Loki Season 2 Episode 5 Review

Last week, “Heart of the TVA” went out with a bang — literally. The TVA was taken over, multiple characters died, and then the Temporal Loom collapsed and combusted. It was pretty dramatic.

Now season 2 of Marvel’s Loki is ready to pick up strong after its explosive cliffhanger. From missing friends and multiple timelines to impossibilities made possible, “Science/Fiction,” the series’ fifth episode, is a satisfying and emotional penultimate episode.

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Comin’ Up Empty

Unlike what many of us expected, the Loom’s explosion didn’t immediately vaporize our heroes. Instead, we open with Loki standing all by his lonesome while the light fades. He walks around a completely empty TVA building. Overhead, the loudspeakers and screens blare that “Code 1229” has been activated and a fail safe initiative. A 2-D Miss Minutes thanks the absent employees for their service.

Loki time slips again. He moves throughout time and space within the TVA until everything turns to spaghetti around him. Grabbing a TVA handbook for the road, he slips out and away to … well, actually, we don’t know yet. But he’s gone for now.

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Where Are They Now?

Casey

Immediately we cut to Casey staging a prison break in 1962 San Francisco. He and a few other inmates are attempting to escape Alcatraz, an actual maximum security prison/fortress/island that has since been closed down. Of course, the June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt is a real historical event, and one that has been utilized in pop culture before — including a film starring Clint Eastwood.

B-15, Mobius, and O.B

In 2012 New York City, Hunter B-15 is a doctor. In 2022 Cleveland, Ohio, Mobius is a salesman named Don who has family problems and sells jet skis. Finally, in 1994 Pasadena, California, O.B. is a writer named A.D. Doug. Apparently, A.D. has a pattern of putting his own sci-fi books on the store shelves because nobody will actually buy them. We get the sense that these branched timelines are all the lives of the TVA agents before they were stolen by He Who Remains.

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A Fiction Problem

O.B., or A.D., is the first person Loki actually gets to have a full conversation with. He tells A.D. that it’ll sound strange, but A.D. believes him because he’s a writer and a scientist. Agreeing to help Loki travel back to the moment the Loom exploded, A.D. explains, “That’s impossible, but don’t let it stop you.” Now there’s your inspirational quote of the day.

A.D. theorizes that Loki needs to find a way to control his time slipping in order to get the gang back together. While it seemed random before, A.D. isn’t so sure. He and Loki figure out that the time slips always bring Loki right to the people he’s looking for. More motivated than ever, but unable to control his unwanted ability, Loki gives A.D. the TVA guidebook to help him build a Tempad instead.

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Follow Your Heart

Loki then accidentally time slips again, back to Mobius/Don. Don doesn’t want to leave his sons, and isn’t quite sure how or why this mysterious stranger has followed him home. Luckily, A.D. arrives just in time to show off the Tempad and prove Loki isn’t a lunatic. Loki is shocked A.D. built the Tempad so quickly, but A.D. explains it’s actually been 19 months since they last spoke. Tricky business, time.

We then move to an awesome recruitment montage. Very deus ex machina style, Loki steps through golden portals to gather Casey and B-15. And then there was one. Loki returns to Sylvie’s McDonald’s-fueled daydream, only to discover she’s completely aware of the reset and happily living in her branched timeline. She asks Loki why the TVA is so important to him. She also reminds him that these people he’s recruiting didn’t choose to become TVA agents, so why should he make them return?

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So Jot That Down

Finally, the truth: It’s not about the TVA, or power like we conjectured last week. Loki is simply lonely. He misses his friends. Asking, “Without them, where do I belong?” Loki brings tears to our eyes. Just like in Thor and all the Avengers movies, he’s still just a sad, scared boy trying to find a family.

Sylvie encourages him to write his own story, and to let the others do so, as well. It’s a neat idea. However, things go quite literally spaghetti shaped in her branched timeline (RIP that beautiful record store) and she has to escape via Tempad. The branches are dying, so now she has to follow Loki’s plan whether she likes it or not.

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If At First You Don’t Succeed…

The band’s back together. Not for long, though. In an instant, the whole room and everybody in it starts to spaghetti, destroying everything Loki holds most dear. It is within that heartbreak and desperation that he figures out how to control his time slipping. The final second of Loki episode 5 shows Loki time slipping behind O.B. at the Temporal Loom’s last moments.

Next week’s finale will tell us if Loki succeeds in saving the Multiverse or not.

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The fifth episode of Loki gave us a glimpse into the pasts, presents, and futures of all our most beloved characters. What are your predictions for the rest of Loki season 2?

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