11. Science/Fiction
Just as the Temporal Loom collapses, Loki is taken places and times by his recurrent timeslipping, visiting his friends in branched timelines living their pre-TVA lives: Casey as an ex-convict in 1962 San Francisco; B-15 as a doctor in 2012 New York; Mobius as a jet ski salesman and single dad of two in 2022 Cleveland; and Ouroboros as a failed sci-fi writer with a CalTech PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1994 Pasadena. Loki hands over the TVA guidebook to Ouroboros as he travels back and forth to convince the others who have no recollection of the TVA. He also finds Sylvie in the branched Oklahoma timeline, the only one who remembers everything. Reluctant to help at first, she eventually seeks Loki as her branched timeline is pruned. As they gather helpless at Ouroboros’ lab, they are pruned one by one as a consequence of the Temporal Loom’s collapse, just as Loki finally gets to control his timeslipping by realizing that it is not about where, when or why, but rather who. He timeslips right back to the time as Victor Timely is gearing up to step out of the blast door.
Hands down, best episode so far. I’ve always chuckled a bit about the very bureaucratic setup and feel of this series, which isn't all that illogical because we are talking about alternate branches of reality here. In the bigger scheme of things and viewed from an existentialist lens, this whole business of life and purpose is always tackled with a grandiose bigger-than-life overview, most of the time metaphysical. So it is a bit funny for it to appear all organized and rule-based. This is also why watching this series can be a bit tedious, because we tend to drown in all the multiversal bureaucratic mess. This episode differs because it finally gives us a glimpse of the TVA members living their normal lives, and that is the personification, the humanity, that we tend to look for when shit hits the fan. I also love how this is all metaphorical. They are dealing with a multiversal apocalyptic scenario here, and it just reinforces how when in life nothing makes much sense anymore, it is always that humanity that we tend to fall back on. It’s poignant like that.
“It's not about where, when or why. It's about who. I can rewrite this story.” –Loki
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