LOKI - Episode 5 - Journey Into Mystery (Patreon)

“I don’t even know what we’re doing.”

You know, the second I saw the vague episode title of “Journey Into Mystery” I was like oof, this could be a little rough. I’ve talked about the endless problems of mystery boxing. I’ve talked about the problems of delay. I’ve talked about the problems of convolution. All of which were on display here in this episode. But, of course, that’s not really what people will talk about, is it?

Because much of the episode is a delightful romp that’s chock full of tangible surface details. It’s “easter egg” filmmaking turned up to 11. Frog Thor! The Thanos Copter! A bunch of other stuff I didn’t recognize! Which means there’s probably someone out there who is much better at writing up all that obscure lore (or good at googling). But it comes with the admittance that there’s some big problems behind all that fun stuff. And I worry it’s due to the fact that the episode mostly exists as a waiting room for the finale.

Sure, we start the episode in a dizzying rush to get to safety from the giant Smoke Monster thingy that’s seemingly protecting the edge of time and consuming all in its path (man, is a LOST reference now properly dated??? Are we there yet?). But I dunno, it all feels like a weird move because I don’t really understand it. Much of the void feels like it’s this big rush of convoluted information about the end of time, which 1) is likely due to the fact that whatever is really going on will be discovered in the finale and 2) means that there’s not much we can really grab onto in the here and now. Especially because we’re at this point we don’t believe anything we’re being told anymore. We’re awash and vaguery. And the problem isn’t that we lack cerebral answers, it’s how it creates dramatic convolution in the story.

For example, the giant final fight. They literally say that line above: “I don’t even know what we’re doing.” But I didn’t even understand what they were trying to do once the plan was in motion, either. Mostly because I don’t know the limits of their magic, nor why what Sylvie does is any different from the endless magic we’ve seen from Loki (I know they talked about it in an earlier episode, but it also didn’t make sense then - now the action actually hinged on it). And I especially didn’t understand the logic of how they were trying to position themselves in the stand-off to zap the smoke monster. And without that clarity, there’s no real tension. I’m just reacting to everything and can’t lean in with any kind of expectation or dread. And it especially undermines the meant-to-heartbreaking catharsis of Richard E Grant’s sacrifice.

The same issue of convolution is true with Gugu’s character motivation now. She too apparently doesn’t know what this TVA stuff is all for, but she’s still running around barking orders and keeping people in prison cause the story still needs a bad guy doing that? It’s such weird a choice, especially because the opening feint works really well. Gugu pretends to team up with Sylvie and says there’s a space ship, but right when I was like “this is a little too convenient” the writing nails it because Sylvie picked up on the same thing. Cue stand-off and Gugu revealing herself as one not to be trusted. But then they immediately double back to Gugu not knowing in the standoff scene with the capture guard. Like it’s just straddled playing things in between. Which means it has to rely on lines that sound nice like “you want it” / “she needs it” in addressing Gugu’s motivation, but they have no actual bearing on the dynamics. Especially because we STILL don’t really understand what Gugu wants and why.

Even little exchanges feel really confused in this episode? Like there’s the funny line where Loki sees the alligator in the Loki hat and replies “which I’m heartbroken to report I didn’t find all that strange,” but then like two minutes later freaks out that it’s also a Loki? Which should have been more than clear? Like wasn’t that the point of the first joke? Why is it trying to have the joke both ways anyway? Honestly, all this stuff can’t help but feel like a script that was in a rush and I really don’t enjoy that being the case. There’s just an unfortunate lack of clarity.

But at this point, there’s a bigger piece of existential convolution that really is hard for me to engage with and it goes right into the conceit of the show. Which is how we’ve skipped to Endgame Loki characterization, even though we’re still with New York Loki. I know he’s theoretically “seen” that stuff happen but when he says lines like “that’s not who I am anymore” it just can’t help but feel so muddled between that and what’s happened here. Because whatever this arc has been throughout the last five episodes, I can’t help but feel like it came to some unearned moments in this episode. The prospective relationship with Sylvie? The hug with Owen Wilson? I really like the sentiment and feel like these are important end positions for their stories, but my immediate reaction was “we’re not here yet.” Which means we likely missed a beat in each one of those arcs. It’s so close to nailing the catharsis on these things, but instead it feels like they just dumped it in a second too quick before everything probably goes haywire in the finale.

But perhaps the most important truth is that all these criticism aren’t obvious killers for the episode. For the most part, the general audience will sit there and like the sentiment and be okay with the convolution because we’re biding time until the fireworks next week. To me, that’s is both okay and yet the exact danger of middling placation. Being content with a meaningless title like “Journey Into Mystery” is part of the same reason there’s so many video games with super vague generic titles like “Soul Injustice: Reckoning of the Fates” or something. Believe me, as I writer I know where this comes from. You’re vague when you can’t come up with a meaningful specific. Or as it seems here, when you’re treading water and making people wait before you actual drop the bomb next time. To that…

Let’s hope next week delivers.

RANDOM NOTES

-Watching the great Richard E Grant give that speech about his long Loki life in that dorky helmet is exactly why you hire seasoned pros. You know, there’s been that meme going around about how so and so “always understood the assignment” and I like that phrasing very much. Grant always understands the assignment. But I also think the meme perfectly captures the wild swings of someone like Nicolas Cage. He’s a genuinely great actor, but sometimes he understands the assignment… and sometimes he doesn’t understand it all. But that’s wild card is part of the fun.

-Polybius cabinet!

-“We’re in the void, that’s alive, and we are his lunch.”

-Was the pizza car a reference to Toy Story’s Pizza Planet cars?

-I will say, I enjoyed watching Mayor Loki get his hand bit off.

-Man, there is so much low angle cinematography in this show. Even in “normal” scenes, the camera just always feels a few inches lower than where it should be? Anyone else noticing that?

-Owen Wilson’s quiet, little, yet earnest delivery of “Sorry about that” is a perfect example of the kind of line reading he does so well.

-I’ve talked about pace of direction before, but for a good example of it that blanket scene is loooooong and full of a lot of dead air and staring off into the distance.

-The thing is there’s also very good thematic stuff alluded to in this episode, too. Basically all of Grant’s observations about being “the god of outcasts” and how every version of them is broken. I particularly liked the idea of how nothing CAN change until the the TVA is stopped, which gives way to the most interesting meta idea the show has presented so far: that the TVA is sort of the “gods of comic-dom” and only wants traditional versions of characters we’ve seen so far (read: what uptight, reactionary nerds often want). And now, in a post-Spider-Verse world, pre-multi-verse world all bets are off… We now live in the age of variants.

So let’s hope we see some actual variance.

<3HULK