LOKI S01E05 – Journey Into Mystery Review and Recap

LOKI Episode #5 Recap

Episode 5 begins with Loki meeting his variant selves – Boastful Loki, Classic Loki, Kid Loki, and the real star of the show: Alligator Loki. They give us a quick rundown of this new realm: It’s the void at the end of time where all multiverses collide only to be ultimately consumed by Alioth the shadow force the seems to erase everything.

Back at the TVA Sylvie is trying to get Ravonna and Miss Minutes to explain where Loki went and how to get to him as well as whoever is behind the TVA. She’s able to deduce that this unknown being must be hiding behind Alioth. Sylvie self-prunes herself and ends up in the void only to narrowly escape being consumed by Alioth when Mobius shows up in a pizza delivery car and saves her.

Meanwhile, with the Lokis our Loki gets to know the others a bit better. He finds out that Kid Loki’s Nexus event was that he killed Thor. Boastful Loki was – according to himself – able to obtain all six Infinity Stones. And Classic Loki was initially able to escape Thanos’ wrath during the events of Infinity War, but lived a sad and lonely life of solitude thereafter for it. It was only when he tried to reconnect with his brother that the TVA decided he must be erased.

Ravonna begins her own investigation into finding out the secret of the TVA first by interrogating Hunter B-15 whose now been incarcerated. B-15 explains that while Ravonna only wants to find out who has been pulling their strings, Sylvie needs it and that’s why there’s no way Ravonna can beat her.

LOKI S01E05 – Journey Into Mystery Review and Recap — *LOKI S01E05: The real star of the show.*

As Loki schemes to kill Alioth he’s met with a whole host of other Loki variants from various other universes. Led by President Loki, these variants attempt to take over the hideout where Loki and his small team have been hiding. But they all begin to turn on one another almost immediately and an all-out brawl commences. After Loki, Classic, Kid, and Gator are able to escape they end up meeting up with Sylvie and Mobius where they have a bit of down time before finally deciding to take on Alioth.

Mobius returns to the TVA with plans to burn the place to the ground and Loki and Sylvie confront Alioth. Just as the two of them are about to be consumed, Classic Loki shows up – after having chosen not to fight the creature along with Kid and Gator – and uses his powerful illusion magic to get Alioth’s attention. He’s ultimately consumed by Alioth having fulfilled his own “glorious purpose” but it gives the other two the chance to enchant the creature putting it under their spell.

A pathway to the castle hiding inside Alioth where the potential big bad may reside opens up and our two heroes make their way towards it.

Loki Episode #5 Review

This episode has been a rough one to review. Not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because I enjoyed it too much. The best episode in the series by far, episode 5 gave us a tremendous amount of fun and funny moments. As well as an incredible amount of Easter eggs that set the internet alight.

Tom Hiddleston continues to be a joy and is has so much chemistry with anyone he shares the screen with. This episode gives him tons of characters to bounce off of and the episode is stronger for it. From his confusion and anger with the other Lokis to his utter embarrassment at the other Lokis. Classic Loki in particular played by Richard E. Grant acts as a perfect foil for our Loki as he’s setup to be a genuine older version of our Loki had he survived Infinity War.

His story is in some ways even more tragic than Loki dying at the hands of Thanos, but thankfully he gets a real moment to shine later in the episode as he sacrifices himself to save our Loki and Sylvie. Grant is of course stellar in the role and hams it up incredibly. He embraces the silliness of all of this and the get up he’s been made to wear and as a fan it just makes me so happy that not only did we get some real time to spend with a classic comic outfit, but it was taken seriously as well as the character wearing it.

Boastful Loki played by DeObia Oparei is fun in the little amount of time he gets on screen but I genuinely wish we’d gotten more from him. He feels like he has so much more to offer than to have just ended up being another Loki that betrays everyone else. Maybe we’ll see him again in the finale?

Kid Loki and Gator Loki were a fun pair, with Kid Loki constantly carrying Gator Loki around it was nice to see they had formed such a close bond. Gator Loki in particular really steals the show in several funny moments. A few of which including biting other Loki’s hands. I imagine there’s plans already in the works for Kid Loki’s return – maybe in the Young or New Avengers – but I hope beyond hope that Gator Loki gets to come along for the ride whatever those plans may be.

