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In the second episode of Loki, we start with another time jump, this time to a renaissance faire in 1985 Wisconsin where things are about to get totally 80s. The show continues the usage of comedians who were on The Good Place as Kate Berlant has a short but funny cameo as one of the ren faire employees. We follow someone only credited as Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane) who gets mind-taken by the variant Loki while Bonnie Tyler’s classic 80s anthem ‘Holding Out For a Hero’ plays.
The song has been out there recently because it was used in the He-Man reboot trailer, but it makes sense because the song has an recognizably 80s sound while also referencing ‘heroes’ — it even makes more sense in Loki with the line, ‘And where are all the gods?’ But all this is in the background, as C-20 only returns in the final scene and it’s unclear how important her character will be going forward.
Our Loki is playing his own game, playing along with his captors and delightfully getting quizzed by the animated Miss Minutes, who’s projected into the physical world. Mobius is clearly suspicious of Loki’s claims of help and scheming (with good cause), but the funny part is that Loki is legitimately helpful even while he tries to subvert things for his own purposes. As the resident self-proclaimed Loki ‘expert’, he does seem to have an idea what the variant might be thinking even if he doesn’t know why they are doing what they are doing.
He uses a legitimate historical quote referencing Asgard, ‘Where there are wolf’s ears, wolf’s teeth are near’, which is actually from the ‘Volsunga Saga’, a classic legendary Viking saga. Although of course he could also be talking about himself and his plans for taking over the TVA, which last episode he considered to be the ‘ultimate power’ in the universe.
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The second time jump is to test Loki’s theory of hiding in imminent apocalypses is a clever idea (both in show and out of it), but it also allows us to see a slightly low budget version of Pompeii right before the infamous volcano hits it. There’s a bit more given on the character Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays, who is now explicitly called ‘Ravonna’ and ‘R Slayer’, which is a reference to the comic book character Ravonna Renslayer, who is indeed associated with some time travel shenanigans in the comics.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped people from dropping her name in the first episode, which she is not credited as her character’s name, but that’s spoiler culture for you. Our other named hunter from the first episode, U-92, remains suspicious of Loki, but we also see her taken over by the variant Loki in a manner that is initially a bit confusing, even if it’s all explained later.
We finally see the variant’s plan come to fruition as the TVA gang travels to a Roxxon Walmart called ‘Roxxcart’ in 2050, even if the ‘why’ of their plan is still unknown. Our new variant is (spoilers as said), a Lady Loki (also something from the comics), played by Sophia Di Martino. What our Loki thinks about it is certainly unclear too, but the aftermath is a great twist and certainly an interesting way going forward — she ‘bombs’ the timeline using stolen TVA technology which somehow manages to create legions of new timelines to breach off from the sacred timeline.
The episode continues the show being funny and interesting, with an amusing runner of Mobius’ love of jet-skis, and still great dialogue between him and Loki. It’s certainly another needle drop of an ending, meaning that although Lady Loki has been anticipated by some eagle-eyed viewers, I didn’t see it coming — and I didn’t see the multiverse bomb twist coming either, although I don’t really try to see these things anyway. If the twists are obvious that’s a different problem.
But the show in its second episode already feels so self-assured and filled with interesting lore, already inching toward supplanting Wandavision in the best of the Disney Plus shows.
New episodes of Loki premiere Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
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