#182 – Loki S2E5 — “Science/Fiction”: Loki’s Most Human Hour

Hello, Maniacs, and welcome back to Marvel Maniac, an MCU after show. I'm your host, Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest. And today we're talking about Loki, season two, episode five science fiction. I'm coming in hot off a fresh watch. Laundry probably still tumbling in the background. I'd multitask this one fantastic episode. And this, I'll just say it's a calm on the surface and absolutely wild underneath. Like a quiet panic wrapped in a hug from your favorite TVA analyst, whether that be Mobius or B15. A quick vibe check before we start. I'm not here to recap every frame like I used to do. If you listen to our original Loki coverage when it was coming out, I went into, like, cinematic every. Every second of every scene breakdown that's hyper focused. And I'd like to just deliver the feelings that come with this episode and the big moments. If you watched it, you're in the right place. But if you didn't, this is your spoiler siren. We're diving in. My first reaction. This. This is the show's heart. The giant temporal loom meltdown looking to destroy all the multiverse from last week. And this episode is about what's left. The people, the threads and. And whether Loki can hold them together. A couple of reviews even called this one of Marvel's best TV episodes ever. And I'm not crowning it right here, but I totally get why people are saying that and have said that. It's intimate and clever and it sneaks in a character breakthrough without screaming breakthrough. This is a breakthrough right in your face. Take a breakthrough. Marvel's not that like. Marvel's not really like that. So, so basically, the loom goes boom, the TVA unravels, and Loki starts time slipping again. Except now it yanks him across the branch lives where his friends never join the tva. He gets to see everyone out of their TVA roles. And in the real world, he has to find them and convince them and figure out how to fix a multiverse that's literally turning to spaghetti. Obi was not lying about the spaghetti. He knew it. So let's break it down even a little bit further. We open with the TVA gone with that big bright light and Loki slipping uncontrollably. I love that the show lets silence do the talking. And there's this lonely, slightly haunted rhythm to it, especially from the beginning of the episode. And he's not villain Loki, not even quite hero Loki, just a guy trying to not lose his people again. His friends let's not forget this. This is the Loki that came right out of fighting the battle of New York. We sometimes may forget that this is, this is a variant of the one we started with. He is technically though the guy we saw in the first Thor movie and then Avengers and then he goes off on his own path and this Loki, he turns into a less chest thumping glorious purpose demander to more. Okay, what do I do with the power that I have? How do I save everything? Going from zero to hero. He wants to save everything. That's huge. I mean that's a breakthrough for his character. He, he has friends he's trying to protect. He has a world or many worlds that he wants to exist and thrive. And he's only finally starting to see what separates heroes from villains. And I, I just love the arc that they send him on in this series. Makes a familiar character more lovable, likable. And you care for Loki more than you ever have when watching this show. So Loki's journey through this episode gives us variants or just different versions of the people we know and love. From the TVA we got Casey as an Alcatraz, 1962. This is where he. I never would expected his story to come from. Here. Alcatraz escapee immediately on the move in survival Mode. There's Hunter B15 as Dr. Willis. And she's in 2012. I don't know if the battle in New York just hit. I got a feeling it's a little bit before it. Grounded, compassionate, and it tracks with who she is at the tva. Mobius as Don the Jet Ski dad. This one hits me. His whole simple life with the kids in the garage, energy selling jet skis. We get to see where that came from in season one. And we get to see him on a Jet Ski in the water. No, but you know, he's dreaming of being on that water. I love how toxically positive Don Mo like this version of Mobius is. And it breaks my freaking heart what he goes through in this episode. Finally we got obi as Doug A.D. 1994 in Pasadena. A sci fi author. He's trying to get his books. He secretly puts his books on the bookshelves at this bookstore and the lady doesn't like let him do it. And it's just kind of like ridiculous because this guy's clearly a genius in every malt, wherever he is, whoever he is. Hobbyist, scientist basically, who's just been writing fan fiction and it's been kind of, it's kind of connected to the tva. Because he kind of knows what Loki's talking about when Loki comes to visit him. What I love is how each variant feels like