Loki – Glorious Purpose Review

Before I get into the process of breaking down the finale (and really, the entire arc the series took Loki on this season), I wanted to make it clear that the writers absolutely did right by the character with how and where he ended this season. The realization by Loki that he needs to be the one who makes the sacrifice, who becomes the hero, who recognizes – after literal centuries of time alive in this universe – that he can be the good guy was the perfect culmination of his character journey within the MCU. From jealous, petty trickster, desperate for his father’s approval and angry that he never felt he lived up to the perfect brother in Thor – who always got chance after chance (at least in Loki’s mind) and for whom everything came easy – to the God of the Multiverse, alone (because all Lokis end up alone in the end) but standing sentry in hopes of allowing every variants in the vast multiverse the chance to live a full life? That’s an epic arc and one that feels truly fitting for a character on a hero’s journey. I just wish this season had taken the opportunity to fully lay the groundwork for that arc rather than overload us with technobabble in service of a McGuffin before offering us a literal deus ex machina that was ultimately unearned (despite being the perfect way to end this arc for this character).

So, where did Loki season two go wrong? When it failed to place the focus on the emotional journey of its titular character from the word go this time around. Season one worked so wonderfully because, in the midst of the time travel shenanigans, the story was centered around Loki learning more about himself through his variants. He learned that he can have compassion, that he doesn’t need to manipulate everyone around him to not feel alone (a key realization that carried onto this season – although it appeared Loki really only remembered it in the final two episodes), and he learned that sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (again, something he continued struggling with this season). So, instead of the series building on these lessons, giving us a Loki who was on a journey to make the ultimate personal sacrifice to save his new friends – and a universe of people he’s never met – we got a season of Loki desperately trying to find a way to revert to the status quo to save himself and the TVA (because Loki is always looking out for himself and trying to ensure he’s not alone – on brand), only to suddenly realize that he’s trapped in an ouroboros (fitting for the theme of the series, but still frustrating to spend an entire season chasing a particular solution only for the series to completely pivot away from it at the last moment) that he can never solve.

Which, in turn, leads us to Loki’s self-sacrifice. A decision that makes sense on paper but doesn’t track with the season arc up until that precise moment in the story. This is a choice I would have expected to see at the end of season one of Loki, where we’ve seen him realize that Sylvie is out to destroy He Who Remains and the TVA at all costs in retribution for her life spent living in apocalypses and he desperately wants to stop her emotional reaction and take a beat to understand all the angles before acting. Here, we’ve seen Loki take every possible step to prevent the Loom from overloading. We’ve seen him take every step to stop Sylvie from killing He Who Remains – save the only one he cannot seem to make, killing her.* And we’ve seen that He Who Remains is, like every frustrating villain in the history of film and television, more than willing to take Loki’s hand and walk him down the path to tell him there’s no way out of this except to not play the game. It all felt rather disappointing. Loki coming to the realization that he must step out of the ouroboros and chart his own path didn’t feel nearly organic enough. Rather, it felt like a character waking up from a nightmare and suddenly saying, “Oh! I see!” and then acting in a way that was so divorced from the character we’ve seen throughout the season – self-involved, desperate, and lost – and gaining magical clarity solely because the structure of the arc required it of him.

*I get why the writers – and Marvel – didn’t want to off Sylvie. She’s an interesting character – a less noble version of our Loki – and one that they certainly want in their back pocket as the MCU churns along. But really, when the only explanations for Loki not killing her to set things right hinges on two things – that he ostensibly loves her (something we’ve seen zero evidence of this season, since she’s been so underused) and that the MCU needs He Who Remains dead to allow for the influx of Kang variants for future projects – it’s a strange move to make. Loki has been Team Preserve The Timeline for so long that He Who Remains’ statement that you would rather have one timeline safe than all destroyed should have carried a bit more weight. Or maybe it did in one of the time loops we didn’t get a chance to see. Another missed chance to show us some Loki character growth.

And I say all this because I really wanted this season to build on the strengths of season one. You have one of the absolute best actors the MCU has on offer in Tom Hiddleston (who was acting the hell out of this episode – such a lovely performance), and you saddle him with a bad season of Doctor Who before attempting to give Loki a massive unearned hero moment? There was a much better way to walk this story to that epic closing sequence – but the MCU is going to MCU. When there’s a chance to make a story more complicated and convoluted than it needs to be, Marvel is absolutely going to do it. It’s like it can’t help itself anymore. Which is such a shame. A simple, character-focused story can still have epic highs. You can still jump through time, chase villains, and have surprisingly good special effects by putting your character journey front and center. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. I had hoped we’d get the chance to see Loki grow into the person we saw him become at the end of the finale. That would have been such a wonderful capper on his journey. But instead, the writers opted for flash over substance and we were short changed of that journey. What a bummer.