Loki Glorious Purpose Review: Purpose fulfilled in gloriously melancholic series finale

Glorious Purpose is a masterful series finale that caps off the best season of Marvel television in the Disney Plus era.

With his time slipping under control, Loki returns to the TVA just before the loom and Victor Timely disintegrates in episode 4. He begins to workshop different ways of saving the branching timelines. However, even after centuries of attempts, Loki must find another solution.

Since Glorious Purpose is a series finale, it makes sense for Loki to revisit the key moments on his two-season journey. Loki meets with He Who Remains, Mobius and Sylvie to prevent the cataclysmic events from unfolding. All of these scenes are incredible. Jonathan Majors, Owen Wilson and Sophia Di Martino elevate Eric Martin‘s terrific script.

The constant throughout this episode is once against Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Hiddleston absolutely deserves an Emmy nomination. His comedic timing as he cheers on Timely’s march towards the loom is deadpan perfection. Then, he follows that up with one of the most well-acted scenes in an MCU property with Majors.

As the finale goes along, it becomes clear that in order to preserve free will, Loki will need to lose. It’s a poignant reversal of who Loki was in 2012’s Avengers and a wonderful way to end this chapter of Loki’s story.

The visual effects and directing by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead rival Martin’s storytelling prowess. Benson and Moorhead shine in giving these top-notch actors room to exchange ideas with clever close-ups and the use of shaky cam to add to the chaos.

From acting, and writing to directing, Loki is the best MCU series by a wide margin.

With the overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the three standout elements of Glorious Purpose. There will be some spoilers. Loki is streaming on Disney Plus.

A loop of Glorious Purpose

The series finale begins with Loki trying to prevent the Temporal Loom’s destruction. Loki uses his time-slipping powers to create a time loop. He iterates on ideas inch by inch.

Finally, after being fed up with the failed attempts, Loki asks how he can acquire the scientific knowledge necessary to fix the loom. O.B. and Timely both reply centuries. The screen goes to black and the episode resumes a few centuries later. Loki is able to guide Timely to the Loom. Timely finally presses the right button. It appears like the Loom is working. Unfortunately, the timelines start to fall apart and the loom is destroyed once again.

My favorite element of this sequence is Loki using a deadpan delivery to encourage Timely to keep moving forward. Each loop hammers home the fact that Loki is trying to find an easy way to fix the problem without really addressing the source itself.

Reunions with those at the end of time

Loki realizes that if he can stop Sylvie from killing He Who Remains, maybe the destruction will never happen. He timeslips into himself right before Sylvie kills He Who Remains in the season finale.

At first, Loki tries a similar approach to fixing the Temporal Loom. He keeps trying to persuade Sylvie to stop, but she kills He Who Remains each time. A fed-up Loki finally addresses He Who Remains and gets a response in return. He Who Remains pauses time, then puts Sylvie in timeout so he and Loki can chat.

He Who Remains explains he paved the way for Loki’s time slipping. Sylvie stabbing him isn’t about death, it’s about reincarnation. He also takes a verbal swipe at Loki for not being able to pause time. Thinking this is too much for Loki, He Who Remains suggests he revisit the conversation a few more times. Loki proves he’s a fast learner and stops time, which impresses He Who Remains.

They dive a bit deeper into the situation. The Temporal Loom is a failsafe to preserve the sacred timeline. Destroying the loom will lead to a war. All Loki has to do to preserve the timeline is kill Sylvie.

Loki leaves to have a one-on-one conversation with the only other person at the end of time, Sylvie. She catches on quickly that the choice is either kill Sylvie or let the explode. Loki wonders if there’s even the slightest bit of hope for saving the loom is it worth trying to save rather than destroy? Sylvie points out that sometimes in order to truly fix something, you need to destroy it.

This is the first one-on-one scene between Majors and Hiddleston in the MCU and it’s just terrific.

The Glorious Purpose of burdens

Loki makes another stop on his trip down memory lane. He returns to the TVA interrogation room where he meets Mobius for the first time in the pilot. Loki quickly summarizes what Mobious is going to do. He’s going to claim Loki is burdened with glorious purpose, play out scenes from Loki’s life, etc. Mobius is amused by Loki knowing the playbook.

Loki wants to know how to choose between who gets to live and who dies. Mobius begins to recite the TVA dogma involving the timekeepers, but Loki cuts him off during the spiel. He wants to know what comfort there is in preserving the flow of time. Mobius tells him there isn’t any comfort and tells Loki a story.

Mobius and his partner were investigating a variety. It was an 8-year-old boy just living life. Mobius hesitated and his partner had to prune the child. Mobius’s hesitation cost the lives of many TVA agents. He sums up by reminding Loki that it’s important to keep the big picture in mind.

Then Mobius delivers the lines of the series. “Most Purpose is more burden than glory.” “There’s no comfort, you just choose your burden.” With that, Loki makes the hard choice.

He destroys The Temporal Loom, then revives the branches of the timeline and commits to overseeing the branches at the End of Time. Loki’s burden is a heavy one, but he’s never had a bigger purpose.

Loki Series Finale final thoughts

The season finale of Loki is fantastic and a great example of the kind of quality television Marvel is capable of executing.

If you like the content on The Intersection and have the means, a donation is much appreciated. The Intersection will never have ads on the website. In order to expand coverage to golden-era tv shows and add new features, we need your help. You can provide a one-time donation via PayPal or Stripe below.

Liked it? Take a second to support Chris Lee on Patreon!