Loki Season 2 is a marked improvement over an already great first season, with more mischief, more heart, and even bigger stakes. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki remains one of the best characters the MCU has ever gifted us, and Hiddleston’s ability to command the screen does a lot to make Loki Season 2 engaging, even when the story takes a while to get anywhere.
But Loki Season 2 doesn’t meander, not really. It merely takes its time to set up the story, in a way that’s eerily familiar for Marvel fans, but that works better when you have characters you actually want to go on a walk with. There’s little point to the scenic route if you’re just getting to know the characters, after all. In this sense, the second season of Loki delivers two good first episodes before hitting you with everything it’s got in the third episode, and then continuing with what the third one built off in the fourth episode.
Even without having watched the last two, it’s hard to imagine they will be anything but an escalation – particularly considering where episode 4 leaves these characters.
Loki, however, isn’t the only standout, even in a show named after him. Perhaps, that’s what makes this show work. Outside of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, and at times Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, there have been few characters who have actually held their own against Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. In Loki, however, the list is long. There’s not just Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie, but also Owen Wilson’s Mobius, and even new characters like Ke Huy Quan’s OB.
That a show like Loki has found not just an ensemble that works – one that remains interesting in spite of the public’s general fixation on Loki, elevates the second season way above most other Marvel shows. Not even the appearance of Victory Timely, as played by controversial actor Jonathan Majors, can sink a show that, thankfully, doesn’t really rely on Majors to carry anything but his own storyline.
Loki used to be the villain of his own story. He isn’t that anymore, but perhaps he isn’t yet ready to be the hero. Instead, like us, Season 2 sees Loki grappling with what it means to get out of your own way and just …start living. It’s a relatable journey, even if Loki is stuck in the most unrelatable circumstances, and Hiddleston plays the character’s emotions with a depth that makes it hard not to root for Loki. (For that matter, so does Sophia Di Martino, even if her Loki’s issues are way different)
But not root for him like we always have, to survive, to cause chaos, to, perhaps, get the better of his brother once more. No, we are now rooting for Loki (both of them, truly) to be free, be happy and perhaps, find some inner peace. Like the trickster God that stole fans’ hearts all those years ago, we have evolved. And that makes every second of what Loki Season 2 is trying to give us even more satisfying.
There are, of course, still issues. The multiverse makes little sense within the context of Loki, much less within the context of the MCU at large. This show does little to answer some of the bigger questions in that regard, and if possible, provides us with even more questions. But it’s unlikely anyone is tuning in for answers, anyway. Everyone’s tuning in for Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, and that being the case, it’s likely most people will be truly satisfied with what Loki Season 2 has in store.
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The first episode of Loki Season 2 will stream on Disney+ on Thursday, October 5th at 9ET/PT, with new episodes streaming on Thursday nights at the same time for five consecutive weeks.
