I Just Watched Episode 2 Of "Loki" As A Casual Marvel Fan, And I Had Some Thoughts

    42. Loki just winked to himself!

    Hope Lasater
    by Hope Lasater

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Hello! Welcome to week two of my thoughts watching Loki as an extremely non-expert Marvel fan.

    Marvel Studios / Via giphy.com

    Some of my thoughts this week have been edited/changed/deleted to reflect further rumination and, in one case, simply googling "Time Collar Loki." Plus, my original ramblings were simply too much and too long this time, lol.

    Let's get into Episode 2, "The Variant!"

    1. We're starting at an '80s renaissance fair. As good a place as any.

    TVA officers just standing in the middle of a large even
    Marvel Studios

    2. Hello, Kate Berlant!

    3 A time travel–related fight scene in a circus tent set to "Holding Out for a Hero" is my exact taste.

    4. ♫ Ooooh exposition with Ms. Minutes ooooh ooooh here are the stakes ooooh ♫

    5. I said last week that in TVA world, "I guess all time is happening at once, or something similar. Or it's a Jeremy Bearimy situation," but as I thought about it more I realized that's not necessarily true. Cloak Loki is time-traveling so could be on their linear timeline.

    6. That Loki's-jacket-says-variant-let's-laugh-at-him moment was stilted. But this show has a lot of goodwill from me, so I'll let it go.

    7. Oh, that's fun that there are so many different Lokis. That's really great. Loki's become a genus.

    8. Wow, that changes the whole last episode. The TVA was interacting with their billionth Loki. Lovely.

    9. I'm not over the fact that this is Owen Wilson.

    10. I'm currently watching Loki ask Mobius — who, again, is Owen Wilson — story-needed time questions at a 1985 renaissance fair. A fever dream one could only hope for.

    11. In Asgard they say, "Where there are wolf's ears, wolf's teeth are near?" So they have wolves? Why would Asgard have wolves?

    12. I have yet to understand how they can reset a timeline without killing the evil Variant they haven't caught.

    13. Oh my god, the judge's outfit in this meeting with Mobius is amazing.

    14. Oh, also, I learned last week that Mobius's first name is also Mobius. And his middle initial is M. Naturally.

    15. We just saw those water rings multiple times, so I'm guessing that at some point they'll erase Mobius from existence. The lack of water rings will be the proof.

    Mobius putting down a glass near water rings
    Marvel Studios

    16. I think the judge is secretly a Time-Keeper. If not the judge, then somebody we've already met is.

    17. "I was almost gone" is a hilarious response when you're leaving a room and someone calls you back.

    18. This library(?) space is amazing.

    19. Loki's reading TVA documents, so can Loki read every language, or are the TVA documents written in a language Loki can read (presumably English), or do the documents take the form of the reader's language?

    20. Oh, interesting, variants and the stuff they do goes on "until eventually, a new timeline branches." So what's that in-between time? I was sure any change on the sacred timeline was immediately felt.

    21. Okay, Mobius words it as "chaotic alterations of a predetermined outcome," so chaotic changes make a new branch. Why? Who's defining chaotic? Time itself?

    22. They really hitched their wagon onto this salad metaphor.

    23. Alright, so seems like, given the very smart apocalypse realization from Loki, the TVA only notices a change to the sacred timeline when a fair amount of time has passed or a big event has been altered. But they noticed this Loki immediately, so I don't know what's up with that.

    24. That's so interesting. Huh. Okay. I really need to think about that some more.

    25. If I were being annoying, I would point out that Pompeii wasn't in Italy back then because there was no "Italy" in 79 AD, but I'm not being annoying, so I'm not pointing it out.

    26. This show is going for two distinct theories on time travel: the predetermined loop and branches. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but that's where I am this morning.

    27. Yeah, "Anything we do can impact the course of history," so right now we're acting like time's a loop.

    28. Although...I guess not if Mobius and Loki could start their own branch.

    29. I like how Mobius and Loki got up to take a walk, and then we cut to them sitting at another table.

    30. I want this show to end with Mobius — Owen Wilson — riding off into the sun on a jet ski.

    Mobius saying, "In the early 1990s, for a brief, shining moment, there was a beautiful union of form and function, which we call the jet ski"
    Marvel Studios

    31. That's what Lorde was singing about when she said, "They're all gonna watch me disappear into the sun." "Liability" is from Mobius's perspective.

    32. Odin raised you, Loki? Just Odin? What about your mother?

    33. "The Climate Disaster of 2048." Fair.

    34. Evil Variant Loki can keep going back to 2050 Alabama over and over...hmm. Is he interacting with his past self when he's there? I assume so. But then you open that can of worms.

    35. I don't know what that "for all time/always" thing between Mobius and the judge meant.

    36. Mobius just said they're doing good work "today!" What is a day here???

    37. I must say, this is a very fun show.

    38. The "time theater"? Is that a phrase I don't know? From context, I think it's a part of the TVA floorplan established in Episode 1, but I missed it, so, kewl.

    39. Oooh Cloak Loki's trying to wipe these folks from existence! Fun stuff!!!

    40. The officer who's now acting like Cloak Loki is fucking awesome. Shoutout to Wunmi Mosaku.

    41. Wouldn't the bodies that Cloak Loki's inhabiting speak with an English accent now? It's not like you're born with an accent in your body. Whatever.

    42. Loki just winked to himself!

    43. Also, this is a lie, Loki isn't secretly against the TVA. It's one of those ~schemes~ where you cross! And double cross! And cross!

    44. These Cloak Loki actors are all fantastic.

    45. ...What? Who is this behind the Cloak?

    The blonde Cloak Loki
    Marvel Studios

    46. I didn't know Loki could have such different forms. Very cool!!! Very The Doctor from Doctor Who.

    47. What??? How was the timeline bombed??? How did Cloak Loki do that with the time devices? How do you hijack them?

    48. I don't understand why the store is all red but I love the lighting, so sure.

    49. Aaaaaand Loki's gone! Never to be seen again. That's the end of Loki. (Can you imagine?)

    That's it for Episode 2! Other than the time rules — which I wish I could watch a four-hour discussion of — I am fully on board with everything this show is offering! I'm into it.

    Marvel Studios / Via giphy.com

    See you next week, East High Wildcats.