‘Loki’ Lunar Apocalypse, Princes, and ‘Blade Runner’: Loki is running out of time in the new episode of the series.
Each episode of Loki is a teaching about the Marvel Universe. If the first chapter explained to us what all that was about the Temporal Variation Agency with the adorable Miss Minutes, and the second entered us into the apocalypses in which the Variant played by Sophie Di Martino was hiding, this third recovers a new catastrophe marvel to despair of Loki (Tom Hiddleston)
We reunited with the Variant of Loki most feared by the Minutes of cups with the agent he manipulated into telling him where the Time Keepers were. It is an illusion that it has created to extract information from you. The series thus gives us more information about this all-powerful version of the protagonist and, incidentally, shows us how he manages to enchant the Minute.
Then, already in the present, we return to the AVT, although only the time necessary for Loki to find his Variant, who looks for the Guardians of Time, and eludes judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) with the TemPad of the villain, the contraption with which she travels through time and space. The catastrophe to which the two are going to end is none other than the destruction of Laminitis 1, a moon that will sound to comic book fans since, in 2077, the same year in which the series places us, it was destroyed after for the planet Laminitis to shatter on her. And to top it all, the TemPad has no charge.
From here, the second episode becomes a kind of adventure separate from the AVT and its Minutes, a mix between Mandalorian and Blade Runner in a desert landscape, with shacks, purple skies, and neon lights. Ah! And the meteorites that predict the end of civilization. Luckily Sylvie (the theory is confirmed), the nickname that the villain has given herself because Loki or Variante does not convince her, she knows what this apocalypse is about and what is coming: “Of all the apocalypse, it is the worst, there are no survivors. ”
Princes and princesses
The objective is simple: find a source of energy powerful enough to revive the TemPad, in the hands of Loki, and flee before the tragedy happens. The plot works like a story about two enemies condemned to understand each other, who distrust each other but need each other to survive. Thus, we accompany them to an almost uninhabited moon (there is a certain lady with the very good aim that not even our protagonist can deceive) in search of an ark (or rather, of her energy) that is going to remove wealthy citizens from the place.
The war of egos between the ‘magicians’ is not exempt from the hackneyed lesson of “together you will be stronger”, which is evident when they must sneak into the train that will take them to the ark. However, regardless of how much fun it is to see Loki change shape or Sylvie enchant guards, the best scene is the conversation between these two Lokis who could not be more different in the luxurious bar that is in one of the cars.
In this sequence, the series takes its foot off the gas and recreates the confidences that one and the other share, more vulnerable than ever. The protagonist remembers his mother, praises her, and even makes fireworks with his hands in her honor. Sylvie affirms that she was told that she was adopted, although she does not remember her mother. The evening continues between glasses of champagne and reflections on the meaning of love (“love is hate”, “love is a deception”, “love is a dagger”) in which he recognizes his bisexuality and she tells us about her long relationship with a postman.
This stage also delights us with the most singing Loki, the one who, drunk as a vat, sings “When she sings, she sings’ come home”, a kind of Asgardian chant that excites train travelers. A moment as intimate and wonderful as that of Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) Sokovian lullaby in Scarlet Witch and Vision.
Nobody cares, it’s the end of the world
Despite the magic of the swinging scene, the show ends when the guards discover the two stowaways and the melee fight with the odd sword, dagger (mental note: Loki has no aim) and kick ends with the protagonists being thrown through the train window. The fall completely destroys Sylvie’s TamPad, so her only way to get off the planet in time is by having the ark take off early and not be destroyed like in the comics.
On the way to his escape route, the Variant confesses to Loki how his “Charm” works, the one with which he is able to get into anyone’s mind. “I have to have physical contact and then hold onto his mind,” he says. With the difficult ones, he has no choice but to create a fantasy in his memory. That was what he did with the AVT agent, going back five years to recover that memory before his life as a Minuteman.
This is how Loki discovers that what the Time Keepers created the AVT workers is a hoax; these are human persons, Variants like them, but none of them know. Without time to assimilate this revelation, the protagonists arrive at a city taken from Blade Runner, from where the ark is about to take off. We follow Loki and Sylvie in a faked sequence shot that leads us through explosions, ringing in the ears, collapsing buildings, fire, and neon lights. The protagonists run and use their magic to avoid objects but to no avail. A piece of the planet, which disintegrates more and more on its moon, destroys the ark. And the final credits start.
Loki’s shortest episode to date is a kind of independent mini-movie that exploits in its 36 minutes of duration everything we love about Loki: his manipulative charm when he lets down his guard and shows his vulnerability, his humorous nature, and his capacity to surprise us (now he sings). Sylvie is the best counterpoint to the best version of the Marvel antihero. In the absence of knowing what awaits us in the second half of the series (are the Time Keepers the bad guys in this story?), This chapter that drinks from the best science fiction is a delicious and enjoyable stop along the way (temporary ).