We’re over halfway through Loki Season 2 with Episode 4, “Heart of the TVA.” Unlike previous episodes, which may have suffered from inconsistent pacing or odd writing decisions, “Heart of the TVA” establishes the story beats for the remainder of the season in a jaw-dropping conclusion.

Note: there will be major spoilers covered in this review. Be sure to check out our reviews of the first, second, and third episodes.

Synopsis

Loki, Mobius, and Sylvie must work together with Victor Timely and O.B. to fix the Temporal Loom before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Hunter B-15 tries to get General Dox and her hunters on her side, while Ravonna and Miss Minutes hatch their own plot to take over the TVA. In a race against time, everything comes to a head with huge, multiversal-shattering implications for the future.

Breakdown

I mean…wow. What an episode. I’m still reeling from the ending. But first, let’s take it from the top.

Miss Minutes makes good on her promise from the last episode and reveals the truth to Ravonna, which ties back to the audio clip we heard briefly in the first episode. I appreciated that the reveal was more than just her working with Kang, as was hinted before. She fought alongside him in the multiversal war and ruled the TVA alongside him before having her memories wiped. In this context, the anger is justifiable and it sets up Renslayer and Miss Minutes as the villains in a way that feels pretty organic and logical. 

Perhaps my favorite exchange in this episode was between Loki and Sylvie in the pie room. Sylvie’s presence throughout Season 2 has been sorely missed, and while I think she’s still lacking some key character moments, this scene helps to rectify some of those grievances. In previous episodes, I felt their back-and-forths were repetitive, but this one works because of what it does for Loki’s character and growth. 

Let’s dig into that: frankly, Loki himself has been on the backburner for the last couple of episodes. While you could argue he’s not in this episode a ton, either, I love what this scene establishes for his character and how far he’s come. If you had told me that Loki, a man who tortured people and subjugated Earth in The Avengers, would utter the words, “Hope is hard,” I would have said you’re nuts. But between his growth in the previous MCU films as well as Season 1, Loki’s arc is incredibly compelling.    

Loki so desperately wants the TVA to be better than what was created by He Who Remains. The delivery of the line “we are gods” is the perfect indication of Loki’s shift in perspective. Loki’s not confident or arrogant when he says this. He doesn’t want to be a god and rule for the sake of power: he wants to protect the multiverse and do right by it, and it’s lovely. With that said, though, I think Sylvie needed more screen time in previous episodes to really make this conflict shine because it should have been front and center. Regardless, I appreciate its weight in this episode.

Next I want to address Hunter B-15’s interrogation of Dox, and later Renslayer’s ultimatum. The past few episodes seemed to be teasing a potential TVA civil war, with B-15 leading one side and General Dox leading the other. B-15 has come a long way from being a by-the-numbers hunter in Season 1 who wanted to prune Loki every chance she got. Her compassion puts her at conflict with the rest of the TVA, and I thought it would come to a head here. Instead, we got a pretty brutal execution scene. It was a bold choice that cemented Miss Minutes and Renslayer as formidable and unsympathetic villains (the pure giddiness on Miss Minutes’ face made it that much worse). In my review of Episode 1, I wondered if Renslayer would redeem herself or join Kang’s side, but I’m also fine with the path she’s on now; it’s very fitting.

Speaking of Renslayer, it’s not long after she’s established as a villain that she gets pruned. It will be very interesting to see where they go with her arc from here. She’s already been to the End of Time and discovered the truth, so there’s no real incentive for her to get past Alioth in the Void. What will she do if she comes back? Will she still be so singularly focused on power, or will she forge a new path? It’s ironic that she’s been in search of free will but has yet to make a true choice of her own.

This episode also explains the mysterious scene from Episode 1 where Loki is pruned. It’s revealed that Loki ended up pruning himself, as he was in the hallway when his future self shows up. It’s a neat bit of context, although I’m interested to see where it all leads. The concept of Ouroboros (the snake eating the tail) and paradoxes were name-dropped a bit too obviously earlier in the episode, but it may point to how the next couple of episodes will go (more on that later), so I’ll let it slide. It’s a touch disappointing that Sylvie’s line, “There you are” wasn’t the result of her looking for him after considerable time apart, but instead being separated by just a few minutes. It’s a nitpick, but I was hoping for something a bit more…profound? Significant? 

I have to give a shout-out to the sets and cinematography. They continue to be dazzling with each episode, and here is no different. I especially loved the scene where Miss Minutes disappears and fades before the camera focuses in on the sculpture of Kang in the TVA.

Victor Timely has a compelling arc this episode, going from an unassuming yet calculated conman to a genuinely good person trying to be brave and save the multiverse. His scenes with O.B., Mobius, and the hot cocoa machine were all delightful. Jonathan Majors’ performance as Timely is more subdued in this episode, which indicates to me that much of the Victor we saw in “1893” was a front, an act as part of his conman schtick. Here, he fits more in line with the other variants of Kang we’ve seen so far while still being distinct. It’s a good performance, and more importantly, it made me care about Victor Timely way more than I was expecting to.

Which brings us to…the ending. With Victor’s Temporal aura matching He Who Remains’ just enough to unlock the blast doors, they finally have a chance to fix the Temporal Loom. The driving motivation for the past four episodes! Knowing that Season 2 is six episodes, though, it’s clear that things aren’t going to work out…but I was not prepared for just how badly things would go. In terms of sheer insanity on the screen, this felt like a season finale versus an episode ending in the middle of a show’s run.

The last ten minutes or so of “Heart of the TVA” goes all in. Victor volunteers to be the one to attach the Throughput Multiplier to the Temporal Loom, but within moments he is disintegrated into strings of mass and flesh by the intense radiation. My jaw dropped. And then it got worse! The Temporal Loom explodes with the TVA caught in it, but just as all hope seems lost, the screen suspiciously flickers on Loki before cutting to black. You have no idea how excited I was as I screeched at my TV, “IS HE GOING TO TIME SLIP AGAIN?!” 

One of my complaints of episode 1 was I felt the potential and consequences of time slipping was too quickly wrapped up. If these next two episodes go in the direction I think they’re going to, with Loki time slipping into the past to try and fix their mistakes…the potential here is so cool. 

I’m a sucker for time travel stories like The Edge of Tomorrow and Steins;Gate where the characters are caught in a time loop and have to fix things, and I’m hopeful Loki will be able to harness the time looping to do just that. If I have any complaint, it’s that it took four episodes to get to this point. Imagine if the last three episodes were trimmed down, and this was Episode 3 instead; if the stakes were appropriately grounded around our main characters and this served as the mid-season finale, it would make this ending that much more gut wrenching. As is, though, this episode is great and absolutely worth watching.

Final Score (4 out of 5 stars)

Most of this episode could be called a series of bold choices. Between the shocking execution of the Minutemen, the pruning of Renslayer, the unexpected demise of Victor Timely followed by the destruction of the TVA and everyone in it, “Heart of the TVA” pulls no punches.

I think the challenge with Loki Season 2 has been the pacing and writing being at odds with each other. Slower scenes, while greatly appreciated in Season 1, feel out of place when the threat of the Temporal Loom’s destruction and its catastrophic implications is hanging over everyone. Finally, “Heart of the TVA” leverages the stakes and writing to create a real sense of urgency. This episode is gripping and meaningful, and my favorite of Season 2 so far. It’s not perfect, but I enjoyed it immensely.

The next episode of Loki Season 2 airs on Disney Plus next Thursday at 9 pm EDT/6 pm PDT. Stick with us for our coverage of each episode!

Featured Image: Marvel

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