Loki Season 2: Episode 1 Review – Tearing Through The Fabric Of Time

This Loki season 2 episode 1 review will take a gander at this series strings. After breaking through the internet to find themselves at the edge of their seats, Loki receives praise for it’s first episode in season 2: Ouroborus. The Loki series has been one of the most anticipated Marvel shows once phase 4 stepped foot on the stage. And, it had been called one of the best Marvel shows they released. Like one article reads from The Verge, “Loki did something remarkable: It made me forget about the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe” (Webster, The Verge).  

From the article “Loki’s First Season Is The Best of Marvel Without The Baggage” by Alex Webster, he praises the series by saying that this has been one of the best shows without any baggage and without holding anything back. And, that this series carries something remarkable. Not only does it prove a story on the timeline, but it made him forget about everything else. This show can be a stand alone project and people would still enjoy it. Plus, without this show proving the reason for various timelines, there wouldn’t be any continuity throughout the MCU.

Loki season 1 had started phase 4 strong with WandaVision, both contributing to a long term process of the story. Loki ended the first season on a cliffhanger, making its audience wait with anticipation for the next one. Season 2 comes rushing in with a bang with many emotions that makes you want to say “Wait!” but it doesn’t want to wait up for you. In this review, we will explore this episodes ability to make us feel the intensity of it all. Lets get into it!

Loki available only on DisneyPlus. Spoilers Ahead.

Story: What About The Past, Present, And Future?

Loki Season 2, episode 1 starts off where it had left off in season 1 episode 6. Loki had just jumped through the time door that Sylvie kicked him through. But, he was then met with a very confused Mobius and B-15 as he approaches them. But as we know, they don’t have any memory of Loki at all. It made us wonder, “What is going on? Is this a different timeline?” After going through the episode it all made sense then. There was a reason why nobody remembered him, why everyone came out confused.

After Loki flees from Mobius and the other minute men as he tried to rack Mobius’ memory, he crashes into what we see is a Kang statue, and into a window. Everyone is shocked. They see a vehicle in their office window and see someone coming out of the cart. To their knowledge, this is the intruder. Nobody knows who Loki is, not even Casey. After a moment of the crash, something that was hanging from the ceiling snaps and crashes onto the floor, creating a crack in the floor. The camera ominously captures the scene, which makes us think that it will be of some importance later. Which it is.

The Truth About Loki’s Painful, Uncontrollable Ability

Now, onto the reason why nobody remembers each other. This episode gets really intense, especially after sitting down and watching the season finale of season 1. After Loki tries to get Casey to remember, Casey holds up his pad, letting the others know that he has the intruder – Loki. Then, suddenly Loki ends up twisting and disappearing in himself like he just combusted. Later on, we get to find out that what Loki has been experiencing is called TimeSlipping. Loki has been fabricating through time, jumping between past, present and future. Hence, the reason for nobody remembering who he is. Whenever Loki jumps into an area nobody knows him, he was placed in the past. And the scenes where people knew who he was, Loki was set in the present or future.

We first see this correlate when Loki slips into the present. Casey is working in the same office from before, but this time, he knows him. And Loki, now in the present, looks with pain and longing for him to know him finally feels a sense of relief. Casey knows him, Loki can finally try and explain everything. That is until he notices the floor. It has a crack in it, just like the same one when the spherical screen fell. When he points and asks, “Has that always been there?” Casey replies saying “As long as I can remember.” Then it clicks for both Loki and the audience. He was just in the past, he made that crack happen. 

This whole episode sequence was amazing. The entire story flowed together, and everything made sense. Like before, this episode was intense! It brought out feelings of suspense, anxiety for both Loki and Mobius by the end of the episode, and complete relief when we realize they made it.

Loki Timeslipping as he was describing it to Mobius

Characters and Performances: Wonderfully Refreshing

Like always, Tom Hiddleston played magnificently as Loki. Tom Hiddleston has been playing the role of Loki for over 10 years now, and honestly, he is irreplaceable. Nobody can play Loki like he does. The man loves him too much. After all, Loki is his signature character! What I love about Hiddleston’s performance is that fact that he does wonders on how to portray a character who has gone through issues in his life. Loki is the perfect specimen, knowing how troubling his past has been. Hiddleston hones down Lokis anguish, pain and longing to be in power through the emotions through his eyes. We can tell the history of Lokis life just by his expressions, body movements and emotions through the eyes of a troubled man played by a sweetheart. 

