A couple of weeks, the first (and it seems not the last) season of Loki achieved it's glorious purpose for Disney+ by building more of the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Loki the series, like the previous MCU series on Disney+, does not truly end but adds to the building blocks of what is to come.
The penultimate episode of Loki season 1 is a bit of wild ride, set in the mysterious Void where Sylvia teams up with Mobius who is traversing this dystopian hell scape in a pizza delivery car.
Elsewhere, Loki is playing with himself.
No, not like that, you perv!
There's a whole bunch of Loki variants in the Void including one who is inexplicably an alligator.
There's a massive fight sequence as the Lokis turn on each other, each assuming the other is screwing with them somehow.
Richard Grant plays Classic Loki, all resplendent in a comics accurate yellow and green costume from the early 1960s.
Also in the void: a massive cloud-like creature called Alioth.
The various Loki variants spend their time running away from Alioth.
Sylvie has the crazy idea of running towards Alioth. She thinks she can enchant Alioth and get past him to the real power behind the Time Keepers, whoever is really in charge of the TVA. Our Loki (the one we've been following since episode one) thinks this is crazy but Loki is quite smitten with Sylvie and where she goeth, he goeth too.
Sylvia being a Loki variant means Loki is in love with himself.
Yeah, that seems about right.
Long story short: Sylvie's crazy plan works with the help of a sacrifice play from Classic Loki.
Before the special effects were added, I imagine Richard Grant felt more than a bit silly, flexing and stretching in the gaudy green-yellow get up like some kind of insane ballet dancer having a seizure.
Sylvie and Loki get past Alioth to arrive at the Citadel at the End of Time where they meet the true power of the TVA.
He Who Remains.
And then...
Nothing happens.
For a rather long time.
There is a long stretch of time where Sylvie and Loki sit and listen to He Who Remains deliver a really long exposition dump.
What makes this even remotely interesting is the performance of Jonathan Majors as He Who Remains, a volatile mix of goofy and sinister.
Who the hell is He Who Remains?
He's a scientist from the 31st Century whose variants of himself started multiversal war. He who remains ended the war when he used Alioth to destroy his variants and he created the TVA to maintain the peace of a single time line.
He Who Remains is tired of running all this and offers Loki and Sylvie an opportunity to run the TVA in his stead. Or they can kill him. But there will be consequences.
Loki's considering the 1st option. Sylvie just wants to kill him.
After shoving Loki through a time door back to the TVA, Sylvie does just that.
And the consequence is a bright line splinters into a bunch of other lines.
The line represents the single sacred time line becoming a wild and unruly multiverse.
Which is a big deal but is only represented by that illustrated line. We are being told there are consequences of the death of He Who Remains.
The only real consequence that we experience is Loki discovers that Mobius and B-15 do not know who Loki is and the statues of the Time Keepers have been replaced with statues of a variant of He Who Remains.
The last hour of Loki is a bit of talky slog where our Loki is rendered a side note in his own series. The "glorious purpose" of this episode is less to tell a story and more to move the building blocks around to get things ready for the next slate of Marvel movies, specifically the next Dr. Strange movie and the next Ant Man & the Wasp film.
Before appearing in Loki, Jonathan Majors had already been cast to appear in the next Ant Man & the Wasp movie as...
Kang the Conqueror.
Yep, Marvel Comics' time travelling big bad is making his way to the MCU.
He Who Remains obliquely refers to one of his variant identities as "a conqueror".
In case you think Jonathan Majors' appearance in the final episode came completely out of nowhere, he had already been in the previous episodes, voicing the android Time-Keepers.
Tom Hiddleston was charming and delightful as always in the role of Loki and his first solo series was mostly a lot of fun to watch. But I don't think Tom or Loki were well served by the finale of season 1.
Oh, mid credits, there is an announcement of Loki season 2.
How? Why? When?
Your guess is as good as mine.
OK, next week, we wrap up season 2 of Batwoman.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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