Ya Know, X-5 Kinda Has A Good Point About Loki's Villainy In Season 2 Episode 2
This post contains spoilers for "Loki" season 2, episode 2.
Out of all heroes and villains inhabiting the MCU, Tom Hiddleston's Loki has arguably become the most three-dimensional and fully realized character. In his first introduction in "Thor," Loki yearned to be accepted as a true Asgardian, only to find out that he was actually the son of the leader of the Frost Giants, the sworn enemy of Asgard. After starting a fight with Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man in "The Avengers" and attacking Manhattan with an alien army, Loki supposedly gets what he wants in "Thor: The Dark World" when he finally sits on the throne to rule after deceiving his own people. He seemed to show some growth in season 1 of "Loki," but his past comes back to haunt him in the second episode of "Loki" season 2. As a result, the god of mischief has something of a personality crisis.
The new episode starts with Mobius and Loki traveling back to the roaring seventies to attend the black tie premiere of "Zainiac!" starring Brad Wolfe (aka Hunter X-5), who has abandoned his post at the TVA to start a new life as an A-list actor. From the jump, Loki goes right back to his old antics by casting duplications of himself and creating an illusion of angry mods and punks to surround X-5. Once they bring him back to the TVA for questioning, X-5 gives an incredibly convincing speech about how Loki needs to stop playing the hero as an agent for the TVA. What he says gets to the heart of what this show is really about, and ties directly back to the very first episode of season 1, which was aptly titled "Glorious Purpose."
The agent of mischief
Episode 2 of season 2 asks the fundamental question of the series: Who is Loki, really, and who does he wish he could be? When Mobius and Loki attempt to question X-5 about the whereabouts of Sylvie in the timeline and why he vanished from the TVA, he doesn't bat an eye. In his best good guy voice, Loki screams, "There are lives at stake," causing X-5 to call out the irony of hearing those words come out of Loki's mouth when he's responsible for so much misery himself. Loki is almost pretending to be the hero just as the other variants who work at the TVA, including Mobius, try to ignore the fact that they have all been plucked out of their own timeline to serve the greater good and protect the all-important Sacred Timeline.
X-5 rightly points out that Loki is always the problem and "every time we've ever found a you," trouble is right around the corner. It doesn't matter what outfit he puts on, the real Loki is still wearing his cloak and horned helmet. The villainous costume of the Loki of old even makes a quick appearance early on in episode 2 in shadow form when Loki captures X-5.
The real stinger comes when X-5 mentions Loki's adoptive mother, Frigga (Rene Russo), who died at the hands of the Dark Elves thanks to a miscalculation by Loki in "Thor: The Dark World." Out of all the terrible things Loki has done, being responsible for Frigga's death hits closest to home and may be something he can never come back from. But remember, this version of Loki stole the Tesseract and was then picked up by the TVA before he experienced his mother's death and before the events of "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Avengers: Infinity War." So, maybe this Loki isn't just biding his time until he can play the villain. Maybe he still has a chance at redemption.
Loki may be done with the past, but his show isn't
X-5's speech definitely causes Loki to revert back to his old ways, resulting in what basically amounts to the MCU's version of a torturous interrogation scene. Instead of a time door, Loki revs up a contraption that imprisons X-5 in a time box that gets smaller and smaller, effectively crushing him until X-5 finally reveals where Sylvie has been hiding. Loki's actions don't go nearly as far as the maniacal punishment Nebula received at the hands of Thanos, but it might make Loki wonder if he would ever actually win in a fair fight.
Even in defeat, X-5 winds up making his point in the end. Interestingly, another conversation between Mobius and Loki over a slice of key lime pie in the TVA cafeteria could be the key to how Loki can balance the angel and the devil on his shoulders. Mobius admits that he lost control after punching X-5, leading Loki to try and relate by remembering the time he got so angry with his dad and brother that he took New York hostage and tried to use the Mind Stone on Tony Stark. "Sometimes the rage builds up and you have to let it out," he says understandingly.
The moment between Mobius and Loki ties directly back to the first episode of season 1, "Glorious Purpose," where Mobius plays a film to show every awful act that the original Loki committed across the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. This version of Loki has witnessed all the atrocities but he's never actually experienced them, meaning that he has the ability to avoid those unforgivable mistakes.
By the end of episode 2, Sylvie disappears again after denouncing the TVA and everything they stand for. That leaves Loki to decide whether he chooses to side with Sylvie or Mobius in his quest to become the hero he thinks he is in his mind. The rub is, he may just have to become the villain in order to do that.