a mirror held up to the TVA version. None of them are jokes. They're just, what if they never got recruited? And answers that still respect the character. I wonder if when all is said and done, if all is said and done, if they can choose between this life or living, like, another life. Like, did Brad the Hunter, did he became. Did he become Zaniac in his normal timeline? Or did he just use the knowledge of time and power from the TVA to write himself in history? As that actor, Obi almost instantly becomes a believer, or at least a tinkerer willing to try using the TVA handbook that Loki just luckily had. Like, it's a how to for reality. Doug helps Loki jury rigging a tempad. Jerry rigging. Sorry. He literally takes years to do this and then finds them like it's. I think that is so charming and hilarious. All he needed was the book. This man is a genius. He made. He made the technology of the time doors, like, all over again. I wouldn't be surprised to find out if he was the man that made this technology. And I will spoil something, but it's not a big deal. There's no twist saying Obi is the bad guy at the end of this. But there's definitely some hints that since he's been around for so long and since he knew who he who Remains was, that means his memory wasn't erased by he who Remains. When we saw him do that to Ravonna after she. After he won his multiversal war in that flashback. So a quick offhand review. Not. I saw one critic say that this plays like a giant sci fi short story. And totally agree. It's contained, it's idea driven, and it's character first. Now, let's talk a little bit about Sylvie. The only one who remembers what happens at the loom. And she says no on purpose. Her stance is, we fought for the right to live our own lives and I'm keeping mine. I respect it and the show respects it. Until the world around her starts spaghettifying. That sequence is gorgeous. Devastatingly beautiful and awful. The record. The record store vibe before that happens, it's just, like, peaceful. It's probably like her safe place. And then it quietly turns to dread, reality peeling apart like noodles. I don't like noodles that much, I'll be honest with you. And this. This makes me not like them. Even more something that I. I'd like to acknowledge it's like Sylvie isn't wrong in what she wants to do. She has a point, you know? Did Loki earn the right to ask her again, or is he just dragging people back into a war they didn't sign up for? In all reality, though, Sylvie learns pretty quickly that there's nowhere else to go. The whole multiverse is unraveling before their eyes. By the end of this episode, everything is gone, pretty much. Let's talk about the who, not the how factor in Loki mastering his time, slipping the line of the episode. And maybe the thesis of Loki's arc controlling the slipping isn't about what or how, it's about the who he locks into his people. Mobius, B, 15 OB, Casey, and Sylvie. And that's his anchor. It's not destiny. It's prophecy. It's choice. Loki deciding that the story worth fighting for is the one where his friends exist. I mean, I think I like comparing, and I like thinking of the moment in Avengers where Loki's telling everyone to kneel for him. He is. He couldn't be any different than he is now. And I think that's. This is a good example of character transformation. It seriously is. Some shows try to do this, and they can't do it. This show, it's honing in on the love of the Avengers and using that as a spring pad to give us a new version of a character that we already loved. And we're gonna see him change even more than he ever has before. So comparing him to. Comparing him to, like, just the Avengers, Loki, and even, you know, first Thor, Loki, he. He really has more of a full circle story in this adventure. He does have meaning in how he goes. In the Infinity Saga, there is that foreshadowing of the sun will shine down against our faces or something like that. We'll see each other again, somehow, somewhere, some way. Is what he says to Thor before he's murdered by Thanos. This episode drives so steady, and it's just one of those episodes you don't really want to end and just go through the end. Like, it makes me. It makes me really excited for next week's episode because I'll say it right now, like, maybe my favorite episode in Marvel Television ever. And that's next week. And this leads right into it perfectly. It's a beautifully made episode. This show is so well thought out. You can tell they wanted it to be a backbone to this infinity. I mean, sorry, this Multiverse saga. And damn, I'd say it's a great, great backbone for The Multiverse saga. And it's one of the few if. If not only shows, I think that's gonna have a huge impact in Avengers, Doomsday, and maybe Secret Wars. I mean, we can't know about Secret Wars. So much to know is still about Doomsday. So all very exciting. All very exciting. So once Loki gets control, he