Loki stars the returning Tom Hiddleston alongside Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The series streams on Disney+ from June 9, 2021. The six episode series will then debut new episodes every Wednesday.
Synopsis
Loki tries to escape The Void, a desolate purgatory where he meets variant versions of himself.
Review
I will say right off the bat, Loki episode 5 was the strongest episode across all three currently existing MCU shows on Disney+ and almost demands to be seen more than once. It has a plethora of easter eggs littered throughout that any Marvel comics fan would have a field day finding.
Picking right up where we left off last week, we find our Loki in an unknown land with 4 new Variant versions of himself. Classic Loki, Boastful Loki, Kid Loki and Alligator Loki.
This new land is what is known as The Void, where entire timelines and variants are dumped when the TVA prunes them from existence, this leaves them at the mercy of a creature called Alioth that consumes everything it wants.
Loki’s being survivors though remain just one step ahead of this giant cloud creature.
Now the reason this episode demands a second watch as mentioned earlier, is that the Void is overflowing with Marcel references from comics and even the MCU movies. We’re shown a fallen Helicarrier in the distance, as well as the remains of Ronan’s ship from Guardians of the Galaxy. Elsewhere we’re privy to one of the best easter eggs which is a yellow helicopter with Thanos written on the side. This is a very old reference to the cheesy days of comics where Thanos (the mad titan from deep in space) used to travel around fighting Avengers in his own helicopter.
The winner for easter eggs though has to be Mjonir buried deep underground, along with Throg who is trapped in a glass jar! Yep, this was our only cameo from Thor this season, and he was stuck in a jar as a frog!
In their hiding place, the 5 Loki’s discuss what made them variants in the first place, and how they differ from our Loki. They are all in various forms of defeat however and accepting of their fate in The Void. They are survivors but for our Loki still has the spark of fight within him (thanks to Sylvie) and attempts to coax the other 4 into joining him in killing Alioth. Failing to do so however leads to crossing paths with President Loki who has his own band of Void survivors and was working secretly with Boastful Loki before backstabbing him (as Loki’s do). Hilariously his followers also turn on him and this leads to a big Loki battle before Classic, Kid, Alligator and our Loki escape back outside.
Elsewhere Sylvie is trying to get information out of Renslayer, who seems just as pissed about the TVA being a lie as everyone else. They form a reluctant alliance and Miss Minutes tries to get information that could help them find who the ‘puppet master’ of the TVA is. Shocking absolutely no one however, Renslayer is absolutely full of it and tries to stall Sylvie while Miss Minutes gets some soldiers in to take down Sylvie. Being one of the far superior Loki variants however (unlike other Loki’s she has been a warrior and survivor her entire life and not really lived in luxury unlike her male counterparts) she prunes herself in order to find our Loki again.
Elsewhere in the Void, Team Loki escort our Loki to Alioth’s location so he can go ‘fight him’ before getting cold feet when the USS Eldridge spawns into The Void. Minor history (or myth) lesson. There exists an urban legend/ myth where the USS Eldridge was used in a secret experiment to make an entire battleship invisible to enemy devices. The experiment failed however when the ship disappeared but reappeared in a different dockyard miles away from its original position before reappearing back where it first disappeared minutes later. The dark turn being that some of the sailors were missing while others were fused to the ship. Now in the MCU it appears that the TVA destroyed this timeline and sent the ship and its crew to The Void to meet their ends at the hands of Alioth.
B15 is shown to still be alive and in prison by Renslayer in the TVA, although B15 drops a truth bomb on her that Sylvie needs to find the truth, Renslayer just wants to know it and that means she’ll ultimately lose.
Finally Sylvie finds herself in The Void and comes face to face with Alioth, in her escape however she comes in contact with it and using her enchanting powers she knows it is protecting the creator of the TVA. She is saved by Mobius driving a pizza delivery mini and they finally meet with Team Loki.
Mobius delivers a line to which I doubt any Loki has ever heard, that it’s never too late to change, something Classic Loki takes to heart and something we have witnessed with Sylvie and our Loki over the last 5 weeks.
After departing, Mobius takes the fight to the TVA, Kid, Alligator and Classic go back to surviving in the Void and Sylvie and Loki go to take on Alioth.
Kid Loki gives our Loki a flaming sword (Norse Mythology reference, the blade is called Lævateinn and I have no idea how to pronounce this) but despite their best efforts, Loki and Sylvie struggle against Alioth before Classic Loki appears and using his vastly superior enchanting powers creates an illusion of Asgard to distract Alioth long enough to let Loki and Sylvie reach through to Alioth and ultimately defeat him. Sadly at the cost of Classic Loki who goes out a hero and laughing in the face of the creature he has been running from all this time.
This is it now folks, we are in the final chapter, all that remains is a fancy looking building, on a rock floating in the dark depths of space (and supposedly at the end of time itself).
Also I will say it now. Kang is the man behind all of this and he is going to be the next MCU big bad!
Verdict
Episode 5 was a phenomenal watch and as I mentioned earlier, it demands to be seen more than once just to watch all the beautifully hidden Easter eggs. Loki is D+’s best MCU tv show and its most bold yet. I cannot wait to see how this ends and what effects it will have in the rest of the MCU.
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