As part of my preparation for watch Season 2 and even after viewing the first four episodes of Season 2 via a press screener, I rewatched Loki: Season 1 on both Disney+ and Collector’s Edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray that just came out on 26 September 2023. If  love Loki, the special collector’s edition is definitely worth having and I don’t see the bonus features on Disney+ at this time. 

For background, I must confess that before 2017  “Thor: Ragnarok,” I only watched “Thor” to see Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and that was only after I had caught Hiddleston in the BBC Two/PBS production of “The Hollow Crown” in which he played Prince Hall (“Henry IV, Part 1” and “Henry IV, Part 2”) who them becomes Henry V in “Henry V.” 

“Thor: Ragnarok” brought humor to the Thor saga, but I still always look forward to Hiddleston’s Loki. “Loki” Season 1 inspired me to get Loki headgear for my dogs and eventually an alligator puppet. For the first time, I diverged from my Dragon Lady Con persona to be a Loki variant even though I found aspects of the first season of “Loki” disappointing from a diversity perspective.  

I have, since I was a child, loved Disney movies and I’ve attended D23 Expo and am a Gold member. I also love tin and metal containers and boxes so the Steelbook is really playing to my hoarding habits. 

Episode 1: Glorious Purpose

The title becomes a refrain through Season 1, but this first episode sets up the whole scenario. When Loki escapes from the Battle of New York (after leading the Chitauri in an invasion of Earth), he creates a branch off the sacred timeline. He appears in the Gobi Desert before some Mongolian or Chinese people, but it quickly arrested by officers of the Time Variance Authority. The Gobi Desert is just exotic location, but not a sign of real diversity in this production for AAPI.  

Once at the TVA, he learns his godly magic doesn’t work. The TVA artificial intelligence mascot Miss Minutes explains to Loki about the how the multiverals war between timelines forced the Time-Keeper to establish a singular timeline to prevent future wars. The Time-Keepers created the TVA and its employees whose sole purpose is to preserved the Sacred Timeline by pruning off branching timelines and putting the variants through a kangaroo court (with a guilty verdict guaranteed).

Although judge Ravonna Renslayer finds him guilty, the TVA actually needs Loki’s help tracking down a Loki variant who has killed several TVA officers and stolen their technology. Mobius is assigned to take Loki to the Time Theater, where he gets Loki to reflect on the effects of his choices, one of which is the death of his adoptive mother, Frigga. Loki is show his future on the Sacred Timeline which includes his death by Thanos. 

Episode 2: The Variant

Just like it takes a thief to catch a thief, it takes a Loki to catch a Loki. At first, in 1985 Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Loki isn’t totally on board with helping the TVA and stalls and attempts to bargain, hoping to meet the Time-Keepers. Although Renslayer wants to disintegrate Loki, Mobius convinces her to give him another chance. Loki figures out that in order not to cause more branches, the Variant is hiding near apocalyptic events. Since everything will be destroyed and everyone will die, it is impossible to change the timeline at those events. To test that theory, Loki and Mobius visit Pompeii in 79 AD right before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Loki and Mobius then figure out the Variant is hiding in a hurricane that hits Alabama in 2050. 

Loki meets the Variant, a female incarnation of Loki, at a superstore Roxxcart hurricane shelter.  The Variant, Sylvie, can enchant the agents (C-20 and H-15), possess their bodies and also discover information such as the Time-Keepers’ location. Although Loki offers to team up with her,  she doesn’t want to join forces with him and activates TVA reset charges at different points causing the Sacred Timeline to branch. 

Episode 3: Lamentis

From Alabama, Sylvie and Loki arrive at the location of the Time-Keepers. The TVA Judge Renslayer attacks them both and Loki uses a TemPad to escape. They arrive at the moon, Lamentis-1, just before it will be crushed by a planet. The TemPad needs to be charged, but that means Loki must work with Sylvie because she knows how to recharge it. They attempt to reach the evacuation spaceship to recharge the TemPad. But a drunken Loki fights with guards and as a result the TemPad is broken. They now attempt to board the ark to escape. During their time on Lamentis-1, they bound and Sylvie reveals to Loki that the TVA employees are all variants. Loki realizes that the TVA employees are totally unaware that they are variants who have had their memories erased. 

