One of the points set up in this episode was that there have been many ( many) Loki variants that the TVA has hunted down over the … years? Sure, we’ll go with years. It’s a really neat idea, to pit these two Lokis against each other, but of course, as I was thinking about it, yet another reference occurred to me. Along the way, he struggles not only with the history of actions under his name, but his very nature as a trickster god and a capital-V Villain, destined to ever play the foil to his heroic brother, Thor. In the 2014 series Loki: Agent of Asgard, a newer, younger version of Loki sets off to erase his prior version’s crimes for the sake of Asgard. That’s something that also comes from comics, and the broken left horn in particular is a thing we’ve seen before in another version of Loki with a penchant for occupying other people’s bodies. It’s a fun reveal on the heels of last week’s discussion of Loki’s gender-fluid status (even if it doesn’t quite live up to that descriptor), but the real impact for me was the way Di Martino looks like a dark ringer for the Doctor’s current incarnation, played by Jodie Whittaker. When the variant Loki drops her hood in the flickering light of a Roxxcart department store, we’re treated instead to the blonde, bob-cut visage of Sophia Di Martino. There is one thing that struck me as a very nod-and-wink sort of reference to the famous time-traveling Doctor, though. I personally find the TVA to be a little more on par with The Umbrella Academy’s Commission, but it’s not hard to argue that those different stories all hang out in the same general space, stylistically. There’s been buzz about the idea of this series being the god of mischief’s dip into the Doctor Who pond, and with the time-hopping, adventure-heavy vibe of the first two episodes, it’s easy to make that comparison. That one lacked a little punch, because, well, a penitent Nazi is still a Nazi, but I make the comparison because the reveal at the end of this episode of Loki executes the same trick with much more success. Last time, it was used in Avengers: Infinity War for the dramatic reveal of the penitent Red Skull, overseeing the site of the Soul Stone on the planet Vormir. The usage of the hood in the opening scene, the way it completely drapes and obscures the antagonist’s face, is an old storytelling trick, and the kind of thing that I just love seeing. Have we seen it before? Sure, but that’s part of the fun of it it’s almost a metafictional story itself, watching this god of mischief try and try again, ever hounded by his own domain. It reinforces the idea of the character as one who is constantly trying to escape his old habits, only to fall back into them because the opportunities that arise are just so tempting. That way, we’re gifted twofold: First, we know that the TVA is more competent than bureaucrats are traditionally depicted, and second, we know that the old tricks aren’t going to be enough. Our Loki’s first field mission is to the site of this altercation, but it’s not much of a mission this time around, as he uses it to test his boundaries.Īs audiences, we’ve seen Loki try this kind of trick before, and it’s important for the development of Hiddleston’s character that he does so again, only to have it fail. When we start this one, we see that in play: TVA agents arrive at a Renaissance faire in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in the year 1985, and they’re summarily dispatched in a dark tent by a hooded trickster using green magical flares and knives. Last episode ended on the series pitch: There’s another variant Loki, and they need our Loki to catch him. Episode two of Loki, titled “The Variant,” really plays with that. I mentioned last time the fun I had with the concept of the TVA - what it does, what it’s named, and how that works for it in a serial streaming show.
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