Boy, as much as I loved individual moments of it, this was the weakest episode of Loki and that's a real shame for the penultimate one. I think the biggest problem with it is Marvel has really struggled with this miniseries format they've arbitrarily locked themselves into and it's hurt more than helped the stories they've been trying to tell -- I really felt this hard with Wandavision too. There's no room for anything to breath and they can't explore all these fun concepts and characters, it's just a vehicle to rush rush rush to the finale.
***=Most especially frustrating to me***
click to show
Was all the Loki Variants we meet and then pretty much immediately discard. Old Loki? He could have been more of the classic 616 Loki with grand villainy and epic tales to tell of how he bamboozled the Avengers and Thor time and time again buuuut nope for brevity's sake he's just..."Loki who escaped Thanos and then literally hid on a rock for 40 years."
Kid Loki actually killed his Thor and came to rule the Void, but as fascinating as that story might be we're not going to hear it. Is Boastful Loki wielding some form of Mjolnir?! Dunno, it's never mentioned, forget it. Alligator Loki is just an actual alligator and serves as a gag for everyone to boggle over for a moment and then shrug off. Because this is a 6 episode series and we just don't got the time for any of that shit, they'll just pose dramatically for a moment and then literally walk away from the climax halfway through the episode. LAAAAAAME.
They really should have doubled the episode count for this series, IMO, or even turned it into a regular show. We all woulda loved it but, oh well.
I am still looking forward to the finale tho, this has been really enjoyable overall.
***=Also, my hunch***
click to show
Is that the ultimate bad guy behind the TVA is another Loki Variant who somehow managed to isolate the entire MCU from the rest of the Marvel Multiverse. Given the level of deception and shenanigans involved it makes sense to me!