Episode 4: The Nexus Event

By Loki and Sylvie forming romantic feelings for each other, they cause a Nexus Event and that alerts the TVA agents who rescue and arrest the pair before the destruction of Lamentis. Loki is imprisoned in a time loop by Mobius. 

We learn a long time ago, the then-hunter Renslayer had arrested a young Sylvie for crimes against the Sacred Timeline and erased her timeline, but Sylvie stole the TemPad during her trial and escaped into another timeline.  The now-judge Renslayer lies to Mobius when he asked to see Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane ). Renslayer claims that C-20 had a mental breakdown caused by Sylvie’s enchantment and died, but Mobius learns this isn’t true. Renslayer’s TemPad reveals a recording of a distressed C-20 who is being interviewed by Renslayer. C-20 remembers her past life. Elsewhere, Hunter B-15 takes Sylvie to 2050 Alabama and asks Sylvie to show her her memories of her past life. B-15 understand now that she is a variant.

Mobius frees Loki, but they must flee from Renslayer and the TVA Troopers. Renslayer orders that Morbius be pruned. Renslayer takes Loki and Sylvie to the Time-Keepers who order that the two Loki variants be deleted. Teaming up, the two fight against Renslayer and the Time-Keepers. Sylvie behinds one of the Time-Keepers revealing it to be nothing more than an android. Renslayer manages to prune Loki and an angry Sylvie demands to know the truth about the TVA. 

Episode 5: Journey into Mystery

This is surely the episode which caused a Loki explosion in the cosplay universe. Loki had been sent to the Void. All those who are turned are dumped into the Void. In the Void, Lokis abound because Lokis may lose, but they are survivors. They have survived, but they also team up and form gangs. Loki teams up with Classic Loki, Boastful Loki, Kid Loki and Alligator Loki. They hid in an underground bunker until they are betrayed and must fight another gang of Lokis.

Mobius and Sylvie join Loki and they decide to take on the cloud monster called Alioth which devours everything in the Void, but also knows the way to the Citadel at the End of Time. 

Episode 6: For All Time. Always

In the Citadel at the End of Time, they again meet Miss Minutes. They are eventually allowed to see the master of the citadel, He Who Remains. He Who Reminds know their past, present and future and claims he has guided them to him. He created the TVA to avoid future multiversal wars like the one he was involved in. Now, however, he is tired of being isolated and gives them a choice: End the singular timeline by killing him and risk other multiversal wars with his variants or take his place and lead the TVA, managing the timeline.

Sylvie, who has spent all her life focused on revenge, won’t listen to Loki who worries what He Who Remains may be telling the truth. They kiss, but Sylvie send Loki back to the TVA using the TemPad and kills He Who Remains.

Back at the TVA, no one recognizes Loki. A variant of He Who Remains has replaced the Time-Keepers in the history of the TVA, evidenced by the replacement of the statue of the Time-Keepers by a statue of a variant of He Who Remains. This is where Season 2 begins. 

The end of Season 1 saw Filipino American Eugene Cordero’s character, receptionist Casey, elevated to the position of Hunter K-5E. Yet in Season 1, he only appeared in three episodes. In Season 2, Cordero appears in every episode and he’s a key member of the technical geeky side of this universe. 

• Marvel Studios’ Loki: The Complete First Season: September 26, 2023
• Marvel Studios’ WandaVision: The Complete Series: November 28, 2023
• Star Wars The Mandalorian: The Complete First Season: December 12, 2023
• Star Wars The Mandalorian: The Complete Second Season: December 12, 2023