In a show with only six episodes it is strange to have an episode that is basically a filler episode. It's not that it is not a good episode, it really is, it's just that it hardly moves the plot forwards. There are a few revelations and character development, but nothing too big. Luckily Loki and Sylvie spend a lot of time in this episode together and their evolving relationship is worth everything.
The episode doesn't open with the usual Marvel music, it opens with a bouncy bar music. That's because the first scene is a flashback. We see Hunter C-20 with Sylvie sitting in a fancy bar drinking margaritas. Sylvie created this false environment using Hunter C-20's memories to interrogate her. She is really good at faking friendships. Their interaction is almost cute. Until we see outside of the fakeness and see Sylvie using her enchantment on a passed out C-20. Sylvie is not nice even if she can fake it.
But in the present we see Sylvie arriving at the TVA. There are barley any hunters there because they are all trying to fix the broken timeline. It takes her a moment, but Sylvie realizes that her powers don't work at the TVA, just like Loki's powers. But she gets the hang of quickly and kicks their asses and prunes them with their own weapons.
A very confused Loki shows up at the TVA. He has no idea why Sylvie would want to go there. But he remembers where Mobius hid his daggers and finds them. Then he finds Sylvie. I love it when he tosses his daggers in the air and catches them. Loki still wants them to work together from some reason and Sylvie is not having it. They fight each other. Sylvie really can’t stand his talking. But then Renslayer appears with two hunters. Sylvie threatens Loki and doesn't know that Renslayer couldn't care less about him. Loki snatches Sylvie's TemPad and transports them somewhere else. Lamentis.
Obviously the first thing that Loki and Sylvie do is fight some more, this time over the TemPad. But the TemPad is out of power. Oh dear. Also, I can't believe that Sylvie didn't see Loki's trick of teleporting behind her from a mile away. Maybe their powers are too different. She calls him a magician. That automatically makes me think of Dr. Strange. The planet that Loki landed them on is Lamentis, an apocalypse world. So they are bombarded with debris which stops their fight. This is not a good place to be in. No one makes it off this planet alive. Also it makes no sense for a planet to crush into the moon, it is usually the moon that crushes into a planet, because planets have more gravity, but you know, small details.
When Loki asks if they are a team now Sylvie says that she only wants the TemPad to save herself. But we know how this goes, they will be a team by the end of the episode as life-threatening situations tend to bring people closer together. Loki helps Sylvie when they are blasted, but her only response is saying that she doesn't need any help. Not the friendly type this one. They run into some structure and while Loki tries to catch his breath, Sylvie tries to enchant him. Obviously she will try to get what she needs through trickery. He says that his mind is too strong for her to be enchanted and maybe that is true. Sylvie's only response is to draw her weapon out. She is very violent. Loki offers a truce so they can charge the TemPad and get off this apocalypse planet. Who would have thought we would live to see the day that Loki is the responsible adult.
Sylvie is a grudge holder. She wants to go back to the TVA to finish her plan and she wants to kill Loki. How wonderful. She's pissed off that he interrupted her plan. As they walk to the nearest town trying to find power, Loki talks. That's what he does best. Sylvie tells him to shut up, but we all know that's not going to happen. Loki calls her a Variant, he doesn't want to call her a Loki, but she doesn't want to be Loki, she's Sylvie now. Then comes the most interesting question, what makes Loki a Loki. How philosophical. He says "independence, authority, style". He has a lot of style that's for sure. Then Sylvie teases him about his choice to work for the boring TVA. He understands that she wants to create a level of chaos that he wouldn't, but she is not him. Just a variant of him.
Then they do something odd. They walk to a house even though it clearly doesn't have the required power to charge the TemPad. Sylvie kicks open the door and gets fired at by some super gun. Loki tries a disguise, but he gets fired at as well. Not a great disguise. The lady in the house calls them two devils and she's not far off. They find out from her that there is an evacuation vessel meant to get people off the planet. That is the kind of power resource that they need. She also tells them that a train could take them there, but they will never get a ticket. Looks like they will need to trick themselves tickets. End of the world is a long business.
They reach the train but realize that they will be a problem getting on it. Loki wants a none-violent way. Sylvie's plan might involve fighting all the guards. Instead Loki magic himself a guard uniform and tries to drag Sylvie onto the train. It almost works, but Sylvie enchants the last guard who is suspicious. So they manage to get on the train which is a promising start.
Now they only need to arrive at their destination. The train is full of rich strange people. Sylvie is tired, but says that she can't sleep around untrustworthy people. That's Loki for sure. Never trust a Loki. He doesn't trust her either. At the mention of Loki's mother Sylvie has a strange look on her face and she asks Loki about her. Loki says that she was purely good and after a comments from Sylvie, he clarifies that he was adopted. He found out late in life which caused him a lot of distress and he got into a crisis as we well know. Sylvie on the other hand knew she was adopted from the start. Lucky her. When Loki asks about her mother, Sylvie replays that she doesn't remember her anymore. Which is really sad, and it also shows that she was captured and escaped from the TVA a long time ago. It is so clear from the way that he speaks, that Loki loves his mother dearly. She told him that he can do anything, how wonderful. Frigga was a loving wonderful mother.
