'Loki' Season-1 finale: Is this the next big MCU villain?
The penultimate episode of the Disney+ series Loki ended with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) defeating energy-consuming monster Alioth to find out what laid beyond the end of time, possibly the headquarters of the person running TVA. The season finale answers whether the two Lokis manage to kill the creator and return people their free will. Here's our review.
The sixth episode opens with the Tricksters entering the Citadel at the End of Time, a castle located on some cosmic asteroid. As our heroes gear up to fight the big baddie, Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong) arrives to reveal the house belongs to He Who Remains/the one behind TVA. And, he turns out to be Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).
While the omniscient character doesn't utter Kang's name, he does say he's referred to as the Conqueror. Also, Majors has been officially cast as Kang in 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. According to the comics, Kang is a long-time enemy of the Avengers. He is a time-traveling, multiversal being, appropriately fitting the role of the man who keeps the Sacred Timeline sans branches.
"We wanted this show to be huge, and we wanted it to really end with a bang," Loki head writer Michael Waldron told a portal. "Knowing that Kang was probably going to be the next big cross-movie villain, it just always made so much sense."
Coming back to the episode, He Who Remains tells Loki and Sylvie the importance to prevent branching timelines, so that multiversal wars don't happen. He reveals to have fought many of his variants, who're really "evil." While Loki believes him, Sylvie is sure it's a lie to manipulate them with power. Despite building a delicate relationship over the episodes, Sylvie refuses to trust Loki.
By the end of the episode, the timeline has been set into disarray, which means multiple realities now exist without any supervision. Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) embarks on a secret mission to dig out the truth and Loki is heartbroken yet determined to win the upcoming fight. In MCU style, the post-credit scenes confirmed that a second season will be coming soon.
The best part of this Kate Herron-directorial remains to be Loki's growth--how he went from being a mischievous traitor to a virtuous character. Composer Natalie Holt again impresses and the splendid cosmic graphics resemble those seen in Doctor Strange. Till we meet again! Verdict: 4/5.
