Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 Episode 2 of Loki.
The Big Picture
- The reunion between Loki and Sylvie in Season 2 highlights their ideological divide and sets the stage for their further development as characters.
- Sylvie’s actions in this episode show her flaws and selfishness, despite achieving her desired revenge in Season 1.
- Loki has evolved as a character but still struggles to pursue his heroic goals in morally upright ways, showcasing his growth as a “good guy” that is still a work in progress.
The second episode of Loki Season 2 featured a moment fans have eagerly anticipated since the first season ended more than two years ago, as Loki (Tom Hiddleston) reunited with Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), the female variant of himself from an alternate reality that he fell in love with in Season 1. But while the characters clearly still have strong feelings for each other the reunion emphasized and exacerbated the ideological divide that developed between them at the end of Season 1. They’re becoming even more entrenched in their opposite points of view and their opposing stances highlight who they currently are as people while also hinting at how they will develop going forward, making them even more intriguing and compelling characters than they already were.
In Season 2 Episode 2, Loki and Time Variance Authority agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) captured Hunter X-5 (Rafael Casal), a TVA agent who had been part of a team sent by General Dox (Kate Dickie) to find Sylvie. Having learned from Mobius and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) that he and the other agents were variants who had been abducted and forced to serve the TVA, X-5 went rogue, living an independent life on the timeline as successful actor Brad Wolfe. However, before he did so he found Sylvie. After Loki caged him in a device that continued to shrink, threatening to crush him, he agreed to take Loki and Mobius to find her.
Where Is Sylvie in ‘Loki’ Season 2?
After killing He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), a variant of Kang the Conqueror who was the mastermind behind the TVA, and consequently freeing the multiverse, Sylvie began living the kind of simple life she’d been denied since the TVA tried to erase her from existence as a child. Loki finds her on 1980s Earth, working at a McDonald’s in Broxton, Oklahoma. He told her about his encounter with a future version of her in the season premiere and asked for her help in dealing with the chaos affecting the multiverse and the threat of the other Kang variants that He Who Remains warned them about, but she refused to get involved. When Brad warned them and Mobius that Dox’s faction of TVA agents was planning on using reset charges to erase all the branching timelines created by He Who Remains’ death, including the one they were in, Sylvie helped Loki and Mobius combat them, but this decision could easily just be attributed to her wanting to protect her new home.
While Dox and many of her followers were apprehended, they managed to erase a large number of timelines. In one of the series’ most devastating scenes the main characters watched in horror as these branches vanished from the TVA’s timeline graphic, with B-15 emphasizing the horror of what just happened by noting how each timeline was full of people who deserved to live. Loki and Sylvie’s reactions to this tragedy were telling. Sylvie asserted that “The TVA is the problem. It’s broken. It’s rotten,” before going back home through a portal. Loki pleaded with her not to do so, saying, “it’s harder to stay,” but she was gone before he finished the sentence.
Sylvie’s behavior throughout the episode showed that despite achieving the freedom and revenge she wanted in Season 1 she’s still a seriously flawed character. It’s understandable why she would be so desperate to hold on to her new life given her traumatic past but abandoning Loki and the others to handle the current crisis on their own was incredibly selfish of her. It’s hard to argue that she wasn’t justified in taking out He Who Remains, as doing so freed the multiverse from his manipulations, effectively restoring free will after it hadn’t existed for eons, but she should have realized that doing so would have negative consequences that she needs to take responsibility for. She’s right to argue that the TVA is an inherently corrupt institution that never should have existed in the first place, but at the moment they are the only people equipped to safeguard the public from multiversal threats, whether those are related to Kang or not. While Sylvie’s philosophy may overall be the better one at least Loki and company are actually doing something, actively trying to protect and improve the world.
How Has Loki Changed Since ‘The Avengers’?
That said, their methods, especially Loki’s, could be a lot better. The episode took stock of how significantly the series’ version of Loki has changed since his timeline divulged from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s original version due to the events of Avengers: Endgame. Brad scoffed when Loki mentioned that the current chaotic state of the multiverse puts lives on the line, noting how relatively recently Loki was leading the invasion of Earth seen in the first Avengers film. He criticized Loki’s redemption, arguing that whenever he tries to help, he makes things worse and asserted his belief that eventually Loki would revert to his old ways and attempt to take power for himself. But everything the series has shown about where the character currently is in his story suggests that’s not the case.
When the show started, Loki was planning to manipulate the TVA for his own ends but seeing his future from the Sacred Timeline, further developing his friendship with Mobius, and meeting Sylvie irrevocably altered him. He is now genuinely invested in the greater good, he simply safeguards it in less than moral ways. The episode highlighted this through his handling of the situation with Brad. Loki resorting to torturing Brad and threatening his life after just one unsuccessful humane interrogation showed that, while he’s traded his old selfish goals for altruistic ones, his villainous instincts are still very much alive and manifest in the tactics he uses to pursue those goals (Mobius going along with the torture showed that he, and by extension his faction of the TVA, also need to develop better morals). This new characterization was shown back in the Season 1 finale. Loki’s intense concern about the threat posed by the other Kangs demonstrated his newfound altruism. But the fact that he was even willing to consider He Who Remains’ suggestion to continue his work of manipulating the multiverse to prevent that threat showed that he still believes that ends can justify immoral means. To put it simply, while his intentions show that Loki is firmly a good guy now, he’s not actually good at being one yet.
How Will Loki and Sylvie Continue to Develop?
The first two episodes of the new season have set Loki and Sylvie’s character arcs up with obvious trajectories. The next step in Loki’s is for him to start pursuing his heroic goals in genuinely heroic ways. The glimpse of future Sylvie helping Loki suggests that she will learn the lessons he learned in Season 1, becoming less selfish and embracing the classic Marvel idea that with great power there must also come great responsibility. That said, it’s possible the series could include a twist or two and not have them make such positive growth. That would seem like a mistake, however. While the character’s flaws are big parts of why they continue to become more and more interesting, for their stories to be well-rounded they also need to make some serious progress in improving themselves. Ideally, they would mend their relationship as well, but that’s not as big a concern as them simply continuing to become better people. After all they’ve been through the characters deserve some success and happiness, whether that comes from them being together romantically or not.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
