Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Marvel
There were high expectations for the God of Mischief’s return in Season 2 of Loki. After a strong debut season on Disney+ that stood out as a bright spot in Marvel’s lacking TV catalog, its sophomore effort has set out apace, hoping to maintain that goodwill. But in the four episodes that have aired so far, the show’s momentum has waned as quickly as it picked up, with the cast hurtling from one crisis to the next. And within the chaos are two things: a messy, lackluster story and a great friendship keeping it afloat.
In Season 2, the Sacred Timeline—the central timeline into which all multiverse timelines were reorganized—that the Time Variance Authority (TVA) is sworn to defend is teetering on the brink of collapse. To save it, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) must go up against the looming threat of the MCU’s new Big Bad, Kang the Conqueror (played by the embattled Jonathan Majors, whose presence casts an unsettling shadow over the season). He’s joined by Mobius (Owen Wilson) and various other TVA agents, including standout newcomer Ke Huy Quan as Ouroborus, who team up to both put an end to Kang. And that’s not the only person they’re taking down: They’re also hunting for Loki-variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), who went rogue and murdered a variant of Kang, known as He Who Remains, in the Season 1 finale.
But in doing so, the entire cast must drudge through convoluted dialogue. Laden with exposition, the ensemble attempts to make something entertaining of the nonsensical chaos that erupted at the TVA at Season 1’s conclusion. Even though Loki is adamant that a multiversal war is on the horizon, each episode thus far has been bogged down by an unrelated, short-lived threat that appears as quickly as it’s resolved.