The new "Loki" series on Disney Plus starring Tom Hiddleston is setting out to explore where
the God of Mischief disappeared to when he grabbed the Tesseract during "Avengers: Endgame."
Scratching your head after the show's premiere episode?
Here's the end of "Loki," episode one, explained.
From the jump, "Loki" is making something very clear: This will be an in-depth dive
into what makes the God of Mischief tick.
This is the version of the character who was apprehended just after the events of "The
Avengers," after all, so he hasn't had the huge redemption arc through "Thor: The Dark
World," "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Avengers: Infinity War."
"It's been a very long day, and I think I've had my fill of idiots in armored suits telling
me what to do."
So, when the Time Variance Authority picks Loki up in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, he's
not exactly cooperative.
Which makes it pretty fun when one of the Hunters knocks him out in slow-motion, before
resetting the timeline with a device called a reset charge and carting him off to the
TVA's headquarters.
When Loki arrives at the TVA's offices, he's constantly trying to fight them off and escape.
His selfish, manipulative nature bleeds through every single conversation he has, no matter
who he's speaking to.
And later, when the judge is sentencing Loki for his crimes against the timeline, he's
still trying to worm his way out of the situation and pass the blame on to someone else.
It's classic Loki.
But the TVA refers to him as "Variant L1130," because it's important to remember that the
series isn't following the main version of Loki, the one who was killed by Thanos in
"Avengers: Infinity War."
When the Hunters used their reset charge in Mongolia, they closed the new timeline branch
Loki created when he escaped with the Tesseract.
However, it's not entirely clear just how far the effects of reset charge go.
As the judge tells Loki during his "trial," the Avengers were supposed to go back in time
to retrieve the Infinity Stones.
So just how far back did this particular repair of the timeline go?
Regardless of the overall effects of the reset charge, thanks to the intervention of Agent
Mobius, this mischievous Loki variant is allowed to live, at least for now.
Owen Wilson is a breath of fresh air in the MCU as Agent Mobius.
He's a welcome addition here as his laidback, casual nature helps the weirder elements of
the series go down a little easier.
"Loki" introduces Mobius as he's in the middle of hunting a particularly violent variant
in France in 1549, although the writers are careful not to mention exactly who this variant
is.
Although the bureaucratic nature of the TVA might make its employees seem a little cold,
Mobius clearly has a softer side, which we see when he tries to get more information
from the French child about what happened in the church and who killed the Hunters.
The kid ominously points towards a stained-glass window depicting the devil, and who else is
well-known for wearing a set of horns in the MCU?
You guessed it.
Anyway, as entertaining as he is, Mobius has a crucial role in the show.
He's smoothing over any questions that Loki (or the viewer) might have about the TVA and
what they do.
He's also the stepping stone to understanding Loki on a psychological level, as he does
a masterful job of getting under his skin in one of the best scenes in the episode.
When Mobius takes Loki into a room called the "Time Theater," the pair rewatch some
of the key moments in the God of Mischief's life.
This includes a brilliant scene where Loki is revealed to have been D.B.
Cooper, the real-life man responsible for hijacking a plane in the 1970s for a $200,000
ransom before seemingly disappearing.
The answer to this bizarre historical mystery?
Heimdall pulled Loki out of the sky using the Bifrost.
Yes, that's hilarious, but it's only to catch audiences off guard as the conversation takes
a much deeper turn and puts Loki's lifelong motivations under the microscope -- specifically,
his desire to rule.
Why is Loki like this?
Why does he want to rule Midgard, the Nine Realms, and Asgard itself?
The former prince is forced to take a long, hard look at himself and the ramifications
of his actions, even reckoning with the fact that he's destined to get his own mother killed
by sending the Dark Elves up a specific set of stairs in "Thor: The Dark World."
But it all boils down to one question:
"Do you enjoy hurting people?"
It's only after Loki later realizes the inconsequential nature of the Infinity Stones within the TVA
that he's completely honest with who he really is.
By watching his own life, and his brutal death at the hands of Thanos, play out in the Time
Theater, he finally embraces the truth.
Loki's violence is a "cruel elaborate trick" to make himself seem like a terrifying person
so people will fear him, even though he himself thinks he's weak.
Oh Loki, you just saved yourself a very expensive therapist's bill.
After Loki's personal growth session, Mobius reveals the real reason that he's trying to
work with him: There's another variant of Loki running around the timeline, killing
the TVA's Hunters and generally causing chaos.
What's the best way of tracking down a vicious variant of Loki?
Use another variant to get a better insight into the way the God of Mischief thinks and
why he constantly engages in this level of violence.
The thoughtful conversation Mobius and Loki had will no doubt come in handy when they
eventually confront this alternate version of the Asgardian, if that even is the identity
of the violent variant.
"Loki" Episode 1 then quickly cuts to Salina, Oklahoma, in 1859, where a group of Hunters
go searching for someone who's messed with the timeline and is trying to get rich by
drilling for oil in the past.
Oh, if only that was the case.
A hooded figure is revealed to be waiting for the squad, setting them on fire with the
oil in the field in a brutal moment.
This could be the same hooded figure who's briefly seen in the "Loki" trailers, the one
many people are expecting to be revealed as Lady Loki, since actress Sophia Di Martino
has long-been rumored to be playing the character.
In the Marvel comics, Loki has taken the form of a woman from time to time, but it's typically
been just another form for the same character.
If the variant the TVA is hunting does turn out to be Lady Loki, it'll be interesting
to see how the timeline diverged in a way to create her, how she escaped, and what she
wants.
But we'll just have to wait a week to find out more.
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