The Variant shows Loki is taking a different approach in telling its story than either WandaVision or The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
After the Pilot, you might have expected that this whole first season would be about finding out who The Variant is and what the mystery figure is trying to accomplish. The Variant’s goal isn’t clear, but we know the identity of this alternative Loki, which opens up the story Loki‘s telling quite a bit.
The mystery element involving the TVA and The Variant is quite fun, but I’m also content to just watch Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson throw barbs at one another. Hiddleston has been terrific as Loki throughout the MCU, but this is his best performance as Loki. The way Hiddleston navigates between the scheming part of Loki and the version seeking to prove his superior intellect is phenomenal to watch.
Wilson continues to match Hiddleston tit-for-tat. In just two episodes, Mobius has become an indelible MCU character. There’s a scene involving Loki, Mobius and a salad that I won’t forget anytime soon thanks to Wilson’s exasperation and excitement about Loki’s theory. Mobius’s charm also seems to have a considerable impact on Ravonna Renslayer played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The easy-going chemistry in the one-on-one scenes with Mbatha-Raw allows her to loosen up a bit. While Renslayer clearly knows more about what’s going on, there’s a comfortability with these two characters that’s impressive after only two episodes.
Production design and visual effects are quite strong. Although there is the occasional scene that does show the budget limitations.
With the non-spoiler details out of the way, lets go through another journey into mystery inThe Variant. Loki is available to stream on Disney Plus.
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Mobius vs Loki
The beginning of the episode shows Loki seemingly settling in to his job with the TVA. There’s a great scene between Loki and Miss Minutes. Loki start swatting at Miss Minutes with a roll of paper and forces Miss Minutes back into a computer monitor.
I don’t know of a tv series that delivers more fun exposition outside of Fringe (watching Walter Bishop talk about astral projection while on LSD is endless entertainment) than Loki. Mobius and Hunter B-15’s TVA squad take Loki to investigate a Renaissance Fair in 1985, Wisconsin. Loki breaks down how the time reset devices work, which is a key bit of detail for the end of the episode. Ever the schemer, Loki tries to prevent Mobius and the TVA from resetting time. Also in typical Loki fashion, he goes one step too far, Mobius catches Loki’s mistake and immediately resets the event. Hiddleston’s monologue here is tremendous. He just has a way of seducing you into Loki’s way of thinking, but since he’s so far out of his element, he oversteps.
Mobius is able to convince Renslayer to give Loki another chance. There’s another great Wilson-Hiddleston scene. Loki launches into his usual spiel about being 10 steps ahead. Mobius spells out the exact plan Loki has in store and stops the god of mischief in his tracks.
Hunt for The Variant
Mobius tells Loki he has one more chance to solve this case. Loki heads to the library to find information on the Loki variants. He tries to convince the librarian to allow him to access files on the TVA, but is rebuffed. The librarian will allow Loki to review is the file on the variants but nothing else.
Loki identifies a possible pattern based on the events in 2018 Asgard. While Loki can’t tell what The Variant is attempting to do, he does find out why The Variant has evaded the TVA. Essentially, The Variant is using world-ending disasters as cover. Since these world-ending disasters are part of the sacred timeline, anything The Variant does right before the cataclysmic event is undetectable by the TVA. Loki diagraming this scheme to Mobius by destroying his salad is glorious. The only way to find The Variant is for the TVA to go to a location before the disaster. Loki proves his theory to Mobius by traveling to Pompeii before the volcano erupts.
Loki, Mobius and Hunter B-15’s troops head to 2050 Alabama which is about to be wiped off the map by a hurricane. They head to Roxxcart, which is basically a futuristic Costco. There’s some hand-to-hand combat between Loki and this Variant who is taking over the body of different customers. The action here was fine, but easily the weakest part of the episode.
After some body-snatching by The Variant, Loki comes face-to-face with a seemingly female version of Loki. He tries to reason with her to no avail. The Variant places several time reset devices in different areas of the store that cause the sacred timeline to go haywire. The episode ends with the female Loki opening a portal and Loki following her.
Existence is Chaos
There’s a lot more going on with The TVA than just trying to keep the Sacred Timeline on track. There are some H.Y.D.R.A. vibes being planted.
The scenes between Renslayer and Mobius are quite interesting. While the trip to Wisconsin didn’t go as planned, Mobius believes that Loki’s stalling for time is a tactic used by The Variant. There’s definitely a man-behind-the-curtain vibe with the Time Keepers. According to Renslayer, the timekeepers are paying close attention to the case, but if that were so, would they just sit back and watch these time-breaking events unfold? I’m not so sure.
There’s a great discussion between Loki and Mobius dealing with the absurdity of the TVA. The organization is run by three lizards and most of the people in the TVA have never laid eyes on the timekeepers. According to Mobius, he was created by TVA and was provided a purpose to catch Variants. Mobius points out Loki’s origins sound just as ludicrous to a layman. To sum up, Mobius’s worldview comes down to three words: Existence is Chaos.
Once the timekeepers have figured out the strings of chaos, everything will end in peace and order. What’s interesting is Loki calls this boring, when in just the last episode he was calling freedom a burden. This sequence has my favorite line of the episode and maybe a sort of thesis for the series itself.
Loki: See, I know something children don’t.
Mobius: What’s that?
Loki: That nobody bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good.
The Variant Final Thoughts
Watching Wilson and Hiddleston try to rationalize the chaos of the world as Mobius and Loki are all I need out of this series. Luckily, Loki is giving me all of the Loki-Mobius scenes I could ask for and a whole lot more to boot.
The Review
The Variant
PROS
- Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson are crushing every scene together.
- Existence is Chaos is a wonderful concept.
- I have no idea what episode three will look like and can't wait to see what surprises are in store.
CONS
- The action sequence at Roxxcart wasn't terrible, but didn't really add much to the episode. I would rather the scene just be a battle of intelligence between Loki and The Variant.
