‘Loki’ Recap: ‘Science/Fiction’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

(L-R): Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15, Owen Wilson as Mobius, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Eugene Cordero as Casey, and Ke Huy Quan as O.B. in Marvel Studios' LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 205 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.
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One thing that fans of the hit Disney+ series, Loki, can agree upon, is that no one had any idea where this week’s episode was going to take us and rightfully so. Simply because last week’s ending… completely and literally blew this story apart. For Victor Timely died horribly due to temporal radiation, and because of that, the Temporal Loom detonated and sent a massive shockwave of temporal energy toward the TVA and our heroes, undoubtedly destroying it and everyone within it. Leaving this story in undiscovered country for certain.

Well as it turned out, it’s hard to keep a good Loki down, and he wasn’t done with life or his mission to save all of time. For ‘Science/Fiction’ opened up mere moments after that horrible explosion, to reveal that Loki managed to survive the blast for reasons unbeknownst to us, and that he was once again slipping through time, with a twist. For his time slips kept bringing him to different iterations of his friends. O.B. for instance was now a struggling sci-fi writer in another timeline. Whereas Casey was a felon working to escape Alcatraz, and Hunter B-15? Well, she was a pediatrician, and of course… Mobius was selling jet skis under the name of Don, and well… this revelation left Loki in quite the confused place.

Because he didn’t know why there were still timelines that existed when the core of time was destroyed, nor did he understand why his friends were scattered to the temporal winds, nor did he have a clue as to what needed to happen next. Which prompted him to spend as much time with O.B. as possible, to ponder upon well… everything, and thankfully, he brought Loki great clarity. For this duo were able to figure out… that perhaps the strength of everyone’s temporal auras were calling to Loki, and if reunited, could bring forth salvation for all of time and the multiverse really. Provided of course, Loki could harness his powers and find a way to slip through time in a focused manner, since O.B. also figured out that it was more in Loki’s control than he knew and well, those revelations brought about quite the intimate quest.

Wherein Loki had to lower his guard and explain to old friends what they meant to him, and what they meant to the timestream, and that he needed them in his life because they were having a positive impact upon him. In fact, he even had to have that talk with Sylvie, who forced him to say it aloud before declining his offer to save all the things. But she too eventually relented and joined the club when the branched timeline she was hiding within, collapsed. Giving rise to hope and that hope was precisely what Loki needed. Because the end of everything caught up with them and obliterated the people that mattered most to Loki, and that finally informed him of how badly he wanted to save everyone and everything, especially people he’d come to care about… and that led to a miracle of sorts.

Wherein Loki figured out, how to intentionally traverse the timeline and that… brought him precisely where he wanted to be. Alongside his friends, mere moments before the Loom bid farewell to all of time, and well… that epic ending more or less focused the narrative for this season. In that, Loki is hunting for what he wanted to find before the whole mess with Kang came to life. Which is… redemption, peace, and a chance to do something good with the second chance he’s now been given. Making this a story of redemption, one that may potentially allow for a Loki to finally win the day, provided of course… he can properly change the course of time. Until next time.

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