NOTHING BUT SPOILERS (Because That’s How You Learn) #9
by Stacey Jones
EDITOR’S ALERT: This is the first part of Stacey Jones’ discussion of Loki and its place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or is it the Marvel Televerse? The real universe, maybe? My mind, it be a’wondering.
Anyway, like it says in the title of this post, a world of SPOILERS awaits below the thin red line. Oh, and also an assumption that you’re familiar with the MCU!
Loki – LAMENTIS
Root words are important!
Episode Three’s title gives a fair shake to what’s in store, beginning with
experiencing Sylvie’s particular set of skills up close, with poor Hunter C-20 on the receiving end of some serious mind manipulation from The Enchantress as she fishes for information on the Time-Keepers.
Even as I squirmed at the manipulation, there were also alarm bells ringing.
This is clearly an illusion C-20 remembers, but that means … she hasn’t always been at the TVA.
Skullduggery is afoot, dear reader, and the malfeasance seems to originate from Judge Ravonna Renslayer. It also casts Mobius in an entirely new, and far less suspicious light (for now).
I don’t even think there ARE Time-keepers anymore, to be honest. But there is someone giving orders to Renslayer … someone very powerful.
The nature of this episode is, on the surface, a catch-up. Loki and Sylvie, together, alone against their shared predicament on the doomed mining world of Lamentis – 1 (in 2077), have no choice but to talk and work together.
Underneath that surface, every question answered leads to two more questions (like, how come there are only humans on this planet, but all the written language is apparently alien?)
Loki and Sylvie’s long train voyage across the imperiled surface allows some time for a comparison of their respective realities, wherein Sylvie implies she is a variant Loki. I really think she’s just playing her cards close to the vest in this episode, and the truth will be more complicated than that.
Loki has a sweet moment describing his mother Frigga to Sylvie that once again reminds us of the depths of his burgeoning emotional well, which is a reassurance to me that “our” Loki is still on a redemption path.
Sylvie, sadly, has no similar memories to comfort her, but has what seems like a moment of genuine curiosity about Frigga, and a wistful moment of knowing something has been missed out upon in her own life.
Later, storywise, Sylvie wakes to find Loki drunk, in the center of the party in the bar car of the train they’re on, singing ancient Asgardian sea shanties, which leads to their discovery as imposters and delays their timeline in reaching their only way off of the condemned world.
The big takeaway from that scene is that Sylvie, so suspicious of Loki, was allowed to sleep. Clearly, it surprises her, as it would most people who knew 2012 Loki before the events of this series unfolded.
The red herring in this episode comes in the form of a TemPad, the TVA device that will open doorways across time. Loki has hidden it magically on his person, intending to use the escape ship to recharge it, but the ejection from the train smashes it.
This raises the stakes for Loki and Sylvie, who must trust each other more than ever and decide on a plan to hijack the escape ship, which, according to the Sacred Timeline (ahem, we aren’t still buying that are we?), was destroyed with the rest of the planet.
If I’m following the show right, I think that would be a Nexus event that would draw the attention of the TVA, which further illustrates the godly pair’s level of desperation.
In discussing the mechanics of Sylvie’s enchantment ability, Loki discovers that all TVA employees are, in fact, variants pulled from across time and mentally reprogrammed, as Sylvie learned from C-20. The fire under Loki flares as he finds a renewed determination to find the truth about the Time-Keepers and the TVA.
The stakes continue to raise throughout the episode, and as Loki and Sylvie race towards the escape ship through a phalanx of armed guards and desperate civilians, we get a taste of even more danger when the planet they’re fleeing starts crashing down around them.
At the apex of the destruction, an enormous rock smashes through the ship and dashes the hopes of everyone fighting for a place on it….
And that’s where we’re left until next week’s show. Nothing left for us loyal viewers to do but have a drink and wait for the usual Marvel deus ex machina I am certain is destined to appear in next week’s episode to save Loki and Sylvie’s collective asses.
At least, based on previous episodes in this and other Marvel TV shows, that’s what the Marvel powers-that-be are up to. I wonder whether whatever happens will blow the story wide open, as it usually does, or if I’ll be totally wrong and a new type of twist will shock the hell out of us.
I dunno about you, but I’m starting to get a bit fatigued with the way the wonderfulness of Marvel storytelling is become mundane.
Stacey Jones is an award winning writer, composer, musician, and rebel philosopher who was, in fact, the overall winner of the 2nd running of TVWriter™’s now gone but not forgotten contest, The People’s Pilot. TVWriter™ is happy to welcome him back to the fold