'Loki', Episode 1: "Glorious Purpose" Recap and Review
The God of Mischief returns to the Marvel Universe in all his devilishly charming glory
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
I believed we saw the end of Loki for about as long as it took for Thanos to choke him to death to kick off Avengers: Infinity War. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki remains one of the most popular characters in the MCU and has evolved from a dangerously insecure villain to a dangerously insecure anti-hero. Once the series was announced and I learned of the nature of the series my mind raced with possibilities of a pre anti-hero Loki wreaking Havok on earth while being hunted by a time force led by Owen Wilson’s Mobius, but that is not the Loki that Marvel wanted to bring back. Marvel wanted the emotionally evolved version of Loki that had three movies worth of character building to lead the series. That, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing although I do see it as a missed opportunity. The issue is that the episode spends most of the episode getting Loki to the point they needed. Couple that with the exposition needed to build the world of Time protection in the MCU and it makes the story aspect of the episode feel flat, a good start, but flat. What saves the episode is the performances of Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson. Hiddleston demonstrates why bringing him back was a must for Marvel and Wilson brings the warm familiarity of his entire career to his role. Building the series with the two at the center has me very optimistic of the rest of the series, especially after the episodes ending.
The episode begins with a recap of how this Loki (Tom Hiddleston) came into his particular predicament. We watch as the Avengers bumble up the theft of the Tesseract after the Battle of New York, leaving it in Loki’s mischievous hands. He disappears into a blue vortex then is spit out in the Gobi desert. Before he can even start his mischief, a group of agents from the Time Variance Authority appear in the time line led by Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) to take him into custody for crimes against the sacred timeline. They lead Loki to the TVA headquarters and and he is processed as a prisoner. While being processed he learns just exactly who the TVA are and how they came to be thanks to a delightfully informative animated short. Their goal is to protect the sacred timeline to prevent another Multiverse War as deemed by the Time Keepers by removing people that damage the timestream whom the TVA calls variants.. One TVA Agent in particular is on the hunt for a rather dangerous variant. Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) over a murder when a small witness emerges suddenly. The little girl likens the variant to the devil and shows them an alien looking pack of gum that it gave her. As he is wrapping up the investigation, Loki’s arrest is brought to his attention and is standing trial. As Loki makes his case, Mobius joins the gallery. Just before sentencing Mobius interjects and takes custody of Loki instead. Mobius escorts Loki to a holding room so they can talk. The two start with Loki’s past as Mobius tries to breakdown Loki’s motivations and intentions that led to the Battle of New York. Mobius shows him some highlights of his life, including the reveal that Loki was in fact D.B Cooper. The central question that Mobius keeps returning to is “do you enjoy hurting people?” Mobius then shifts his attention to Loki’s future and what happens to his beloved mother. Ever the god of Mischief, Loki manages to escape by stealing the controller to his time warp collar. As he escapes he finds the receptionist Casey (Eugene Cordero) who has his Tesseract. Loki demands he return it only to find that casey not only has the Tesseract but all the other infinity stones as well, and they are all useless. Suddenly Loki realizes the futility of his escape attempts and awes over the power that the TVA have. He returns to the Holding room where watches the death of his mother, father, and himself. This hits Loki hard, and he realizes how wrong he has been and the the mistakes he has made. After a brief confrontation with Hunter B-15, Loki is found by Mobius who breaks through to him. Mobius then ask Loki for help tracking down the dangerous variant. Loki then finds out who he will be hunting: himself. We then see Oklahoma, as a team of TVA agents are ambushed and by a shadowy figure and killed.
One thing that Marvel never fails at is world building. The TVA is spectacular. It blends Brutalist architecture, retro futuristic aesthetics and inane bureaucracy and the result is reminiscent of Mad Men inside of a M.C. Escher painting. The series is meant to evoke the 70s with the lighting and set design, even shamelessly turning Loki into D.B. Cooper for absolutely no reason. This style of taking a mystical concept like time travel and the after life and adding a bureaucratic twist has been done before in content such as The Good Place and The Umbrella Academy, but it is still a welcome twist to the MCU. Owen Wilson’s strait man to the Tom Hiddleston’s almost childish mischief maker is a very funny dynamic that does plenty of heavy lifting in this episode. The two have a comedic chemistry that no doubt carry the series but can emerge as a highlight from this first generation of streaming content. My original idea of what this series could be was more akin to Tom and Jerry with Loki being the mouse that continuously makes trouble for Mobius’ Tom. What we have emerging with this series is closer to Ghostbusters than Tom and Jerry which is a far better goal. But looming in the not too distant future is the villain of the series, Loki himself. Having Loki be both the protagonist and antagonist is genius, presuming they actually go through with it. Seeing the more enlightened Loki battle a far fallen Loki will be a delight for the Loki fans. You can never have too much Loki.
Loki is a celebration of this character that has been thoughtfully built by a master at his craft, Tom Hiddleston. Hiddleston is the embodiment of the character much like Chris Evan’s Captain America or Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man. Giving him his own series was a no brainer, and by having Hiddleston be both the good guy and bad guy of the series guarantees more Loki than you might be able to handle. No matter how light the story was in this first episode, the series will be built off performances. Since it is very early on in the series, I’m going to hold out hope that the story will just as worthy of the spotlight as Loki.