Spoiler Review

Though Loki has always been referred to as a fan favourite for many, Laufeysons motives have always felt too ambiguous for me to pay any more attention to his character than required. He always felt along the lines of the Hungarian thief, Beni Gabor, from The Mummy to me. What the Marvel Disney+ shows have managed to achieve so far though, is take characters like this and give them more to do and enough development that you feel much more invested in them.

Very early in the episode it is made clear that we are dealing with a version of Loki that has not had the development we saw before his death. Loki is still unredeemed and incredibly arrogant; we see this as his undoing time and time again. Not hours earlier he had been apprehended by the Avengers and failed to learn from any mistakes. Because of this he is verbally disarmed and easily apprehended by the TVA, just as he is in the future by Dr Strange in Thor Ragnarok (2017) and then by Thanos in Infinity War (2018).

Previous to some of the larger revelations of the episode, the shows quirky writing does allow us to see different sides to the sometimes unbearably cocky Loki. We see self-doubt when he questions the possibility of being a robot, we see fear when he witnesses the son of a Goldman Sachs board member being erased (presumably from existence) and we even see sparks of genuine intelligence when Loki confesses awareness of Endgames time heist falling apart around him.

The supporting cast are all introduced with ample screen time, Wunmi Mosaku as the formidable B-15, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the justice dealing Ravonna Renslayer and voice acting legend Tara Strong as Miss Minutes all give us a brief look into the inhabitants of the TVA and what to expect from them.

Owen Wilsons Mobius M. Mobius is introduced as an investigator type and is the perfect counterpart for this version of Loki. With foresight as his advantage, Mobius sees the value of a Loki that was redeemed the Loki that died in attempt to spare his brother and save what was left of the now planetless Asgardians. After advancing the many passive-aggressive exchanges between the two, Mobius attempts to break the God of mischief by shoehorning 3 films worth of character development into Lokis very own episode of This Is Your Life.

Hiddleston is like a flipbook of emotions as his character slowly begins to understand his fate is unchanging and he does not serve the glorious purpose he feels he deserves. The music ramps up the tension following the moments of the exchange perfectly, amplifying certain emotions as you watch Loki experience them. The real eureka moment begins as the character stares into a drawer full of infinity stones finally understanding it is all bigger than him, the strings and vocal swells that play feel like a perfect accompaniment for such a moment of short-lived clarity. By the end of the episode Loki does not feel like the same Loki that changed his ways after setting up the events that would lead to his death, but it almost feels like he can see the value that Mobius sees in that version of himself.

In a broader sense the episode somehow makes the universe halving events of the Infinity Saga seem much smaller in scale with the casual drawer full of infinity stone paper weights and the Jetsons inspired TVA cartoon narrated by Miss Minutes, teasing multiverse wars, timekeepers, and sacred timelines.

A well paced opening episode with a strong identity and a lot going for it. Hiddleston shows how well he knows character, accompanied very tastefully by the TVA cast setting up what could potentially be the most MCU altering Disney+ show to date.