Loki Recap Season 2 Episode 3: Back to Quantumania
We finally get to the end credits scene Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and get more context on why Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) were poking around in 1893.
These weeks Lokientitled “1893” takes us back to the time of the World’s Fair, where Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors) presents a prototype of the Temporal Loom. Yes, exactly that Mechanism that barely keeps time while the branches expand, threatens to end reality. Loki realizes that Timely is one of the variants He Who Remains warned him about and that the Kang Dynasty threat begins.
Before we delve into 1893’s Timely, the episode begins a few years earlier with Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) dropping off the TVA manual through the window of a young Victor’s bedroom – a plan made by Miss The stated protocol is something He Who Remains set in motion before his death. The collaboration with Ravonna and Miss Minutes is strangely controversial, and we soon find out why.
Back at the TVA, the Temporal Loom’s collapse continues to spiral out of control. OB (Ke Huy Quan) explains that the branches that Dox pruned are growing back and are stuck outside without the temporal aura of He Who Remains as the knotted timelines expand. You need something to untangle the mess. Casey (Eugene Cordero) gets a hit on the temporary block tracking Miss Minutes and Renslayer, and that’s where Mobius and Loki go.
Back in the 1893 scenes, we watch the presentation where Timely introduces the concept of his loom, which uses the energy of the past, present and future to power their world. Majors emphasizes it too much as “Timely” – there’s a lot going on here that feels different than his performance in Quantumaniaand not in a great way, even before you get there Inconvenient elephant in the room. The pacing is thrown off in these scenes as the majors slow down the momentum. There are some great beats as Timely and Renslayer connect and seemingly form an immediate connection with one another. But Timely is a hustler with a lot of it and quickly goes on the run from the investors he’s defrauding – which quickly turns into a run from Loki and Mobius once Renslayer turns him against them while they’re just trying To bring him back to the TVA in order to use his aura to open the firewalls of the loom.
During the chase, Miss Minutes has some funny moments as a creepy, old-fashioned ghost clock. Timely seems to favor Renslayer, and then Loki catches up with him to convince Timely to return with him. More and more deceived investors appear at the Ferris wheel, and now Sylvie too. It’s all about Timely when he gets cornered in the Midway attraction. In a fight between Sylvie and Loki, the two discuss Timely’s right to life. Loki explains that they need him to save the TVA and the timelines, because if they don’t, the free will and life that Sylvie fought so hard for would be wiped out along with everyone else’s lives. If she kills Victor, there will be no life for anyone to return to. However, having to restructure the TVA means that Sylvie is still willing to kill him, so Loki helps him escape and the Spirit of the Mediator strikes again – putting Timely back on track with Renslayer.
On a ferry, Victor and Ravonna flirt and discuss why he is so important and how they could work together. There is a bizarre Emphasis on Miss Minutes suddenly becoming jealous. It feels strange this season, especially since the show is emphasizing the brotherly vibe between Mobius and Loki even more, to see the female characters really just interact in this petty negative way – it’s not a welcome change from the first season . Miss Minutes literally helps Timely throw Renslayer overboard, and then in his private lab she’s suddenly horny for Timely and begs to be put in a body because she loves him. Then he turns it off and makes it clear that he is working alone. It’s all strange!
Loki, Mobius, Renslayer, and Sylvie show up again to try to bring in Timely, and they all have to fight again over a man who isn’t enough of a threat that the series actually wants to frame him. Sylvie almost gets him, but then decides not to kill him because it would go against her crusade of free will – and has Loki and Mobius take him in so she can deal with Renslayer. The two (who again have a legitimate argument) argue and Sylvie throws them into the crumbling kingdom at the end of time. After finding the body of He Who Remains there, she meets up with Miss Minutes again and calls her to her tempad, and she teases her that she knows some of He Who Remains’ biggest secrets – including such about them, enough to make them finally turn against him and his variants.
On the one hand it feels good to see this twist, but on the other hand “1893” is full of these bizarre moments that captivate the female characters Loki at odds with each other and only aligned when they are despised by the far more interesting male characters in the series. Compared to the first season, they all seem one-dimensional so far – and all that Loki As we work to elevate the threat of Kang beyond the disruptive impact it creates here, this is one of our biggest concerns about the series right now.
Loki Streams weekly on Disney+.
Want more io9 news? Find out when you can expect the latest Wonder, war of starsAnd Star Trek Releases, what’s next for the DC Universe in film and televisionand everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
