Note: This piece was written during the SAG-AFTRA strike, and the movie covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in WGA and SAG-AFTRA.

Loki continues its journey through its second season with a grab bag of positives and negatives. You can catch up with our Boss Rush reviews of Episode 1, “Ouroboros,” and Episode 2, “Breaking Brad.”

Be Warned: Spoilers lurk beyond this point – and if you indulge, even the TVA can’t protect you from getting ahead of your own timeline. 

Synopsis

Ah, episode 3. The midway point in a six-episode series where the skies either part and show smooth sailings ahead or storm clouds warn viewers that the waters might be a bit murky towards the end. “1893,” the third episode of the second season of Disney’s Loki asked more questions than it had the gumption to answer — and I can only hope that it finds them somewhere along the way.

The beginning of our episode opens with the TVA still needing to find a way to save the Temporal Loom, the near-MacGuffin piece of tech that powers the agency that served as a vehicle for Loki’s exploration of himself — both his own life and the mysterious motivations of Sylvie, the alternate version of him from another timeline. The threat of overwhelming the loom with a tangled “temporal knot” and the lack of access to a solution to anyone besides the loom’s creator — the immaculately menacing He Who Remains from the previous season — leads Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) to track down Miss Minutes (voice by Tara Strong), someone whom Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan) claims would have administrative access and could likely complete the task.

Alongside Mobius, Loki travels to the World’s Fair in Chicago tracking down the elusive Miss Minutes through their TemPad readings. While there, they encounter a “scientific” demonstration by a gentleman named Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors). Loki and Mobius watch the presentation of a new form of electricity generation that garners the attention of several people in attendance, including Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Loki and Mobius follow Timely out and through the crowd, encountering resistance to their plan as they go.

The rest of the episode consists of three separate forces — Miss Minutes and Renslayer; Loki and Mobius; and Sylvie — attempting to use Victor Timely for their own means. Several jaunty chase sequences — and one strangely… sensual soliloquy from Miss Minutes—later, Victor Timely double-crosses both Ravonna and Miss Minutes as he makes his way from away from Chicago and those intent on hunting him down for their pound of flesh. The episode ends with Victor Timely stepping through a Time Door and with Miss Minutes taking Ravonna to the End of Time with promises to reveal secrets to her that had hitherto been hidden.

But all in the next episode, of course.

Breakdown

For a mid-season episode, “1893” left a lot to be desired.

While Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson’s acting remained top notch throughout the episode, some of the other performances felt out of place with the frenetic energy that the show’s overall pacing tried (and failed, in places) to maintain. The urgency of the temporal loom’s devastation doesn’t seem to really motivate any of the characters away from their conversations with each other.

Despite her insistence that she wants to stay out of TVA matters and being left in her timeline at the end of the last appearance, Syvlie’s appearance in the episode felt strangely out of place and without any predecessor. Did she decide to stop serving up shakes and fries to follow the trail? How did she know who she was chasing?

Even Jonathan Majors, who has delivered one tour de force performance after another in his career—I’d argue, even in this same franchise, as He Who Remains—could not keep the boat entirely afloat throughout the episode. The character motivations just seemed to get lost and muddied in the action of the rest of the episode, the chase of He Who Remain’s variant, without any furthering of the series main plot.

Even worse, in most shows where plot fails, the deepening of interpersonal relationships can sometimes pick up the slack to deliver something meaningful to the audience watching; “1893” fails to do that. Furthermore, it calls into question some of the characterizations of the characters earlier in the series, notably, the sudden veering of Miss Minutes’ personal motivating factors in helping He Who Remains conduct his plan.

Final Score (3 out of 5 Stars)

I really wanted to give this episode more than three stars, especially with how utterly fantastic the first episode of this new season was.

Lack of true cohesion and the use of cliffhangers that shear toward panic at the end of the last two episodes leaves a tinny, counterfeit weight to a show that has otherwise been emotionally impactful for a character that has long since been an MCU favorite. (And personal favorite, if I’m being honest.)

Of course, this isn’t to say that there isn’t much more to come for Loki and his band of merry TVA agents, but as of right now, the aftertaste on this episode in terms of pacing and editing leans way closer to ash than it does to Cracker Jack.

The next episode of Loki Season 2 on Disney Plus airs next Thursday at 9 pm EDT/6 pm PDT. Stick with us for more coverage as the season progresses.

Featured Image: Marvel

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