takes himself to the exact moment he needs right before catastrophe to try again. And the cleanest gear shift into finale they could have given us. No speeches, just purpose. I mean, he kind of makes a speech when he realizes that he can finally take control of the time jump. I think using this power, he can do a lot of different things. And I won't spoil spoil next week in case you're listening along. However, Loki. Let's just say Loki can go back now to like time travel back to the events of the Avengers if he wanted to. If he wanted to go back and say, listen, I got a bigger threat, he could, but I don't think they believe him. They. They pretty much probably are pretty unforgiving of him after unleashing an alien army back on Earth. But I do wonder if Loki had thought that over at all, maybe to get back to the Avengers, because maybe they're the key to solving all this somehow. At least Tony Stark and his brilliant brain. And we get to see the brilliance of Loki in these final episodes. And he's also a genius in his own right. And we'll get in to that a little bit more next week. So let's put a spotlight on these characters and their journeys. Okay? Loki is the most active he's ever been while standing still. The emotional math finally balances. Mobius. The jet ski dream was never a punchline. It's a thesis about wanting life. His fear about leaving his kids. That landed that. That hurt. That was scary. I felt him. Sylvie with moral gravity keeping her stubborn makes the show honest. OB AKA Doug, MVP of delightful pragmatism. If anyone could read a manual for reality and say, yeah, I could build that, it's him. Hunter. B15/ Casey. Their alt lives are brief, but they feel like whole people. Casey. I mean, literally escaping alcatraz in the 1960s. It's pretty epic for such a. I just never expected that of him. It helps the stakes feel human and not in a cosmic hand wavy kind of way. So my favorite moments of this episode gotta be like Loki walking through the quiet, empty TVA spaces. At the beginning, the show trusts the audience. The record store dissolve. Peaceful song. Catastrophic visuals. OB Workshopping sci fi ideas like their Home Depot runs. Loki's face when he chooses his friends as the anchor. That tiny resolved smile. He's got this. He knows how to do it. He figured it out. One of my favorite absolute moments in this episode is Loki's admitting to Sylvie that he wants his friends back. He wants to save his friends. He wants to save everything. This got me in the chest because this, this is the true turning point in his character as a full is as committing to be a full on savior. And I'm not going to tie it to religion or anything. He is a God, you know, but I believe in like just like Captain America said, I only believe in one God. Man. He's not dressed like that. Avengers reference. Yeah. Hey, classic Loki moves. It makes me want to watch the Avengers again. And if you're interested in listening to our coverage, Loki Season 1 is one of the first shows we've covered. So you can go back, check that out. You'll be able to appreciate the humble beginnings of the podcast. And yeah, I thought there was going to be a post credit scene. There usually is second to last episode, but there wasn't. So that's okay. We now let's talk about the MCU impact and the finale coming up. This will be no spoilers. Okay. It sets up the finale where Loki isn't just a passenger in the time stream, he's the driver. So whether he becomes a God of stories or someone who finally just writes his own, the table is set. My take this episode argues that saving the multiverse starts with saving the people in it. The big picture through the small doors. And I'm ready if I could hope for anything for the finale is that it keeps this pace and even builds on builds on it. This episode kind of took things to a sprint. So I think that if they keep that pace and keep going, it can make it will make for one of the best episodes in Marvel television in history. If you've been riding with Loki all season, I'd love to hear your favorite quiet moment from this episode. Not the big effects, but the human bit. Drop in comments dms marvelmaniacpod Gmail.com wherever you hang with us. And hey, if you want to keep this little after show humming, there's a tip jar and a Patreon. Patreon.com Marvel Maniac weekly minisodes we're having a lot of fun over there. No pressure, but your listens are always greatly a gift. All right, Maniacs, thank you. That is Loki Season 2, Episode 5 Science fiction Loki hones in on the time slipping a big revelation leading us into an unpredictable finale. Next week. We'll be back for it. Deep breath, steady hands. And maybe a tempad that actually listens when we say who I'm. Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest. Thank you for spending a slice of your day with me. Me, Slice of key lime pie, TVA style. And until next time, Avengers disassemble.