After kicking things off with a bang in the season premiere, Loki takes a step back in Breaking Brad.
There are still plenty of positive aspects. Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson continue to thrive off their undeniable chemistry. By far the episode’s best scene involves Loki and Mobius diving deep into Mobius’s lack of interest in learning about his life on the sacred timeline. Sophia Di Martino finally returns and her frustration with Loki interfering reestablishes the love-hate dynamic between Loki and Sylvie.
Unfortunately, weird, overlooked details and an ending that ramps things up to an apocalyptic degree without diving into the emotional turmoil hampers Breaking Brad. Multiple scenes usually involve Hunter X-5 (Rafael Casal) being interrogated by Loki and Mobius. These sequences offer Wilson and Hiddleston opportunities to play good cop-bad cop, which should work. Unfortunately, the writing lets them down in these scenes.
Instead, episode two is an unfocused affair. Loki tries to juggle three stories. Hunting Hunter X-5 down is one. There’s a tampered TemPad drawing the focus of O.B. Then, in the final 10 minutes, Dox’s terrible plan is revealed and wrapped up in short order.
Loki may be a sci-fi, time-jumping series, but it shines brighter when it slows down and lets the ramifications set in. There’s still plenty of promise in the 2nd season. At least each episode of Loki feels like there are major consequences unlike Secret Invasion, which waits until the end of the season to get somewhere interesting.
Loki: Breaking Brad Review Score = 6.5
Above Average
With the overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the three standout elements in Breaking Brad. There will be some spoilers. Loki is streaming on Disney Plus.
Breaking Brad Wolfe
Episode 2 begins on uneven footing. Mobius and Loki have tracked Hunter X-5 back to the 1970s. Hunter X-5 is a famous actor. When he sees Loki and Mobius, he plays it off as if he’s been undercover. He uses the guise of getting drinks for Loki and Mobius to run. Loki and Mobius being duped by something so unimaginative doesn’t feel right.
Loki does catch up to Hunter X-5 and captures him with ease. Mobius and Loki do their best to break Brad during an interrogation. Brad tries to turn the situation on Loki by bringing up Loki’s past. Loki doesn’t seem too fazed, although he does try to use Brad’s assumption against him. Brad does get under Mobius’ skin. He plays on the fact Mobius had a different life on the sacred timeline. Mobius strikes Brad out of frustration.
Later, Loki and Mobius take another run at Brad. This time, Loki uses one of O.B.’s devices to frighten Brad and he squeals with relative ease.
The interrogation scenes didn’t work. Hunter X-5 getting under Loki and Mobius’s skin is too easy. Then, when Loki turns up the pressure, he reveals Sylvie’s location too quickly. Luckily, both interrogation scenes lead up to the two best parts of the episode. A conversation between Mobius and Loki, then the frosty Loki-Sylvie reunion.
Key Lime Pie
After Mobius’s rare showing of anger, Loki takes his partner to the cafeteria for a conversation while indulging in some key lime pie. Loki tells Mobius showing emotion happens sometimes.
Loki even provides an example so Mobius feels more comfortable opening up. He talks about how he took his anger towards his father (Odin) and brother (Thor) out on New York City. Then, when things started to spiral out of control he tried to use mind control on Tony Stark. When that failed, Loki threw Stark off the roof.
Mobius truly doesn’t want to know his life on the sacred timeline. Loki mistakenly thinks Mobius doesn’t want to see this life because it might not be happy. Mobius reveals he has no problem handling the possibility of things being bad. It’s the possibility of seeing a happy life that frightens him.
I love this scene. There’s no judgment on either side. It’s just Loki trying to help his friend and goes to show how far he’s come. Loki could have used Mobius’s anger to question Brad. However, Loki notices his friend is struggling and decides to figure out what’s bothering him.
Purging Timelines
After breaking Brad, he, Loki and Mobius head to Sylvie’s location. She’s working at McDonalds and wants nothing to do with helping Loki. In her mind, she set everybody free. In reality, this is a denial of the truth which is by killing “He who remains” she sets off a chain reaction that’s killing whole civilizations.
While Sylvie and Loki engage in a frosty conversation, Brad and Mobius eat together. Brad is becoming noticeably more antsy. Brad wants to leave because this timeline is doomed. Sylvie uses her mind-reading ability to figure out the plan.
Loki, Sylvie and Mobius launch an attack on General Dox’s compound. She’s dropping grenades through portals, which is purging timelines in an instant. In seconds, we see thousands of branches eliminated. Wunmi Mosaku is great in this series but is forced to utter the worst and biggest understatement in the series. She claims Dox is whipping out billions of people. The earth has billions of people. Dox is whipping out thousands of timelines with each containing whole universes let alone planets. The number of deaths is unfathomably high.
The ending of the episode doesn’t do a good job of delivering an emotional payoff to the massive loss of life.
Breaking Brad final thoughts
Overall, when Loki and Mobius are conversing, Breaking Brad shines. Unfortunately, the episode tries to juggle too many stories and they don’t come together by the end.