It is great to see him back again, reprising a role that nobody will forget. 

Supporting Characters

Owen Wilson, reprising his role as Mobius, was spot on, too. Just like the first season, seeing Mobius on the big screen again made my heart feel joy. He is such a loved character and Owen plays him so well. The supportive character who wants to help everyone, keep everyone calm. He is also really funny, which I enjoy. He is comedic at the right times. It goes hand in hand with his personality. All in all, he is just great.

He really cares about Loki and Wilson expresses his compassion so well with the other characters. And Mobius’ and Loki’s dynamics are one of like true friendship, which is refreshing to see. Loki never really had anybody else besides his brother Thor. But to now have a friend around is something he isn’t used to, especially since this Loki we are watching now isn’t the one we’ve been following til Avengers: Infinity War. This Loki doesn’t know what happened after Avengers from 2012. 

But, a new character appears to us who is the second star; Ouroborus. He is played academy award winner, Ke Huy Quan, best known as his role in The Goonies and in the Indiana Jones series in the ’80s. When Ouroborus, or O.B for short, is introduced we see that he is alone in the repairs and advancement department. He is a little talkative, only because he hardly ever gets to see anyone. Last time he saw someone, it was 400 years ago. And Mobius was the last person he saw! I liked Ouroborus, but in my opinion he was a little too awkward, which has a justifying cause. All in all, Ke Huy Quan still did a good job portraying O.B as the lonely worker who never gets to see anyone.

Ke Huy Quan as Ouroborus, or O.B for short

Cinematography And Sound: Spectacularly Ear Perking And Visually Appealing

Going through episode 1, I noticed many scenes that worked so good together. The sound throughout the episode, too, was really spot on for making our emotions go array. The producers and editors of Loki know how to make different scenes more important than others, for example the crack on the floor. When it fell, they emphasized the scene by going over it slowly to make us think, “Oh, thats going to be important later.” 

Same goes for the sound effects. Various scenes that are more intense and important end up having a gradual melodic instrument getting louder to emphasize the deepness of the scene. Like when Mobius was getting closer to the loom where all the raw time is coursing through with all its timelines. With the arc in hand, he makes it to the middle and Mobius lets it go, waiting for Loki to prune himself to come back. But, as O.B is in the systems room, watching, Mobius and O.B both go back and forth with hopes of Loki coming back.

As he doesn’t immediately come back, the music becomes more intense and quick making us think that neither Mobius or Loki will survive. Mobius getting stuck in the room, trying to hoof it back (as he says) and Loki getting stuck with constant timeslipping, until boom! The climax of the music. The scenes flipping back and forth between Loki suddenly getting pruned and Mobius trying to hoof it back before the doors close, Loki comes flying from the time stream and hits Mobius in the back which sends both of them soaring and bouncing back. Then the music stops and becomes soft again as we realize that they made it back in time, just as the doors closed. 

When Mobius realizes that Loki was pulled from the timeline to the present

Editing And Pacing: Perfectly Timed Every Time

Like always, Episode 1’s editing and pacing go hand in hand with cinematography which makes things even better and easier. The editing in this episode felt perfect. It helped the flow of the episode go smoothly, and to make things coherent. The pacing felt right as well. It didn’t feel to quick or too slow. A lot of information was presented to us, but they didn’t make it feel like an info dump nor did they make it feel too rushed. This episode was edited to perfection and paced just right for us to follow through clearly, making revelations feel natural and well timed.

The editing helped make scenes more impactful, placing the music at the right time to adjust the mood it wanted. The cinematography in all felt like the editing team and producers were putting a lot of time and effort to make the first episode punch. 

Final Thoughts

All in all, I really enjoyed this episode. Loki season 2 premiere was a success and a hit! I really enjoyed running along with Loki as he tried to fix his problem with his timeslipping, more lore being uncovered, and all the actors ability to play their characters just right. Loki will surely bring many fans together with its lovable characters, good story line, and attention to details to help us along the journey. Loki’s old arc being meshed into a new one is something I thought I would have never thought about. With this, this makes this series more interesting and engaging.