‘Loki’ Recap: ‘Heart of the TVA’

10/28/2023

Written by John Edward Betancourt

L-R): Eugene Cordero as Casey, Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Ke Huy Quan as O.B., Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Jonathan Majors as Victor Timely in Marvel Studios' LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 204 of ‘Loki’. To revisit the previous episode, click here. Also, this piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Several topics that have recently come up often in our discussions of the hit Disney+ series, Loki, is how the show continues to surprise us with its unconventional storytelling and the unique risks it likes to take. And these continue to be discussed… simply because this show is showing no signs of slowing down regarding such matters. For clearly, it wants to shake things up, and surprise us and give us stories that defy what the MCU normally stands for and that has made for a refreshing viewing experience, one that the show is only leaning harder into as season two continues along, as evidenced by this week’s outright stunning tale.

For ‘Heart of the TVA’ dropped perhaps the boldest episode to date of the series into our laps and it accomplished that feat by way of several key twists. Such as having the bad guys… find great success during this tale. Because Renslayer and Miss Minutes decided during their time at the end of time, that perhaps they should be in charge of the TVA instead and do things right this time around, and that brought them back to their friends. Wherein they offered up a desperate plea to each of them to join them or face death, and well… everyone but Brad chose death. For they agreed with Loki and Mobius after all, and decided to lose their lives in the name of the countless timelines and that were thriving and sadly, their passing allowed for this duo to cause more trouble for our heroes.

Who were working in the bowels of the TVA, to get the Temporal Loom up to snuff with Victor Timely so everything could be saved, and well… that work was going slow and was further delayed by Renslayer and Miss Minutes. Simply because they re-took control of the TVA’s systems and locked everyone out from what needed to be done, and when given the opportunity, they even kidnapped Victor to see if he could do their bidding. Which forced Loki and Sylvie to get to work and rescue Victor and that led to more surprises. Such as learning that Loki was the one who pruned himself, since the timelines matched up in this story, and this sequence also brought about the end of Miss Minutes and Renslayer. Since a system reboot put that mischievous and evil clock AI down and Sylvie had Brad finally help them out with a little trickster magic since he pruned Renslayer.

But while those surprises were quite impactful, since villains don’t usually fall at the middle point of a television season, they still influenced what was to come quite nicely. Because they delayed the repair of the Temporal Loom, and well… that delay brought about nothing but disaster. For when the time came to finally make this happen, not only did Victor Timely offer to handle the repair in person… but he died as a hero in the process. For the temporal radiation had grown too strong, and the delays were the cause of that, and that destroyed Victor in the process, and it would seem, it destroyed the TVA as well. For in the closing moments of this story, the Loom detonated under the strain of too many timelines, forcing our heroes to simply stand there, and wait for the temporal energy to blast through the TVA and all of them.

Which was… quite the cliffhanger to send our way and the perfect way to continue to surprise us and offer up an unconventional tale. For the heroes aren’t supposed to lose in the MCU. But here… they did. For Timely died, the TVA lie in ruin and who knows what the fate of Loki and his friends will be. And that’s about as unconventional as it gets and that helped to solidify what we could consider to be… the darkest MCU story we’ve seen to date. Because this one had all the marks of an ugly tale, and it featured some stunning losses and what’s wild, is that we still have two episodes left in this journey. Which means, we are now in undiscovered country, and we have no idea where the show is taking us, and that’s brilliant and that’s wondrous and that absolutely leaves us eager to see where this bold and brilliant series is headed next. Until next time.

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