We’ve come to the end of Loki Season 2, and what a ride it’s been. There’s been time travel, variants, new faces, and even an evil AI clock, but it’s now all come down to this. Episode 6, “Glorious Purpose”, perfectly closes out this chapter for the God of Mischief and his companions. This episode had me laughing, stressed, excited, and a little sad, and I enjoyed every second. Almost everything set up in the entire series was paid off in one way or another and it set a new status quo for the entire MCU. But before I get too side-tracked, it’s time for a plot synopsis.
After Loki (Tom Hiddleston) learns to control his time slipping at the end of the previous episode, he wastes no time trying to set things right. This means it’s montage time, baby! With lots of unfortunate deaths for our good friend Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors). After an undisclosed number of attempts, Loki goes back further in time. Met with constant failure, Loki asks O. B. (Ke Huy Quan) how long it would take to learn everything he knows about mechanics and timey-wimey stuff (very scientific). He’s told by both O. B. and Timely that it could take centuries. And after a few short centuries, Loki is now a certified mechanical genius, much to everyone’s confusion. With his newly acquired knowledge, Loki helps speed up the process. They shoot the Throughput Multiplier into the Loom, and the day is saved (hooray!). But before everyone can celebrate, the loom begins to overload again, with Timely and Loki concluding they can do nothing to stop it. Loki isn’t down with that, so he travels back in time again to talk with the one person who can help them.
Loki time slips back to the end of Season 1, where, if you remember, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) gave He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) a good old stabbing. Loki once again tries to stop Sylvie many times but always fails. In frustration, Loki scolds He Who Remains for just sitting there, and that’s when it’s revealed that He Who Remains can stop time as he pleases (that would’ve been useful before, asshole). With the imminent threat of a Sylvie stabbing averted, for now, the two time gods have a chat about how things are going to play out. He Who Remains tells Loki that the loom is a failsafe that destroys all of the branched timelines except for the sacred timeline and that he can do nothing to change that. With all hope nearly lost, Loki desperately tries to prove He Who Remains wrong and save his friends.
This is where I’m going to leave the plot recap for now. We’ll circle back to it later because I think you should watch the episode for yourself and experience its excellence.
Besides having an excellent plot, Episode 6 had great character moments for most of the main cast. My favourite was the return of He Who Remains, who has been the best version of Kang in the MCU so far (in my opinion). Seeing the creator of the TVA once again (not as a corpse) was something I wasn’t expecting, but I’m glad he showed up. His back-and-forth with Loki about the best way forward is tense and enjoyable. The reveal that he could’ve stopped Sylvie easily added much more weight to the end of Season 1, implying that both seasons were part of his master plan. And while we didn’t see them much this episode, O. B. and Victor Timely were great throughout the season, and I hope we see more of them in future MCU projects. I need to see this science duo team up again (maybe in Kang Dynasty?)
This episode also showcased the growth the main characters have experienced over the entire series. Sylvie has gone from a revenge-obsessed freedom fighter to someone who still values freedom but can see the error in her stab-first-ask-questions-later ways. Then there’s Mobius (Owen Wilson), who has become a little more selfish (in a good way) and is finding his own path instead. Then you have Loki, who has arguably had the most character growth in the entire MCU. This series has been a second origin story for him, and he’s almost unrecognizable from the start of the series. And after that ending, a whole new God. Speaking of Gods, let’s circle back to that ending.
SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE EPISODE.
At the end of the episode (and series), Loki destroys the Temporal Loom, revives all the timelines with his magic, and becomes the God of Stories at the end of time. This allows the timelines to continue to branch without the threat of everyone and everything becoming temporal spaghetti. I enjoyed this ending because it circles back to what Loki said in the first Avengers film, “burdened with glorious purpose”.
At the time, it was Loki just being a bit of a narcissistic prick, but now, it has taken on a whole new meaning with him being the one to keep all the branches in check. It’s also ironic that he worked so hard to keep his friends safe but now he is all alone and can only watch from afar. It was also cool to see Loki weave the timeline into a giant green tree that has to be a reference to the Yggdrasil from Norse Mythology (or a big Christmas Tree). It was a bittersweet ending for Loki, but hey, at least his friends can now live their lives peacefully. Hopefully, Loki will find a loophole in the future so he can see his friends again, but we’ll have to wait and see about that.
“Glorious Purpose” was an excellent end to Season 2 of Loki and the series as a whole. All the plot threads were wrapped up, and each character has grown so much. With the newly crowned God of Stories, who knows how crazy the MCU is gonna get? I hope this isn’t the last we see of Loki; he’s still got so many stories to tell.
Did you watch the final episode of Loki? What did you think? What did you think about the series? Let us know in the comments where we can theorize what’s next for the MCU.
