Loki 2×05 “Science/Fiction” brings the story of Loki re-writing his own story full circle, allowing the God of Mischief the thing the two seasons of this show have been building towards: the opportunity to take the reigns of his own story. Metaphorically, this works very well not just for Loki, but for the MCU in general. That it will probably end up setting up some things for the future is secondary. This is about Loki, and about what Hiddleston has built with the character in over a decade of work.
When Loki was first introduced in Thor, he was an antagonist, a fun one yes, and one we loved to hate, but he wasn’t really the protagonist – not even of his own story. If he’s gotten to where he is it’s mostly because of an actor who always believed in the stories that could be told with the character and because the fan support was always there. When you marry that to good writing, great things can happen.
And there are many other great stories that can be explored coming out of Loki – stories that can involve him, but don’t necessarily have to. Loki’s immediate future, after whatever rewriting the finale does, hopefully leads him back to his brother, but there are still stories to be told in his relationship with Sylvie and Mobius, if Marvel wants to tell them and Hiddleston feels willing to tackle them.
we’re writing our own stories now
Even outside of Hiddleston, though, Sylvie, in particular, is a character that deserves to be explored. Her relationship with Loki is very interesting, but I’d watch an entire episode of just Sylvie and that’s saying a lot. There might not be specific plans for how to continue after Loki, but the idea of exploring Sylvie outside of Loki should not be discounted.
Just as Loki needed some growing before he and Thor could see the sun shine on them together again (which is where this is going, right? riiiiiight?), maybe Sylvie’s path needs to lead her away from Loki before it can lead her back to him, in whatever capacity that might be.
i don’t want to be alone
The thing is, yes, Loki went and got Mobius and B-15 and Casey and O.B. because they are his friends and he didn’t want to be alone, but he also went and got them because he wanted to save the TVA. Both things can be true at the same time, and the fact that Sylvie cannot process that both are right is part of the problem. Loki has had purely selfish motives before, he isn’t a stranger to being selfish. It’s just that …Loki isn’t just that anymore.
But no one is a saint. People are multifaceted. No one does good things just because they’re good all the time. We do good things because of the people we love because we want them to be well. We do good things for others, and because we want to look good. We do good things for a myriad of reasons, and they’re still good things, no matter why we do them.
Loki has found a place where he belongs – and he wants to keep that place, he wants to keep those people that inspire him to be better. That isn’t something to be ashamed of, that’s something to be proud of and something to fight for.
everyone’s so powerful these days
At some point, though, we’re going to have to talk about the power level of everyone in the MCU. Either we’re going to have to come up with some catastrophic event that takes out half of the superpowered population, or we have people with some serious powers out there, and sooner or later, we’re just not going to have credible threats. We’ve been here before in the comics, and it does not look good.
So, yeah, it’s about time the MCU dials it back a little bit. Otherwise, it all gets a little unbelievable when we all know most issues could be solved with a phone call to the right person. Especially when they’ve worked so very hard to make this all so interconnected.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Loki 2×05 “Science/Fiction”? Share with us in the comments below!
The first 5 episodes of Loki are available to stream on Disney+. The last episode will be available to stream on Thursday, November 9th.
