Loki episode 5 recap: so many Lokis
Huge spoilers ahead
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- Episode 5 (of 6), ‘Journey Into Mystery’- Written by Tom Kauffman- Directed by Kate Herron★★★★
Spoilers for the first five episodes ofLokifollow.
When James Cameron made his classic sequel to Alien, the clever use of a plural in the title told us exactly what we were getting – xenomorphs andlotsof them. There’s a strong argument that this week’s trip to the MCU should have gone down a similar path, becauseLokisis now a much more appropriate name for the show than Loki. As Agent Mobius so eloquently puts it, “You throw a rock out here and you hit a Loki.”
Though recent Rick and Morty outing ‘Mortiplicity’ probably surpasses it, there can’t be many TV episodes that feature so many characters who share the same name. With the Tom Hiddleston Loki we’ve been following from episode 1 (nottechnicallythe original model, but let’s call him Loki Prime), Classic Loki, Kid Loki, Boastful Loki and even a cheeky alligator, this is an episode in need of a collective noun – a Mischief, perhaps? – for a group of Lokis. In fact, so many of them crop up in ‘Journey into Mystery’ that you can see why Sylvie chooses to go under a different name – it makes lifesomuch easier.
That this doesn’t become incredibly confusing is a massive credit to Loki’s writing team and its director, Kate Herron, who emphasize the fun over some potentially complex temporal mechanics. The so-called Void that exists at the end of the universe is a convenient but intriguing construct that pulls all of space and time together, providing an excuse for multiple Lokis to come face-to-face as they keep themselves hidden from a “living tempest that destroys matter and energy” known as the Alioth.
The principal quartet of new Lokis are brilliant additions to the show, each of them exaggerating a facet of Loki Prime’s personality. The traitorous Boastful Loki claims to have vanquished both Captain America and Iron Man before claiming all six Infinity Stones, while Kid Loki managed what Loki Prime never could, and killed their brother, Thor. And then there’s Alligator Loki, a reptile removed from time for eating the wrong cat, who emerges as an unlikely star, despite the fact he utters not a single word – the decision to keep him silent pays off superbly, making him even more of an enigma.
Best of all, though, is Richard E. Grant’s Classic Loki. Although he’s forced to wear the sort of ridiculous outfit that looks much better on a comic-book page than it does on screen, Grant gives the older incarnation of the character a surprising amount of gravitas. It turns out his own encounter with Thanos played out with considerably less bravado than Loki Prime’s did in Infinity War, but his subsequent life of solitude brought out a wiser, more thoughtful version of the Asgardian. His self-sacrifice to give Sylvie time to enchant the Alioth is arguably the episode’s big moment – if you’re going to provide a distraction for a giant cloud monster, conjuring up a full-scale model of Asgard is a spectacular way to do it.
After those guys hit the mark so spectacularly, bringing in a mob of rogue Lokis feels like overkill, cameos that exist more for the benefit of a few gags than progressing the story. Their underground scrap is played brilliantly for laughs – give Alligator Loki a hand – but the episode would lose little if it wasn’t there. In fact, the sequence’s biggest contribution toMarvelmay just be the Vote Loki Variant, a peripheral character whose appearance in trailers and marketing made us believe he was going to be significant to the plot.
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Ultimately, however, the only Lokis who really matter are Loki Prime and Sylvie, and the episode does plenty to progress their story arcs. Having got all the information she could from Renslayer and Miss Minutes – the latter’s evolution from cartoon star to fully-functioning member of the TVA has been one of the highlights of the series – Sylvie’s decision to self-prune comes as something of a shock. But getting her to the Void is pivotal to the story, particularly in the scenes she shares with Loki Prime. While they have some major differences of opinion – Sylvie’s plan to enchant the Alioth seems much more practical than Loki Prime’s gung-ho “kill the monster!” approach – their mutual attraction is undeniable, especially in a nice moment when Loki Prime uses magic to wrap his blanket around Sylvie.
As lovely as these scenes are, however, you can’t help feeling Loki Prime’s redemption has been a little too quick and easy. At the start of the series premiere, after all, he was fresh from unleashing an army of invading aliens on New York in the first Avengers movie – that he’s now playing hero and hugging Mobius feels somewhat implausible, even in a show about an agency that monitors space and time.
Speaking of the Time Variance Authority, the show’s biggest questions now concern the identity of the mysterious figure pulling the strings. Is Renslayer feigning ignorance about her employers, or is she as in the dark as everyone else? Will the ever-quotable Mobius be able to fix anything when he makes it back to his old place of work? And what will Loki Prime and Sylvie find when they visit the house “behind the curtain”. Next week’s season finale has a lot of work to do if it’s going to deliver the satisfactory answers a wonderfully inventive show deserves…
Embark on an adventure in space and time with our recaps ofLoki: episode 1,Loki episode 2,Loki episode 3andLoki episode 4.
Verdict:
Another fun episode that goes big on exposition without ever forgetting its primary function is to entertain. The quartet of Special Guest Lokis all play their part – an Alligator Loki spin-off, anyone? – but ‘Journey into Mystery’ never forgets this is primarily Loki Prime and Sylvie’s story. Their romance may be improbable, but somehow it’s working. It’s also a relief to see that Mobius survived his trip to the end of the universe, even if his new-found love for Lokis is similarly unlikely.
Aside from Loki Prime’s accelerated journey from villain-to-all-out-hero, the episode’s one slight misstep is that – like thepenultimate instalment of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier– it feels like a story in need of a bigger cliffhanger. We can’t have been the only ones waiting for a mid-credits sting that never appeared…
Marvel-ous facts
The season finale of Loki debuts on Disney Plus on Wednesday 14 July.
Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard’s happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he’ll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard’s name was Winter.
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