'Loki' Season 2 Episode 4 Review
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The word of the day is cliffhanger. Episode 4, “Heart of the TVA,” was delivered in the mischievously fast-paced slide of hand fashion viewers have come to expect this season. It jumped in on what we all tuned in for – to hear Miss Minutes tell Ravonna Renslayer the secret He Who Remains kept from her during all those years of her loyal service. Renslayer gets to see the recording of the last few minutes with him at the end of the war/beginning of the TVA. Naivety shined through the recording in Renslayer as she truly believed they would command together. We all watched in horror with her as she stepped through the time door to the TVA, expecting He Who Remains to follow. But instead, he called Miss Minutes and ordered all the memories to be wiped out, including Ravonna. Renslayer composed herself quickly and asked Miss Minutes what she proposed they do. The plan was clear when Miss Minutes said, “We don’t need him; maybe we never did.”
Victor is at the TVA. Dox and her team are in a holding cell with X-5. Timely meets OB. O.B. wrote the TVA manual that Victor received as a child and practically memorized, whereas O.B. wrote the manual based on what he learned from Timely at the very beginning. O.B. recounted the mythology: “It’s like a snake eating his own tail.” Indeed, we have seen much come full circle already this season. The remaining plot of this episode takes more than one hard turn. Hunter B-15 tries to convince Dox to help the “good guys” restore the TVA and save lives. Dox is a hard sell, but her intentions ultimately align with Hunter’s; viewers are even gifted the knowledge of that when she defends Hunter’s integrity as trustworthy to X-5. X-5, by contrast, is the sleazeball we expect him to be. Renslayer and Miss Minutes show up after Hunter leaves. They offer the entire group a place on the timeline if they pledge loyalty and go with them through the time door. Naturally, X-5 agrees, but Dox declines. Dox’s Minutemen follow her lead. Miss Minutes activates the time cube introduced earlier in the season, producing a box around the former TVA law enforcement. Off-screen, we hear them liquified under the pressure of the cube as it progressively becomes smaller.
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X-5 prunes the guard looking after Victor and takes Victor back to Miss Minutes and Renslayer. The next scene finds Sylvie and Loki getting separated. Loki finds the time stick used to prune the guard; when whom should he stumble into in the foreboding hallway? Himself, from episode one. The big question from the premiere was who pruned Loki. He was supposed to prune himself at a specific time, and when we think he missed his chance, he is pruned from behind – now we know it was him all along. He and Sylvie unite and pick up that ringing telephone. We all wondered in episode one who it was. This part was underwhelming as it was just O.B. and the gang calling to find out where they were.
Loki and Sylvie sneak up on X-5. Sylvie enchants him, forcing him to go to Renslayer. Meanwhile, O.B. takes Miss Minutes offline. Her parting words to Victor are, “You’ll never be him!” Then X-5 comes in, taking Renslayer to the side and, through enchantment, prunes her. The gods of mischief take Victor in their charge and return to Mobius, O.B., and Casey. Victor opens the temporal loom through his aura and helps O.B. prepare the device to theoretically repair the loom. Loki volunteers to suit up to install the gadget when Victor decides he should be the one to do it instead. The radiation devours Victor, and the energy within the loom self-destructs. The cliffhanger leaves us wondering if there is any way that Loki, Mobius, Sylvie, O.B., Casey, Hunter B-15, or the rest of the TVA could survive.
Only time will tell how the final two episodes will play out, but we are all in for it! Don’t forget to catch Loki on Disney+ next Thursday at 9 p.m. (ET) or 8 p.m. (CST)!
Rating: 9.5/10
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