Loki: Glorious Purpose

SPOILER ALERT

Our beloved ‘mischievous scamp’ is back with just as much flair and finesse. But can he still fare with his Machiavellian wiles and maneuvers?

Marvel’s third miniseries after WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier has finally arrived on Disney+ and unsurprisingly, it did not disappoint.

Picking up from the chaotic events of Avengers: Endgame’s time heist, where a diversion shoves the Tesseract right toward Loki’s feet, who wastes no time in grabbing it and fleeing the scene to avoid eventual imprisonment, the first episode is a mere preamble to the uncharted multiverse of the MCU.

Crash-landing on Gobi Desert he instinctively attempts at subjugating the natives with the iconic line: I am Loki of Asgard and I’m burdened with glorious purpose. It is vital to keep in mind that this is still the megalomaniac villain from The Avengers whose attempts to dominate Earth were thwarted by the Avengers.

Promptly apprehended by a task force lead by Hunter B15 (Wunmi Mosaku) for being a Variant, (any being deviating from the pre-determined timeline) from the Time Variance Authority (an institution detaining Variants), Loki is forced to go through a series of bureaucratic tasks including signing paperwork, walking through a metal detector, getting a ticket, queuing up, standing a trial, and pleading guilty, failure of which has serious consequences. I mean, how amusing is it to witness a God pleading guilty?

He is saved from his imminent death (which, in TVA is the resetting of the disrupted timeline which entails the eradication of the associated temporal aura i.e., Loki, from reality) by Mobius M (Owen Wilson) a charming TVA employee who specializes in hunting and tracking down Variants. He steps into the foray and offers to bail out Loki, much to the chagrin of the judge (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and the Time Hunters.

What follows is a witty back and forth between Mobius and Loki as the former tries to prick and prod a deity, he has spent years studying. Mobius is equally fascinated and baffled by Loki’s dynamic which he reveres but also taunts, incensing a braggadocio Loki who keeps asserting that he is a God and is above such humiliating treatment.

Let me tell you, nothing transcends the comedic antagonism between Loki and Mobius. Wilson and Hiddleston seamlessly transition from throwing jibes to poignant and complicated moments with a fine delicacy.

“Do you enjoy hurting people?” he prods him further, discomforting a disturbed Loki, who clearly wasn’t having it.

Mobius’ Silence of the Lambs-esque interrogation approach relentlessly wrongfoots Loki, who refuses to concede with “this circus where the clowns play their part to perfection” (referring to the TVA).

The scene tenses as Mobius plays Loki’s cinematic life on a holographic screen—Loki is visibly upset by his mother Frigga’s prospective death at his hands as evidenced by the clip.

A distraction comes in the form of Hunter B15 who voices her displeasure at Mobius’ scheme of meddling with a Variant. Loki, who has deftly filched off the Time Twister from Mobius, effectively escapes the interrogation room. Surfacing at a random corridor, Loki wanders off into an office room where he threatens a desk jockey to hand him the Tesseract. Honestly, I cannot stress Loki’s penchant for the Tesseract enough—it is as you know a signature portal for all of Loki’s getaways.

The sight of all the invincible Infinity stones haphazardly placed in a drawer makes him cognizant of TVA’s potential and clout. Intercepted by the task force, Loki retreats to the room where he resumes the video.

This scene is one of the most powerful scenes of the first episode. The video flits through a series of events that had transpired in the MCU but Loki had yet to encounter. Casting a spotlight on Hiddleston’s consummate performance, the transformation is a sight to behold with Loki going through a roller coaster of emotions: sobbing through his parents' death, beaming at brotherly moments with Thor, choking through certain scenes from Ragnarok, and finally, flabbergasted at his demise.

In an epiphanic moment, Loki realizes that he was not ‘burdened with glorious purpose’ after all; that he was puppeteered by forces greater than he had ever conceived and was destined to fail—his purpose in the timeline was to fail so that others (Avengers) can achieve greatness. Appalled at his heinous actions, he admits that he does not enjoy hurting people and that his hand was forced.

Loki is a lovable villain because of his flaws. He is not a random maniac craving for power. Despite doing what he has, to get his way, Loki does not intend harm for his family members and is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for his brother. His vulnerability and confession in the said scene solidify his relatability. And that is also why granting Loki a series is not a hefty risk—he was never a villain. At least, not by his will. Hiddleston excellently instills just the right amount of pathos required to sympathize with an anti-hero.

Convinced that there is no escape, Loki yields to Mobius, who tasks him with the detention of another Loki variant who was wreaking havoc by attacking Minutemen (police forces of the TVA).

With necessary exposition, intriguing characters, and a propelling narrative, Loki is an entertaining watch for newbies and fans alike as it is a never-before-seen realm of MCU set on exploring time travel shenanigans and multidimensional realities. With the workplace comedy melded with the fantastical aura and the episodic storytelling, the series is bound to pick up pace and heighten stakes in the coming episodes, as Loki discovers himself across alternate timelines and versions of himself.

After all, who can understand Loki better than Loki himself?

Rating: 4.5/5

Now streaming on Disney+