This blog is more a workshop then a review. There was a lot to dig into, so I'll get right to it.
Sylvie's choice
We finally meet the great and powerful Oz who has been pulling the strings for the TVA all this time. Though his name isn't spoken, Kang the Conqueror makes his MCU debut. Actor Jonathan Majors was an absolute joy to watch as he makes a great first impression as Kang. He teeters on that fine line between insanity and being the smartest person in the room. You immediately feel like he's been at this gig for a long time, yet when they cross that "threshold," you could sense his trepidation and anxiety skyrocketing as if they were palpable. When he tells Sylvie and Loki why he is willing to give up his rule of the TVA to them, he momentarily lets down his guard and truly conveys the exasperation and fatigue needed to convince them of his motives. Brilliant acting, for sure. I also like the hints of another big bad, like Thanos, who is seemingly justifies doing something evil (taking away free will) because of far worse consequences (like another multiverse war).
Kang presents Sylvie and Loki an interesting proposition. They can either kill him then and there, or they can take charge of the TVA themselves. The catch? If they kill him, they risk leaving their sacred timeline defenseless against countless other variants of Kang who don't want to place nice.
First of all, it seems crazy that Kang would even give them an option to take his place! I suppose he tried giving them perfect lives in the timeline (courtesy of Miss Minutes), but the Lokis saw right through that. So he offers them the keys to the empire instead. It was hard to buy into the "I'm old and tired" excuse, but maybe there's some legitimacy to it. What might be going on is he knows he's eventually going to lose, maybe to another version of himself, maybe to another powerful being entirely, who knows. Maybe Kang truly is convinced that Loki and Sylvie will be able to protect the integrity of the sacred timeline from other versions of himself.
Or maybe, just maybe, Kang was being very deceptive. Did Kang secretly know that the Lokis would kill him, thereby enabling a variant of himself to reign supreme? It's interesting how Kang was in charge of the TVA this whole time, even though no one knew who he was, but at the end, Loki sees that Kang's statue has been erected, as if everyone now knows who Kang is. I suppose it isn't plausible, but it'd be interesting if the Kang we see in this episode really was just trojan-horsing the TVA to ensure another Kang would continue ruling in his place.
What's interesting to think about is the timeline itself. Kang created the TVA to remove anyone who might threaten the sacred timeline, but if that was the case, why would Kang ever need to worry about other versions of himself taking over? Can't he just prune them? But what's happening now is not merely the creation of branches within one universe's timeline, but the actual crossing over of multiple universes' timelines. Kang explains how one variant of himself discovered that infinite universes sit on top of each other unseen. Kang separated the sacred timeline during the multiverse wars and keeps the universes at bay by using Alioth, the interdimensional dog-looking entity we saw in the previous episode who is capable of devouring time and space. But now that Loki and Sylvie have removed the sacred timeline's last line of defense, it seems like another multiverse war is inevitable.
In fact, a multiverse war may already be upon us. When Loki returns to the TVA, we realize that Mobius has no idea who he is. Loki looks around and see differently numbered offices and a giant statue of Kang in place of the statues of the Time Keepers we previously saw there.
So what happened? It appears Kang was correct in his assessment of what would happen if Sylvie killed him. A variant of Kang (heck, who knows, it could be multiple Kang variants working together) has run amuck inside the sacred timeline. We'll have to wait and see what exactly this new Kang variant has done.
While treading into Season 2, Marvel needs to be careful not to break their own rules. For example, they've established a very specific rule regarding traveling back in time during Avengers: Endgame when Hulk said "Changing the past doesn't change the future." That begs the question, where/when exactly is Loki now? Is he at the same point in time in the sacred timeline he was before? To me, it appeared that everything in the TVA has been affected by a time-hopping Kang variant, but if Sylvie's killing of Kang allowed a variant Kang to take over at some point in the past, wouldn't that simply create another branch instead of changing the entire timeline? Sure, time operates differently in the TVA, plus, if we're getting into crossover universes, that may be a moot point, but possibilities don't excuse Marvel from actually explaining what's going on. The problem is that, by the time we get to Season 2 of Loki, we'll already have seen Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumanium and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, so the context of Loki's setting in the finale could change completely, anyway.
Unsatisfying conclusion to the season?
While Loki gets me excited for those aforementioned projects going forward, we still have more questions than I think we should. I suppose it's different than Marvel's first two shows on Disney+ because we already know a second season is on the way. Still, whether people liked the ending to WandaVision is one thing, but it's hard to argue against the clean, satisfying conclusion to the story arc of that season.
Marvel, as we know, is just as concerned about setting up future projects as they are about focusing on the story at hand. The finale of Loki may not have been clear, but was it enough?
For Loki the character, maybe so. For the god of mischief, who has wanted nothing more than to rule, we only needed to see one moment to know that his feelings for Sylvie were genuine and not for the sake of manipulation. We actually got two of those moments. First, they finally kiss; say what you want about a person kissing another version of himself/herself (if any character is going to do that, Loki makes the most sense), but Loki proved he is capable of loving someone other than himself. Sort of.
Secondly, Tom Hiddleston conveyed the hurt and betrayal Loki felt in that moment when Sylvie chose not to trust him and sent him back through the TVA portal. I suppose this is more interpretive conjecture, but I don't think it's a stretch to determine that Loki finally understands the consequences of his untrustworthy actions. We've seen some playful banter between him and Thor in these situations, but here, Loki finally gets how his nature can be so destructive when it backfires on him.
In the final scene, Loki makes it seem clear he is trying to set things right. Up until then, we've been sitting around waiting for the other shoe to drop; we assumed Loki's intentions eventually would prove to be self-fulfilling. But is this new, caring, emotional look for Loki all a charade? I sure hope not. It'll be interesting to see if Loki pushes back against Kang's rule to truly stop him or if he ends up trying to set himself up to take control in Season 2.
As for Sylvie, she rejects any chances for interesting development by remaining untrusting of everyone. Perhaps blinded by revenge, she betrays Loki and she kills Kang without giving much thought to the repercussions of her actions. Pretty straightforward. It'll be interesting to see how she reacts to changes around her once she leaves Kang's office and realizes he wasn't lying to her. Maybe she, too, will have a change of heart.
Ravonna finally seemed to be breaking out of her goodie-two-shoes shell, but we'll need to wait for Season 2 before we see that payoff. For now, I guess it needs to be enough that she is questioning free will and searching for answers.
What's next?
The idea of multiverses allows for the next show, What If? to explore the infinite possibilities with some degree of fun. I'm not counting on a lot of context to be given for the show in relations to how Loki affects it, but it sure seems safe to assume that What If? will continue right where Loki ends, with the state of the sacred timeline in complete disarray. I probably won't take the show so seriously given that it's a cartoon exploring one-off stories, but if they still manage to connect these ideas into the MCU at large, I'd be impressed.