Loki season 2's final episode features a direct callback to the original Thor movie
Nov. 10, 2023It shows just how far the God of Mischief has come
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Loki season 2 concluded today withan incredible episodethat, in some ways, brought the God of Mischief’s story full circle. You can find out more about the cosmic implications of that spectacular ending in our guidehere.
At the end of that film, a very fresh-faced Loki has been knocked from the Bifrost Bridge and is clinging on for dear life while Odin and Thor look on in despair. Loki says to his father, “I could have done it, father! For you. For all of us,” before letting go and tumbling off into space.
He repeats those words, “For you, for all of us,” in this week’s episode ‘Glorious Purpose’. The context this time is very different, however, as he prepares to sacrifice himself for the sake of the multiverse by stepping into the Temporal Loom.
In Thor, Loki wanted to prove to Odin that he is a worthy son, but he was far too narcissistic, duplicitous, and malicious. His actions in the new episode, however, suggest that all these years later (and it’s been centuries for Loki, don’t forget) he finallyisworthy of the respect and love that he craved. He even gets a throne, of sorts, though the context is entirely different.
It’s not the only connection to the first film. “Your ancestors called it magic. And you call it science. Well I come from a place where they’re one and the same thing,” Thor once told Jane Foster while explaining the concept of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. In this episode Loki spends centuries learning the science of the Time Loom, only to unite that science with magic in the episode’s beautiful final moments where his throne sits at the heart of a tree that looks uncannily like Yggdrasil brought vividly to life.
We know froma recent interviewwith the show’s executive producer Kevin Wright that there is a desire to reunite Loki with his brother Thor one day. Perhaps this beautiful, ambiguous ending is setting the stage for that.
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Or perhaps like the title of the episode, ‘Glorious Purpose’, which is the same name as thefirst episode of season one, it’s just a way of bringing things neatly full circle. Anouroboros, if you will.
Loki season 2 is streaming now onDisneyPlus.
For more onLoki season 2, check out our guides to:
Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.
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