A mother that Sylvie didn't have. She taught Loki magic, but Sylvie taught herself how to enchant. She only has herself. Loki asks her about love, but Sylvie being busy running from the TVA and forming her plan never had time for real love. It sounded like she had had some short affairs here and there, but nothing serious. Sylvie questions Loki about his love life. He is a prince, maybe there was a princess or another prince. This is where Loki comes out as bisexual as he says that he had a bit of both, just like he suspects that Sylvie did, but he never had a serious relationship. He and Sylvie seem quite sad about this fact, about their love life.
The train continues on its journey. A lot of time apparently passes because Sylvie fell asleep. When she wakes up she sees Loki singing to the entire crowd of the train. He is wearing his TVA uniform now and not the train guard uniform. It seems like he is singing for Sylvie, who is seems touched, but she also notices that someone is suspicious of them. Loki breaks his glass and yells "another!" like Thor did in the first Thor movie. Maybe it's an Asgardian tradition. I think that this is where we see how much Loki loved his home despite his claims otherwise. He is singing in Asgardian for Sylvie. He feel the connection and love with the Asgardian people and their culture. I think that in a way Sylvie does too as she seems touched as well as annoyed by Loki's behavior.
Well, she is mostly annoyed by Loki's behavior. And for good reason. Someone called the guards on them. The guards that don't seem like them. They ask for their tickets and Loki gives them a firework show, a small one as it is from the palm of his hand. Then a fight starts and Sylvie looks very happy about this fact. Also, she uses her horned crown as a weapon, which is super freaking awesome. Loki throws one of guards out of the window and gets himself thrown out as well. Sylvie jumps after Loki because he was the TemPad. Basically, it was an awful plan and it failed.
Sylvie is unhappy by this turn of events. As soon as Loki gets up she puts her sword to his throat and threatens him to give her the TempPad. Which he does because it got destroyed during his fall off the train. They fight. Loki still thinks of himself as a god, but Sylvie calls him a clown. She even says she is more hedonistic then him, which causes Loki and the audience to raise an eyebrow. What does she do in her spare time when she's not on a mission? She says she never does anything at the expense of the mission. Now it is Loki turn to ridicule Sylvie calling her mission "glorious purpose," which is Loki's famous phrase which always leads to nothing. He is convinced that the TVA cannot be defeated. That’s a touchy spot, how powerful the TVA are.
Sylvie is just furious. She lets out a scream combined with a burst of her powers. Which does make her feel slightly better. Loki comes up with a new plan to save themselves. Usually the ark never leaves because it gets destroyed, but it never had two Lokis on it before, so that is their new plan. Get to the ark and make sure it leaves that wretched moon. Loki is the man with the multiple plans after all. Sylvie agrees a lot sooner than I though and just gets up and gets going. Even Loki is surprised. But the new plan is officially on.
Now they walk to the city. Loki complains that he has never walked so much in his life. Prince boy is spoiled after all. They have an interesting conversation and Loki says that he feels like he told Sylvie a lot about himself and he knows nothing about her. She merely thanks him for that tactical advantage. She really doesn't know how to make any friends. He wants to know her to trust her, not for an advantage. She agrees and tells him about enchantments. She says that she has to make physical contact and grab their minds. Sometimes when a person has a strong mind she needs to create a fantasy. She talks about the TVA worker whom she enchanted and how her mind was so messed up. She says she had to pull a memory from hundreds of years in the past to create the fantasy, before she joined the TVA. That's a big bombshell. Sylvie doesn't know up until this moment, that the workers of the TVA don't know that they too are variants. Loki drops that bombshell for her. They are both shocked.
This new information will have to wait, the moment is interrupted with an announcement that the ark will leave soon. It is time to move fast. Also, Sylvie makes one last finale confirmation that now they trust each other. They walk into the city as everyone is in a panic and rocks from the sky are landing everywhere. Loki seems pretty upset that the people in charge are actually going to let everyone who is not on the ark die, even though he knows that technically everyone are supposed to die. Then just as they are about to make a serious run for it to the ark, a massive amount of debris starts to crash onto the moon. This time when Loki helps Sylvie up she doesn't complain. They are a team now.
Now this team has a mission and obstacles to pass. The guards try to stop them, but they fight them and win. Also, suddenly we find out that Loki can shoot green blasts. That's new. When a building is about to land on them Loki uses his powers to freeze it in place and then send it back to itself place. I also had no idea that Loki can do that. His powers seem formidable all of a sudden. They almost make it and then the ark gets destroyed by debris. Their last chance of survival is gone now. Looking defeated, Sylvie simply leaves Loki just standing there. He seems frozen in shock. That's how the episode ends, with them about to die.
It's a strange episode. On the one hand it is really good. Plenty of action, great dialogue, great character development, great score and a few shocking revelations. On the other hand, you can also say that nothing happened in this episode. Nothing that moves the general plot of the show forward. Still, I really enjoyed this episode. Now Sylvie and Loki are a team as I wanted them to be and that will probably lead to very interesting places. No way there are going to die, especially Loki, it is his show after all. But I can't wait to see where this is going.
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