A "Low-Key" Loki Recap / Episode 5 : Journey Into Mystery
Even when you think things couldn’t get stranger for this Loki series, we get episodes like Episode 5: Journey into to Mystery! Join me as I talk about the things that stood out to me in the episode!
The Devil We Know
Last week’s episode ended with Sylvie holding Renslayer at PrunePoint demanding answers about the TVA. Call me gullible, but I thought we would get some major revelations in this episode to set up for an eventual showdown with whoever the puppet master truly is. Instead we got Renslayer stalling for time and giving vague answers whilst pretending to not know what’s going on behind the scenes. When given the chance to come clean, she uses Miss Minutes to distract Sylvie long enough to give her time to call for back up. Her duplicitous nature really makes it hard to decide how much Renslayer is IN on all this. Do we trust the Devil we know vs the one that we don’t?
Interestingly, when Renslayer is talking to the disobedient Hunter B-15, she insists that even though we just found out the Timekeepers we not real she believes “The TVA need stability.” And should continue operations. When B-15 tells Ramona that she believes Sylvie’s mission of revenge will lead her to whomever is in charge, Renslayer shows concern, and prompts Miss Minutes to give her all the information about the creation of the TVA. So, what’s actually going on here? Is Renslayer aware of the “man/woman behind the curtain” and is doing her best to protect them as we suspect? Does she truly not know who her master is, and is going to use Sylvie to lead her to them as B-15 predicts? IS MISS MINUTES A SENTIENT GOD SENT HER TO RULE OVER THE ENTIRETY OF TIME WITH AN IRON FIST OF BLOOD AND ASH?! Ok, maybe that last one isn’t true, but you catch my drift, right?
Loki, This is Your Life!
Loki awakens in The Void, the place at the end of the time where all things pruned by the TVA end up. He meets several Variants of himself, including a Boastful Loki, a Kid Loki, a LokiGator and Classic Loki played by Richard E Grant. He debates with them, and in many ways his own nature, as he tries to get them to do more than just survive. Seeing Loki literally come face to face with different facets of his own personality was incredibly entertaining. For the first time, Loki got to see his selfish, lying and backstabbing nature from a different point of view and surprisingly he did not like it.
It’s crazy how much perspective THIS Loki has gotten from his short stint in the TVA. Something about seeing yourself die, and then being confronted with the worst parts of your personality really helped turn Loki into an antihero. We rarely get that kind of perspective in real life so it makes sense that he would change for the better. One of my favorite moments that shows this growth is when all the Lokis are fighting for the throne, constantly betraying and lying to one another. Instead of trying his best to come out on top, our Loki hides his face as if he’s watching a past memory of himself and is embarrassed.
He sees the lying nature of Boastful Loki, the ludicrous nature of LokiGator, the mercilessness of Kid Loki, and the cowardice of Classic Loki decides he is none of these things. Our Loki could have went down any one of these paths. The thing is, our Loki controls his path and he is on the path of being the greatest Loki of them all.
Easter Egg Hunt
This episode was a bit of a treasure trove of easter eggs from both Marvel Comics and the MCU as a whole and we were HERE FOR IT! Some references were “blink or you’ll miss them” but thanks to our eagle-eyed fanbase we have a short list of the ridiculousness of this episode. Firstly, the episode’s title Journey into Mystery is a reference to the comic series both Loki and his brother Thor made their debut in. Classic Loki looks to be ripped straight from the Silver Age of Comics, while Kid Loki is a nod to . In the background of the void we see the Dark Aster, the war ship used by Ronan The Accuser in Guardians of The Galaxy.
We see a statue of the Living Tribunal, as well as the remnants of a version of Avengers Tower (although this one had Qeng written on the side, another hint towards Kang The Conqueror). We see a Variant Loki that looks to be the version from the “Vote Loki” miniseries we covered last week, and the big threat to the Void, Alioth, is an actually entity in Marvel Comics making his debut in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective Issue #1. We can see the helmet of Ant Man villain Yellowjacket in background shots, and live-action debut of the THANOSCOPTER. Last, but surely not least, we see Throg aka Frog Thor trapped in a jar labeled T365 aka Thor Issue #365 from 1966, which it featured Loki transforming Thor into a frog. There are probably many more, but it was very cool to see so many nod to the various forms of source material they used to make this series!
The Power of Purpose
Purpose is something I think every individual struggle with because we all seek meaning in this existence. One of the messages of this series is the idea that your past does not dictate your purpose. First, we see Sylvie prune herself so she can be with the one person with whom she’s had a happy memory. This is something she wouldn’t have done previously, having spent her life alone hiding from the TVA. She goes to great length to communicate the fact that she doesn’t have many friends but actively fights her nature to befriend our Loki. Watching her sacrifice really showed how Sylvie has grown as person and as a character.
We hear how Classic Loki avoided death and detection by being a coward, but he does not let this be the end of his story. We hear how all he wanted to do was go back home, and in a triumphant scene, he becomes the hero of this episode by using his skills of enchantment to distract Alioth with an illusion of Asgard. The look of pure madness on his face as he faces imminent death was equal parts chilling and heartwarming. He sacrifices himself for the greater good even though his nature is to ensure his survival. Survival isn’t enough for Loki’s anymore. They seek purpose.
So what is our Loki’s Glorious Purpose? Is it in the Citadel that we see at the end of the film? Was it to become better at enchantment in an effort to be closer to is mother? Is it to “buck the system” and be the first selfless God of Mischief? Regardless, we all seek purpose. That might be what the entire thing has been all about. We choose our path. We pick our purpose. We choose our fate. I can dig that.
One Episode Left
One of the main reasons this article took so long to write was because I find myself growing more and more confused as to what this show is. Don’t get me wrong, I can watch Tom Hiddleston read a phone book and be entertained but as someone who went close to 2 years without MCU content, I have been anxious to get into the bigger threats to the Universe.
I can’t help but feel when this is all said and done this show will most likely resemble a one-shot, or miniseries, meaning it will introduce aspects that will be used later but will have no bearing on the MCU as a whole. The TVA being introduced (and I am assuming destroyed next episode), might start a chain of events that lead to bigger things but here we are 4 hours later, no closer to any of the answers to the questions we had in episode 1. I try not to be in a rush with these things, but with only 6 episodes in total spending all that time on Lametis feels like a mistake. With this being not even our Sacred Timeline Loki, so he could be killed and so long as he learned a lesson, this entire series can write itself off as a cautionary tale.
Then again, these Marvel series have a way of making me love them in the end. Maybe this last episode will give me everything I need and will help put some of the bigger mysteries to rest while laying the ground work for some big things to come ala WandaVision. I am trapped between thinking we have gone well past the need for purely individual stories given the immense worldbuilding of the MCU and simply enjoying what could ultimately just be an intimate look at a villain’s psyche. Let’s see how I feel about things next week!
That’s all for this week! Get ready for my final thoughts on the series next week and then a FULL RECAP AND REVIEW on the Major Issues Podcast the following Wednesday!
Remember you (yes, you) are Worthy!
G.S.