by Conan Simmons – July 7, 2021 – 4:48 am
Much is revealed in this episode titled after the comic book that Loki and Thor first appeared. Thor making his first appearance in the August 1962 issue #83 of Journey Into Mystery and Loki making a first appearance in October 1962 issue #85. Eventually the popularity of the characters convinced Marvel to change the title to The Mighty Thor in March 1966 with issue #126.
Richard E. Grant guest stars as Classic Loki, with a costume based more directly on the characters first appearance in comic books.
Waking up in the void beyond time, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) meets variations of himself including Classic Loki, Kid Loki, Boastful Loki and, somehow not weird at all, Alligator Loki.
Together they run from Alioth, a giant purple cloud monster that devours everything it touches. Once they find shelter more Lokis show up and things get pretty funny as Alligator Loki, as sensitive as any Loki, takes offence at a quip from President Loki and a fight breaks out.
Back at the Time Variance Authority a face off ensues between Sylvie (Sophie Di Martino) and Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) stemming from the skirmish of last episode. Negotiating a truce they start working together, along with Miss Minutes (voiced by Tara Strong, best known as the voice of Bubbles from ‘The Powerpuff Girls’), to find out who is really behind the TVA. Sylvie catches on that Renslayer and Miss Minutes are plotting to betray her and decides her best bet is to take drastic action.
This episode is the funniest of the series and is the penultimate episode leading into next week’s finale.
The destroyed city near where Alioth is inhabiting is likely the city of Chronopolis, a place where Kang the Conqueror once ruled according to the comics. While it’s highly unlikely that Kang will appear in this series, actor Jonathan Majors is to play Kang in the upcoming film ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, it is likely that Renslayer is plotting to involve Kang in some way, perhaps signal or wake him from behind whatever time barrier Alioth seems to be protecting.
Perhaps the finale will bring Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) back from being held captive in a time cell by Judge Renslayer and maybe Miss Minutes will play a more pivotal part in the proceedings? In any case, the real villain behind everything should be revealed next week and maybe, just maybe, Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) will get to ride a jet ski.