Sophie Di Martino is still great as Sylvie and I hope she doesn’t die at the end of all this. I want to see more of her beyond this series. Hell, if we just scattered Lokis that show up all over the MCU I’d be fine with that as long as its these versions of the character we’ve been introduced to here. I do feel bad for Sylvie though getting stuck in these awkward conversations with our Loki.

Look, I’m not against their relationship, but I do find it ironic that the one times they’re supposed to have literal chemistry are the times when these two characters absolutely do not. Though the creators of this show keep hinting at her feelings for our Loki in her dialogue from time to time, never once does she actually come across as having the same feelings for our Loki. I hope she’s not leading him on. But I guess as Mobius says, when you feel the ends justify the means you’ll do anything. And right now she needs him.

Speaking of Mobius, I was surprised to see him so soon and in the way that we did. While I enjoyed the hilarity of him saving Sylvie from Alioth in a pizza delivery car I honestly wish we could have gotten to see more of his initial reactions to the void. What was it like to really see where everything goes? Did he meet any variants of himself? I imagine not since I think we’d see them but it does kind of suck given in the comics he has many clones of himself. Unless we’re going to get a big reveal regarding him in the finale I do feel like we missed out on some key moments of Mobius’ radicalization into destroying the TVA.

Alioth too was a awesome addition to this show and one I don’t think anyone could have guessed was coming. He is from the comics and while there he’s a full sentient being with his kingdom he rules over, here in the MCU he’s more of a controlled guard dog it seems and honestly that’s fine. It would be cool to encounter a talking gaseous creature but I’m fine with what we got. He’s a formidable beast without taking away from whoever the real big bad is.

And of course leave it to Marvel Studios to show Hollywood how to really make a big purple cloud menacing – lookin’ at you Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Alioth was really cool! And had several great moments. His shots near the end where he attempts to eat Classic Loki’s illusion Asgard and also attempts to eat Sylvie both of which culminate in some of the coolest shots in the show so far were great! Though I found how easy Sylvie and Loki were able to enchant Alioth to be rather anticlimactic.

Five episodes in and we still don’t know who the main villain of the series is and I think that’s pretty cool. We all have our theories but I commend Marvel’s willingness to hold off on the reveal until the final moment possible. It feels fresh for this universe and shows a continued aspiration to experiment with their stories.

Overall Feelings

I love this show. So much more than I ever thought I would. This episode was filled with the kind of stuff I love to see from Gator Loki existing to our Loki trying to fend off a giant monster with a flaming dagger. Stuff like that is so cool! I’ve heard this show might be getting a season 2 and I pray that it does so that we can get even weirder.

Observations of the Sacred Timeline – Easter Egg Edition

We got to see Throg finally! It’s heartbreaking that he’s trapped in that jar. How long has he been there trying to reach Mjolnir? I don’t want to think about it. #FreeThrog
We got the Thanos Copter finally! Genuinely felt like a pipe dream that would never happen! Even if it was just background wreckage, I love that it was acknowledged at all and it looks just as ridiculous as it does in the comics. It’s great!
There was the decapitated head of a statue of the Living Tribunal. In the comics he’s a judge that oversees the multiverse. This is the second reference we’ve gotten of him in the MCU. The first time was in Doctor Strange. I hope it was just a statue and I REALLY hope we get to see the real Tribunal one day.
Speaking of heads, there was also an enlarged helmet of Yellowjacket in the void. I wonder If this a hint at seeing Yellowjacket get large in Ant-Man 3? We already know he’s returning.
There’s tons of ships from Ronin’s Dark Aster to a SHIELD Helicarrier, and last episode there was a ship from Titan – Thanos’ homeworld. There was also the USS Eldridge which in our history was a part of a “government experiment” to make ships invisible. It apparently went missing during the tests.
There was a Polybius arcade game that in our history is a conspiracy among many people who say that the government used it to mind control players sometime in the 80s.
Avengers tower which we see again actually has QUENG written on it. In the comics this version of the tower was bought by Kang the Conqueror who was going to use capitalism to conquer the world.
Speaking of Kang, Alioth in the comics was an enemy of Kang. All roads continue to point to Kang. But will he really be the final boss?
And there was still so much more that I don’t have the room to cover here! Like how one of the side Loki variants we saw this episode was one of the variants we saw Mobius discuss earlier in the series! This episode will definitely require many re-watches just to find them all.