Loki S2 E2 is finally giving us what we would expect from a show about the God of Mischief.

Unnecessary Torture!

Well now that I have your attention, let's talk about Loki being awesome(Just to clarify, I was referring to the time torture scene in the second half of this episode.)

So in the last article I wrote for this season of Loki, I said that the god of mischief is still present in Loki, most people simply fail to see it, because in a world full of lies, the truth is what causes unnecessary chaos, well for this episode we get three very large indicators for those who are blind.

The best part is, Loki finally has a partner in crime, seriously I ship Loki and Mobius so hard I almost forgot that Sylvie is my favorite.

Like legitimately, I don't think there was a single scene of Loki going rogue in this entire episode, even from the very beginning, I totally believe that everything was at least agreed upon between Loki and Mobius.

Bromance goals

But you know there is something more interesting in this is hiding beneath the surface in Loki, with Loki finally returning to his God of mischief roots, we get to see a glimpse of what goes on inside his head, and why he and Mobius get so well along together.

They are both essentially Rebels, always going against the Norm, bending the rules, not just in order to get the Job done, but also because the Monotony of everything stifles them, they always envision more for themselves, seeing beyond the arbitrary boundaries that their respective societies have designed for them.

Which is why they are the perfect Duo to fight against the stifling order represented by He Who Remains.

In the previous season it was hinted that Mobius had a history of always going rogue, and Ravonna always stuck her neck out for him and it paid off. So when he realizes that he had a life on the sacred timeline, this is why his allegiance changes, it is like he said in Season 1 Episode 5, the only reason he stuck around because he thought his work was necessary, the fact that he was fighting against a... nay was created to fight a Multiversal War is what kept him stuck to his Job. Now that that's a lie, he amongst many others is the first to see the TVA for what it truly is, a veiled disguise for Fascism.

We've all been there my friend

It is why Hunter X-5 telling him that he is sleeping and needs to wake up and go on the sacred timeline touches a Nerve for him, because deep down he resents having his life ripped away from him.

But things aren't so simple as to him just leaving the TVA and going back to whatever his life was as a Variant, because even without the looming threat of He Who Remains variants returning to poop on the party, we have TVA purists like General Dox, who would go to whatever lengths to maintain the Status Quo, because they have drunk too much of their own Kool Aid.

It is why Mobius doesn't leave immediately, because he has a sense of responsibility to do the right thing, especially after realizing the horrors he committed in his previous life, and that is why even after everything he refuses to go look at the life he could have had, because if he does, he will want to go back to it, and leave his responsibility behind, it is actually a very mature perspective, because most will just want to go back the first chance, because this isn't their fight to be honest, most would choose whatever little peace they can get and live with that. Either that or its a terrible coping mechanism with horrible amounts of denial... probably a bit of both.

And while we are on the topic of terrible coping mechanisms, lets talk about Loki's conquest of Earth essentially being a gigantic temper tantrum with cosmically horrifying consequences, both for the people of Earth and for his benefactor Thanos.

Because yeah, this makes sense, his plan was shit because it wasn't meticulously planned, it was emotional.

The fact that in the Ki lime pie scene, he is the one who calms Mobius down, goes to show that if his parents had done a better Job of... being parents, he might have ended up a wonderful young god, but that wasn't to happen, gee thanks Odin.

However on a grand scale I think things turned out great for everyone because without that unnecessary Trauma we wouldn't have the time torture scene, which is a treasure and must be cherished(I must sound like a psycho).

Poor guy, he thought he was above the two foremost masters of manipulation

Can I just say, I can't be the only one who didn't believe for one second that Loki and Mobius hadn't planned this whole play from the start. Although there was that little doubt in my mind because Loki actually going off script is also not something I would put past him, and the show would have been great regardless.

And that's the beauty of this scene, it is unpredictable, and no matter which direction it goes, it makes you think you were right all along.

But the episode isn't all emotional growth, Sylvie this time around is going through heavy Denial, and who can blame her, she has spent her entire life with a single focus, take down those people who took her life away, so much so that she refuses to see any other possibility, even at the risk of her own life being taken away from her.

When asked what she is going to do if more He Who Remains variants come their way, she says she will kill them, that she is capable of handling this, and she has to believe that, because otherwise she has to believe that there was some, even a shred of a good reason behind her pain, and that is something no one wants to believe, ironically, Sylvie is more like Dox than Loki, unwilling to let go of her previous world view because they have based their identity around it.

Now I Can't argue with that...

And while we are on the topic of Dox bombing the sacred timeline branches, can I just point out that Season one episode two ended by Sylvie(then considered a rogue Loki) bombing the sacred time line making it return to its natural chaotic state.

Whilst Season two episode two ended with another bombing of the timeline, this time to return it from its natural chaotic state to a well ordered state.

While the the former showed the danger of rogue variants and the need for the TVA, this one shows how broken and rotten the TVA is from within (as a rogue TVA agent goes and destroys everything they fought for), and why it needs to reform or just disappear. In one case the TVA is presented the solution in the other, its the problem.

That... looks horrific, for something that's only pixels on a CRT T.V.

I feel smug for noticing that parallel even though I worded it terribly(I'd imagine) and there is nothing you can do about it.

But you know Episode 3 wasn't so good in season 1 so I hope season 2 doesn't follow in it's predecessors footsteps as much as I like to smugly notice parallels