as well, but she was his primary motivator.
The tragedy of his sacrifice is that he still lost. And while that is fitting, it does rob him of a happy ending. His biggest fear was being alone, yet here he is all alone at the end of time. The caveat is that he’s still connected to the people he cares about as he watches over them from afar, but he can’t actively participate. Some will call it a cruel ending, others will call it bittersweet. How Loki’s story progresses from here will have a significant effect on how this ending is perceived moving forward. Even if the story ends here, Loki will go down as one of the best, if not the best, character arcs in the MCU.
Theme/Messages (4/5)
- “I made the tough choices, that’s why I get the big chair.”
- “How do you choose who lives and who dies?”
- “Gotta keep the big picture in mind.”
- “Most purpose is more burden than glory.”
- “The hard thing to do was the thing that had to be done.”
- “There’s no comfort, you just choose your burden.”
Acting (14/15)
Tom Hiddleston (Loki) has been fantastic all season. Somehow, he managed to top his own performances with a phenomenal showing here. He captured so much emotion through his facial expressions and body language. It really was a top-tier, all-round performance. Jonathan Majors (He Who Remains/Victory Timely) was another standout. He’s been great as Timely, but he shines in the HWR role. Owen Wilson (Mobius) and Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie) round out what was one of the best-acted episodes of the entire series.
Cinematography (15/15)
- Cool opening shot of all the radiation coming out of the Loom
- Nice far shot of Timely on the gangway with alot more to go until he gets to the Loom (11:02)
- Great shot of Loki with a fire in his eye as the Loom explodes behind him (17:09)
- Cool shot of Loki and HWR in the Citadel with the Temporal radiation visible through the windows
- Nice shot of Loki and Sylvie standing face-to-face as the spaghettification pauses (32:11)
- Cool shot of everyone’s silhouettes as they watch Loki destroy the Loom (37:43)
- Great VFX for the sequence of Loki saving the vast array of dying branches (38:45)
- Great shot of the new “Loom” with Loki at its center (42:05) that then turns into the tree of life (42:21)
- “We Grow Together” poster can be seen in the TVA after Loki’s sacrifice
- Cool shot of B-15 and Mobius as the posters of the Time-Keepers tower over them in the background (45:42)
- “For All Time. Always.” is written on the floor under Mobius as he walks away (46:13)
- Cool shot of Mobius from behind overlooking his life on Earth, half his suit is lit and the other is dark (50:22)
- Lasting shot of Loki’s face to close out the series